Fascinating and depressing in equal measure.
Why Poor Countries Are Poor
Tim Harford
Reason Magazine
March 2006 Print Edition
NOTE: If you're interested in the topic, David Landes' Wealth and Poverty of Nations is one of the best books I've ever read.
1 comment:
Very interesting read from possibly the world's best-known economist. He is actually a believer in (some, conditional) aid, but doesn't think world trade has a lot to offer poorer countries.
The End of Poverty
by Jeffrey Sachs
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Agreeing about trade, but despairing of aid, is this (where I think Sachs gets some reflected glory, as he was involved in the Polish currency stabilization referred to).
How to Help Poor Countries
Foreign Affairs
July/August 2005
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And finally this, at the other extreme of the optimism scale:
Let Africa Sink
Kim du Toit
May 26, 2002
...
I lived in Africa for over thirty years. Growing up there, I was infused with several African traits--traits which are not common in Western civilization. The almost-casual attitude towards death was one. (Another is a morbid fear of snakes.)
So because of my African background, I am seldom moved at the sight of death, unless it’s accidental, or it affects someone close to me. (Death which strikes at strangers, of course, is mostly ignored.) Of my circle of about eighteen or so friends with whom I grew up, and whom I would consider "close", only about ten survive today--and not one of the survivors is over the age of fifty. Two friends died from stepping on landmines while on Army duty in Namibia. Three died in horrific car accidents (and lest one thinks that this is not confined to Africa, one was caused by a kudu flying through a windshield and impaling the guy through the chest with its hoof--not your everyday traffic accident in, say, Florida). One was bitten by a snake, and died from heart failure. Another also died of heart failure, but he was a hopeless drunkard. Two were shot by muggers. The last went out on his surfboard one day and was never seen again (did I mention that sharks are plentiful off the African coasts and in the major rivers?). My situation is not uncommon in South Africa--and north of the Limpopo River (the border with Zimbabwe), I suspect that others would show worse statistics.
...
My favorite African story actually happened after I left the country. An American executive took a job over there, and on his very first day, the newspaper headlines read: "Three Headless Bodies Found".
The next day: "Three Heads Found".
The third day: "Heads Don’t Match Bodies".
...
[T]he only one response, and it’s a brutal one: accept that we are powerless to change Africa, and leave them to sink or swim, by themselves.
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