América Latina: ¿clase media de las naciones?

inevitable. AlteraIl, historiacally important areas of both' pÍ'ivate ana publk morálity have required subordinatiol1 of whátis natural to' whát is r18ht. Givilization has oiten developed on the basis of both' ex– ploiting nature and controHing nature. That side of dvílization which isconcerned withvalues' and principIes has inevitably required the taming of nature. While thetefore it might well be natural that the bigger should have excessiv.e influence ove! the smaUer, or the dcher over the weaker, or the well.informea over the lesser informed, this could stiU be ,an aspect of nature which needs' to be subjected to the modifying cll'kuJus of morality. Of the three continents ofthe Third World (Afrka, ,Asia and South America), Africa contains the highest number of the leastde– veloped countries and the continent as a whole has the lowest per capita income. Africa's potential in terms of resources is of eourse considerable, bllt the degree, to which those resources have for the time' being been ,a,dequatdy exploited, or the benefits equitablydis. ttibuted, is stHl very modest. P'artly became Africa is in this sense the 'least developed of the three continents oí the Thir¿ World, it has becn particularly sU.'Kep– ti.ble to micro.dependenc)'. Afiricans in the twentieth ccntury have much more oftenbeen followers than leaders, responsive rather than innovative. For much of Africa the twentieth century is a centuryof both cruelexploitation by otllers and valuntary iniüation of others. Imperialism and dependency continue to flourish even in those coun– tries in Afríea that are now nominally sovereign. But while vertical dependency upon northern metropO'lit:an e,Qun. tries has basicaHy been disfunctional to the interests of African socie':' tíes, micro.,Jependency upon other parts of the Third World has at times servea liber,ating fundi011s for Afrka~ The, micro.depen¿ency was at times a fO'rm of solidarity however asymmetrical. And yet the question couId still be raise¿ as to whether Afric,ans needed to be followers so oiten even in the politics, of the Third W'Orl¿. The three forms 'Of solídarity in the twentieth century have been, first, the Afro.Asían movement; secondly, the politics of Afro~Arab alignments; and more recent.Iy the emergence of Af:ro·Latin cQ'llabo. ration, involving special ateas of contact between AfrÍca and Latín A.merica. , In addition to these three forms of soIi¿arity implicit in Afro~ Asianism, Afro,.Arabism and Afro.Latinism, there is' the broadei: Thi'I'd World ro.ovement as a whole, including its latest plattormof struggle for ,a New lnternational ,Economk Order. ' , As between the oIder alignment of Afro.Asianism and the new colla. boration of Afro.Latinism, there has been a shift in favor ol' the ne~' in matters concerned with liberation. The mle 'Of Cuba as an Afro– Latln country 15 particularIy cruda:l with regard. to his shift.'