Chris, can't anyone ever be naive? Must everyone do things out of a cynical
self-interest? What Sachs and a few senior Russian officials did at the
time was try to convert Russia into an ownership economy. Shares in the
state's productive assets were given to people on the assumption that they
would keep them as owners of important chunks of Russia. It didn't work out
as intended. Sharp operators went around buying up the shares, often for a
bottle of vodka, and the scheme was a total failure. The intentions were
good, if foolish.
Ed
Ed Weick wrote:
Geoffrey Sachs is a very good economist, but when I was in Russia in
1995,
he had become something of a bad joke among thinking Russians because he
was
associated with the privatization scheme that, in the light of hindsight,
did far more harm than good. Out of their history, ordinary Russians had
little understanding of "private" or "property". He thought he was
recommending the right thing and providing a better future for Russia but
things couldn't work out that way.
Let's not parrot their hypocritical PR too hypo-critically. Sachs, Soros
& Co. know exactly what they are doing -- not to serve or even liberate
Russians but to plunder them (or "liberate" them from their money). But
of course they didn't tell Russians in advance "we come to plunder you"
but "we come to liberate you". Clever advertising uses half-truths.
What I've found is that people in bad social surrounds are able to
collectively find their own path to a more secure existence. In the
slums
of Sao Paulo, fundamentalist religion provided a basis for positive
association, collectively taking on projects to enhance the community
and providing welfare to those in need. In rural Costa Rica, the
cooperative movement underpinned by the Catholic Church was effective
in providing for peoples' needs and holding communities together.
And in the slums of Palestine it's called the Hamas approach.
I think that the most important task is to understand before you advise
and recommend.
And the most important task is to understand the real motives of the
advisors
in order to avoid getting duped by them.
Chris
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