So why is it one of the poorest?
That's a good question. The answer lies in the history of Mali's relationships with those countries now busy trying to save it from "terrorists."
As befits one of the poorest countries in the world, Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid. Aid inflow is in the range of one billion dollars a year, or about half the value of the gold shipped out of the country every year by foreign mining conglomerates.
Much of that aid is in the form of food support. Ironically, agricultural exports from Mali are an even larger slice of the economy than gold. Malians rely on food donations to eat, but use their land to grow cotton for the export market.
How that export market has fared in the face of US subsidies to American farmers is the focus of some interesting work that has been done by the Fairtrade Foundation.
Mali has also been the target for a variety of foreign firms looking to tie up fertile land for the production of biofuel crops. The Oakland Institute has published extensively on that topic.
The oil industry in Mali is in its embryonic stage. The four or five zones that show the most promise based on past exploration activity all happen to lie in the north of the country, where those Islamic radicals have been running wild for the past nine months.
The guiding principles of radical Islam are not necessarily incompatible with the guiding principles of the western capitalists whose "development" model has left Mali destitute and dependent. There are many examples around the world where capitalism has coexisted happily and profitably with fundamentalisms of various stripes.
What "saving Mali from terrorists" is all about is heading off China's development initiatives in the country.
Western military intervention in Mali has nothing to do with helping the people of Mali and everything to do with securing the country for continued exploitation by our rapacious corporations.
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