If the field isn't level, some people can't play. And if the rules aren't enforced evenly, you rapidly develop "haves" and "have nots". For a country to become great there must be a very large middle class, and that can't happen without a level field and fair enforcement of rules.

The Phillipines were largely a kleptocracy, which is doomed to fail as a progressive member of the economic community. IMF and World Bank loans tend to wind up in the hands of the rulers, and when they are re-negotiated, in order to pay them back the average schmuck winds up working for next to nothing in a "free trade" zone. Sad.

I was talking with a former member of the government in Tanzania in 1996. He put together the arrangements for a hike around Kilimanjaro followed by a climb of the mountain. Afterward I mentioned I wanted to come back and clean up the parks on Mt. Kilimanjaro. They were a mess, litter and toilet paper everywhere. Mostly I wanted to go back.

Labor being what it was I said I could affort to hire 20 people for 2 weeks (less than $3,000 including food for them), we'd hike to a park on one day, clean the next, and hike on the next. There were literally thousands of people in the area who would have loved to do that. I thought I'd ask the government park service to supply the tools, picks, shovels, gloves.

He said that each step of the way my request would have to carry with it a commensurate bribe for it to be considered. His example was a road-building project by, I believe, Finland. They offered to repair a main highway, cost $700,000. It took $300,000 in bribes to get the project going.

I wasn't going to do that, so I wrote up my proposal and sent it to the Park Service. They didn't answer, I sent it again. They asked a question which I answered, and then said they forwarded it to the National Headquarters. I heard nothing, sent it again to the National folks.

It died.

I could have asked our embassy to help, but have learned that the US Embassies are there to promote trade and keep private citizens from embarassing either government.

Sigh.

Arf