Author(s): Amy Chua

Current Affairs & Politics

After the fall of the Berlin wall, a consensus emerged- not only in the west but elsewhere- that the magical combination of free markets and democracy would transform the world into a community of modernized, peace-loving nations, and individuals into civic- minded citizens and consumers. Ethnic hatred, religious zealotry, and other 'backward' aspects of underdevelopment would be swept away. In World on Fire, Amy Chua shows that just the opposite has happened. As global markets open, ethnic conflict worsens and democracy in developing nations turns ugly and violent. Examining the actual impact of economic globalisation in every region of the world, from Africa and Asia to Russia and Latin America, Chua exposes an unexpected reality. In every one of these regions, free markets have concentrated disproportionate, often spectacular wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These 'market- dominant minorities'- Chinese in Southeast Asia, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America and South Africa, Indians in East Africa, Jews in post-Communist Russia- invariably become targets of violent hatred. Chua is not an anti-globalist. But she warns that, far from making the world a better place, democracy and capitalism - at least in the raw form in which they are currently being exported - are intensifying ethnic resentment and global violence, with potentially catastrophic results.