Current Events — HabitableZone

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Re: A recent program on NPR
Mary Anne — (archived)

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek's International edition and the author of The Future of Freedom, has remarked in an interview on Morning Edition (17 Apr. 2003) that we have tried "nation-building on the cheap" in Afghanistan and as a result Hamid Karzai, supposed President there, "is effectively the Mayor of Kabul".

He points out that "oil . . . has been a curse" when it comes to establishing democracy, and that the only oil-rich country that has a functioning democracy is Norway. All the rest, he says, are so rich that their leaders feel no pressure to do the difficult jobs required to modernize a nation: establish a working market economy, a just and impartial court system, good schools and opportunities for youth, nurture a middle class, and so forth. He says these countries wind up as feudal states with a lot of money.

He makes a lot of sense. The institutions come first. The elections can only come later, after all the players -- all the voters, all the office-seekers -- understand the rules, and after the people have grown enough toward a modern society that they will stand to lose something important to them should someone subvert those rules. This will take a very long time, between 5 years and a decade.

I hope we have the attention span to do this. It's on our plate now whether we want it or not.

Regards--
Mary Anne

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