World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability

Amy Chua definitely takes you down the rabbit hole in her national best seller "World On Fire." She makes a convincing case that globalization (a.k.a free market democracy) is one of the main causes of racial, ethnic and religious strife in the world today. She argues that the free market system has become an insalubrious mess, metastasizing into forms of economic strangulation, hegemony and fascism, and all the while causing starvation and antagonism in third-world nation states. In most cases the symptoms caused are egregious in nature for the sole purpose of profiteering.In the book Chua explains that in most cases the rich minorities take advantage and exploit the downtrodden indigenous majority, and that the rich are usually from other countries.Such is the case in the Philippines, with the Chinese minority controlling most of the wealth in that country. Chua also points out that the Chinese minority has controlling interest in Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and other South-East Asian States. But, the U.S. has interest in these countries as well. Also, the U.S. imports precious gems, oil, natural gas, narcotics and teak wood, which come at a heavy price, and that price is human life.Many people are killed for these commodities, such as the Karen people in Burma who are slaughter by the State Peace and Development Council (SPCD.) The SPCD are also working in conduit with members of the corporatocracy to procure commodities that are on Karen lands. Plus, we must not forget that the Suharto regime in Indonesia nearly committed genocide in East Timor, during the Gerald Ford administration and beyond.Chua also writes about the seven most powerful oligarchs in Russia, which she points out that six of these oligarchs just happened to be Jewish. She also writes about how these oligarchs supported Vladimir Putin during his presidential run, but as soon as he was elected he turned on them, and started to confiscate their property because they were draining and exploiting the Russian economy. The Russian citizenry were being disenfranchised according to Putin, and with alacrity, Putin managed to shut down television and radio networks, while arresting people. As a matter of fact, Putin turned on "Jewish media moguls Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky in a murky corporate coup in 2001."According to Chua, Putin made promises to the Russian people that he would "bring the house in order" and "move the oligarchs away from power." The western powers started to fear what Putin was doing and accused him of reverting back to the old Soviet Union style of governance, which was dichotomous to the free market way of life that Russia allegedly embraced after the Cold War ended. Furthermore, he was accused of being anti-Semitic, but there was no evidence to show this since Jewish immigrants have emigrated from Russia to Israel since the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. So, it wasn't a question of singling out Jews, it was about balancing the scales of the economy, creating a gemütlich environment for Russia...so they say... However, I am a little skeptical about this.Amy Chua also engages on the subject of South African apartheid, and how the Oppenhiemers and Rhodes' De Beers Corporation dominated the diamond industry, while the white Afrikaners owned most of the land and controlled the government until the African National Congress and Mandela ascended to power. And De Beers is still exploiting and disenfranchising Africans. One case in particular is Namibia.Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is another country under fire and Robert Mugabe is slowly trying to change the situation by incrementally usurping territory from the white minority that owns much of the land that he and his people feel they are not entitled to because of how they acquired it. Mugabe's methods are questionable, but the reasons may not be.Moreover, The Ibo tribe in Angola dominates the wealth in that country. Angola suffered enormously because of the Portuguese onslaught during the Transatlantic Slave trade, and the remnants of that time period still reverberates to this day. Child slave labor is still practiced. Children are made to work in ungodly conditions, while being beaten, and abused in some instances. And that's just for starters.Anyhow, globalization has led to democracy promotion, nation building, and more tax increases which means forced governance upon the general populace with sanguineous results in other countries. These are the real reasons why America goes to war overseas, while hemorrhaging trillions of dollars at a whim. Plus, having hundreds of military bases all over the world.All the U.S. is doing is fighting wars and occupying other countries for the IMF, The World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, while the poor civilian populations around the world are being killed in the auspices of freedom and democracy, but the question remains... whose democracy are we fighting for? My guess is it's for the ones who can pay for it. The definition of all of this is fascism.Amy Chua really makes you think about the world we live in and she's asking everyone to be cognizant of their surroundings in the hopes that we will change our behavior. America isn't the only country at fault as some have come to contemplate, but it is the world's leading superpower and it needs to take the reigns in solving these problems. The corporatocracy cannot continue negative business practices without the world community, and the environment paying the ultimate price.Hate breeds more hate and greed depletes everything, what a great read and learning experience!!!Five Stars!!!!

