Black Gold Essay

Coffee, a $80 million trade industry, is dominated by multinational corporations. (“The Story.” Black Gold. Pixeco and SpeakIt. Web. 17 July 2015.) As developing countries, like Ethiopia, make economic advances, they remain dependent on these multinational corporations and the countries they serve in increasing global inequality. In the film Black Gold, dependency theory can be seen in action through Ethiopia’s coffee exportation and the global coffee trade. Ethiopia is not only entirely economically dependent on the trade of coffee, but the World Trade Organization (WTO) actively prevents poorer countries from developing export trade, keeping them dependent on other countries for support. Watching Black Gold is an eye-opening experience, because

This dependency has allowed industrialized nations to exploit developing countries and their resources. As a growing share of their human and natural resources are redistributed to more powerful nations due to national debt, these countries are subjected to the power and control of corporations who maintain their livelihood. Developing countries like Ethiopia would be unable to be independent as a nation in the current world market. Black Gold explores these issues through the global coffee

Many ministers from Africa and other parts of the world were hoping for an end to subsidies. Subsidies are sums of money granted by governments to assist an industry so the price of commodities remain low. (Subsidy. Investopedia. Investopedia, LLC. Web. 2015. 17 July 2015.) In simpler terms, governments were granting sums of money to countries like Ethiopia so that corporations were able to buy products such as coffee and bananas at an extremely low price. This keeps the country dependent on these more powerful nations and corporations, as they can not compete for higher prices for their goods. Hon. Sam Mpasu Mp, Minister of Commerce and Industry for Malawi said that these countries want the WTO to help them “stand on their own feet.” He added, “Trade is more important to us than aid.” This is an example of dependency theory because many developing countries remain dependent on other nations for aid and subsidies, despite having many natural resources to contribute to the world trade market. With current trade deals, these countries cannot support themselves through the small profits they make in exports. Many ministers hoped for a fairer system of trade instead of more aid. As the film stated in its closing, “A 1% increase in the continent's share of world trade would generate $70 billion per year