Southern megadams masked dependence and corruption beneath independence glamour

Evidence

Yet ironically, in economic and political terms, these glamorous hydrological regimes of independence doubled as invisible statements of dependence that threw into question the very condition of postcolonialism itself. Literally and metaphorically, the glittering prestige projects of the megadams depended on submergence: of disposable people and ecosystems, but also on the submerged structures of dependence that lay beneath the flamboyant engineering miracles. … Structures of collusion arose between elites in the first, second, and third world around a related dynamic of invisibility: spectacular megadams require megafunding that offer seductive opportunities for masking gigantic graft. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 466

Categorization

• XREF: The collusion-of-elites-around-invisibility dynamic connects to ch14’s resource-curse claim that weakness is manufactured by Western-designed institutions, here via debt and graft. — connects to: Southern megadams run on transnational funding while American ones were nationally contained — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 438; Fear of loyalist-slavery-invasion convergence pushed southern delegates toward independence — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 133; The Italian trusteeship normalized corruption in the South — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 726 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Fear of loyalist-slavery-invasion convergence pushed southern delegates toward independence #complicates (0.82) — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 133
• Single-commodity dependence correlates with corruption and extreme income skew #expands (0.80) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 299
• Imperial dispositions may be the template for modern political self-deception #responds-to (0.78) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1412
• Exploitative colonial systems routinely produce nationalist independence movements #qualifies (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2198
• The Italian trusteeship normalized corruption in the South #exemplifies (0.72) — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 726