Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Africa man, original?

Preaching Free-Market Gospel to Skeptical Africa was a thought-provoking read. I suppose this debate has been reviewed for decades. But this time, I thought it was interesting that it was in the National section of the New York Times and that is again framed only as one or the other - business or charity/aid.

I wish we could get somewhere in the middle where we listen to the points Mr. Shikwati is making without seeing him as a pawn of the evil capitalist. In the same light, I wish short-sighted fiscal conservatives would stop using people like this to avoid addressing the short-comings of markets.

Sachs falls into a defensive trap yet again, which isn't helpful. Reed stikes me as a ideologue, which isn't helpful either. I think the Sachs could make headway against the ideologues of the world if they considered the criticism of the Shikwati's a bit more thoughtfully.

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