MEMO

Final Assessment WVES 222 2022

1 Question 1

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow:

In 2009 Bitcoin launched as the world’s largest and most well-known cryptocurrency. According to
Investopedia (2022) cryptocurrency is “a virtual currency designed to act as money and a form of payment
outside the control of any one person, group, or entity, and thus removing the need for third-party
involvement in financial transactions”. Therefore, Bitcoin is “created, distributed, traded, and stored using a
decentralized ledger system known as a blockchain” (Investopedia, 2022). This means that you are able to
purchase goods and services with Bitcoin through your cryptocurrency wallet from peer-to-peer with no
regulating body to oversee the transactions being made.

1.1. Identify and critically discuss how cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin prominently feature some of the
aspects of classical economic theory and specifically the work of Adam Smith. [10]
Identifiseer en bespreek krities hoe kripto-geldeenhede soos Bitcoin prominent sommige van die
aspekte van klassieke ekonomiese teorie en spesifiek die werk van Adam Smith bevat. [10]

MEMO:

Students should specifically refer to the theory of a ‘self-regulated market’ (1) and the ‘invisible hand’ (1)
that is guided by the concept of self-interest (1) and discuss how it is similar to cryptocurrency’s ethos of a
self-regulating (1) and de-centralized (1) currency. Their answers should specifically mention that
cryptocurrency is a form of payment without outside oversight (1) or control and that the currency is
decentralized (1) and therefore not overseen by any government (1) and therefore completely self-
sustaining and self-regulating (1). Therefore, cryptocurrency relies fully on participants to engage in the
market system through their self-interest (1).

EXAMPLE: Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are decentralized, have no oversight by third parties, and
are effectively untraceable. This makes cryptocurrency a perfect currency for criminal activity such as the
purchasing of illegal goods, drug laundering, money laundering, human trafficking, etc. Over recent years
cryptocurrencies are increasingly used for such criminal activities.

1.2 Critically discuss how Smith’s notion of sympathy could become an important part of limiting or
decreasing criminal activity through the use of cryptocurrency [5]

MEMO:

Students must refer and explain the concept of the impartial spectator (1) and how rampant self-interest is
regulated by sympathy for others (1). Students must specifically refer to examples or critical reflections on

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 the Bitcoin case study to discuss and explain Smith’s concepts.

EG: Criminal activity within cryptocurrency markets do not make use of Smith’s impartial spectator
(placing themselves in someone’s else’s; imagining other peoples pain, fears, or losses; do not imagine
the consequences of their action) (1) which means that they do not have sympathy (imagining how other
would react to their actions) (1) which would balance or regulate rampant self-interest (1)

2. Question 2

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow:

The River Between (of Ngugi) begins as follow:

The two ridges lay side by side. One was Kameno, the other was Makuyu. Between them was a valley. It
was called the valley of life. Behind Kameno and Makuyu were many more valleys and ridges, lying
without any discernible plan. They were like many sleeping lions which never woke. They just slept, the
big deep sleep of their Creator.
A river flowed through the valley of life. If there had been no bush and no forest trees covering the
slopes, you could have seen the river when you stood on top of either Kameno or Makuyu. Now you had
to come down. Even then you could not see the whole extent of the river as it gracefully, and without any
apparent haste, wound its way down the valley, like a snake. The river was called Honia, which meant
cure, or bring-back-to-life. Honia river never dried: it seemed to possess a strong will to live, scorning
droughts and weather changes. And it went on in the same way, never hurrying, never hesitating. People
saw this and were happy.
Honia was the soul of Kameno and Makuyu. It joined them. And men, cattle, wild beasts and trees, were
all united by this life-stream.
This opening has long fascinated scholars because of its privileging of geography, place, and their
mythological significance over characters as a narrative force. The novel starts slowly, almost
frustratingly so, building tension in its imagery of opposition, of the ridges Kameno and Makuyu—villages
that we come to learn have competing philosophies—as lions in extended slumber. What is so important
about Ngugi’s world is the suggestion that this tension predates colonialism. “It began long ago,” he
writes, and we are introduced not to a precolonial utopia, unsophisticated in its social dynamics, but to a
complex environment. Colonialism is not the start of history, nor will it be its end; it exacerbates existing
tensions.
By Uzondinma Iweala
From the Introduction to Ngugi’s novel
The River Between (originally written in 1965)

2.1. Ngugi uses to the metaphor the cultural bomb to refer to the destruction of culture and inferiority
caused by colonialism on the people of Kenia. Critically discuss the relevance of the quote from The
River Between in the cultural identity of the Kenyan people. [6]

MEMO:

Nature, land and rivers as geographical aspects that link (or unify) (1) people although they may

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 differ (1) and there may be tension (1).

