Abstract
A comparison of The Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence with globalization and the economic development of Peru shows that the countries described in The Tropic of Chaos are similar to Peru in at least two aspects: (a) violence and ethnic clashes pervade in these countries; and (b) their economies are all affected by extreme weather conditions. When comparing present day Peru with the countries from the global south, the contrasts are more pronounced in the areas of (a) agricultural economy; (b) investment on local infrastructure; and (c) achievements in education.
This essay looks into the book Tropic of Chaos and compares and contrasts the countries discussed here with the experience of Peru on globalization and economic development. The paper begins by first describing the book, then the Peru experience. The second part of the essay compares the experiences of the countries in the book and the experience of Peru.
The Tropic of Chaos
The Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence is a book written by Christian Parenti published by in 2011. According to the author, the main idea of the book is that “climate change doesn’t just look like extreme weather doesn’t just look like droughts and freak storms, it also looks like religious warfare, ethnic warfare, counter insurgency, and banditry.” The term Tropic of Chaos was selected because the author talks about the events taking place in countries located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The book opens with the Who killed Ekaru Loruman in Chapter 1? Ekaru is a pastoralist of the Turkana tribe in Kenya and he was killed during a cattle raid by the neighboring Pokot tribe. The author described the state of the corpse and the reasons why the body is left to decompose in the field. According to Turkana tradition, burying the body would bring bad luck, saying that act would only bring in more attacks. The author’s question prepares the reader to how the book’s arguments are laid out. At the first level, the obvious answer to the question is that a member of the Pokot tribe killed Ekaru. However, the author goes on to describe the situations that contribute to the current conflict. He says that despite cattle raiding being historically a long-time tradition, climate change has worsened the situation.
This part of Africa (the Horn of Africa) has experienced extreme drought and extreme weather. They get rain but rainfall is not distributed as before, it comes at the wrong time or comes heavily at one time. Due to the weather conditions, there is less water and the cows are dying. Thus tribes resort to increased cattle raids to steal cows from other tribes and increase their own stock. Apart from the droughts, access to high-powered guns like machine guns and AK47s are being used. These guns make the raids more catastrophic and deadly. According to the author, the abundance of guns in Kenya and in other countries of Africa is a result of the Cold War when there were frequent clashes in Somalia and Ethiopia in the 1970s and other countries, such as the US and Cuba, supported either Somalia and Ethiopia thus bringing in the weapons.
Globalization and the economic development of Peru
Peru is a country located in the Western part of South America with Ecuador and Chile at its borders. The total area of its territory is 1,285,216 sq km and its 2013 estimated population has reached 29,849,303 (CIA Factbook). Peru is rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, copper, iron ore, and petroleum. Its environmental problems include deforestation, overgrazing, and water pollution. Peru has experienced extreme economic conditions. Literacy rate is 92.9 % and unemployment rate is 16.2% as of 2011. In terms of investments in education, Peru only utilizes 2.6% percent of its GDP on education, ranking 155th in the world.
Globalization is defined as the “increasing internationalization of processes previously confined to nation-states” (Ward & Gleditsch, 2004, p. 161). This could include processes that are political, social, and economic. They further explained that economic globalization is not limited to international trade but also encompasses other economic flows such as “human capital through so-called foreign investment, on to the flow of financial instruments [either private or governmental] throughout the globe.
Ward and Gleditsch (2004) surmised that based on the criteria of countries that would be negatively affected by globalization, Peru is a most likely “loser”. This is because its economy depends largely on agricultural products, its workforce is mostly unskilled and there is still substantial corruption in the country. However, Peru proved to be not the typical country. It was able to bounce back from periods of extreme monetary inflation and is already experiencing a booming economy in the present. According
Comparison and Contrast between Tropic of Chaos and Peru’s Experience
Violence, ethnic clashes, and revolts
The histories of the countries in the Global south is similar to that of Peru in terms of the occurrence of violence. Peru’s political history shows that government changes have at many times were brought about by revolts and military or dictatorial leaders. Parenti (2011) discussed the wars waged between India and Pakistan due to competition on water. The earlier accounts of the cattle raids is another example.
