Reflection: Week Twelve

The lab with the World Bank, class discussion on Thursday, and a research project in cross-cultural communication this week have forced me to really grapple with the concept of the “post-colonial world.” In political discussions, we talk a lot about “post” societies (post-9/11 society, post-Enlightenment society, etc.). However, there is simply no other comparable event that has truly re-structured the world like colonialism. The more I read post-colonial theorists and even alternative feminist theorists like Ann Tickner, I become convinced that the justice of the current international economic system is ironically enslaved to our past. If we want to make up for the mistakes of the Western World, we have a responsibility to encourage an alternative narrative of empowerment for developing regions of the world.

In our major simulation coming up, we will be debating international development policy. In reality, this ethical obligation or “Western guilt” in many ways provides the crux of institutions like the World Bank. It will be interesting to see how each party in the simulation (European Union, Venezuela, McDonalds, etc.) will reject or address this undeniable force present in all international development negotiations.