ABSTRACT
The name for this new type of Northern intervention and the solution to the newly-discovered Southern deficiencies, was, of course, 'economic development'. Plunder and 'civilising' notions of progress were fused into a single program of economic and social improve men t through exploitation of resources, poten tial markets and 'comparative advantage' ... No group being reorganised as part of a money economy could possibly be oppressed since such 'development', by definition, was what enabled people to reach their potential. Exploitation, resistance and liberation were defined out of the discourse. (Lohmann 1993: 29) There is thus more convergence between the North and South than
The main response of those in power has been to hide these unpalatable truths behind a 'developmentspeak' that disguises social injustice and the politics of vested interests in an anodyne language of 'poverty alleviation', 'underdevelopment' and 'overpopulation'. (Colchester and Lohmann, 1993: 14).
