If your browser doesn't automatically take you to The Cody Blog within a few seconds, please click here.
The Cody Blog: Annan Continues to Push for Poverty and Starvation

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Annan Continues to Push for Poverty and Starvation

We really do have to fight the UN to stop hunger. Through their central destruction of any self-sustaining capitalistic enterprises, including, say, farming, plumbing, food distribution, etc etc -- the UN and its many bureaucratic/crony agencies are undermining the prosperity that would otherwise flourish in places like, say, Zinder, Niger.

Africa cannot grow or be free on empty stomach
By Kofi Annan

Some sample quotes from the article (and I can't pass up the lede either, which somehow is supposed to make us feel like this bureaucrat who's pocketed millions of dollars while "serving the public" is really out there to help these people):

"With a look I will never forget, she pleaded with the world to respond to her cry for help, not just today but in the months and years ahead."

Early on in his rambling, he underscores how helpless the UN is, though he's wrong that there's no silver bullet:

"We must address the problem of food security at its earliest stages, before suffering escalates. There is no silver bullet but there is much we can do."

There is a silver bullet. And it's called property rights. And capitalism. Fight for this, and fight against the destruction and death of the UN bureaucracies.

But, oh no, here's this "leader's" solution:

"First, better early warning analysis."

Whatever the hell that is. Most all of Africa is poverty-stricken and full of misery and death. Constantly. What warning?! It's been like this for my whole lifetime!

"Second, enough advance funding to allow governments, the UN and non-governmental organisations to take adequate preparatory measures and deploy personnel with greater speed."

Yeah, that's the ticket. Those crony UN and NGO and goverments need more power -- not less. I mean, clearly their track record speaks for itself, right? Sure. Millions needlessly die in Africa every year -- despite trillions in "aid" which flows into these bureaucratic and most often corrupt entities.

"Third, greater emphasis on prevention. Debt relief, increased aid and measures to make the international and regional trade systems more favourable to the poor can all help encourage local agricultural production."

Debt relief and increased aid? How in the hell does more debt relief and increased aid encourage local agricultural production. Property rights and capitalism encourage local production. Flooding a market and thereby undercutting any self-sustaining capitalist has the exact opposite effect. FLIP IT!!

"Fourth, a build-up of the region’s existing strengths and structures."

Uh, yeah. And the only way to do that is to allow the people who live there to thrive.

"Fifth, we must look in the mirror instead of pointing fingers."

Well, 1 out of 5 ain't bad, I guess.

For the sake of all the world's people -- let's stop these vicious cycles.

posted by Cody Willard at 8/30/2005 06:28:00 AM

8 Comments:

Blogger BelowTheCrowd said...

This is so simple, it's ridiculous.

Let the people who are living on the land actually own the land and make good use of it. They did so for centuries before governments decided to manage things for them, and they'll do just fine if the kleptocratic governments and bureaucracies are removed.

True, it might be painful for a generation that has gotten used to not thinking for itself, but somehow, people usually come back.

And I'll disagree with your opinion on Annan's fifth point. Read the whole thing: "Fifth, we must look in the mirror instead of pointing fingers." [Alright as far as that goes, but he continues] "All the relevant actors – governments in the region, donors, international financial institutions and aid groups – share responsibility for the crisis. Each of us, in our own way, was too slow to understand what was happening, get people in place and come up with the necessary resources."

Again, he's taking the position that the problem is that the various bureuacracies were too slow to act and didn't do enough. He doesn't even mention the actual PEOPLE who are being hurt by this travesty and what they might do for themselves if they were just allowed to.

Yes, the bureaucracies need to look in the mirror, but not in the way Annan wants them to, as a bureuacrat trying to figure out how not to fuck up again next time. Instead they need to look in the mirror and realize, as a far greater leader than Annan once said, that "government is
not the solution to our problem; government IS the problem."

