Thursday - Africa Screams

Its not the place fo this blog to comment on events in the 'real world' but I have to make an exception today.

No sooner had I mused upon a method of changing society for the better and suddenly Mo Ibrahim has offered a prize to the African head of state that leaves office after providing the most benefit to their nation whilst they were in office. See the full story here.

Its a commendable act but for it to work the prize has to be worth more than the kickbacks from corrupt practice. I don't know how much you can earn from taking bribes from toxic chemical companies but I imagine it can be quite substantial.

The leaders also have to believe that they are in with a shout until the finish otherwise you'll get even greater apathy from those that do not believe they have a chance of winning.

Niger: "I'm not even going to bother with this. Kenya's a shoe-in for the prize. Now who wants these AK-47's?"

And finally Harvard University is going to assess which leader has provided the greatest improvements in Security, Health, Welfare and Education to their country. But how are they going to assess this. If we're talking about the head of state then who has overall control of the statistics they can provide? Will they be sending in Price Waterhouse Coopers to do a quick audit on their healthcare?

"So last year 300,000 were HIV positive and now you have only 2?"

"Yes,"

"And the Ebola virus?"

"We've cured it. I'll show you. Visit our hospitals. There is no-one in the wards. We have some lovely landscape gardening in the grounds. Its a bit 'hilly' but very pretty."

On the whole the idea is great. As I said earlier, I recommended it but my faith in human nature isn't that high. I've no great knowledge on Africa and I don't pretend to be but this isn't about that continent. Its about the way people are and the way that those who seek power tend to be.

If anything I'd like to see the same scheme introduced here.

What decisions would Tony Blair have made if the same prize had been available to him I wonder?

Anyway. This is enough of this diversion from the usual blog-like witterings. I apologise. I have Gareth's performance review to look forward to tomorrow and can assure you that service will be back to normal by the weekend.