Botswana and the Philippines
... exist, they were almost never respected. Michael Bengwayan entitled his article about San Roque Dam perfectly: “Dam the River, Damn the People.” Between 1961 and 1966, one-third of Botswana’s herd was decimated by the most serious drought since the nineteenth century. This untimely disaster happened when the cattle industry supplied 85 percent of export earnings . Famine also resulted from the destruction of crops. One in every five persons relied on famine relief for survival . The British, being the mother country, provided Botswana with relief operations and wanted to re-establish the country’s productive capacity as quickly as possible. They focused on agriculture which holds 91 percent of Botswana’s labor force, because the extraction of mineral reserves would take effect only in the long run. They also exported labor to South Africa. The drought had greatly impoverished the lives of the Botswana people but the growth in their economy in the next decade was notable. The annual rate of growth was, on the average, greater than 15 percent from 1966 to 1973 and continued at the rate of 11 percent for three years . The Customs Union Agreement of 1969 and the income from private investment and capital imports were said to be the source of the government’s fiscal strength. The government also received help from other countries such as United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and from the international lending institution, the World Bank. Although nothing was stated in Worby’s dissertation about the conditionalities from the help they received from such countries and the World Bank, previous discussions in other Development Studies courses are enough to envision the dependency of Botswana to these countries. And although these countries and international lending institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, never admit the difficulty that they inflict upon the countries they are ‘helping,’ we know that they never give anything without something bigger and beneficial to them in return. Sadly, the conditionalities set by foreign aid, in truth, cause more harm than benefits. Also similar to the Philippine experience, we are being choked for the amount of money we owe to the capitalist nations and institutions. This has produced countless undesirable effects to the country as a whole and even more undesirable for the workers, farmers, fisher folks, and the like. The stated growth in Botswana’s urban economy happened at the expense of the rural economy. As discussed in our class, the rural setting is different from the urban setting in terms of their modes of production. Places who largely depend on agriculture are rural communities while the more advanced and more developed (in the capitalist context) cities are urban. And since livestock and crop production was not in the priority list of the government in the first five years of development after their independence , the rural economy suffered. Only years later did the government turn their attention to rural development. By then, most rural dwellers could not anymore appreciate the idea of rural development. Most small cattle owners, to save themselves from the effects of the drought, had already sold their cattle to wealthy cattle owners who had access to essential means of cattle production, one of which is water. Also during those times, wealthy cattle owners wanted to secure control of watering points. They invested capital to bore holes to the ground so they would have greater access to water resources. And though local tribesmen were free to use natural reserves, they were not allowed to benefit from the construction of the boreholes and wells because these were for the exclusive use of the wealthy cattle owners. Therefore, a...