Friday, April 15, 2005
Industrializing Africa - Developing New World Economies
I have a vision for a positive future in Africa. A future where there is hope, prosperity and industry. My vision kicks off by harnessing US foreign aid dollars, force field technology and the peace corps (or some organization like the peace corps)... possibly solar panels as well ;)
Currently in northern parts of Africa there are tribes killing each other, not to mention lots of AIDs. I believe there are peaceful people among these tribes, and in many cases whole tribes which are non-violent and are being exterminated by "raiders" from other tribes. This sucks and in some ways the net suffering in these areas would be a lot less if everyone was just erased and things were started anew with some sort of structure. Since erasing people isn't legal and I don't want to go to hell I have thought up another way to bring freedom to Africa.
Ownership powers America, through personal ownership people are willing to invest their lives into creating societies and industry and art and peace. Ever heard of the tragedy of the commons? Basically the example uses an open field with three farmers bordering the field on adjacent sides. Since no one owns the field and everything in the field is presumed to be "free for all" each farmer takes more than they need in order to guarantee their own survival. This results in a ruined field and a tragedy from what could have been a boon to everyone. Basically if communism worked the field would be shared and each person would take only what they needed. We all know communism doesn't work very well on a global level so we employ ownership to divvy things up. In the ownership model, a fourth farmer owns the field in the middle and since he owns it he makes sure that it is not over harvested and ruined (as it was in the tragedy of the commons. In this model the field in maintained indefinitely and everyone benefits, plus we added an extra farmer to the model!
Okay, apply this to Africa. My idea is to employ force field technology (or guards with guns) in an effort to establish ownership and safety. Safety is basically ownership of one's self, the most precious ownership. When the value of life in a country is low, you can be assured no one is investing in "life" pleasure or the pursuit of happiness. Step one, find a group of people in Africa or any other suffering nation. Verify ownership of land for this group of people and then offer them protection in exchange for adherence to a set of laws and regulations. These laws would basically prohibit violence, guarantee ownership and allow for a community run government (kind of like in the USA only the community run government would evolve from the local culture). The only real restriction would be that the earlier stated "prohibition of violence" and "ownership" could not be overruled by the community government... ever. Once people agreed to this outline protection from outside forces would be guaranteed using force field technology or guards. Inside the new community peace corps volunteers would work as police officers and labor assistants. This provision would help stabilize the new community and support the new economy (because the community would be cut off from all outside contact by the force field and would need a bit of help getting started on their own).
Once this small community was launched, surrounding people would be invited to join. These new recruits would be offered the same protections and rights that the original community agreed on (safety, ownership, government). The new people would have to either enter the force field area or allow the force field boundary to be erected around their land. As new people joined they would have to give up their weapons and agree to the set guidelines of peace, only law enforcement would be allowed to use force inside the boundary. Once again, law enforcement would be made up of peace corps officers or foreign army forces who had no vested interest in the new African community.
As more and more people recognized the success of the "Peace Sphere" community, more and more people would join in. The land contained within the force field would grow and economies of scale would take their place. Less foreign aid would be required as the internal community became self sufficient. Violence would be nonexistent because anyone who violated the code would be banished from the community. There would be limited bias in the govenment and law enforcement could be trusted because it would consist of volunteers from outside nations. Criminals and killers, reluctant to join the sphere, would be forced farther and farther from the community as the boundaries grew. The outside criminals would be separated from their "food" source and be naturally forced to change their ways or die alone in the desert. In this model peace would spread instead of violence.
I someday hope to erect a Peace Sphere as described above. The largest problem at this point would be resistance from currently established government forces. Would the UN support a "new" country created throught the use of forcefields? Maybe the UN would approve but would the current local African governments attack the Peace Sphere deeming it a threat? probably... Mature healthy markets like the US and Europe are reproducing at a slower rate and globalization is opening up new markets. I want to live in a prosperous world and I believe business is the key to survival. However, if a change is not made in the way the world works and business expands to places like Africa, business people will be murdered and war will erupt. Think diamond mines, think oil in the Middle East... These lesser developed nations are tomorrows buyers and sellers. I was given The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid by an international marketing professor this year in order to explore the phenomenon of developing markets. It can also be downloaded in PDF format from Amazon. This book explores the future I am describing from a business person's point of view. In order to benefit from a world economy we need to promote freedom of choice and I think the Peace Sphere is a reasonable solution. Please share your ideas and comments.
The sad truth in today's world is that there are more than enough resources, more than enough people willing to share thier own resources, and more than enough technology to make it all possible and still it cannot be accomplished. Government is the problem. Our world is full of governments that enforce inport tariffs on free donated condoms, even though they save lives and people want to use them. Governments that discourage their people from using donated viral treatment syndroms because they believe the US is trying to kill their people out of racial hate. Governments that are run on corruption, fueled by violence and economic slavery. Would the Peace Sphere work? Where should it begin?
posted by Court @ 3:55 PM
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