LThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict exacerbates the schism, a sort of “clash of civilizations”, which is developing between a praised global South and a reviled West. We must of course take into account this Third World substitute which is organizing itself at a rapid pace but which must not humiliate us.
There is no Global South, as it is divided by the rivalry between China and India; but it’s a groundswell. BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) have little in common. They disagree on the war in Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And this global South which feeds on anti-Americanism has just taken a very serious blow with the victory of Javier Milei, this “Trumpist” wants “dollarize” the Argentinian.
However, following the “third world” conceptualized by Alfred Sauvy in 1952 – “this third world ignored, exploited, despised, like the third estate” after decolonization – the global South, despite its divisions, encompasses the globe from Brazil to China. The Third World was a static notion, the Global South is in continuous and even accelerated development; it is in the process of structuring the international order and requires new governance.
Relentless mechanics
Our pleas for repentance are of no use: we are guilty of the revolt, resentment and misery of part of the world; guilty of our colonization with American taste, of our fictitious decolonization, of the overly active “Françafrique”, of the essential but humiliating CFA franc, of our excessive exploitation of land and raw materials; guilty of climate change which will cost the South dearly; obscene interest rates due to our inflation; guilty of the derisory influence of these countries at the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, on the council of which they have just been granted a new seat like a mite. We are not the only ones condemned, the South is too: China unscrupulously exploits the natural wealth of Africa (in the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular), and in Latin America, in exchange for leonine financing; it is responsible for 30% of carbon emissions worldwide.
While the barbaric carnage of October 7 tragically tested Israel, provoking its self-defense, the West – while showing its fear in the face of such a tragedy – should have quickly adopted a more balanced attitude to avoid falling into the trap of hatred and seem associated with these strikes, also inhumane, on Gaza. We should have called for a ceasefire more quickly, especially since, as the historian Elie Barnavi well summarized, “ the Hamas attack resulting from the conjunction of a fanatical Islamist organization and an imbecile Israeli policy » (The worldOctober 9).
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