ASIA AND THE IMF

EUROPE SHOULD PASS IMF BATON TO ASIA

M.D. Nalapat

China Daily, June 10, 2011

At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December 2009, the European Union (EU) said it had the right to maintain its people's standard of living even if that was unsustainable for the planet. The cure the EU suggested was that China, India, Brazil, South Africa and other emerging economies accept severe emission cuts even at the cost of retarding their growth significantly.

In effect, that meant the standard of living of people in the emerging economies ought to be frozen or even lowered, so that European and other developed countries could continue on their environmentally debilitating trajectory.

Surprising the developed world that banked on disunity among Asian powers, China and India joined hands to block such an unfair outcome.

The developed world's was a "zero-sum" approach, in which it gained at the expense of countries that it had colonized.

Interestingly, we are seeing the return of "trusteeship", in which outside powers gain control of poorer countries - as is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan. Countries such as Libya that refuse to accept such hegemony find themselves under military attack.

Such zero-sum tactics are harmful to the entire world, and eventually to Europe, a continent whose people can justifiably take pride in their cultural and scientific achievements. The zero-sum mindset reflects excess of confidence, and in the case of the EU, this zeal has been the cause of the present financial crisis that it finds itself in.

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