A brief submission from the Cautious Optimism Correspondent
for Economic Affairs and Other Egghead Stuff.
Even in the People's Republic of San Francisco capitalism
still exhibits flashes of entrepreneurial innovation. In this case technology
is partially perfuming over government guano—alerting the city to clean up the
odorous fruits of San Francisco's $400 million annual budget for the homeless.
"Similar in name to Snapchat, which allows users to
take photos and videos and share them with specific friends, Snapcrap’s display
plays off the visuals of the popular social media application. The icon has a
yellow background with a white poop emoji."
"Prepared messages that can be sent to the city along
with the photo range from succinct to humorous. 'Help! I can’t hold my breath much longer,' one note reads."
"Snapcrap had been downloaded nearly 1,000 times in less than
a week following its launch, Miller said."
3 MIN READ/2 MIN VIEW - The Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Economic Affairs and
Other Egghead Stuff concludes his series of quick read postcripts on the
problems with Africa's economic development or lack thereof.
(This is the third in a series of three short postscripts to September's detailed
interview with Dambisa Moyo expounding her critique of and alternative to the
failed seventy-year African aid model. To read the original article visit the
link at the end of this column.)
In contrast to U2’s Bono, who has reconsidered the African
aid model and embraced foreign investment and free market capitalism as the key
to solving the continent’s long term problems, Microsoft founder and former
Chairman and CEO Bill Gates has thrown billions of his personal fortune and
billions more Gates Foundation dollars into aid. When asked about Zambian
economist Dambisa Moyo’s book criticizing the African aid model he didn’t hold
back, accusing her of “promoting evil.”
Notice Gates’ rhetoric when asked if he thinks Moyo’s thesis
of ending aid and replacing it with capital investment is correct. His reply of
“Well, it depends on your value system” followed by the false dichotomy of
continuing the current aid regime or letting children die shows how quickly his
language of the businessman has transformed into that of politician.
Gates also counters Moyo’s position as an aid critic by
claiming “There aren’t many of them” and accuses her of wanting “children to
die” or not “eat enough so that their brains develop” before finally summing
her position up as “promoting evil.”
While it’s true that Gates’ work has undoubtedly saved the
lives of hundreds of thousands or even millions of children and should be
applauded, the hard truth is that once his personal fortune is exhausted new
generations of African children will be born right back into disease and
poverty if a longer-term solution fostering economic self-sufficiency isn’t
found. In this respect Gates’ own charitable work is no different from the
foreign aid that has flowed into Africa since World War II, only that more of
Gates' money has gone to Africans themselves instead of the bank accounts of
dictators and corrupt bureaucrats.
Yet whatever the effectiveness of Gates' charitable efforts,
today’s African children still remain one donation away from starvation and
mortal pestilence. Within this context, Moyo’s vision remains a vastly superior
guide since it proposes a path to end the need for any more Gates Foundations at
all—just as Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and China have long since shown
foreign aid organizations the door. They simply don’t need them anymore.
On a side note I seriously question if Gates actually read
Moyo’s book as he claims.
The sharp contrast between U2’s Bono and Bill Gates is also
striking and improbable.
Bono, an artist with little to no previous understanding of
business, markets, and capitalism has every reason to remain on the aid model
bandwagon yet changed his mind when he was confronted with new information
about the economics of developing nation aid models and the virtues of capital
markets and foreign investment.
Gates, who built one of the most successful businesses in
history and in the pursuit of profit made a large contribution to raising world
economic productivity, has rejected the same solution in Africa and slammed
proposals to do so. In fact Gates, to his credit, learned the flexibility to
change course when he saw the threats that the Internet browser and cloud-based
applications posed to his company, yet he inflexibly clings to the failed aid
model and denounces alternatives with political rhetoric reminiscent of
Elizabeth Warren or Michael Moore.
Bono had every reason to be the clueless perpetual aid
pitchman while Gates had the experience and intelligence to promote a
comprehensive solution. Instead the rock star “gets it” while the successful
entrepreneur has become an establishment bureaucrat peddling the status quo.
ps. To read Dambisa Moyo's original Guernica interview on
what's wrong with an aid model that she says keeps Africa trapped in poverty go
to:
2 MIN READ - The Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Economic Affairs and
Other Egghead Stuff continues his series of quick read postcripts on the
problems with Africa's economic development or lack thereof.
(This is the second in a series of three short postscripts
to October’s detailed interview with Dambisa Moyo expounding her critique of
and alternative to the failed seventy-year African aid model. To read the
original article visit the link at the end of this column.)
