Good news to end my Thursday
Friday morning's Telegraph contains a story that brightened my day. Entitled "Speech by Mugabe 'proves he is losing his mind'", it informs that:
President Robert Mugabe was accused yesterday of displaying "senile dementia" when he boasted to Zimbabwe's parliament that "great strides" were being taken towards "economic recovery".
Absolutist that I sometimes am, the next paragraph talks about a slightly older issue (last week) that, to me, smacks of advanced syphilitic insanity on the old bastard's part:
The president hailed the march of progress in a capital where bulldozers have demolished thriving factories and township shacks alike, throwing tens of thousands on to the streets.
At the risk of (again) being accused of simplistic exaggeration, I think that half of what's wrong with the entire African continent would be resolved with the ascension of the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai or, frankly, anyone outside ZANU-PF, to the presidency of the unfortunate country of Zimbabwe.
And when I've recently had occasion to rail, off-line, at the facile pleadings of Hollywood nobility for the US to belly up to the bar and double down on its African aid, most of my objection was that so much aid already has gone toward propping up tinhorn shitheads like Mugabe that Africa is almost better off without further such help.
If he goes 'round the bend, however, my railing will be reduced by a quarter. And if one of his army colonels speeds it up on behalf of his countrymen, and doesn't simply take over in his stead, well, I'd reduce my railing by fully half.
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Mugabe seems to be selling
Mugabe seems to be selling his country to China.
Patton, that's the big
Patton, that's the big problem with a lot of foriegn aid. By mitigating the worst affects of a country's farcical economic and politcal policy, it subsidizes and encourages bad bahavior.
Aside from purely humanitarian aid (medical, disaster relief, etc.) no aid should be given without serious strings attached - like reform of economic policy, establishing sound commercial law and most important, establishing firm pricate property rights. If they don't like the strings, they don't have to take the money.
You don't fix a broken bucket by pouring water in it.
B,
B,
You must be one of those mean-spirited Republicans.
How ELSE will we ever be able to teach the world to sing in perfect har-mo-nee, reveling in Utopian bliss, unless Americans pay for it?
GL, I know you're joking; but
GL, I know *you're* joking; but in general that is so irritating. Why am I (or other Republicans, conservatives, satan-worshippers) mean spiritied for advocating policies that might actually heal the wound instead of slapping a store-brand 1" adhesive bandage strip on it?
It's not like the old phrase, "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for life" became suddenly invalidated once the international community figured it could extort my taxpayer money. It's in our interests to ensure that the money we spend is used at least moderately well, just as it's wise to use its dispersing as leverage to encourage the kinds of reforms that actually make countries wealthy.
Over the last sixty years, three stark examples of the contrast between good economic policy and bad economic policy: East/West Germany, North/South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan/Mainland China. In each case, the people on both sides were the same. In the last two cases, the side that ended up destitute had all the resources, industry and what not when the experiment began. Each of these cultures is different, but the results were the same.
If we could convince say, Zimbabwe, to get ris of Mugabe, institute sound commercial laws, stable property rights, and the rule of law, then barring catastrophe they would in a few decades be rich. The first 'African Tiger.' Of course, most of those countries are so effed up that there is little if any chance that they would do something so sensible. But it still makes sense for us to encourage it.
But B, what does any of that
But B, what does any of that analysis have to do with feelings?
GL, I feel that I demonstrate
GL, I feel that I demonstrate more care and authentic goodwishes for benighted third-worlders, victims of oppression and West Virginians by holding these views than any limousine liberal does by thinking that watching live aid and saying he cares actually means squat.