Africa: Just Before the Dawn?

Today's WaPo Outlook section has a lengthy piece by Gebreselassie Tesfamichael, former Eritrean finance minister, that recaps Africa's developmental woes. The Man Bites Dog aspect is that he's not pleading for big bucks. He's pleading, instead, for support of Africa's reformers.

His emphasis is spot-on. With transparancy, accountability, and the rule of law, a nation can develop with surprising speed, with relatively little extra funding. Without these, money simply gets wasted. The term "kleptocracy" was created with Africa's rulers in mind.

Money graf:
"The fundamental problem in Africa is not lack of resources, but the failure of political leadership. The modern African state is a colonial creation, extractive in its design. Its mission was not to serve the people, but to dominate and exploit them. Despite independence, and despite improvements brought by numerous recent democratic elections, the nature of that state remains intact. The primary solution is to change it."

The Muslim World: Just Before the Dawn?

"Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based columnist for the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat". And she has a great op-ed in today's WaPo. From hatemongering clerics to liberal apologists, she takes the relevant jackfools to task.

First Money graf:

"I'm sure it was also those dog-eared statements that our clerics and religious leaders read out telling us that Islam means peace -- it actually means submission -- and asking us to please forget everything they had ever said before July 6, because as of July 7 they truly believe violence is bad. Their backpedaling is so furious you can smell the skid marks."

And another:

"I raise these questions because London might have done it for me, but I'm not done with Islam. The clerics and the terrorists will not take it away from me. God belongs to me, too."

Classic smackdown.

The muslim world needs a lot more of this kind of thing. The keys to the GWOT revolve around the muslim world, after all. They have to stop sheltering terrorists. And stop funneling money. And stop supporting the cause by excusing their actions, volunteering, and other such nonsense. The Global War On Terror is also a civil war.

And we're seeing the battle being joined. Is the Dawn approaching? Let's hope so...

Site Maintenance

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. I've changed the template, and found that Blogger added a links section. Hence, my first attempt at a blogroll. Hi Betsy and Jheka!

I hope to blog a little less infrequently more frequently. But, we'll see...

Unions: Just Before The Dawn?

I got the idea for this post while perusing Betsy Newmark's fine blog. This post extends the comment I made on this post.

Betsy wondered if this wasn't being glossed over because it's a repudiation of John Sweeney's longstanding ties to the Left. She has a point. The MainStream Media's tendencies are well - documented, and not worth rehashing now. I wanted to focus on her other point: that unions are totally irrelevant.

The Yahoo article linked by the title notes that union participation has imploded, from 34% to 12% of the American labor force. And in the private sector, that figure is only 8%. Really hard to have an impact with numbers like that. Now, there's a danger in there, even for die-hard capitalists. Lack of watchdogs has cost America dearly in the past, and may do it again. Unions can serve as a useful brake on stupidity in the executive suite. Or not. But nothing good can happen unless they're in the game, and they won't be in it for the short-term, at least.

So, in my opinion, it's a good thing. Andy Stern may succeed or fail, but he's trying to get his union (SEIU) and the whole movement out of a very deep hole.

John Sweeney, by contrast, shows the results of the adage that "none are so blind as those who won't see". He's condemning his movement to total irrelevancy, and what happens the GOP starts nastily retaliating? (Not that I mind, but from the union guy's PoV, Sweeney is a Bad Man).

Me? I actually wouldn't mind a partially revitalized union system. One with, say, 12% private participation, with slowly growing numbers. Something to rattle Rug Row's cage, but not enough to wreck things...