Dambisa Moyo: “Well I think first of all it’s a great shame that African
governments were not… actually not just African governments… global
policymakers were not operating with the anticipation that one day Africa would
be required to stand on its own two feet which is why we’re in this situation
where African governments in many cases are 70 percent or even higher dependent
on aid. The fact of the matter is aid has not worked.
The original architects of aid had two goals in mind—one was
to deliver growth and number two was to alleviate poverty and on those two
metrics it’s absolutely failed. The expectation that Africa and Africans should
sit back and expect the world to step in and help them is completely absurd and
as far as I’m concerned it’s really the root of the problem that we’re seeing
right now.” Kumi Naidoo: “But that presumes that what we are asking for is charity. What we
are asking for is justice. Let’s be very clear that Africa and the rest of the
developing world have not been compensated properly for the injustices of
colonialism. Africa is one of the richest continents underneath the ground and
precisely for that reason we are one of the poorest continents above the
ground, and right now we are saying… …we need the aid modalities to be reformed.
Conditionalities that rich countries put as burdens on developing countries need
to be addressed…” BBC moderator to Moyo: “Without aid what will happen?” Dambisa Moyo: “Well what I think will happen is we’ve seen in other places in
the world where emerging countries have actually been able to achieve
double-digit economic growth when they actually take another approach. They
focus on building their economies through jobs and entrepreneurship and they
encourage their economies—the private sector of their economies to grow...
...This whole notion of focusing on colonialism in Africa’s
past, it will always be part of Africa’s past. India was also colonized and yet
we don’t sit around feeling sorry for India and neither do we hear Indians on
the global stage saying we want to be compensated. You get on with it. It’s
been 50 years since many African countries were given independence. You know
personally I don’t want to sit around for another 10, 20, 30 years hearing
Africa whinge about the fact that they were colonized. It’s time to move on.” Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian economist with degrees from
American University (BS, MBA), Harvard University (MPA), and University of
Oxford (PhD). She was a consultant at the World Bank for African development
and Head of Economic Research and Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa at Goldman
Sachs. Her book “Dead Aid” argues that the seventy-year aid model has failed
Africa and the continent must focus instead on the international bond market
and capital investment as a long-term solution.
Kumi Naidoo is an African human rights activist who has served as International
Executive Director of Greenpeace, Secretary General of Global Call to Action
Against Poverty, and is currently Secretary General of Amnesty International.
ps. To read Dambisa Moyo's original Guernica interview on
what's wrong with an aid model that she says keeps Africa trapped in poverty go
to:
2 MIN READ - The Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Economic Affairs and
Other Egghead Stuff offers his series of quick read postcripts on the problems
with Africa's economic development or lack thereof.
U2's Bono and Prof. George Ayittey
(This is the first in a series of three short postscripts to September's detailed interview with Dambisa Moyo expounding her critique of and
alternative to the failed seventy-year African aid model. To read the original
article visit the link at the end of this column.)
Zambian economist and Africa aid critic Dambisa Moyo has
been dubbed the “anti-Bono” for criticizing glamour-seeking music celebrities
who promote the expansion of what she considers a failed aid model that keeps
Africa mired in poverty.
As we know most music celebrities are narcissistic economic
illiterates. And U2’s Bono was at the epicenter of the so-called Glamour-Aid
movement, making a second career out of public appeals for increased aid for
over two decades.
But in a positive surprise Bono has proven to be one of the
rare celebrities who is open to learning new ideas. On a 2007 Africa tour he
met Ghanan economist and Independent Institute Fellow George Ayittey who
discussed the real long-term solution to African poverty: global capital
markets and foreign investment. Bono was skeptical at first (why not, the
message contradicted the aid narrative he had preached for over 20 years) so
Ayittey gave the rock superstar a copy of his book “Africa Unchained: The
Blueprint for Development.”
It appears Bono was a devout student who took his assignment
seriously:
“In a speech at Georgetown University, Bono altered his
economic and political views and declared that only capitalism can end
poverty.”
The details of Bono's interaction with Ayittey and change of heart are available at...
Although many of Bono’s political views remain center-left,
he has exhibited a trait that few self-obsessed rock stars and Hollywood actors
possess: teachability. And he had the wherewithal to embrace what works instead
of what simply sounds good—even after espousing the feelgood celebrity soundbite
for the better share of his adult life—and making a courageous u-turn towards
free markets and commercial investment.
ps. The Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Economic Affairs
highly recommends viewing the one minute YouTube of Bono embedded in the enclosed
article.
pps. To read Dambisa Moyo's original Guernica interview on what's wrong with an aid model that she says keeps Africa trapped in poverty go to:
