NEOLIBERALISM
Global capitalism has
indeed reached a new hiatus with its corollary - neoliberalism. Neoliberalism
has become inescapable as it is quickly fusing physical and mental boundaries,
globally.
To understand this
neoliberalism phenomenon well, one needs to look at it as a package of
capitalist prescriptions – kind of a tool box to dismantle economic and
cultural boundaries for purpose of exploiting and under developing emerging
economies and peripheral cultures. The phenomenon lurks as structured and purposively
driven by Multinational corporations from global North in cahoots with
corrupted ruling class in the global south.
This neoliberalism package
includes commands for structural adjustment, deregulation, privatization,
cost-sharing, individualism and strict market rules. The prices that global
south societies have to pay since neoliberalism set foot amidst them, has been
dire. Many of these countries have remained poor and under developed. The
public is quickly replaced by the private, the common by individual, and what
used to be free are slapped with costs, leading to social inequality. In the
process, neoliberalism subverts social order and produces individuals that are
antagonistic to traditions, self-serving, vicious and unconscionable.
In that sense, in Uganda
today, we see a terrible decline in common sense among the population – young
and old. The decline in common sense is a sign that neoliberalism has not only
taken a firm foothold, it has also obliterated, and in some sense, transformed
our society from the communitarian society it was to something alien -
individualistic and opportunistic society. Like it is in America where
neighbors no longer recognize each other, leave alone socialise meaningfully,
social capital in Uganda has also declined.
Our attitude to society
is most pathetic. We no longer value our cultures, we attack it viciously. At a
small provocation, we quickly race to the mountain top to denounce a cultural
practice in lieu of alien western traditions. We no longer value our elders, to
seek counsel and wisdom; we race to google to find cultural studies of western
society as a basis for our arguments, to sound elitist. We are diminished in
character.
Individualism is a
recipe for social distrust on a large scale. In America, the clamour for
private property is reflected in its charter of rights, and the adherence to
the gun culture for protection of the self and property embodies this distrust.
In our customary community systems, property were protected and shared by the
community based on need. Small incremental use ensured equitable distribution.
In capitalist society many people die from social inequalities resulting from
individual greed than from diseases itself. The quality of life for the
majority who are deprived of resources for health also declines. Stratification
and Commodification favors the top 5% of so, who controls nearly 85% of
society's wealth.
This corporate agenda is
a monster that needs taming. Corporations are replicating a unique form of
colonialism, let's call corporate colonialism. Corporations now control every
aspect of our social life – they control the air we breathe, through their
industrial wastes and manufacturing, they control the foods that we eat,
through their ultra-processed salty, sugary or oil-drenched foods, and they
control our seeds too.
In our traditional
societies, seed autonomy was the cornerstone of food security. The Ugandan Parliament
recently passed a Bill to deprive farmers of this seed autonomy, but allowing
genetically modified seeds corporation to take control of our farmers' seed
autonomy. I am sure, for the most, they passed this law out of ignorance. Given
their innately corrupted nature, perhaps the hands of corporations might have
rested heavily in their pockets. You can tell that common sense has declined
terribly in that Parliament. It is that we are now trapped in the money nexus.
You don't give away seed autonomy to corporations that develop seeds with
terminator genes – seeds whose harvest cannot become seeds again.
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