Does Bamako
miss the point?
By Ignacio Gutierrez
February 27, 2007
Being hailed as a landmark film, Bamako puts the IMF, World Bank and the West in general, on trial for the poverty of Africa. But considering the filmÕs didactic intent, it preaches an all too familiar moral which has actually been the cause of poverty the film seeks to remedy.
ÒAfrica is not a poor continent, but a continent made poorÓ claims director Abderrahmane Sissako. But one need not look further than BamakoÕs own history to see how SissakoÕs words ring true. Since MaliÕs independence in 1960, its first president Modibo Keita insisted on modeling their economy after the Soviet UnionÕs. If that werenÕt enough of a red flag, listening to one of the mock lawyers making an impassioned plea for an egalitarian society and ÒutopiaÓ served as an eerie reminder for history to repeat itself in the form of the very poverty Bamako condemns.
As Òpolitically complexÓ as reviewers have raved about the film, what they and conspiracy enthusiasts fail to understand is ÒitÕs the economy, stupid.Ó One crucial aspect the film glosses over is the subsidization of US and European industries, which creates an unfair advantage in the global marketplace against developing countries like Mali. But the film, along with many NGOÕs, continues to call for the suspension of the World BankÕs conditions for privatization, when in actuality calling for an end to US and European subsidies would prove more effective. Enabling developing countries to compete globally would create more jobs via privatization as opposed to subsidization and tariff barriers.
Though the good intentions of NGOÕs and actors like Danny Glover are admirable, their sense of judgment should be put on trial. For example GloverÕs support for Hugo Chavez, VenezuelaÕs president who attained power in 1998 via a military coup, has used socialism as an excuse to rule by decree and is known to imprison journalists. ItÕs amazing how many Hollywood stars embrace totalitarian regimes and their ill-fated policies, while somehow forgetting that privatization and capitalism, not to mention franchising, enables them earnings of $5,000,000 or more for films such as Lethal Weapon 1, 2, 3 and 4.
For anyone who cares to
understand the causes of poverty, itÕs just as important to understand the
economic framework needed to help end it, such as capitalism. Despite all its
negative connotations with greed, evil, corporate whore-mongering, etc.,
capitalism is simply an economic system granting individuals the right to own
property and produce goods and services from that property in exchange for
profit. When more people begin to understand the benefit of those rights and
hold their governments accountable to protect them, will problems such as
AfricaÕs poverty finally reach a verdict.