8/29/2005 07:41:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.bettybowers.com/nl_082705.html

8/29/2005 08:58:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cody, once again you're right on target. Centuries of colonialism and decades of total trashy governments have left this entire continent (well almost the entire continent) as a hell hole. You don't mention tribal factions, but there cnnot be effective governement until the tribal nature of African people is dissolved. one way to do that is to create a ntional government that actually allows the freedoms we love to prosper there:
property rights
speech
assembly
available capital
reward the great idea

anyway, keep on slinging.

AP

8/29/2005 11:02:00 PM  
Blogger BelowTheCrowd said...

A tribal situation, in which land was controlled somewhat locally by a tribal or clan leadership would be an improvement over the central planning imposed by most African leaders and the international bureaucrats who support them.

P.J. O'Rourke wrote this over 10 years ago, in response to the "USA for Africa" effort:

"The African relief fad serves to distract attention from the real issues. There is famine in Ethiopia, Chad, Sudan and areas of Mozambique. All these countries are involved in pointless civil wars. There are pockets of famine in Mauritania, Niger and Mali -- the result of desertification caused mostly by idiot agricultural policies. African famine is not a visitation of fate. It is largely man-made and the men who made it are largely Africans.

"Enormous irrigation projects have been put onto lands that cannot support them and into cultures that cannot use them. Feeble-witted nationalism puts borders in the way of nomadic peoples who used to pick up and move when things got dry. Rural poverty drives populations to African cities where governments keep food prices artificially low, thus increasing rural poverty. Bumbling and corrupt central planning stymies farm production. And the hideous regimes use hunger as a weapon to supress rebellion. People are not just starving. They are being starved."

Not much has changed since then.

-btc

8/30/2005 02:54:00 AM  
Blogger Cody Willard said...

That is some funny stuff from Ms. Bowers, Anon. I'd like to see more Democrat bashing from her though, to balance her great Republican bashing.

I can't agree with tribal governments, though they would be 'better' than the NGOs and UN -- without a doubt. But tribes have racism, familiar, and crony aspects to them, and I'm not down with that stuff.

8/30/2005 10:58:00 AM  
Blogger Alcuin Bramerton said...

Obituary
Hank Texasburger III

Part of him
Was paralysed
From the waist down,
And part of him
Was paralysed
From the waist up.

But that did not prevent him
From chairing an important
Senate committee.

And he led a remarkably rich
Internal life.

He could identify the reason why
The military-industrial complex
Needed hamburgers
Financed by the illicit drugs trade
In Israel,
To drop unnecessary bombs
On Iraq.

And he knew the difference between
Donald Christ and Jesus Duck.

He was a truly great American.

8/30/2005 11:29:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

CBS News counters bloggers with 'Nonbudsman'
After a controversial run-in with bloggers last year that helped sink "60 Minutes Wednesday," CBS has hired a "nonbudsman" to write a blog that will go behind the scenes at the news division.
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I have a how to start an internet business site. It pretty much covers how to start an internet business related stuff.

Come and check it out if you get time :-)

8/30/2005 11:54:00 AM  
Blogger BelowTheCrowd said...

Cody,

I'm not big on tribal governments either, but the mostly-socialist national governments that replaced local tribes, clans, whatever were a step in the wrong direction. At least those smaller and more localized groups generally had incentives to do the right thing for their own people, which detached idiotic central planners do not.

Democracy as we know it NEVER has flourished in a place that did not have a middle class first, and the key to that, as you've often noted, is property rights and commercial freedom.

Unfortunately, when the UN does try to do something, they usually try to do it by "establishing democracy." Another flip it. Democracy is the outcome, not the root cause. Sow the right economic seeds and protect them and democracy will inevitably come about. The tough thing for many of us to accept is that in the absence of a frontier for people to escape to, it can be very difficult to establish property rights and market solutions in places that don't already have them. The kleptocrats in power have no incentive to do this, and the attempts to start with elections usually fail. This is an evolution that took hundreds of years in the western world, and has not even been started in much of Africa, where there is limited history of a merchant culture.

-btc

8/30/2005 01:21:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home