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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (92037)	12/23/2004 12:31:32 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793905

Excellent short piece on Bolivia. Che Guevara Starves Bolivian Children Politics Writer Micky Z. has concluded: You and I are to blame. I told them Bolivia is the poorest nation in South America and 60% of its population is made up of indigenous people (some call it coincidence). I told them that despite the fact that Bolivia sits on some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves, 70% of its 8.6 million inhabitants live below the poverty line...and nearly one child in ten dies before the age of 5. Background on Bolivia: Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and drug production. Current goals include attracting foreign investment, strengthening the educational system, resolving disputes with coca growers over Bolivia's counterdrug efforts, and waging an anticorruption campaign. And this bit of history: In 1952 a revolutionary party (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario MNR) seized control of the government. This led to the expropriation of the mines by the state and to agrarian reform, by which the large estates were divided among former tenants and peasants. Before it was deposed by the army in 1964, the MNR introduced far-reaching economic and social changes. Over the next 25 years (1964-1989) Bolivia has 19 presidents (13 were generals), with only two completing a full term in office. More history can be found here. So, the question is: Is Bolvia's poverty the result of what you and I do or don't do, or it's many decades of communism, governmental instability and mismanagement? I'll concede that there has been no good economic good news from Bolivia in recent years, but is the failure of Bolivia to rise out of poverty in the '90s the result of the WTO or the U.S. government or is it Bolvia's own failure to end corruption (especially related to drugs) and its economic protectionism? More from Micky Z.: Our world produces more than enough food to provide every single person the opportunity to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Instead, at least a billion people on the planet subsist on the equivalent of one US dollar a day or less. This is true. But is there any country in the world where there is widespread and utter hunger where governments and/or despots don't restrict the flow of foodstuffs? Short answer: No. The reason people in third world countries starve isn't because of lack of compassion from American consumers, or corporate greed. It is political corruption from the governments with the ethical obligation to take care of their own people -- an obligation completely ignored by those governments and Mickey Z.'s of the world who support them. More from Micky Z.: Che Guevara once explained: “The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this.” Ah, yes, Che Chevara. All you need to know about him can be found here and here. As for the content of the quote, like all communist, Guevara makes the classic mistake of assuming wealth is finite. Of course, it is not. And that's the basic problem with Mickey's entire column. The problem isn't that there is too much or not enough wealth in the world. The problem isn't wealth or poverty. The problem is corruption by governments intent on keeping their own people poor, especially those governments that follow such misguided notions as communism. Bolivian children starve today not because of Western capitalism. They starve because of Che Chevara, Mickey Z. and their ilk. Decades of communism created a Bolivia that is still a generation away from achieving its economic potential. 12/20/04 19:34 Howard Owens howardowens.com