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  • The Globalizers: Development Workers in Action
  • Tanya Golash-Boza
The Globalizers: Development Workers in Action By Jeffery T. JacksonJohns Hopkins University Press. 2005. 363 pages. $55 (cloth)

The Globalizers: Development Workers in Action provides a clear and comprehensive picture of how global interests often outweigh local interests in Honduras, while enhancing our understanding of the intricacies of global governance. This ethnographic and interview-based study of development workers, projects and institutions in Honduras first introduces us to Honduran and expatriate development workers (globalizers) and to the institutions they work in. This provides us with a nuanced perspective on how the globalizers see themselves and the work they do. We learn of the power imbalance between [End Page 1453] the Honduran and expatriate globalizers, but we also are introduced to their commonalities, including international professional training and experience.

The first part of the book on the globalizers and the institutions is fascinating. The second part is even more informative, where Jackson presents a detailed and comprehensive overview of the countless negotiations surrounding the building of the enormous El Cajon dam, the creation of export processing zones, and the reconstruction after Hurricane Mitch.

Jackson explains how international development agencies oversaw the building of a dam that cost nearly $1 billion, which represented 40 percent of Honduras' debt at the time. Jackson provides an impressive array of evidence, ranging from the long series of negotiations between development agencies and the Honduran government, a discussion of the engineering difficulties of the project, and an analysis of the social and political consequences of the project. The truly comprehensive nature of this description is remarkable. Jackson provides convincing evidence that the dam is faulty, and that this is an oversight that could have been prevented. Jackson also informs us of the consequences of this project: Honduras ended up with large repair bills, a huge foreign debt and an energy crisis. In contrast, the donors receive interest on the debts that were incurred, and corporations from the donor countries benefited from the dam-building and repair contracts and the hiring of foreign experts at substantial prices. Jackson points out that, while Hondurans have to bear all of the repair costs for a dam that were due to faulty planning and construction, public works projects in the United States often come with contracts where the contractors, not the local governments, are held accountable for the mistakes. This is one of many examples where global interests took precedence over local interests, largely because of the imbalance of power dynamics in global governance.

The next section of the book is on maquiladoras, which have gained international prominence because of labor rights abuses and the boycotting of a variety of apparel companies. Jackson explains how development workers, primarily those employed or funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), promoted and funded the creation of export processing zones in Honduras, which allowed for the building of massive maquiladoras. Jackson takes us through the U.S. congressional debates which demonstrate the U.S. interest in the building of these factories, the development industry negotiations, which shed light on the primary role USAID in this process, and the Honduran congressional negotiations, which again show how global interests superseded local ones. Notably, USAID workers were the primary authors of the Honduran legislation that made the creation of export processing zones possible.

Jackson then takes us through the international scandal that arose when 60 Minutes revealed that not only did U.S. taxpayer money fund the exportation of jobs overseas, but also the creation of jobs where labor rights abuses were abundant. The attention that this case garnered was largely possible due to the transnational nature of the NGOs involved in improving the condition of Honduran workers. And, the result of this scandal was the introduction of an international monitoring agency, which further contributes to global governance in Honduras, especially because it sidelines the Honduran Ministry of Labor. [End Page 1454]

Finally, this book includes a comprehensive discussion of the global nature of the response to the devastating Hurricane Mitch. The immediate response to the hurricane and the official damage reports were primarily coordinated by international development professionals, with the participation...

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