Compass Point

An article in this morning's Wall Street Journal talks about "Bill Gate's Charitable Vistas". The world's wealthiest man is giving away much of his vast fortune to developing nations like Africa seeking to eliminate poverty and poor health. Along with Warren Buffet, the world's  second richest man, this amounts to more than $90 billion in charity.

The point of the article is that Mr. Gate's software has done more to raise the living standards of people and produce effective capital than any give away program. Citing China and India as examples of poor people being lifted out of poverty by open capitalist markets the case is made by Harvard economist Robert Barro that the money would be better spent plowed back into the market economy.

In the long term I believe Mr. Barro's case is true. The Gates Foundation will make a difference with individual lives but I don't believe it will end the cycle of poverty and disease in the poor world. Many noble efforts and many billions of dollars have already been spent trying to eliminate these twin scourges. The problem is poor governance.

The reason China and India have pulled millions out of relative poverty is due to "improvement" in governance. Between 1970 and 2000 250 million people rose above the poverty level. During the same period India 140 million improve in the same manner. The reason for the improvement is due to government policy. No one is saying China and India have the perfect government but to the extent they opened up to free market capitalism the people improved.

Government is a big key to peace and prosperity. Bad government is a curse. Witness what is taking place today in Zimbabwe, a once prosperous country that has been reduced to terror and poverty by the vicious whim of a dictator.

Proverbs 29:2 says, "When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan."


Brothers to the Bitter End

Fouad Ajami poetically sums the crisis among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. These sad people have a murderous hypocritical leadership. No...strike that word hypocritical. I don't think that word has any meaning in the radical Islamic thinking. There is no logic or rationale behind this terrible tragedy among these people.

Why Hamas Won

Then read what Ralph Peters has to say about religious fanaticism in the conflict. It trumps force of arms.
 

Faith is the nuclear weapon of the fanatic. And there's not going to be a religious "nuclear freeze." It doesn't matter how many hearts and minds you win, if you don't defeat the zealots with the muscles.

Most leaders do not understand this dimension geopolitics. It is the reason for some of largest blunders.