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Abstract
This article focuses on the performance of the calypso song ‘VAT on You’, as a response to the introduction into Dominica of the value added tax (VAT). The article applies a set of concepts to frame and so enhance our understanding of the event in terms of global history. Both calypso and VAT have extended histories and this performance represents an unusual meeting of earlier and current forces of globalisation. The conclusion assesses the helpfulness of the framing concepts ‘longue durée,’ continuities, centring, class divisions and micro-resistance, and assesses the song’s contribution to such resistance
Acknowledgements
This article results from research on the broad theme of taxation and culture carried out in Mauritius and Dominica. The author expresses appreciation to the many Dominicans who were patient and interested enough to share their perspectives and materials with him, notably the Calypso musician, De Intruder; Randall Persaud and Jim Mittleman of American University, and Deborah Brautigam of Johns Hopkins University for helpful advice; and Sabina Rogers, Timothy Essam, Gayatry Murthy, Nathan Dieck, Chava Nerenburg, Sarah Custer and Lauren Berner for research assistance over many years.
Funding
The research for this paper was supported by an American University Sabbatical Research Grant.
Notes
1. Braudel, A History of Civilizations, 899. Braudel has been widely praised for his contributions. See, for example, Helleiner, “Braudelian Reflections on Economic Globalization,” 90–104; and Mittelman, various works. However, he does have his critics too. See Depelchin, “Braudel and African History,” 157–174.
2. Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce, 25.
3. Braudel, The Perspective of the World, 71.
4. Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce, 463–464.
5. Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce, 458.
6. Baker, Centring the Periphery, vii.
7. Trouillot, Peasants and Capital, 198–199.
8. Baker, Centring the Periphery, 13.
9. Baker, Centring the Periphery, 176.
10. Mittelman, “Making Globalization Work”; and Mittelman, “What is Critical Globalization Studies?,” 224.
11. Ganesh et al., “Transforming Resistance.”
12. Ayres and Bona, “Beyond Global Summitry,” 60.
13. Scott, Weapons of the Weak; and Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance.
14. Cohen, “Creolization and Cultural Globalization,” 370.
15. Worth and Kuhling, “Counter-hegemony, Anti-globalization,” 35.
16. Archer et al., “Hegemony/Counter-hegemony”; Mittelman, “What is Critical Globalization Studies?,” 223; Mittelman, “Globalization Debates,” 26; and Schmidt, “Whose Culture?,” 11.
17. Hall, “The Work of Representation.”
18. Honychurch, “Caribbean Cultural Contacts.”
19. Cohen, “Creolization and Cultural Globalization,” 382.
20. Worth and Kulling, “Counter-hegemony, Anti-globalization,” 35.
21. Mittelman, “Globalization Debates,” 225.
22. Mohan and Stokke, “Participatory Development and Empowerment,” 247, 260, 263.
23. Lee, “Motivations for Local Resistance.”
24. Hughes, “Poor People’s Politics in East Timor”; Hughes et al., “The Struggle versus the Song”; and Mohan and Stokke, “Participatory Development and Empowerment.”
25. Katz, Growing up Global; and Worth and Kuhling, “Counter-hegemony, Anti-globalization,” 40.
26. Sparke, “Political Geography – Political Geographies,” 423, 427–428.
27. Cumbers et al., “Class, Agency and Resistance.”
28. Katz, Growing up Global, 244–251.
29. IMF, “Cross-country Macroeconomic Statistics.”
30. Honychurch, The Dominica Story, 1995.
31. Ibid; Trouillot, Peasants and Capital; and Baker, Centring the Periphery.
32. Klack et al., “Inclusive Neoliberalism?,” 40.
33. Klack et al., “Inclusive Neoliberalism?,” 36; and Fridell, “Debt Politics,” 619–620.
34. Commonwealth of Dominica, Multiannual Support Strategy, 5.
35. IMF, Dominica: First and Fifth Review.
36. IMF, Dominica: First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Reviews.
37. IMF, Dominica: Sixth Review, 1, 3.
38. IMF, Dominica: Seventh Review, 6; and Eighth Review, 4.
39. Honychurch, The Dominica Story, 298–306.
40. Fridell, “Debt Politics.”
41. IMF, Dominica: Eighth Review.
42. Advisory Board, “Second Meeting,” 12.
43. World Bank, Migration and Remittances Factbook.
44. Fontaine, “Remittances.”
45. Klak, “Thirteen Theses on Globalization,” 8.
46. Bartlett, “Support the VAT.”
47. Ebril et al., The Modern VAT, 1, 4, 5.
48. Ebril et al., The Modern VAT, 1.
49. Fjeldstad and Moore, “Tax Reform and State Building,” 236.
50. Ebril et al., The Modern VAT, 1.
51. Ebril et al., The Modern VAT, 2, 3.
52. Heady, “Tax Policy in Developing Countries,” 5; and Tait, Value Added Tax, 214–218.
53. Fjeldstad and Moore, “Tax Reform and State Building,” 244; and Tait, Value Added Tax, 214.
54. Ebril et al., The Modern VAT, Chaps. 7–11; and Tait, Value Added Tax, Chaps. 2–7.
55. Rohler, Calypso and Society, 16–17.
56. Mahabir, Wit and Popular Music, 56.
57. Rohler, Calypso and Society, 73.
58. Crowley, “Toward a Definition of Calypso,” 63.
59. Mahabir, Wit and Popular Music, 59.
60. Rohler, “The Calypsonian as Artist.”
61. Rohler, Calypso and Society, 30–45.
62. Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 42.
63. Rohler, Calypso and Society, 447.
64. Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Value Added Tax, SRO 9 of 2006: Arrangements of Sections of Regulations.
65. Ibid; and Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Value Added Tax, Act 7, 2005.
66. Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, “Prime Minister’s Budget Addresses for the Fiscal Years 2005/2006; 2006/2007; 2009/2010; and 2014/2015.”
67. Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, “Prime Minister’s Budget Addresses for the Fiscal Years 2009/2010,” 34.
68. Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, “Prime Minister’s Budget Addresses for the Fiscal Year 2015/2016.”
69. Government of Commonwealth of Dominica, Ministry of Finance, Price Movements, 2006.
70. USAID, Impact of VAT.
71. Honychurch, The Dominica Story, 281–284.
72. Braudel, A History of Civilizations, 35.
73. Schmidt, “Whose Culture?,”103.