Mulla Nasrudin called on the minister
and told him a distressing story of poverty and misery in the neighbourhood.
"This poor widow," said the
Mulla, "with four starving children to feed, is sick in bed with no money
for the doctor, and besides that she owes $100 rent for three months and is
about to be evicted. I'm out trying to help raise the rent money. I wondered if
you can help?"
"I certainly can," said the
minister. "If you can give your time to this cause, so can I. By the way,
who are you?"
Mulla Nasrudin and one of his friends
were lying on the green grass beside a country road. Above them was the warm
sun. Birds were singing in the trees. It was quiet, restful, and a peaceful
scene.
"Boy," said the Mulla,
"right now I would not change places with anybody not for a million
dollars."
"How about five million,
Mulla?" asked his friend.
"No, not even for five
million," said the Mulla.
"Well," said the other,
"how about one dollar?"
Mulla Nasrudin sat up.
"WELL," he said, "THAT'S DIFFERENT. NOW YOU ARE TALKING REAL MONEY."
Mulla Nasrudin was drinking too much.
So much that it began to worry his friends. Finally, they figured out a plan to
cure him. The plan was for one of them to dress up like a devil, with horns and
a pitchfork.
They planned to scare the Mulla into
giving up drink.
Late one night,as Nasrudin headed home
drunk, his friend jumped from behind a tree and shouted, "You will have to
stop drinking!"
"Who are you?" asked the
Mulla.
"I am the devil," said his
friend.
"OH, YOU ARE THE DEVIL," said
Nasrudin. "I AM GLAD TO MEET YOU. I AM THE GUY WHO MARRIED YOUR
SISTER."
A mechanic sold a car he had fixed up
and repaired to his friend, Mulla Nasrudin. The next day he was sorry he sold
it, so he went to see the Mulla.
"I will buy the car back from
you," he said, "and give you fifty dollars' profit."
So Nasrudin sold him the car. The
following day, he looked up the mechanic.
"I am sorry I sold the car back to
you," the Mulla said. "I will give you seventy-five dollars' profit
for it."
So the Mulla bought the car back. The
next day, the mechanic was sorry he sold it and bought it back again, giving
Nasrudin one hundred dollars profit. The following day, the Mulla came to buy
it back, but learned that the mechanic had sold it to a used-car dealer.
"YOU DOPE! WHY DID YOU SELL IT TO
A STRANGER?" said Nasrudin, "ESPECIALLY WHEN WE WERE BOTH MAKING SUCH
A WONDERFUL LIVING OUT OF IT."
Mulla Nasrudin had been working day and
night throughout his district in a life or death struggle for reelection. He
was relaxing one evening, following a speech, in the home of a friend.
"I have heard your speeches,"
his friend said, "but I think the real question is what will you do if you
are re-elected."
"NO," said Nasrudin,
"THE REAL QUESTION IS WHAT WILL I DO IF I AM NOT."
Mulla Nasrudin lived far beyond his
means and was constantly hounded by his creditors. But he was so used to them
that their presence caused him no distress. In fact, he treated them with the
utmost courtesy.
Once he even served a bill collector
champagne.
"If you cannot afford to pay your
debts," the bill collector demanded, "how can you afford to serve champagne?"
"DON'T GET SORE," said
Nasrudin, "I ASSURE YOU, THIS HASN'T BEEN PAID FOR EITHER, SIR."
Mulla Nasrudin thought he was going to
die with a toothache. He asked his friend, "What can I do to relieve the
pain?"
"I will tell you what I do,"
his friend said. "When I have a toothache, or a pain, I go over to my
wife, and she puts her arms around me, and caresses me, and soothes me until
finally I forget all about the pain."
Nasrudin brightened up and said: "GEE,
THAT'S WONDERFUL! IS SHE HOME NOW?"
"Oh, what a funny-looking
cow," the young city-girl said to Mulla Nasrudin.
"There are many reasons,"
said Nasrudin, "why a cow does not have horns. Some do not grow them until
late in life. Others are dehorned. Some breeds are not supposed to have horns.
