GEOG 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Resource Curse, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Corporate Social Responsibility
6 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 1000
February 12, 2018
Unthinking the “Country of Africa”... and Images of an African Other
Looking for the country of Nambia, only exists in Trump’s mind
Review
● Ombudsperson for ‘Responsible Enterprise’
● Social justice organizations vs government for them to be responsible for their
overseas behaviour
● Bill C-300 failed
● Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Counsellor
Jose Luis Abarca
● Father murdered by people with ties to a Blackfire, a Canadian mining company.
● Mariano Abarca was outspoken against extractive mining practices
● Lack of a full and impartial investigation
● Protests are criminalized
Hudbay
● A Canadian mining company being sued for negligence by Guatemalan women
● Guatemala Nickel Company (CGN)
● Sued for sexual violence against 11 Indigenous women
● First case of its kind in a Canadian court
Barrick Gold, North Mara Gold Mine, Tanzania
● Mining watch publishes response
● Alleged Excessive use of Force by mining security at North Mara gold mine
● Security calls them intruders
● “We are not the intruders, the intruders are the Canadians”
Popular Stereotypes of Africa
● War & conflict
● No innate to the place but a product of history
● Discourse: collection of words and descriptions that shapes how we understand
something and in turn how we relate to it
● Poverty and hunger
● Disease
● Wilderness and primitive
Main themes
● Looking at popular images as inaccurate simplifications of a much more complicated
story
● Africa is not isolated from the rest of the world
● Africa is not naturally poor; constructed by long history
● Has wealth; resource curse, sometimes wealth becomes tool for exploitation
● Addressing Africa’s future challenges
Document Summary
Unthinking the country of africa and images of an african other. Looking for the country of nambia, only exists in trump"s mind. Social justice organizations vs government for them to be responsible for their overseas behaviour. Father murdered by people with ties to a blackfire, a canadian mining company. Mariano abarca was outspoken against extractive mining practices. Lack of a full and impartial investigation. A canadian mining company being sued for negligence by guatemalan women. Sued for sexual violence against 11 indigenous women. First case of its kind in a canadian court. Alleged excessive use of force by mining security at north mara gold mine. We are not the intruders, the intruders are the canadians . No innate to the place but a product of history. Discourse: collection of words and descriptions that shapes how we understand something and in turn how we relate to it. Looking at popular images as inaccurate simplifications of a much more complicated story.
