preemptive reconstruction and disaster capitalism

peter_j

Naomi Klein writes that reconstruction efforts are now being considered prior to the event, for 'at risk' countries. The notion is that this sppeds up responses by three to six weeks. But it cuts out the locals.

It's not simply rebuilding what was there, it's about recreating the location into... something a bit different:

The plans Pascual’s teams have been drawing up in his little-known office in the State Department are about changing “the very social fabric of a nation,” he told CSIS. The office’s mandate is not to rebuild any old states, you see, but to create “democratic and market-oriented” ones. So, for instance (and he was just pulling this example out of his hat, no doubt), his fast-acting reconstructors might help sell off “state-owned enterprises that created a nonviable economy.” Sometimes rebuilding, he explained, means “tearing apart the old.”

Reconstruction efforts by countries and their agents (like AusAID and USAID) are undermining the idea that one country should assist another in times of need. Instead reconstruction efforts seem to increasinbgly seen as an ideal method for economic infiltration. There is lots of good work being done, but how are we supposed to tell the well-intentioned reconstruction from the bad? And, where is the U.N?

Perhaps it is worthwhile for "at-risk" countries to map out their own conditions for foreign aid before the disaster occurs.

“We used to have vulgar colonialism,” says Shalmali Guttal, a Bangalore-based researcher with Focus on the Global South. “Now we have sophisticated colonialism, and they call it ‘reconstruction.”

beatriz

I just realised I placed a new post on the same topic. I would like to add that I find the following paragraph written by Naomi Klein very telling

"In January Condoleezza Rice sparked a small controversy by describing the tsunami as "a wonderful opportunity" that "has paid great dividends for us." Many were horrified at the idea of treating a massive human tragedy as a chance to seek advantage. But, if anything, Rice was understating the case. A group calling itself Thailand Tsunami Survivors and Supporters says that for "businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was the answer to their prayers, since it literally wiped these coastal areas clean of the communities which had previously stood in the way of their plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and shrimp farms. To them, all these coastal areas are now open land!"

A comment about the "Building Code for East Timor", designed by the Victorian Building Commission was expressed in similar terms

“The successful introduction of a building control system in East Timor will not only benefit the people and economy of East Timor, but also Victoria’s building industry by providing future opportunities to export materials and expertise”. Given that this code is not really designed with the tropical climate in mind, nor does it benefit from local knowledge or traditional systems, it can only be beneficial to the Australian industries. Unfortunately, this appalling attitude is not limited only to the Liberal government.

Find Naomi Klein's articel, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
at: The Information Clearing House: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8599.htm