By Blackman Ngoro

In this article I would like to adapt aspects of an article by Osamu Sudoh an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, who examines the issue of electronic money in Japan and how this went hand in hand with the establishment of a new economic order.

by Leonard Thompson

I spent two weeks in Ghana in 1957, three months after it became independent; the economy was sound; the press was free; opposition politicians were active. Since then, Sub-Saharan Africa has gone downhil. There has been tragedy after tragedy in many of the largest countries, including civil wars and gross mismanagement in Nigeria, the Congo, and the Sudan and most Africans are worse off than they were under colonialism. Why is this? Comparing Sub Saharan Africa with another region should shed light on this subject. South East Asia is appropriate for this. Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and South East Asia (SEA) have about the same number of people and both, except Liberia and Thailand, experienced western colonialism.

Blackman Ngoro

INTRODUCTION

The enhancement of democracy through the Internet presupposes that technology is in a way responsible for modernization a concept once prevalent in the late 60s. This is how the interpretation was seen (Valdes:1987:202). But many have discovered that this not the case. Democracy, let alone cyberdemocracy cannot be achieved because a few of the Third World’s population have access to the Internet. As Valdes writes (1987) " It became apparent that a linear causal relationship between the modernization paradigm and its implementation through media campaigns and actual economic take-off did not exist in practice." He however writes that with the dawn of huge leaps in advanced information technologies, the almost abandoned "development through modernization mass media campaigns" have reemerged (1987:203) He continues that the core argument of this perspective is based on the anticipated social and economic equalizing power of information and information technologies."

But is this so?

There are those who may remember this July notice. All I would like to say is that this project is slowly coming together as I sit here in the quiet of Tokyo, far from the madding crowd. It seems anonymity of one works to their advantage as I find it very useful and extremely productive in this time.

早稲田大学

カルチュラルタイフーン

2003年6月29日

キーワード

表象／アフリカ人／黒人／支配思想／日本／アイデンティティー／アイデンティフィケーション／イデオロギー

イントロダクション

まずはじめに、言葉遊び的な質問をしたいと思います。なにがアフリカの国々と日本との関係を特徴づけているのでしょうか？貿易でしょうか、援助でしょうか。それとも、両方でしょうか。文化はどうでしょう？アフリカと日本の文化的な違いが過度に強調されています。なぜ過度に強調する必要があるのでしょうか。だれのための強調でしょうか。文化的な違いがないかって？そういうことを言いたいのではありません。