20 - 26 December 2001
Issue No.565
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 20 - 26 December 2001 Issue No.565 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Economic nationalism
Amid the havoc of global capitalist brutality and terrorist violence, developing countries are frail and vulnerable. Many believe that the only way out is "economic nationalism," which could prepare Third World peoples for 21st-century "commercial terrorism" waged by the major economic powers of today. How to tackle the crisis of the drop in the value of the Egyptian pound, for example? One could draw upon the Central Bank's foreign currency reserves, take out foreign loans or place draconian limits on imports. Each of these options has dire consequences for the national economy, which economic nationalism could spare us.
As a collective, popular, unofficial movement, economic nationalism is not subject to international pressure and lies beyond the scope of global interdependence; it requires no intervention from the authorities. The system, mentioned recently in a radio programme on the economic pioneer Talaat Harb, a Shura Council seminar on national industry and a press campaign to promote Egyptian products, entails boycotting imports, encouraging trade in Egyptian products and changing consumers' attitudes at home and abroad. The movement must extend to every detail of daily life and involve the media and NGOs as well as individuals.
Concentrating on our own products, nurturing our industries and using savings to benefit the domestic economy will have a long-term impact. It may indeed be our only protection against the economic wars being waged against us. In both Japan and China, industrial progress began with import-substitution policies; and if not for Gandhi's ideas, which incorporated economic nationalism, India would not have achieved independence. We must take steps to protect our economy. Economic nationalism is the closest thing we have to a strategy, and it is up to us to implement before it is too late.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is professor of political science at Helwan University.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page