Environmental effects
Peru as well as the countries in the global south experienced the ill effects of drought an El Nino. The Tropic of Chaos provided detailed accounts of the impact of the drought on the lives of the communities in the global south. Rainfall takes place but this came heavier than expected which resulted in widespread flooding. Peru, despite being host to a rich biodiversity is prone to floods. An example is the 2010 floods which claimed 26 lives and destroyed 20,000 homes (The Economist, 2010).
Agricultural economy
The agricultural production of countries from the Global South and Peru are at opposite poles. Peru has a diverse crops which are sold in domestic and international markets while countries in the Global south have limited agricultural products. Peru currently boasts of a strong agricultural industry which comprises the 8% of the gross domestic product (Mahesh, 2013). There is an expected 20 percent increase of agricultural output of certain products like mangoes, coffee, and avocados. The reason for this is increased demand from both domestic and international markets. In contrast, communities in Afghanistan chose to maintain poppy fields despite the crop being illegal. The reason is that this crop is very drought resistant and uses on 5% of the amount of water a normal farmer would use (Parenti, 2011). Afghanistan has been experiencing drought for a very long time, as long as the people can remember and the poppy fields have become the only source of income for families. As these are illegal products, the government destroys fields of poppy plants leaving communities with no other income source.
Investment on local infrastructure
The present Peruvian government invests on local infrastructure while countries from the Global South lacks local infrastructure. For example, in Kenya, despite the increasing ethnic conflicts demonstrated by the cattle raid, government has not engaged in region-wide projects that would address the pastoralists’ problem on decreasing water sources. Parenti mentions veterinarian services, additional water sources like wells, and alternative livestock more suitable to an environment frequently affected by drought.
Achievements in education
Peru has a weak educational system. Although its literacy rate based on the 2007 census is 92.9%, its investments in education is only 2% of its GDP. This low investment is manifested in the nation’s high number of unskilled workers. Similar low investment in education exists in some of the countries in the Tropic of Chaos. India’s education gets only 3.3% of its GDP while that of Pakistan gets only 2.4% of its GDP. Compared with these countries, Peru has a very high literacy rate since that of Pakistan is 54.9%, India is 61%, and Afghanistan is 43.1% (CIA Factbook, 2013).
Effects of globalization
Peru has demonstrated positive effects of globalization. According to Ward & Gleditsch, (2004) beginning in the 1980s, the economy of Peru had grown to become more market-oriented. Mining, electrical services, and telecommunications were privatized. The inflows of investments from international sources as well as loans from international finance institutions has enabled the country to bounce back. The Economist (2013) reports that the country has been growing faster than its neighbors in Latin America with an average of 7% annual growth. Its currency which had suffered tremendously in the past decades has strengthened substantially. The Finance Minister points out that Peruvin economy is “one of the most open economies in Latin America” and introducing controls would not be very consistent with that open policy.
The OECD (2011) attributes Peru’s impressive performance to “sound macro-economic policies, structural reforms to improve the functioning of product and labour markets, and the openness of the economy to international trade and foreign investment” (p. 13). These policies, according to the OECD had increased jobs, attracted more investments, and improved productivity. These policies have also positively affected living standards and the efforts to reduce poverty in the country.
These positive views of Peru’s economic growth contributed by globalization is very much in contrast with the views of Christian Parenti in his book Tropic of Chaos. The author has emphasized that neoliberal policies have negative effects on countries in the Global South. Macro-economic policies dictated by international organizations and the introduction of the free markets have negative effects on the countries he has described making them ill-equipped to handle the exacerbating effects of climate change.
Conclusions
The Tropic of Chaos presents evidence of the exacerbating effects of climate change. Parenti (2011) emphasizes that climate change is not only extreme weather conditions but it is a phenomenon that results in a catastrophic convergence. According to Parenti, neoliberal policies implemented in the global south has contributed much to the present state of these countries. In contrast, the country of Peru has implemented macro-economic policies and structural restructuring. Doing so has helped the country bring its economy to its present day boom. Despite the crisis and extreme inflation in the past, coupled with violent government turn-overs, Peru at present experiences one of the fastest growing economies in South America.
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