[afro-nets] Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor (41)

["Craig Audiss" <cybrcollectinc@yahoo.com>]

Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor (41)
------------------------------------------------------------------

Isaac,

I seem to be receiving a lot of criticism for my bull by the horns comment.  I thought I had clarified it in another posting but apparently not.  I have spent enough time in Africa to know that unless something is changed in conception and execution of practices that things will definitely not change.  Giving money to corrupt governments and expecting a different outcome is the classic definition of the word ?insanity".
   
U S style government or capitalism can work even in Africa.  Liberia "was" a shining example of this until their woes started many years ago.  I do not think it is the absolute "way" for Africa, I do however know dictatorships, socialist dogma, and religious fundamentalism will not solve Africa's problems either.
   
Socialism and communism did fail, miserably, due to their repressive nature.  I bring Ukraine to the fore as a shining example.  Before communism Ukraine farmers were the most productive in the world.  The farmers were sent to the gulags and worked to death as a result of a paranoid Stalin, the food was taken and the people allowed to starve to death.  People were executed if caught for trying to pick up grains of wheat in the field.  Collective farms were organized and run by people who knew nothing whatever about agriculture with disastrous results.  I do not have time to research dates and metric ton figures for imports into Soviet Union workers paradise.  But I have read articles and watched documentaries which confirm my earlier statements. Food was left unharvested because of lack of maintenance on machinery, and crops not being planted properly because of lack of skill or caring.  This results in lack of food and the all too familiar bread lines in Moscow.  I can assure you that productivity declined sharply as a result of communism.  I am not familiar with your east Africa example, but it sounds to me like good old fashioned "bartering" a wonderful concept that is employed even today in areas, and is a great way of acquiring needed supplies.
   
Hopefully we can return to the important matters at hand instead of history.
   
Craig 
mailto:cybrcollectinc@yahoo.com