The mythological djinn, also known as the genie in the lamp, is a classic folklore character with magical powers to grant all those who summon him to get their most cherished wishes made real. The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries. The hidden meaning behind the myth of the djinn was that after the individual made his wishes there would always be an underlying flaw in the contract that created more harm than benefit. The thin line of agreements and unexpected outcomes of the World Bank loans can very easily be compared to the djinn’s tale.
When a nation chooses to accept a World Bank loan, the conditions for the loans require governments to strictly embrace the Neoliberal political economic ideology, which allows corporations from the wealthiest countries to take over the financial and commercial trade decisions. Many common suggestions that the World Bank proposes for governments are to set up dams, move the city center, build stadiums, construct roads, privatize water sources, and numerous other tactics. When financial experts from wealthy nations go to developing nations and suggest to them how they can build their wealth quickly they ignore environmental risks, cultural depletion, and sensitivity to quality of life outside the monetary value.
In many ways, the quick road to development is as malignant as the djinn’s granting of wishes. Dam projects as seen in India have caused massive amounts of displaced citizens. First the dam floods a valley where indigenous groups have lived for centuries and when the lake is formed, those who once used the rivers freely for generations find the land now privatized and their basic human need for water unaffordable. The Yacyreta Dam in Argentina, the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala, and the Manantali Dam in Mali are just a few World Bank funded dams that have had sharp social and environmental reprecussions.
In developing nations as in Bolivia and Ghana privatizing water supplies devastated local groups. In country’s like Malawi, where the majority of the population cannot find basic needs, food and clean water is scarce, projects that built a stadium and moved the city centre of Lilongwe were only beneficial for a small minor percentage of the population compared to projects that could have reached out further to the public’s needs. Deforestation in Brazil has led to massive flooding and environmental degradation.
Yet the significant financial repercussions from a developing nation accepting a World Bank loan is that the country is in perpetual debt. This fairytale of happily ever after becomes a never-ending story of trying to raise enough funds to pay back loans that most developing countries cannot possibly balance making large payments and sustainably, while being socially accountable, develop at the same time. So corners are cut and the poor populations are the first to be neglected, displaced, or swindled. A good wish that goes significantly wrong, especially to those who are considered expendable to the government and the rich.
In conclusion, if the djinn of the developing world were to have never granted loans to developing nations in the first place, most likely those large-scale global ecological and social crisis would have been avoided, developing nations would have resorted to their own grass-roots and self-reliant choices, and would not have borrowed when they couldn’t have afforded to do so. Be weary of what you wish for. Develop with hard work and not the quick easy fix, and do not trust a djinn in a shiny gold lamp even if it sounds like a good idea.
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