mercredi, novembre 29, 2006
just 'cause you're right that don't mean I'm wrong
It's my last week of classes - did you know that..? I remember this feeling, though, when you get to the end of the semester and you're still pushing your way through paper-writing and falling behind on reading and barely feeling like you have the time to attend class but knowing you have to so get the final exam tips. So, like, no sense of relief or anything. Just a bit of shock that it's the end and you feel like there's so much more you could have done to stay on top of things.
I submitted my IPE paper late the other day. After the distraction of the weekend drama, I took a while to produce a not-very-long paper (standard for me), but hope it's solid enough on content to earn me a decent mark. And I ended up switching my position back again, in case you were wondering. Despite the inequality that results from capitalism, I argued that the developing countries could "catch up" to at least a level of reasonable economic activity. Or something. I threw in a tidbit about "why would they want to be as wasteful as us" point, though.
This dude, Andre Gunder Frank, wrote a piece many years ago called "The Development of Underdevelopment" which basically proposed that many former European colonies in Africa and elsewhere would likely not be in such rough shape if they hadn't been brutally abused during a phase which could have been critical stage of growth. I used this quote:
My people are suffering under the minus forty temperatures in Calgary this week. It feels chilly here, but with temperatures hovering near the freezing mark, I probably shouldn't complain. I'm just glad they're getting that craziness done with before I get there for Christmas..! I expect patio weather by Boxing Day. Heh. | ¶ 12:49 a.m.
I submitted my IPE paper late the other day. After the distraction of the weekend drama, I took a while to produce a not-very-long paper (standard for me), but hope it's solid enough on content to earn me a decent mark. And I ended up switching my position back again, in case you were wondering. Despite the inequality that results from capitalism, I argued that the developing countries could "catch up" to at least a level of reasonable economic activity. Or something. I threw in a tidbit about "why would they want to be as wasteful as us" point, though.
This dude, Andre Gunder Frank, wrote a piece many years ago called "The Development of Underdevelopment" which basically proposed that many former European colonies in Africa and elsewhere would likely not be in such rough shape if they hadn't been brutally abused during a phase which could have been critical stage of growth. I used this quote:
"We must conclude, in short, that underdevelopment is not due to the survival of archaic institutions and the existence of capital shortage in regions that have remained isolated from the stream of world history. On the contrary, underdevelopment was and still is generated by the very same historical process which also generated economic development: the development of capitalism itself."(You know me, I hate capitalism. Yeah.)
My people are suffering under the minus forty temperatures in Calgary this week. It feels chilly here, but with temperatures hovering near the freezing mark, I probably shouldn't complain. I'm just glad they're getting that craziness done with before I get there for Christmas..! I expect patio weather by Boxing Day. Heh. | ¶ 12:49 a.m.
