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It's bad governments - prior and/or current. I agree with this. But what should the developed countries do about fixing African governments? Anything? To go
by bokonist 17y ago
It's bad governments - prior and/or current.
I agree with this. But what should the developed countries do about fixing African governments? Anything?
To go off the anti-PC deep end in another direction I pose a different solution. The past fifty years of African history has been an unmitigated disaster. The entire continent has been plagued by war, famine, disease, awful governments, and economic stagnation or decline. The years before that - the colonial years - were generally peaceful and saw rising economic prosperity. We have model B which is awful. We have model A which worked reasonably well. The answer to me seems blindingly obvious: figure out a way to bring back colonialism.
- cwan 17y agoThe solution is multi fold. Solutions include immediately offering trade free of tariffs, to help countries stabilize following the collapse of their governments (there are a few good presentations on TED.com about this), and offer the expertise to create legal structures that enshrine property rights for all. We don't need nor would we want colonialism (or even the mercantilist approach France still practices to a certain degree). We can however provide good examples and support countries that attempt to make the transition. We can help make it as smooth and painfree as possible and ensure that the incentives exist to do so.
- yummyfajitas 17y agoI propose spending $2 billion/5 years to encourage better government. At the end of a 5 year period, we use some objective criteria to determine the best and worst African leader. The best gets a prize of $1 billion for his own personal enjoyment. The worst gets a prize of $1 billion for the personal enjoyment of whoever brings us his head.