World on Fire is an in-depth look at the harm of globalization, marketization, and democratization of developing nations with a market dominant minority. Yes, I know that’s a mouthful and to an amateur eye, such as my own, it immediately looks intimidating and boring. Yes, there are some boring parts but I think Amy Chua does a superb job of presenting sufficient data and examples to elucidate her point.To be fair, I was introduced to these terms in a newer book of Amy Chua’s titled: Political Tribes. I loved that book so much I wanted to purchase other Chua works.Like a good lawyer Chua brings a preponderance of evidence to support her postulations. It makes the book dense to be sure but it leaves little room for a varying or opposing opinion. The data along with the anecdotal evidence paint a grim picture yet also offers a viable explanation for the awfully violent eruptions around the globe. But let me warm the book up a little bit with some brief definitions of the principal terms.Globalization: Essentially the opening of the country to foreign companies and investors.Marketization: The moving of the economy to a free-market type economy. Think capitalism.Democratization: Self-explanatory. Offering universal suffrage allowing all citizens to vote for their leaders.Market-dominant minorities: Usually ethnic minorities in a nation who dominate the economy such as Chinese in South Asia, Indians in east Africa, Lebanese in west Africa, whites in South Africa, whites in Latin America and other examples.When all of these ingredients are mixed together they create a very combustible concoction that often times results in an explosion of ethnic resentment or worse. The globalization and marketization create the enormous disparities in wealth between the foreign market-dominant minorities haves and the indigenous majority have-nots. Then the advent of a democracy gives power to that abject majority. Add a demagogue to stoke the fears and anger of that majority and BOOM!As Amy puts it:

“Today’s bloody confiscations and the resulting economic collapse are the direct product of the collision between free markets and democratic politics.”She repeatedly makes it clear though that this is not the only cause of ethnic hatred and ethnic violence such as that in Rwanda, Jakarta, and Yugoslavia, but these conditions make the country ripe for such hatred and violence. The book is replete with reports from around the globe dealing with the outcries of a poor majority. But Amy Chua doesn’t just chuck this depression grenade to sit back and watch the reaction; she also brings forth some novel solutions. It is a very thorough, complete work that at the very least gives pause.

Puts the world in context

The book should have been called“World on Fire: Exporting Free Market Economics AND Majority Rule – American Nation Building: A Recipe for Desaster”Any one who liked The Bell Curve (1994 Herrnstein & Murray) and The Birth of Plenty (2004 Bernstein) will love World on Fire (2003 Amy Chua). Hands On!To any one who loved Guns, Germs & Steel (1997 Diamond) and/or subscribes differences in outcome to (systemic) racism, i.e. some allegedly obvious Sino-Judeo-Caucasian Conspiracy to keep brown and black people down, Hands Off!A note to the definition of Democracy the book uses, that might be lost to the American reader, who takes the direct election of candidates (two-party system; responsible to voters only, not to party, and the subsequent absence of party soldiers); and an over-arching, un-democratic, sassy oligarchy, who speaks truth to power, for granted, i.e. the federal judiciary, and calls the resulting system democracy, but it's actually a republic. (Republic = any mix of forms of governments)That mix of democratic players and oligarchic umpires/referees is really only part of the American experience, i.e. American Exceptionalism, and does not form part of any democracy's reality in the rest of the world. So it goes, that the book tacitly implies the definition of democracy as understood outside of America:one person, one vote; majority rule; judges facially called independent in a teeth-less laundry list contained in the constitution, but really rather need to know their place, or else....It follows that any Bill of Rights is dead letters, wholly dependent on the goodness of the hearts of legislators. What can go wrong! As Justice Scalia noted: "Every country has a Bill of Rights....."Nothing in this review shall be construed to imply that an independent judiciary will most definately use its independence to say NO to the majority, and protect the individual and thus (economic) minority rights against the majority, but only if a judiciary can, is there a chance it will.Whenever majorities can, they will crush minorities*. That’s why human history is a history of minorities/oligarchies keeping a lid on majorities. And here comes democracy, unleashing that dormant demon.* let alone tinorities like Gays and Jews

A stimulating book full of insights from all over the world. The main argument is that free market democracy can lead to violence against market-dominant minorities. It is a broadside attack at American policy of exporting democracy will-nilly. Not being American, I feel less concerned at this polemical point.The argument clearly applies in many cases cited, and the insights extended my understanding. How Chua overdoes it sometimes. For example, Croatians are cited as being attacked by Serbs because they were a market-dominant minority. Not convincing. There were longstanding ethnic disputes which had little or nothing to do with economy. Slovenia WAS a market-dominant economy, but it got away into independence virtually unscathed in 1991.

既に入手できない本であったものが、短期間で入手できてよかった。

It came in good condition just a few bent pages.