the cost of economic imperialism

One case of the hidden cost of economic development in the Philippines is the onslaught of white men’s disease such as chicken pox, cholera and dysentery, which the foreign invaders have brought from their land of origin during the time of colonization. This is most especially true to the Americans, whom Filipinos regard as the most economically influential colonists of the country, what with the multinational investments made by renowned U.S. companies like Coca-Cola, Philip Morris, Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and the like. These industries likewise wreak havoc to the environment by polluting the air with industrial exhaust, poisoning the waters with waste by-products, and depleting the land’s nutrients by dumping toxic trash. The country must be benefiting with the big taxes these corporations pay the government, but this benefit is far outweighed by the sanitary and ecological problems that went along with the arrival of the foreign investors. While there are damage control measures undertaken by those so-called agents of progress like becoming increasingly ecologically-conscious and spearheading environmental campaigns like sewage cleaning, the Philippines should not be forced-fed into assimilating transformations in most of its conventional lifestyle.