A slum prospect
By Edwin Heathcote
Published: May 5 2006 17:26 | Last updated: May 5 2006 17:26
Planet of Slums
by Mike Davis
Verso £15.99, 240 pages
He proposes no utopian solutions but points the finger of blame at the
disastrous policies of the World Bank and IMF which have contributed to
the collapse of economies that were quick to adopt austerity measures
while their leaders took out loans that were siphoned straight into
Swiss banks. He argues that the collapse of state sector employment led
to what would be termed a “very flexible” [exploitative] third world
labour market, to the brain drain, to the decimation of a middle class
and to a situation of increasing hopelessness and exploitation. He is
scathing about the neo-conservative solutions of the influential
Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, who pushes micro-entrepreneurs and
the capitalisation of slum properties through granting property rights
as ways of releasing new capital. De Soto, he says, is part of the
problem, one compounded by well-meaning NGOs that allow corrupt
governments to abdicate responsibility for social provision.
cont'd....
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b171c10e-db41-11da-98a8-0000779e2340.html
....
He will never sell the script to Hollywood, but the Pentagon, with its
new doctrines of urban warfare, may have taken out an option.
....
| "well meaning NGOs"? the World Bank defines NGO as, amongst other
| things, lacking in "understanding of the broader social or economic
| context", in other words, in politeSpeak, eminently connable,
world bank manual, "Categorizing NGO"
http://docs.lib.duke.edu/igo/guides/ngo/define.htm
| given this, where do we place Mark Davis?
| in a barthesian regress into false innocence?
| or exponent of a kind of Californian ideology?