In an eloquent, no-holds-barred indictment of globalization, Jeter, former Washington Post
bureau chief for southern Africa, weaves the narratives of prostitutes in Buenos Aires and cab drivers in Brazil, tomato sellers in Zambia and an upwardly mobile black woman in Chicago into an analysis of how globalization and free trade have transformed many of the world’s manufacturing hubs into “global flea markets.” There are true moments of heartbreak, particularly when Jeter shows how globalization has slowed progress in postapartheid South Africa and mingles with racism in Brazil, where employers and the state target poor black women for forced sterilization for the putative sake of a larger work force. “The ghetto is in its ascendancy,” he writes, challenging free trade orthodoxy and its ability to reduce poverty with examples of nations like Chile which have rethought their attitudes toward globalization and are moving toward new strength and independence. Jeter’s stinging criticisms are a catalyst for a truthful and painful discussion about who a “global economy” helps and who it destroys. (May)
