tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6645320065896343208.post282271370838316485..comments2024-01-05T21:39:23.238-08:00Comments on outdoorFun: Aid to poor countriesJuleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10119193175145977768noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6645320065896343208.post-70159780295597690092008-05-07T12:24:00.000-07:002008-05-07T12:24:00.000-07:00It's not as clear-cut as that, Jules. I've been li...It's not as clear-cut as that, Jules. I've been living in third-world countries for over 20 years, so I know a bit about it. Corruption is essentially at the root of poverty in most third-world countries, especially in South America and Africa; but it's incredibly difficult to eradicate. It's almost like a Catch-22 situation: the typical government official doesn’t earn enough from his official salary to even support his family, so he uses bribes as a means of increasing his income. His salary is low because most of the money generated by the natural resources of the country is pocketed by his bosses, who “need” the extra money to maintain a lifestyle that is beyond their means but which their wives and kids will not do without, because they have been used to that lifestyle for generations. So if one lowly official, or one of his bosses, decides to become honest all of a sudden, and refuse bribes of any sort, all that happens is that he finds himself unable to sustain his family to the standard they expect, whereas all his colleagues’ families are doing fine – so not only can he not satisfy his family, but he also diminishes in social status amongst his peers (which is very important in many third world countries, especially in South America)… It would take a concerted effort of every single functionary in the country to become honest all at the same time to resolve the problem… Fat chance of that…<BR/><BR/>“Making water wells, bridges and similar physical projects can be of great help.”<BR/><BR/>Yeah, sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Hey, we’ve tried it, several times; an example: we (myself and two colleagues) single-handedly funded the construction of a dirt road (driveable year-round) of some 60 km and a critical pontoon-bridge across a river (called, BTW, the San Julian) connecting the agricultural/ranch lands of the Chiquitania with the bustling city of Santa Cruz, thus shortening the distance between the fertile lands and the city by about 150 km (because previously vehicles needed to pass over the nearest existent bridge way to the north), and the travel time by at least 6 hours (rough dirt roads are slow to navigate). Guess what? Local farmers and ranchers eagerly used it until the newly-constructed road and bridge fell into disrepair, whereupon we had no more funds to maintain the route and neither did the locals (or at least if they did, they weren’t prepared to supply them)… So the project, as sensible and simple as it was, ended up failing miserably… (We had even gained an enthusiastic local provincial approval for the whole project – what was less enthusiastic was their providing of funds to maintain it.)<BR/><BR/>Australia and Canada are truly blessed countries: they have an incredibly low population density, and hence a vast amount of natural resources per capita. It is no coincidence that, a few years ago, an independent organisation elected Melbourne and Vancouver as the two most desirable cities to live in in the world, amongst all the major cities…<BR/><BR/>MarcusMarcushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18093621944553928061noreply@blogger.com