Ties That Bind: Canada and the Third World ed. by Robert Clarke, Richard Swift, and: Canadian Foreign Aid in the 1970s. An Organizational Audit by Peter Wyse (review)

Reviews TIES THAT BIND: CANADA AND THE THIRD WORLD. Edited by Robert Clarke and Richard Swift. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1982. Pp. 240. CANADIAN FOREIGN AID IN THE 1970S. AN ORGANIZATIONAL AUDIT. Peter Wyse. Montreal: Centrefor Developing -Area Studies, McGill University, 1983. Pp.88. A spokesman for a group critical of Canadian foreign aid policy stated that it "would confine aid to disaster relief, regardless of ideology and, in general terms, to nations with a free-enterprise system" and that "Canada has no reason to feel guilty...being a nice guy has not won us respect. Most of the Third World still hates us" (The Globe and Mail, 28 December 1983). Despite this criticism, a large number of Canadians do support foreign aid. They see its importance in correcting the inequities between and within industralized and developing countries. However, much of this support is also critical of Canada's foreign aid programme as it has actually evolved. In Ties that Bind, the editors have chosen five issues which they think are crucial to an understanding of international development: how Canadian perceptions of the Third World are formed, and the types of attitudes and actions these trigger; the political economy of NorthISouth relations, its players and their positions; the operation of transnational corporations, their strength in modelling the world economic system, and the question of the TNC's social accountability ; an overview of Canadian aid policies and th~ir effectiveness; and, finally, an essay on the role of militarism, as well as the trend towards using the military to support the status quo within many developing countries. In part one, Richard Swift asks: "Why is there so little recognition in North America that underdevelopment in the 130 Third World is the result of a world system that binds it into poverty?" The answer focusses on the media sources of information about Third World affairs. Media coverage is attracted to what is explosive and dramatic. Thus, a searing drought, an epidemic, famine, government corruption, military coups, and riots are newsworthy events. This type ofreporting highlights the symptoms of underdevelopment and fails to provide an understanding of the causes in which these flashes of despair are rooted. The author of the essay thinks that a greater understanding would be possible if North Americans had the opportunity "to come to terms with what the Third World had to say about itself and its problems (my emphasisJ, rather than how western journalists reported Third World events.'' Brian Tomlinson's essay explores the proposals of the Canadian gpvernment's Parliamentary Task Force on North/ South Relations and the Independent Commission on International Development Issues chaired by Willy Brandt. After analysing the crisis that the world system is undergoing, the Brandt Commission put forward a set of proposals which include reforms of the current economic system, massive transfer of human and material resources to Third World countries, international agreements on energy .strategy, and a global food programme. The Parliamentary Task Force, by and large, endorsed the Commission's proposals and claimed that in order to achieve "justice and an equitable sharing of benefits" throughout the world, the basic needs of its population should be satisfied. The cornerstone for the implementation of the proposals is the "mutual interest" both North and South should have in terms of economic growth and development of their regions, within a framework of political stability and growing economic interdependence. However, the "mutual interests" approach, which would be of real benefit to the working poor of the world, is bogged down by the reality of the interests vested in the international institutions, corporations, Revued'etudes canadiennes Vol. 19,No. 4(Hiver1984-85 Winter) governments, and clients whose survival and profit are seen as dependent on the "status quo" that perpetuates poverty. Many of the issues in the North I South debate are directly related to the operation of transnational corporations (TNCs). D'Arey Martin notes that these corporations are consistently expanding their activity on a global scale where "current trends could lead to a system whereby 300 or 400 corporations would control 60 to 70 percent of the world industrial output.'' The ubiquitous TNCs are involved in a wide range of activities in all...