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The sermons at that outfit may be summarized with the phrase “more than acceptable”. However, what passes there as an intercession may be diplomatically described as “bonkers”. When the sheila (New Zealand slang for woman) who does that sort of thing started, I just left the auditorium and watched football instead. By the way, I was quite fond of calling that sheila “la pinche naca”. You can rest assured that it’s not a compliment. There were presumably quite a few dear folks in the congregation who didn’t feel like jumping for joy when they heard me using the phrase “la pinche naca”. Never mind. I’m sure that Margaret Thatcher would tell me “Jurgen, now isn’t the time to go wobbly”. Because we got fed up with “la pinche naca” as well, at least for the time being we grace an outfit with our presence that we may call an “evangelical start up” in Colima. Let’s wait and see how things are going to unfold there. Anyway, it’s time now to start with my sermon. Foreign Aid The New Zealand Business Roundtable published a while ago a policy backgrounder on Ireland’s economic transformation. That policy backgrounder zeroes in on key factors explaining Ireland’s economic growth. Among others, these key factors include attracting foreign direct investment and the low corporate tax rate as well as grants received from the European Union Structural Funds. So far I haven’t blessed Ireland with my presence. And for at least the time being, I have no intention whatsoever of doing so. First, because of the weather there. Second, because it’s located in Europe. In my not so humble opinion, most of Europe suffers from constipation, in loads of respects. Anyway, there are in particular two Irish folks who make my eyes roll like a football. They’re Bono and Bob Geldolf. The reason for my bias against them isn’t their singing. They can sing better than I can (which doesn’t tell you a bunch about their singing). They make my eyes roll like a football because they reckon that they’re called to save the less developed world. Instead of trying to save the less developed world with their simplistic concepts they may be better off sussing out the underlying reasons for Ireland’s economic transformation (to get a handle on the topic). Why would it be a little over the top to claim that Bob’s and Bono’s concepts for saving the less developed world make me jump for joy? Their concepts boil down to doubling foreign aid and writing off debt. Why am I vigorously opposed to the concept of boosting foreign aid and writing off debt? On average, during the past fifty years developed countries have funneled one hundred billion US dollars per decade just into Africa. It hasn’t amounted to plenty worth mentioning. Quite often, the more aid these basket cases received the more they went south. Thirty nine countries that received foreign aid from the World Bank between 1980 and 2002 enjoyed negative annual growth. That record tends to be even worse in sub–Saharan Africa. About half the countries there that received foreign aid enjoyed cratering per capita incomes. There appears to be a pattern. Developing countries that receive less aid do better than developing countries that receive loads of aid. China received between 1990 and 2002 twenty six US dollars per capita. China’s annual gross domestic product went north by a little more than two thousand five hundred US dollars per person. During the same period, Zambia received a little more than one thousand one hundred US dollars per capita. However, Zambia gross domestic product tanked by about one hundred forty US dollars per person. Do you reckon that it’s a coincidence? To quote the International Policy Network:” Aid underpins structures and practices that often turn out to be a Klondike for kleptocrats. That is why we should treat with great concern the current push for massive icreases in aid”. Douglas McWilliams,
chief executive of the center for economics and business research, notes
that “ending poverty will largely result from what countries do themselves
– as the Chinese have shown”.
One of the magazines that yours truly almost religiously reads is The Spectator. I’m very fond of reading The Spectator because it tends to be refreshingly politically incorrect. You get no airy fairy waffle there. One of its contributors is Aidan Hartley. Aidan is British Kenyan and is building a farm in the highlands of Kenya. Because almost nobody could be bothered to ask ordinary Africans about their opinion on foreign aid and the G8 summit, Aidan did. Here we go with a few of the responses Aidan received: “Aid won’t help us. Our leaders will steal it”. A Kenyan businessman responded:” It’s all about getting businesses in Africa started. But it’s not easy to do business in Kenya unless you know someone in high office”. My favourite response to Aidan’s question “What do you think of Bob Geldorf”? was “I love Bob Marley very much”. The following is a list of articles written by Jurgen for the magazine:
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Some
Thoughts On Living In Latin America ~ 