The New Conquistadors

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To be honest, Latin America, or at least these particular Panamanians, need to shut up and allow their GDP to increase. Anyone who wants to be a subsistence farmer for the rest of his life cannot be helped. Obviously Inmet wants the damn copper. But shouldn't the Panamanians want education and housing and skilled labor jobs and the opportunity for leisure? Because this kind of industrialization can give them these things, or at least give their children the hope of having these things.

The video really doesn't cite ANY real evidence that MNCs are responsible for poverty in third world countries. Inmet is trying to do something that would put these people on a currency based economy and they're resisting it. This might be one of the few cases where the poor are actually to blame for their being poor. I'm not saying that these people all need to learn English and buy iPhones, but shouldn't they want hospitals? Shouldn't they want to be something more than farmers?

You're damn right short term goals are worth the perceived long-term risks. Human life has immense value and anything and everything should be done to save it. If that means building a mine then build the mine. The short-term goals aren't just good for the Panamanian's either. The copper being produced at this mine is going to enter the market, reducing the overall price of copper and allowing electrical and communications wiring to be produced more cheaply. This wiring can then be sold more cheaply so that a factory can be built in Kinshasa at a lower cost, or a school in India can buy cheaper computers. The global economy involves billions of people, not just your village.

That being said, the Canadian mining corporation doesn't have the best interests of the Panamanians in mind, but it's not their responsibility. As a by-product of them serving their own interests, the Panamanians are benefiting, as are the aforementioned Congolese and Indians. So really, I don't think that question matters.

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