People identify with the land (1) but the tensions can also be used to “police” each other due to
perceived inferiority of certain beliefs (1) and be manipulated by colonial powers (1). Colonialism
could intensify tensions refers to “sleeping lions” (1). Nature (eg. The river) healed and united the
people (1)

2.2. Explain why the cultural bomb is bad for the economy of a country. [4]

MEMO:

Conflict (1), disruption (1), violence (1), suspicion (1), exchange of cultural economic (1) and
cultural forms of economics - subsistence farming exchanged for wage labour (1)

3. Question 3
Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow:

In December 2019 Amazon’s faster shipping option for customers resulted in an additional $87bn of revenue
for Amazon and added $12.8 bn to Jeff Bezos’ $128.9 bn private fortune. However, these profits came a at
great cost to the workers at Amazon warehouses in New York. These workers delivered a petition in
November 2019 to management requesting an urgent improvement in working conditions in the New York
Amazon warehouse. The petition described unsafe working conditions where, for example, heavy and
improperly packaged goods caused significant and frequent injuries to the Amazon workers in the
warehouse. Another example described in the article explains that workers only have two 15-minute break
times in a 12hour shift and there were deductions on workers’ salaries if they did not comply with these break
hours. Furthermore, workers are dismissed on a daily basis for not meeting their target output. One worker
described their target output as having to pack 700 items per hour and many workers sustain injuries when
trying to meet these target outputs. Additionally, Amazon does not provide any health benefits to current or
former workers. Workers that have sustained significant injuries in the Amazon warehouses are unable to
work in the future due to these injuries, and cannot claim any health or medical treatment, or any financial
support from Amazon.

3.1. Identify the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the case study and provide a brief explanation for your
categorization. [4]

MEMO:

Factory workers (1) are the proletariat (they form part of the labor or working class) (1)

Jeff Bezos and Amazon shareholders are the bourgeoisie (1) (They are the owners of the means of
production) (1)

NB! Managers are not part of the bourgeoisie because they are not the owners of the means of
production.

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3.2. Critically discuss Marx’s concepts of alienation and exploitation within capitalism by referring to the case
study above. [6]

MEMO:

Students must show critical reflection of these concepts and apply the knowledge by referring to and using
examples from the case study above.

Exploitation: workers are exploited for their labor (1) without any financial support or benefit of medical
treatment (1). They have little job security and work in an unsafe environment (1).

Alienation: workers are alienated from their work as they are unable to enjoy the product of their labor (1).
They are further alienated from human interaction (1) and self-reflection due to the harsh working
conditions (1)

Students could refer to the petition as a form of organized resistance from workers to the bourgeoisie that
could result in a revolution (1). (bonus point)

4. Question 4

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow:

Xenophobic violence is endemic to South Africa and flares up in many cases during economic hardship and
unemployment across various communities. Foreigners are then perceived as benefitting from the economy
and taking the jobs of South African who are unemployed.

4.1. Critically discuss the phenomenon of xenophobic (fear of the stranger) violence during times ofeconomic
hardship in South Africa from the perspective of Mbembe’s commandment. [5]

MEMO:

 Commandment – authority, violence imposes from one group onto anther with the purpose to control
(2)

 Irony is that foreigners and unemployed people are both in a situation of dependence and vunerable
(1)

 Authority of unemployed South African is only in terms of citizenship that was obtained by many
other African nation (1)

 Control of bourgeoisie through capitalism part of problem of unemployment (1)

 Corruption and state capture part of the mechanism of control (1)

 Foreigners viewed as cheap labour and dependent by the elite (1)

4.2. Explain what Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness is. [5]

MEMO:

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 Black Consciousness is in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together (1) with
his brothers around the cause of their operation – the blackness of their skin (1) – and to operate as a
group in order to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude (1). It seeks to
demonstrate the lie that the black is an aberration from the ‘normal’ which is white (1). It is a manifestation
of a new realization that by seeking to run away from themselves and to emulate the white man, blacks
are insulting the intelligence of whoever created them black (1). Black Consciousness therefore, takes the
cognizance of the deliberateness of God’s plan in creating black people black (1). It seeks to infuse the
black community with a new-found pride (1) in themselves, their efforts, and their value systems, their
culture, their religion and their outlook to life (1).

4.3. Explain why an understanding of Black Consciousness is important for responsible business in South
Africa. [5]

MEMO:

History of racism and apartheid (1), Sensitivity in terms of communication (1), marketing (1), management
between races (1), cultivate respect (1), refrain from practices that may seem demeaning and/or racist (1),
cultivating self-respect, identity and dignity (1)

TOTAL/TOTAAL: 50
File reference: 8.1.7.2.2

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