ABSTRACT
We would be less than honest if we did not begin by conceding that this chapter is complex, convoluted, multi-faceted, speculative and, yes, belligerent. Our framing proposition is that there is, at present, a structural relationship between North and South; a relationship that is defined and sustained by a oneway flow of gifts. Alms pass from North to South and nothing, save mute acquiescence, passes from South to North. If the feeling is that there is something wrong with this relationship – if it is felt to be indefensible ethically, or Pareto-crummy economically, or mutually destructive environmentally – then the solution (if there is one) lies not in fiddling around with the nature of the alms but in transforming the relationship itself, from one-way alms to two-way gift exchange.
