Gunder Frank Contributions to Public Discussions
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 12:50:29 -0500
From: John Coatsworth
To: andres_velasco@ksg.harvard.edu, jeffrey_williamson@harvard.edu Cc: franka@fiu.edu
Subject: Fwd: Dependency Theory by Andres Velasco in Foreign Policy
Dear Andres and Jeff:
Gunder Frank has asked me to forward this email challenge.
Happy holidays to all!
John
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:32:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Andre Gunder Frank
To: coatswor@fas.harvard.edu
cc: velasco@fas.harvard.edu, jwilliamso@fas.harvard.edu, "O'Brien,P"
Subject: Dependency Theory by Andres Velasco in Foreign Policy:
John: Please forward since i made the other two e-dresses up
Somebody out of the kindness of his/her heart [you AV?] sent me an issue of FP with a
series of articles on WHATEVER HAPPENED TO? One by James Fallows on the
military-industrial complex reads like it is alive and kicking. Not so the one on
dependency thoery, which features Fernando Henrique and me. Well, whether dependence is
alive and kicking or not and policy with regard thereto, which are not the same, may give
rise to differences of opinion, as seems to be the case bwetween AV and me, in my case
because I am evidence driven, and the evidence is overwhelmingly against him. Not that the
reader might get such an impression from what AV writes, which when it refers to evidence
at all, the evidence he brings is not about what dependence theory in any of its versions
ever claimed. In plain English, it's called a straw man. Rara vez he leido algo mas
tergevisado, y si no fuera por ignorancia pura y simple - algunos errores simples de hecho
tiene - tendria que ser por mal-intencionado, hacia lo cual tambien tiende el lenguage
escogido. In addition to misguiding the innocent reader, that procedure also protects the
author from any simple retort; since it would have to take the form of "I am not
married" to the question "have you stopped beating your wife?" Despite all
these built in advantages for AV, all that is excepting the evidence, I would be ready to
meet him in an open forum at Harvard, eg. at the Lat Am outfit, to set the record
straight. Since AV knows of my present whereabouts down the street, which he mentions for
I know not what reason that might be pertinent to an argument made 35 years ago, he could
have avoided some of his errors by simply checking with me. Instead he appeals to the
authority of Jeff Williamson, who on related matters happens to be in error as well -
albeit at least honestly so - as I hope I have demonsrtated in a published review article
of his latest book with Kevin O'Rourke who readily admitted that an index that they use to
indicate rhe existence or not of a global market is, as I pointed out to them, totally
inadequate for the purpose to which they seek to put it. I at least had the curtesy of
sending them drafts of what I had written about their work, and Kevin had the curtesy of
speedily answering nd to the point. Anyway, here I am.
Cheers
gunder frank
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