by Amy Chua
whites in
Lebanese
in Latin America
in West Africa
Lebanon
Levant, the. See also Middle Eastern world
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Majorities. See Indigenous majorities
Majority rule, democracy as more than. See also Democracy; Universal suffrage
Malaysia
Mantuanos
Marcos regime in Philippines. See also Philippines
Market-dominant minorities
addressing causes of market dominance
in Africa (see Africa)
Americans as global (see Americans as global market-dominant minority)
Ashkenazi Jews as, in Israel
backlash against (see Backlash against market-dominant minorities)
Chinese in Southeast Asia (see Southeast Asia)
colonialism and
concepts of democracy by
countries without
globalization and
Jews as, in Middle Eastern world (see also Middle Eastern world)
Jews in post-Communist Russia (see Russia, post-Communist)
as leaders against ethnonationalism
objectionable practices by
political rule by
in U.S. inner cities
voluntary generosity by
wealth disparities and (see also Wealth disparities)
in Western world (see Free market democracy, Western)
whites in Latin America (see Latin America)
Markets
backlash against (see Backlash against markets)
capitalism and free (see also Laissez-faire capitalism)
defined
democracy vs.
globalization and
stakeholding and spreading benefits of
wealth and
Mashriq. See also Middle Eastern world
Mestizos
Mexico
Microsoft
Middle Eastern world
absence of market-dominant minorities in Arab countries
Arab ethnonationalism against Israeli Jews in
Arab-Israeli conflict in
Ashkenazi Jews as market-dominant minority in Israel
future of free market democracy in
intermarriage in
Israeli Jews as market-dominant minority in
reasons for Israeli economic dominance in
Milosevic, Slobodan
Minorities. See Market-dominant minorities
Mixing blood. See Assimilation
Moi, Daniel Arap
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Mugabe, Robert
Muslims
Myanmar. See Burma
Namibia
Nationalizations. See also Backlash against markets
Nazi Holocaust
New Economic Policy (NEP)
New York City
New Zealand
Nigeria
Nonentrepreneurial white dominance in Latin America
North Africa. See also Middle Eastern world
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Pakistan
Palestinians
Panama
Pardos
Peru
Philanthropy by market-dominant minorities
Philippines. See also Southeast Asia
Chinese-friendly Marcos dictatorship in
Chinese in
ethnic violence in
murder of author’s aunt in
titling programs in
Pigmentocracy
Plantations
Poland
Political consequences of globalization. See also Assimilation; Backlash against democracy; Backlash against market-dominant minorities; Backlash against markets
Poll taxes
Portuguese
Potanin, Vladimir
Poverty. See also Wealth disparities
disenfranchisement of poor in Western world
globalization and increased
globalization and reduced
racism and, in United States
in South Africa
Pribumi
Private property. See also Property rights
democracy as protection of, for minorities
disenfranchisement and
markets and
nationalizations and
Privatization
Property rights. See also Private property
for market-dominant minorities
for poor
Putin, Vladimir
Qatar
Quebec
Quechua
Quispe, Felipe (also known as Mallku)
Racism in United States
Redistribution
Redistricting
Religion
Rhodesia. See Zimbabwe
Romania
Rule of law
Rumsfeld, Donald
Russia, post-Communist
anti-Semitism and nationalization in
crony capitalism in
cultural identity in
emigration of Jews from
ethnic resentment against Jews in,
history of Jews in
Jewish market dominance in
non-Jewish oligarch
philanthropy in
rise of Jewish oligarchs in
Russians as regional minority
Rwanda
ethnic identity in
genocide in
intermarriage in
minority rule in
Tutsi dominance in
Saudi Arabia
Scapegoating
September 11, 2001. See World Trade Center attack
Serbians
Shia Muslims
Sierra Leone
backlash against democracy in
Lebanese in
Singapore
Slim, Carlos
SLORC
Slovenes
Socialism. See Communism
South Africa
Southeast Asia. See also Philippines
benefits of globalization in
Chinese-friendly dictatorships in Indonesia and the Philippines
Chinese takeover of Burma
ethnic confiscations in Indonesia
ethnic resentment against Chinese
ethnic violence in Burma against Indians
ethnic violence in Indonesia against Chinese
forced assimilation of Chinese in Thailand
globalization and explosion of Chinese wealth
history of Chinese market dominance
indigenous bean curd business vs. Chinese chicken feed business
Latin America vs.
