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Africa Archive

Sunday

4

October 2009

0

COMMENTS

Pope Mouths Off Again

Written by , Posted in Free Markets

Not for the first time, Pope Benedict has proven, when it comes to economics, the old adage that it’s better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

The Pope compared the world’s poorest continent, which he visited earlier this year, to a spiritual “lung” at risk of being attacked by what he called the viruses of materialism and religious fundamentalism, as he opened a synod of Roman Catholic bishops on Africa.

“There is absolutely no doubt that the so-called ‘First’ World has exported up to now and continues to export its spiritual toxic waste that contaminates the peoples of other continents, particularly those of Africa,” he said.

“In this sense colonialism, which is over at a political level, has never really entirely come to an end.”

Lamenting the exploitation of Africa’s vast resources, the Pope also spoke out against religious fundamentalism, which he said was mixed with political and economic interests.

The “virus of materialism” the Pope refers to is exactly what Africa lacks.  It has allowed the “First World” to experience a level of peace and prosperity unheard of in human history.  We know what works at lifting people out of poverty, but the Pope’s backward economic views would condemn Africa to continuing and unnecessary suffering.

Sunday

28

June 2009

0

COMMENTS

Investment Is Not Colonialism

Written by , Posted in Foreign Affairs & Policy, Free Markets

A recent article from the Telegraph on the growing trend of first-world nations purchasing farmland in third-world African countries contained the following short description:

India, once the colonial jewel of Britain’s empire, has been accused of ‘neo-colonialism’ in Africa where its business people have joined a race with China, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to buy up agricultural estates and take advantage of cheap labour.

The objective is to paint the investment in a negative light by comparing it to colonalism and accusing them of “[taking] advantage” of local labor.

The colonialism comparison is just absurd, as there is nothing remotely similar between the forced political and cultural subjugation of a people, and the voluntary exchange of goods (land) or services (labor) for money.  As to whether anyone is being taken advantage of, one need only ask the simple question of whether or not Africans would be better off without the jobs created by foreign investment in food production.  To ask the question is to answer it.  Of course they wouldn’t be.  Cheap labor is only available because the alternatives are worse.

Thursday

21

May 2009

0

COMMENTS

To The Moon!

Written by , Posted in Foreign Affairs & Policy

Africans must travel to the moon: Uganda president

Africans must travel to the moon to investigate what developed nations have been doing in outer space, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Saturday.

“The Americans have gone to the moon. And the Russians. The Chinese and Indians will go there soon. Africans are the only ones who are stuck here,” Museveni said, addressing a meeting of the Uganda Law Society in Entebbe.

“We must also go there and say: ‘What are you people doing up here?’.”

Museveni urged the assembly of Uganda’s top lawyers to support East African integration, arguing that one of the region’s goals should be to develop a space programme.

“Uganda alone cannot go to the moon. We are too small. But East Africa united can. That is what East African integration is all about,” he said. “Then we can say to the Americans: ‘What are you doing here all alone?’.”

Africans would be better off if they joined us as citizens of free and prosperous societies.  Maybe they should conquer the establishment of functional democracy, peaceful government and the rule of law before they venture into space.

Friday

13

March 2009

0

COMMENTS

Geithner Takes Moral Hazard International

Written by , Posted in Economics & the Economy, Foreign Affairs & Policy

Not content with spending the US economy into oblivion, Secretary Geithner is imploring the rest of the world to also destroy themselves in the name of “stimulus.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner yesterday unveiled a sweeping plan that calls on the United States and other nations to offer billions more to bail out economies in crisis and prods a reluctant Europe to prop up the reeling world economy with more aggressive government spending.

But the campaign is triggering controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, some officials doubt the wisdom of falling deeply into debt to create jobs and halt the plunge in consumer demand, as the United States is doing. On Capitol Hill, members of Congress have grown wary of approving still more money.

Geithner said the administration will ask Congress to make $100 billion more available — nearly doubling the current U.S. commitment — to the International Monetary Fund to aid struggling nations. U.S. lawmakers said yesterday that they are already bracing for the administration to request hundreds of billions of dollars in more rescue funds for U.S. financial firms, and possibly a second massive economic stimulus package as well.

The IMF is pushing for more aid to Africa.  The problem is, aid to Africa has never worked.  But Geithener wasn’t done.

Geithner said he plans to press his counterparts from major economies to boost their fiscal stimulus and to sustain that spending for as long as the downturn lasts. “Forceful” actions by the world’s leading economies are needed because “the global recession is deepening,” Geithner said.

What was it Albert Einstein said about insanity? Oh, right:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If “the global recession is deepening” despite all the “forceful” big government plans so far put into action, it may be time to start committing those who call for ever more.

Einstein also had another saying relevant to our current mess:

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Tell that to the big government interventionists.