1.)Che Guevara said that underdevelopment was a dwarf with an enormous head and a bloated stomach; it's spindly legs and stubby arms do not fit with the rest of the body' (Pg. 78). Galeano speaks about underdevelopment of Brazil due to the rubber trade in pages 87-89, the underdevelopment of Brazil due to the rubber trade n pages 87-91, the underdevelopment of Venezuela due to the Cacao trade in pages 91-94, the underdevelopment of El Salavador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Columbia due to the Coffee trade in pages 97-99. Pick one of those sections an write an analogy like Che did that will describe how the Industry affected the population. For example the coffee trade in Guatemala was like.... Support your analogy with three examples from the text.
The Cacao trade was like a selfish, frivolous tyrant who only takes from his people. In the beginning of this chapter the plantation owners and how they barely pay their workers any money at all, rather they keep them in debt. They devote all of their land to growing cacao and don't give any of it to the people. All of the cacao gets shipped over seas to get made into chocolate. The people don't even get to reap the fruit of their labors.
2. This chapter really focuses on how a country's dependence on a single cash crop deforms the economy. How does producing only one cash crop really distort trade relationships?
The reason that dependence on a single cash crop deforms the economy and distorts trade relations is because EVERYTHING becomes dependent on that crop. Any change in price or production throws everything out of whack. If something happens to that one crop, the country has nothing else to fall back on. For example, if for some reason the prices fall, then everything is done for. It wouldn't be as bad if they had two or three main crops, that way if the price fell for one of them, the other two could hopefully make up the difference, it wouldn't be as big a blow. The same thing is true in the situation that another country starts producing the same crop and starts to take away buyers.
I thought the story about the British man who smuggled rubber seeds out of Brazil to Europe is extremely interesting.Until this time, Brazil dominated the rubber market and rubber dominated Brazil.Once Europe got their hands on the seeds and offered Brazil competition in the trade market, Brazilian prosperity thus "vanished in a puff of smoke". What was once Brazil's greatest source of prosperity(at least some people in Brazil) became it's ruin. It was only because rubber was its sole cash crop that the crisis hit so hard, if there had been something else to fall back on it might not have been so bad.
3.) On page 104 there is an extremely provocative quote from a brutal official of the Columbian war described in the preceding page. When confronted after the war, Galeano quotes him saying that he did not feel individually guilty for the atrocities he committed since the horror of the violence was merely the horror of the system. Respond.
I feel like there is a truth to the assertion that people do things, sometimes even terrible things, simply because of the power of the influences they are under. You see this in families all the time, if the parents are alcoholics then is it more likely, though not inevitable, that the children will also fall into this habit , you can say its just part of the cycle and I agree that it is very hard to break a cycle. I suppose it is the same in war. People will do terrible things because that's just what war is, and then justify that it isn't really their fault because it is just part of war. But does this make those acts ok? Does this make the person responsible less guilty for what they did? I feel like answering these kind of prompts can get really complicated because I always find so many layers and find it impossible to peel away to the bottom of them. I think it is one thing to say that war is the product of terrible things but it is another thing to say that you are not guilty if you committed crimes during war. Just last night I was reading about the Nuremburg trials and I was very interested by the fact that the twenty Nazi leaders on trial all pleaded Not Guilty. This is maddening. When I read the statement that this prompt refers to I immediately thought of the Nuremberg trials. I don't see how anyone can kill out of cold blood then plead themselves not guilty. You committed the crime, so therefore that makes you guilty.I don't think it is enough to say that killing is just a part of war because it wouldn't be a part of war if people just stopped doing it. But maybe that is too much to ask.
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