The American Spectator : Brave New Barbarism

The American Spectator : Brave New Barbarism: "Big Leo 4.17.09 @ 3:16PM
P.J. O'Rourke wrote a chapter in 'Eat the Rich' on Tanzania, a country wealthy in resources that is very poor. We have given enough aid to buy everyone in Tanzania a forty acre farm, yet the people are as poor as ever. He demonstrates why. It isn't the evil Westerners taking advantage or hiring Western consultants-- it's corrupt and incompetent local government. A smart, hard-working Tanzanian in America does well and becomes comfortably well off. A smart, hard-working Tanzanian in Tanzania is so stifled by corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency that if he really is smart he becomes a government bureaucrat and gets a Mercedes and a Swiss bank account.
I know many people who have worked in Africa through my missionary contacts. There is a grim saying they all report-- 'One Week a Tourist, Three Weeks a Racist.' The mind-boggling incompetence of African societies seems to be a sad universal with no easy solution."