Nhien Le LBST 2102 Robert Arnold 3/28/2012 Microtheme Essay Credit is a very big theme in the book, the

whole plot itself centers on Dramaan Drameh and his previous life with Linguere Ramatou. They had an affair thirty years ago, and she shows up again to smite him off the face of the planet. The towns people become reliant upon her very much like the Finnish peoples reliance upon Nokia; this is called economic dependency. The town became accustomed to western appliances and Ramatous credit; it is unhealthy for one side to control economic status in a financial relationship, the creditor or main powerful money maker gains all the power and can influence political and social circumstances. In some cases transnational corporations are richer than whole countries, for example, the GDP of Poland totals less than the sales of Wal-Mart. Djibril Diop Mambety is critical of the World Bank; he believes that they are out to only benefit themselves and not the people that they are giving money to. The African village members killed Dramaan Drameh and cleaned up their economy; it was an act of greed, something that Mambety believes his fellow Africans have succumbed to due to the World Banks money; they kill each other for the World Banks money. Linguere Ramatou represents the World Bank; even in the movie it is said that she is richer than the World Bank. She causes the greed that killed Dramaan Drameh, the friends of Dramaan Drameh killed him over monetary

concerns. In the movie there is a scene where Ramatou brings in a carnival of sorts, it showcases her wealth and the gullible Africans that bought everything on credit were foolishly going to rely on her for economic and financial needs. Mambetys criticism is a little bit over the top, if not for the World Bank, global companies and well off countries investing in and helping poorer countries, those poorer countries would probably not have an opportunity to survive, recover or grow. At the same time sometimes as the saying goes, you have to stand on your own two feet; there needs to be a balance between dependency on investors, banks, companies, etc. A country that is poor stands a better chance of growing if they are able to export or gain revenue of their own without depending on anyone else. The side that Mambety has taken is admirable; but the message he wants to send could be misconstrued as righteous, indignant and whiny since all the negatives are brought to the forefront; while the positives are hardly shown and are mocked.