The impenetrable barriers of protectionism and xenophobia are once again rising in Western waters driven by the new migration of hedge funds and private equities. Perhaps Rudyard Kipling was right, when he said "East is East and West is West and never shall the twain meet". Only this time, they are meeting through the global corridors of mergers and acquisitions.
The West has spent decades in expanding the concept of globalisation by extolling the virtues of free trade, liberalisation and breaking down protectionist barriers. But only recently the developing nations caught on to the benefits crooned by the West and are seeking to play the game on their turf.
Suddenly, the Western players are no longer happy to engage by their own rules. Their priorities are lying elsewhere; in nationalist interests and suspicion of foreign players whose war chest is perceived as tainted by petro dollars. In a bid to assuage fears about the new troupe, the Western players lay the trump card of nationalist interests which tether at the heart strings of the electorate .
We are currently in the throws of another social panic and mass hysteria stirred by conspiracy theories which have firmly gripped imaginations of Western leaders. Unsurprisingly such doubts have driven Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy to lobby other leading industrial nations to device new rules for market transparency and in the process build a case against hedge funds, particularly those emanating from the East - ultimately to prevent foreigners from holding a stake in their blue chip companies.
Hidden agendas
The West fears that geopolitical motives and hidden agendas will crawl into corporate boardrooms from the new portfolio of private equities, hedge funds and the highly suspicious sovereign funds.
This begs many questions: how did the market rules apply to the established players? Were they completely honest and played, only, for the benefit of each other? Also why the urgency to enact new rules? The crisis in confidence concerning established market rules makes the rest of us wonder in amazement about those who impose cultural superiority through the hollow claims of owing the moral capital and transparent practices.
One does not need to search, their memory banks far, for evidence of racism overtaking common sense. Remember the US fiasco with the Dubai Ports authority, the failed Doncaster deal, Auckland airport and now we are currently witnessing the melodrama played out by OMX, NASDAQ and Dubai Bourse .
The old colonial masters must awaken to the fact that the world is no longer willing to be shaped by their agendas and is in fact turning into a level playing field with new contestants who have imbibed capitalist doctrines and are willing to engage in the game.
Is it not time, to shed deep seated fears and confidently look forward to an exciting match?
Sawsan Fikree is a media researcher at Al Ain University.
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