The Four Horsemen Gallop Through the Horn of Africa

There is an excelent article at The Gates of Vienna on the drought in Africa.

The climate in Africa isn’t the problem. Drought recurs there periodically, as it does in many places. It is predictable, and can be dealt with. Oklahoma sometimes experiences severe drought, but nobody holds telethons to benefit the starving children of Muskogee, crouched in the dusty shadows of their parents’ double-wides. Somehow the cruel exploitative capitalist society of the United States carries us through these tough times.

The problem in Africa is – as it has been ever since the departure of the European colonial powers – corrupt, tyrannical, and unaccountable government. Even when Oxfam gets its lorryloads of food into the devastated areas, most of it is likely to be siphoned off in “taxes”, bribes, kickbacks, and outright expropriation by the thugs and petty despots who control the affairs of the region. Lacking the rule of law and pluralist institutions, the Horn of Africa has repeatedly failed to develop a robust productive economy which can sustain its people through the inevitable fluctuation of natural cycles.

Read the whole thing...