AND, THIS PARTICULAR COW DOES NOT HAVE HORNS BECAUSE IT IS A HORSE!"
A young playwright gave a special
invitation to Mulla Nasrudin to watch his new play. The Mulla came to the play,
but slept through the entire performance.
The young playwright was indignant and
said, "How could you sleep when you knew how much I wanted your
opinion?"
"YOUNG MAN," said Nasrudin,
"SLEEP IS AN OPINION."
It had been a real big night at the
tavern. Mulla Nasrudin had to be carried back to his shack by his friends. When
he woke up the next day, he was started to see a huge ape sitting on the foot
of his bunk. He carefully reached for his 45. He took careful aim and said,
"IF YOU ARE A REAL MONKEY, YOU ARE IN A BAD FIX. BUT IF YOU ARE NOT, THEN
I AM."
Mulla Nasrudin was telling his wife
about a dream he had experienced the night before. "It was terrible,"
he said. "I was at a birthday party at Joe's house. His mother had baked a
chocolate cake three feet high, and when she cut it everybody was given a piece
that was so large that it hung over the sides of the plate. Then she dipped up
some homemade ice cream. She had so much of it that she had to give each one of
us our share in a soup bowl."
"What was so terrible about that
dream?" asked his wife.
"OH," said Nasrudin, "I
WOKE UP BEFORE I COULD GET THE FIRST TASTE."
"Insurance is the greatest thing
in the world," the eager insurance salesman said to his prospect, Mulla Nasrudin.
"Why, I carry a $75,000 policy on my own life, payable to my wife."
"IN THAT CASE," said
Nasrudin, "WHAT EXCUSE DO YOU HAVE FOR LIVING?"
"Doctor," a woman said as she
rushed into Mulla Nasrudin's house, "I want you to tell me frankly, exactly
what is wrong with me."
Nasrudin looked her over from head to
foot, then said, "Madam, I have three things to tell you. First, you are
about fifty pounds overweight, Second, your looks would be improved if you took
off several layers of rouge and lipstick. AND THIRD, I AM NOT THE DOCTOR. THE
DOCTOR'S OFFICE IS ACROSS
Mulla Nasrudin rushed into a bar and
said breathlessly, "The usual, please, and hurry, I gotta catch my train."
The bartender set up five martinis in a
row and the Mulla gulped the second, third and fourth, leaving the first and
last drinks on the bar. Then he rushed out as rapidly as he had entered.
A bystander asked the bartender why the
customer left the two drinks.
"Oh, he does that all the
time," said the bartender. "He says THE FIRST ONE ALWAYS TASTES TERRIBLE
AND THE LAST ONE GETS HIM IN TROUBLE AT HOME."
The rival political candidates were
scheduled to speak at the county fair on the same program. Mulla Nasrudin was
chosen to introduce them. He arose and said, "I want to present to you a
man who, above anyone, has the welfare of each and every one of you at heart.
More than anyone I know, he is devoted to our great and glorious nation."
Then he turned to the candidates and
asked, "WHICH OF YOU FELLOWS WANTS TO TALK FIRST?"
Mulla Nasrudin and his wife were
gossiping about the recent wedding scandal.
"Just think," said the wife,
"it was just as the bride was coming down the aisle that the groom
suddenly turned and ran from the church and skipped town. I guess he lost his
nerve."
"OH, I DON'T THINK SO," said
the Mulla. "I FIGURE HE FOUND IT."
"What in the world happened at the
picnic yesterday?" a fellow asked Mulla Nasrudin. "They are saying around
the tavern that you acted like a coward."
"Well, I am no fool," the
Mulla said. "Some of the girls found a big hornet's nest in the top of a
tree and dared me to climb up and get it. And I just didn't do it, that's
all."
"Whether you were smart or
not," said the friend, "That sort of thing makes you unhonored and
unsung around here."
"THAT'S RIGHT," said
Nasrudin, "BUT I AM ALSO UNHARMED AND UNSTUNG."
