Stationary Bandit

Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell's randon thoughts column has long been one of favorite reads.  Here are few notable thoughts from his latest:

Some people are so busy being clever that they don't have time to be intelligent.

Increasing numbers of people seem to think that it is "name-calling" if you refer to someone as a liberal. There are no inherently negative connotations to the word "liberal." If it has acquired negative overtones, that is because of what liberals have done and the consequences that have followed.

Self-Interested Politicians in Kenya

Some people try to downplay the role of local political leaders in explaining sub-Saharan Africa's dismal economic performance.  A recent vote in Kenya suggests they should not.

The 2004 Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai has criticised her fellow MPs for increasing their travel allowance.  She told the BBC that the government had been wrong to approve a rise to some $4,500 a month at a time of food shortages and destructive floods.  MPs had threatened to block famine relief legislation unless it was paid.

There you have it.  They will vote for famine relief only if they can use more public money for travel.  Story here.

Takings in Zimbabwe

With the likelihood of the natural resource curse affecting Chad increasing, Robert Mugabe is not to be outdone.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe yesterday stirred controversy again by renewing his threat to grab 51% of foreign-owned mines, with 25% of that taken for free.

"We said we want 51% in favour of Zimbabwe and 49% in favour of the investors," Mugabe told a gathering at a local stadium in Harare to mark Zimbabwe's 26th anniversary of independence from Britain.

"The depleting resources, non-renewable resources, are ours in the first place. You, the investor, will get a reward, yes, but that reward should be balanced by what we keep for ourselves."

Mugabe's government last month said it had approved draft amendments to the mining law to facilitate a takeover of foreign-owned mines.

Story here.

Oil Money for Arms (Chad Edition)

I think this is how the natural resource curse begins.

Chad's President Idriss Deby has acknowledged he wants to use oil revenues to pay for weapons to use against rebels.  Last week, Chad repelled a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena.  The World Bank has frozen Chad's oil revenue account, saying President Deby has breached an agreement to reserve some of the money for development.

Story here.

Impending Civil War in Nepal?

It appears closer everyday as the demand for democracy grows.

Security forces in a town in southern Nepal fired shots on Monday into a crowd marching on the main highway to protest the royal dictatorship, killing one and wounding five, a local administrator said.

Protesters also clashed with the police in Katmandu, the capital, which has been besieged by two weeks of demonstrations and a general strike to press demands for the return of democracy.

Story here.

Will China Undermine Development in Africa?

The LA Times thinks so.

.. China's demand for resources has driven up prices, propelling significant GDP gains in many countries. China has educated thousands of African university students, and it sends Africa hundreds of doctors and advisors each year. Chinese firms are building roads, rehabilitating infrastructure and bringing cellphone service to places that land lines never reached.

But there is a downside. With China available as a partner, authoritarian rulers from Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe to Sudan's Omar Hassan Bashir can turn their backs when the West demands improvements in governance and human rights. With a $2-billion credit from China, Angola need not concern itself unduly with International Monetary Fund insistence on accountability in its use of oil revenues.

China also is actively courting Mali, Mauritania and other countries participating in the Bush administration's new Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative. Nigeria, important to the U.S. as an oil supplier and West African peacemaker, agreed to enter into a "strategic partnership" with China when President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Beijing in April 2005; Chinese companies are already rebuilding Nigeria's railways and are planning to launch a Nigerian communications satellite in 2007. In the competition for African hearts and minds — and wallets — China is gaining.

This sounds reminiscient of the Cold War battles in Africa.  The USSR propped up a few less than wholesome regimes (as did the US).  China appears to be doing the same.

Will it undermine the West's efforts to end poverty in our time?  I doubt it.  The countries likely to get involved with China (see the list above) are not countries that have good policies or institutions.  They are outside the new development framework.

Will China Continue to Go Capitalist?

The debate between socialism and capitalism has restarted within the Chinese communist party.  Some have argued for a return to more socialist policies while others want to continue the present course.  Not surprisingly, the role of private property is at the center of the present debate.

The roots of the current debate can be traced to a biting critique of the property rights law that circulated on the Internet last summer. The critique's author, Gong Xiantian, a professor at Beijing University Law School, accused the legal experts who wrote the draft of "copying capitalist civil law like slaves," and offering equal protection to "a rich man's car and a beggar man's stick." Most of all, he protested that the proposed law did not state that "socialist property is inviolable," a once sacred legal concept in China.

Story here.  Growing income inequality between the rural and urban areas has also fueled the divide.  Social unrest is on the rise as well.   It appears the choice between sustained party rule and a market economy is getting closer.  They cannot co-exist forever.

Postal Reform in India

In order to better compete with the private sector in delivering letters and documents, the government of India has proposed to simply not allow the private sector compete with the public sector.  Kaushik Basu explains why this is not a good idea.

... our economy's bigger need is to clean up the messy and large bureaucratic control over the existing private sector and to open the public sector to greater competition.

What is therefore critical is that we do not protect the public sector enterprises by using the law.

If they are to survive, they must do so by being efficient. Since efficiency is difficult to create by diktat, the best way to achieve this is to expose firms to competition.

This is exactly where the amendment to the Indian Postal Act goes wrong.

British Supply of Ugandan Arms

Legal loopholes sometines have unintended consequences.

The London-based charity Oxfam is criticizing loopholes in British law allowing the sale of military equipment to Uganda. Oxfam says a South African subsidiary of British defense giant BAE Systems sold vehicles to Kampala that have been used in putting down protests.

Brendan Cox is the spokesman for Oxfam’s Arms Control program: “What we’re talking about is personnel carriers with armored plates, machine gun hatches, rotating machine guns on the roof, bullet proof windows…These are high specification military vehicles.”

Under current British law, arms manufacturers cannot sell directly to foreign countries – but subsidiaries of British companies can.

Story here.

UN Peacekeeper Sex Scandal

More reason to view the UN as less than benevolent.

The UN in 2005 fired 170 military and civilian personnel accused of sexual abuses while on duty, the chief of UN peacekeeping said.

Jean-Marie Guehenno said on Thursday six commanders were among those fired because they were responsible for their troops' violations of UN rules against sexual exploitation.

Story here.