Global Losers

The world's problems have grown with its population; from tribal societies to cities of people with little-to-no daily interaction with each other. And since every individual person has their own personal strife it is no surprise for an entire nation of people and their problems to flood whatever region they occupy. Couple a population's intimate conflicts with the nation's geography (climate, resources, size, etc.) and it is easy to see how certain regions of the world are destitute and engulfed in turmoil. David S. Landes essay, Losers, is an article, profuse with evidence, looking at the 20^th century's most significant Global flops.

Landes works his way down from "prosperous" struggling countries to the bottom rungs of the World ladder, which are in such poor condition that it is a shock that the population continues to grow. Nevertheless, the Middle East is among the most prosperous of tumultuous regions. With a plentiful supply of crude oil that still has roughly 130 years of extraction and exploding areas of commerce such as Dubai, the economic potential for the Middle East is immense. However, due to the region's political ideals and cultural and religious mentality, the Middle East has been economically crippled. While the oil industry has accrued nearly 2 trillion dollars since 1973, the region has not been able to expand and benefit from the Global economy. The primary reason for such impedance is due to aggressive military behavior and religious fundamentalism. Violence, political instability and firm allegiance to religious doctrine is precisely why the Middle East cannot capitalize on their resources and vast geography.

On the other end of the economic spectrum is Latin America who held onto an agricultural economy for many decades due to a negative view of industrialization. Eventually, Latin America was forced to industrialize as a means to keep up with the rapidly growing world economy. Coming into the industrial picture long behind other nations meant Latin American countries needed to play catch up in order to compete on a Global level. Latin America still struggles, and as a result, the region is in terrible debt. It has even regressed to the point where they are borrowing money to pay off debts, in turn creating new ones. The problem regarding debt has gotten to the point where the United States has been repaid with money that the US loaned to Latin American countries.

Nonetheless, it is not only the industrial stubborn or the fundamentally religious who suffer the wrath of economic maelstrom. The Soviet Union was once one of the world's greatest industrial powers, or so we are taught to believe. While they did experience a period of industrial prosperity, evidence points to a great amount of failure masked with slick propaganda. Most of the projects undertaken by the USSR were often poorly executed, resulting in substandard products. The only exports that the USSR were able to turn any kind of profit from, were caviar, vodka, and folkloric mementoes. Construction was so haphazardly conducted that nets had to be placed around buildings in order to prevent chunks of cement from falling on the pedestrians below. While poor production performance on behalf of the Soviet government contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union, it was not the axe that severed the nation's head. The meltdown of atomic power reactors at Chernobyl is essentially what brought about the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union. With the meltdown came death, radiation poisoning and an entire area of land made unusable. Chernobyl was the epitome for the lackluster and careless approach the Soviet Union took during its period of industrialization.

At the damaged bottom rungs is a continent that is a hodgepodge of all the above problems with a few geographically unique ones of their own. That landmass is none other than Africa, a continent abundant with resources, horrible climate, poverty, disease, poor technology, corruption and baleful assistance from outside nations. From 1946-1954, Britain attempted to show not only Africans, but the world what technology and will power can accomplish. The effort was the British groundnut (peanut) scheme, which resulted in complete abandonment by the British government. Many of the machines used to prep the land for peanut farming often broke and were problematic to fix due to poor location and lack of parts and know how. Not only did the glorious pieces of technology-meant to improve the life of the African peasant-malfunction, but they also turned the land into a solid brick. Organizers even admitted to the fact that they had no knowledge of the annual rainfall or soil quality before entering the unforgiving region. While some peanuts were harvested by African farmers, the process was physically taxing.

The French also tried their hand at "improving" the life of Africans by producing cotton along the Niger River. Like the British groundnut scheme it was an absolute failure that was abandoned. The end result of these failed Western projects was economic burden by the African nations. Many of the factories and other technological additions brought by outside nations were simply left to the Africans. This abandonment not only brought about monetary strain but environmental strain as well. The Nigerian oil refineries are currently responsible for polluting much of the drinking water for the inhabitants of the Niger Delta. With food shortages already an existing problem, polluted drinking water only adds to the challenge of surviving. Since much of the African landscape makes for poor farming conditions any kind of environmental damage can bring about more deaths as a result of starvation.

Environmental damage is not the only problem caused by outside interference. A large portion of the companies still operating in Africa such as oil and mineral companies have a tendency to keep most of the profits from African resources. It is said that only a small fraction of those profits have been given back to Africa, which explains the overwhelming issue of poverty. The severe poverty in Africa is responsible for much of the chaos taking place in the present day. The corruption of government officials is largely responsible for the poverty problem as many of the African leaders have billions of dollars paid to them by foreign companies-as was the case with Mobutu Sese Seko.

Oddly enough, Africa has one of the highest rates of population growth in the world. Due to the numerous problems affecting Africa, African men must work hard as a means to feed their families. This forces children to pull their weight at a rather young age, and can be seen as a contributing factor for Africa's population growth. Simply put, the more help the better. Unfortunate living conditions and the unpopularity of condoms, creates yet another ill for Africa in the form of widespread disease (i.e., AIDS).

Out of all the global washouts, Africa is by far the worst. With an unimaginable amount of problems affecting the region, it seems that Africa is faced with a situation that they won't be able to overcome anytime soon. Global efforts are currently under way to help ease the chaos and despair of Africa, but the history of outside assistance has proven more problematic than beneficial. There is no sure solution when it comes to helping nations that have fallen off, but efforts to resolve such turmoil will not stop in the near future.