Listen to the Gentiles

Many years ago, when I wrote about doing economics, one of my principles was “Listen to the Gentiles”, meaning listen to intelligent people, even if they don’t speak your analytical language.

Paul Krugman, The Conscience of A Liberal, 26.VII.2011.

These friendly skies ain't for you, they for me and mine

In 1981, Robert MacNamara, whom you may remember from hits such as the Vietnam War and Fog of War, discussed Kenya's population growth with Moi. In 1982, the World Bank imposed the following conditions on a new loan to the Kenyan government: it was to surrender control of its population policy and budget to a panel whose members, some of them drawn from NGOs, would be appointed only with donor approval; the panel would henceforth set population policy and control the budget. The Ministry of Health advised against it, as well they might.* Moi overruled his own ministry, and did the deal on the terms offered. The World Bank cash was received on the day he signed. The story, complete with footnoted evidence, is at page 349 of Matthew Connelly's Fatal Misconception. The book, if you haven't already heard about it, is the first global history of the population movement. It is this book which explains why aid needs to end.

*Not the first time the Ministry of Health did well in the Moi era. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, Moi ordered AIDS patients rounded up and quarantined in some sort of camp, Cuba-style. The Ministry of Health simply refused to carry out the order. (Can't remember the page, but see John Iliffe's The African Aids Epidemic: A History.)