Third World Development

Shiraz Dossa, ‘_Slicing up development: Colonialism, Political Theory, Ethics’,_ Third World Quarterly, 2007, 887-899.
This article provides a very strident argument about what the author sees as the evils of development, and its costs on the nations of the South. The article is very assertive in its positions regarding the concept of development being a ruse by ex-colonial powers to establish a form of neo-colonialism. The author looks at various examples of what he sees as the North’s hypocrisy towards development in the South, and why he believes that some of the more prominent philosophers on the subject have got it wrong. Whilst at times the authors writing style can seem a little histrionic, there is no doubting his passion and commitment to the subject matter.
Firstly we must understand what development means in the south. Unlike the north where it is viewed as massive industrialization, new models of some form of technology every year or an ever rising share price. In the south it represents, as the author rightly points out, things those in the north take for granted, stability and security, clean permanent water, ongoing effective education, with real life opportunities after education, and adequate nutrition. Unfortunately even after some 60 odd years of supposed post colonialism efforts, there is little in the way of success to be shown.
The article shows that its author is in no doubt that this is a deliberate tactic of the North to secure their own economic and political interests at the expense of the south. The author somewhat justifiably points out that under the guise of “civilizing”, the North was actually far more focused on exploiting the natural resources of the South, and even saw its population as a resource to be exploited through cheap labor and indentured slavery.
The colonially drawn borders have in themselves caused ongoing problems. Different ethnic, language and religious groups would be banded together under the construct...