"Welcome," said the clerk at
the desk. "We want you to know you are welcome. We are going to do everything
we can to make you comfortable and help you to feel at home."
"PLEASE DON'T," said the
Mulla. "I LEFT HOME SO I COULD FIND A CHANGE. FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS I WANT
TO FEEL AS IF I AM AT A BEACH RESORT."
DEAD
AID—WHY AID IS NOT WORKING AND HOW THERE IS A BETTER WAY FOR AFRICA by
DAMBISA MOYO [Book review]
Title: DEAD
AID—WHY AID IS NOT WORKING AND HOW THERE IS A BETTER WAY FOR AFRICA
Author: DAMBISA MOYO
Publisher: FARRAR,
STRAUS AND GIROUX
Thesis
Dead Aid by
Dambisa Moyo argues and proves that billions of dollars in aid sent from
wealthy countries to developing African nations has NOT helped to reduce
poverty and to increase growth.
Author
Dambisa Moyo was born and raised in
Zambia. She has a Ph.D. in economics from Oxford University and a
master’s from Havard University. Moyo was a consultant for the World
Bank, and worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years.
Dambisa Moyo
In the introduction Moyo writes: “This
book is not a counsel of despair. Far from it. The book
offers another road; a road less travelled in Africa. Harder, more
demanding, more difficult, but in the end the road to growth, prosperity, and
independence for the continent. This book is about the aid-free
solution to development: why it is right, why it has worked, why it is the only
way forward for the world’s poorest countries.”
The Myth of Aid
What makes Africa incapable of joining
the rest of the globe in the twenty first century? For Moyo the
answer has its roots in aid. There exist three types of aid: 1)
humanitarian or emergency aid, 2) charity-based aid, and, 3) Systematic
aid.
The systematic aid means that the aid
payment is made directly to governments either through government-to-government
transfers (called bilateral aid) or transferred via institutions such as World
Bank (multilateral aid). Here Moyo concentrates on systematic aid
because it is where billions of dollars are transferred each year directly to
poor countries’ governments. There are a number of drawbacks in the
ways by which the first two types of aid are implemented. But the
charity and emergency aid are negligible in comparison with the billions
transferred in systematic aid. Moyo states that there isn’t much difference
between the loans and grants provided to Africa. She writes: “Therefore, for
the purpose of this book, aid is defined as the sum total of both concessional
loans and grants. It is these billions that have hampered, stifled
and retarded Africa’s development. And it is these billions that Dead
Aid will address.”
A Brief History of Aid
The subtitles in this chapter are:
a) The
1960s: the decade of industrialization
b) The
foreign aid agenda of the 1970s: the shift to a poverty focus
c) The
foreign aid agenda of the 1980s: the lost age of development
d) The
foreign aid agenda of the 1990s: a question of governance
e) The
foreign aid agenda of the 2000s: the rise of glamour aid
f) We
meant well
Under the subtitle We meant
well Moyo writes: “It (aid) remains at the heart of the development
agenda, despite the fact that there are very compelling reasons to show that it
perpetuates the cycle of poverty and derails sustainable economic growth. […]
Aid is not working. And here is why.”
In the next chapter Moyo explains why
aid is not working.
Aid Is Not Working
The subtitles here are:
1. Does
aid work?
2. The
Marshall Plan
3. The
IDA graduates
4. With
conditionalities
5. Aid
success in good policy environments
6. Aid
effectiveness: a micro-macro paradox
The proponents of aid point to six
proofs that aid can work effectively. But Moyo, in this chapter,
exposes the ways with which aid annihilates the possibilities of the emergence
of a self-sufficient economy. One by one Moyo successfully refutes
the arguments in favour of aid. She lays down examples that leave no
ambiguity in the mind of the reader.
