Essay On President Truman

Introduction
In this essay, I will analyse the speech by US President Truman and discuss the arguments put forward by different scholars Escobar (1995), Edward Said (1993), Abu-Lughod (2002), Santos et al. (2007) and Sawicki (1991) regarding how power relations play a role in promoting or hindering development.

Truman described his 1949 speech as a “fair deal” for the entire world towards attaining development (Escobar 1995:3). In his speech, he declared the intention of the Western world to embark on a determined path of industrialisation for “underdeveloped” countries. Here his plans for the widespread adoption of modern education and cultural values ignored the reality that the concept can only be embraced by those in power (Escobar 1995:3).

For example, in the case of African Americans in USA, the development of women’s study programs within universities has been for “excluded or marginalized groups like African Americans in attempt to give a voice to women and minorities, critiques on the hegemonic role of western science (Santos et al 2007: xxii)”. Therefore, the concept of multiculturalism in allowing for disunity and division further enhance Western hegemony and

The discursive creation of the Orient comes about through power, domination and hegemony. He argues about “the Oriental woman being one who never gets to speak of themselves as a woman but the men write about their history (Said 1993:133)”. To this “orientalism is seen as a sign of European Atlantic power over the orient (Said 1993:133)” which according to my analysis underpins the western development context.

In Gramsci’s argument that ‘civil society is made of voluntary affiliations like schools, families and unions who play a role of direct domination in political society,’ notably, some cultural practices also dominate over others and become more influential than they are. This is a justification that “the idea of European identity being more superior to that of the rest of the world (European superiority over oriental backwardness) (Said 1993:134)”. However, it is important to note that in today’s world the need to have civil society to encounter development even in institutions is very powerful, and yet when we talk about civil society we talk about NGOs that are funded by western