objectionable practices in
Singapore vs. Indonesia
Southern Africa
Soviet Union. See Russia, post-Communist
Spanish Conquest
Sports
Sri Lanka
Stakeholding
Stevens, Siaka
Sudan
Suffrage. See Universal suffrage
Suharto regime
Sunni Muslims
Susu
Sweden
Symbols
Syria
Taiwan
Tamils
Tanzania
Tax-and-transfer programs
Teak
Thailand
Titling programs
Tofu business
Togo
Trade liberalization
Tunisia
Turkey
Tutsis
Uganda
United Kingdom. See England; British
United Nations
United States. See also Americans as global market-dominant minority
absence of market-dominant minorities in
affirmative action in
American Dream
disenfranchisement of blacks in southern
foreign
aid
free market democracy in (see Free market democracy, Western)
Iraq
Koreans in inner cities
Microsoft and
Middle Eastern policy
philanthropy
racism in
role of, in globalization
whites as future minority in
World Trade Center attack (see World Trade Center attack)
Universal suffrage. See also Disenfranchisement
in Bolivia
free market democracy and
in Weimar Germany
in Western world
Upward mobility
Uruguay
Vajiravudh, King
Venezuela
Vietnam
Violence. See Backlash against market-dominant minorities; Ethnic violence
Wealth disparities. See also Poverty
awareness of
globalization and
in United States
in Western world
in Yugoslavia
Weimar Germany, Holocaust in
Welfare state
West Africa
Western Europe
Western world. See Free market democracy, Western
Whites
in Latin America (see Latin America)
in Southern Africa
in United States
World Bank
World Trade Center attack
as anti-Americanism
developing world reaction to
Western world reaction to
World Trade Organization
Yeltsin, Boris
Youth, Middle Eastern
Yugoslavia, former
Zambia
Zimbabwe
backlash against markets in
ethnic identity in
whites in
AMY CHUA
WORLD ON FIRE
Amy Chua is a professor at Yale Law School. She lectures frequently on the effects of globalization to government, business, and academic groups around the world. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Acclaim for Amy Chua’s
WORLD ON FIRE
This hard-hitting book should be read by everyone who still imagines that free markets can solve all the world’s ills. Chua’s work is provocative, creative, and important; it turns conventional wisdom on its head, and no one interested in globalization can afford to ignore it.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Provocative. . . . Shocking. . . . It should make Americans think twice about exporting their political culture wholesale without a thought of who dislikes whom.”
—The Seattle Times
[World on Fire] makes for compelling reading and sounds a sobering warning that should be heeded by all supporters and critics of globalization.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A profound book, written in plain English, and challenging the very foundations of some glib—and dangerous—assumptions behind American foreign policy. This book should be read in the highest circles of decision-making, as well as by all those who like to consider themselves thinking people.
—Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution, and author of
Ethnic America, Race and Culture, and Migrations and Cultures
A brilliant, groundbreaking assault on the prevailing wisdom that the American political and economic model is a one-stop solution to the world’s woes.”
—Elle
Grim and thoughtful. . . . A clear-headed incisive diagnosis of the many ethnic ills of the globalizing era.”
—Mother Jones
Clear and persuasive. . . . Chua is a careful, precise writer.”
—Salon
Chua’s book is a lucid, powerfully argued, and important contribution to the debate over the forces and factors shaping the twenty-first-century world.”
—Strobe Talbott, president, The Brookings Institution, and coeditor of
The Age of Terror: America and the World After September 11
A cogent analysis . . . convincingly reason[ed].”
—Boston Herald
Chua offers a fundamentally new perspective on how to help sustain globalization by spreading its benefits while curbing its most destructive aspects. . . . Compelling.”
—The Tampa Tribune
Remarkably illuminating. . . . I cannot think of another work over the past couple of decades that reveals more about the disturbing persistence internationally of racial and ethnic conflicts.”
—Randall Kennedy, author of Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Drawing on examples from Burma to Bolivia, Chua paints a nuanced picture of ethnic and national fault lines. . . . [She] fleshes out the idea that globalization is not a magical elixir for developing nations.”
—Newsweek
A barrage of examples supports Chua’s thesis, each described with careful consideration of the different circumstances of different nations. . . . [T]old with a dramatic flair.”
—The Weekly Standard
The greatest tribute to any book is the conviction upon closing it that the senseless finally makes sense. That’s the feeling left by Amy Chua’s World on Fire.”
—The Washington Post
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, JANUARY 2004
Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Amy Chua
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in slightly different form in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2003.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Excerpts from Another Day of Life copyright © 1987, 1976 by Ryszard Kapu´sci´nski; English translation copyright © 1987 by Harcourt, Inc., reprinted by permission of the publisher.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Doubleday edition as follows:
Chua, Amy.
World on fire: how exporting free market democracy breeds ethnic hatred and global instability /
Amy Chua.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. International economic relations.
2. Globalization.
3. Ethnic conflict.
HF1359 .C524 2003
303.6—21
2002067676
Anchor eISBN: 1-4000-7637-4
www.anchorbooks.com
v1.0
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*Members of the majority ethnic group in Burma are called Bamahs (in the spoken language) or Myanmahs (in the written language). The newly independent state that emerged from the end of British colonial rule in 1948 was called the Union of Burma. In 1989, SLORC changed the country’s name to Myanmar. (It also changed the names of various cities: Rangoon, for example, is now called Yangon.) In deference to the democratic opposition party, which has refused to acquiesce in the name change, the United States government currently refers to the country as Burma, and I do the same. Unless otherwise indicated, “Burman” refers to the majority ethnic group, who comprise about two-thirds of the population, while “Burmese” refers to any citizen of the country.
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**In 1997, SLORC was purged of many members, reorganized, and renamed the State Peace and Development Council. But most Burmese continue to call the government SLORC.
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*Unlike in Argentina, Chile, and parts of the United States, no mass slaughter of the indigenous population ever took place in Bolivia. On the contrary, powerful Amerindian uprisings in the 1780s and 1890s have helped shape the country’s history. The revolution of 1952 led to universal suffrage as well as large-scale expropriation of land from the Spanish elite and redistribution to Amerindians. After the 1952 revolu
tion, however, as part of an effort to unify the country, explicitly “ethnic” identity was downplayed, and instead the idea that “everyone is a mestizo” emphasized.
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*For the remainder of this chapter I will use the term “whites” without quotation marks, but it should be understood that this term is not only highly artificial, but may have a somewhat different meaning in Latin American usage than it has in the United States.
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*Malaysia and Indonesia differ in important respects: Malaysia has a much smaller absolute population than Indonesia; the Chinese community in Malaysia comprises a much larger percentage of the total population (roughly 30 percent) than that in Indonesia (roughly 3 percent); and Malaysia also has a large Indian community.
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