She
gives the example of a mosquito net maker in Africa. He manufactures
around 500 nets a week. He employs 10 people, and each one of the
supports upwards of 15 relatives. But they can’t make enough nets
needed in the market to combat the malaria-carrying mosquito. Now
enters the scene a Hollywood movie star who manages to collect and send 100,
000 mosquito nets to the afflicted region. The nets arrive and are
distributed. But now the mosquito net maker is put out of business
as the market is flooded with foreign nets. His ten workers become
unemployed and thus their 150 dependents now have to depend on hand-outs. Moyo
writes: “…and one must not forget that in a maximum of five years the
majority of the imported nets will be torn, damaged and of no further use. This
is micro-macro paradox. A short-term efficacious intervention may
have few discernible, sustainable long-term benefits. Worse still,
it can unintentionally undermine whatever fragile chance for sustainable
development may already be in play.”
Towards the end of this chapter Moyo
writes that this book would not have been written had the aid done what it
claimed it would do. She concludes, “In fact aid is the problem.”
The Silent Killer of Growth
The title of the 4th chapter
is self-explanatory. The silent killer is none other than the
aid. The subtitles in this chapter are:
I. The
vicious cycle of aid
II. Corruption
and growth
III. Aid
and corruption
IV. Aid
goes to corrupt countries
V. Why
give aid if it leads to corruption?
VI. Corruption:
positive or negative?
VII. Aid
and civil society
VIII. Aid
and social capital: a matter of trust
IX. Aid
and civil war
X. The
economic limitations of aid
· Aid
reduces savings and investment
· Aid
can be inflationary
· Aid
chokes off the export sector
· Aid
causes bottlenecks: absorption capacity
XI. Aid
and aid-dependency
XII. Aid
objections
Moyo in this chapter introduces Peter
Bauer who was one of the earliest critics of aid. He was a Hungarian-born
London School of Economics economist. Bauer argued that aid
interfered with development as the money always ended up in the hands of a
small chosen few, making aid a ‘form of taxing the poor in the west to enrich
the new elites in former colonies’.
Part two of the book is titled A
World without Aid. Moyo gives the example of The Republic of
Dongo which as an African nation faces all kinds of threats varying
from HIV-AIDS to civil war. She believes Dongo will only
change if its fundamental modal of aid-dependency is abandoned and the Dead Aid
proposal of this book adopted wholesale, in its entirety.
A Radical Rethink of the Aid-Dependency
Model
1. Governments
need cash
2. Weaning
off the addiction: no one said it would be easy
A Capital Solution
1. Rebounding
from a default
2. Can
Dongo tap the markets
The Chinese Are Our Friends
1. Why
FDI does not flow to Africa
2. What
does Dongo need to do to attract FDI?
3. The
Chinese are our Friends
4. Objections
to China in Africa
5. They’ve
got what we want, and we’ve got what they need
Let’s Trade
1. Dongo
can benefit from trade
Banking on the Unbankable
1. Remittances
2. Savings
Making Development Happen
1. Grasping
the nettle
2. Who
will bell the cat?
In the Foreword Niall
Ferguson writes:
“Moyo offers four alternative
sources of funding for African economies, none of which has the
same deleterious side effects as aid. First,
African governments should follow Asian emerging markets in accessing the
international bond markets and taking advantage of the falling yields paid by
sovereign borrowers over the past decade. Second, they should encourage the Chinese policy of large-scale
direct investment in infrastructure. (China invested US$900 million
in Africa in 2004, compared with just US$ 20 million in 1975.) Third, they should continue to press for
genuine free trade in agricultural products, which means that the US, the EU and
Japan must scrap the various subsidies they pay to their farmers, enabling
African countries to increase their earnings from primary product
exports. Fourth, they should
encourage financial intermediation. Specifically, they need to
foster the spread of microfinance institutions of the sort that have flourished
in Asia and Latin America. They should also follow the Peruvian
economist Hernando de Soto’s advice and grant the inhabitants of shanty towns
secure legal title to their homes, so that these can be used as
collateral. And they should make it cheaper for emigrants to send
remittances back home.”
Moyo ends the book with an African
proverb:
The best time to plant a tree is twenty
years ago.
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