Thought For The Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
But is he wrong?
Yeah, because he is trying to replace French aid with Russian aid:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/08/putin-meets-burkina-faso-leader-traore/
Yes, he is wrong. No one can pee for you. Development means the acquisition of human capital which provides a way station to improve processes and make use of technology. The French can teach you things, but you have to be willing and able to learn them. I doubt the Russians are better teachers than the French (who have been present there for four generations).
They had a violent revolution with no near term hope of things getting better.
Seems they did learn something from the French!
His words:
You’re both making the exact same point. (assuming English is even a language of his – without checking the source there’s no telling whether there’s some translation errors in it)
And Don, at best you just proved he is a liar about wanting to stand on his own, not that his point is invalid. (Also if one wants to be a lawyer-like stickler, “it will not kill us” would also be true because they are apparently too busy killing each other.)
But Br. Optimist? That was funny and clever. 😉
“not that his point is invalid”
He wasn’t making a philosophical point. He was claiming that his country was going to be standing on its own two feet which is not going to be occurring judging from his trip to Russia to kiss Putin’s ring.
The case could be made that what he literally said was correct, but that he was being insincere when he said it 🙂
The Sahelian countries are not failed states, but they have low levels of technology and human capital. There’s nothing wrong with French assistance provided it’s properly deployed. They are starting from a low base so it will be a slow process. What Thos. Sowell said: “The short run historically is the long run in the life of a particular person”. It’s conceivable France has promoted cr!p projects which retarded them, but it’s more readily conceivable that the impediments are local.
It’s conceivable France has promoted cr!p projects which retarded them, but it’s more readily conceivable that the impediments are local.*
Both could be true, but if they sidle up to the Russians, all they’ll get is some Wagner troops sent to exploit them for their natural resources (assuming they have any). Sometimes, the enemy of my enemy is just a different enemy.
CAG gets it.
Which again, makes him liar. But to say that this:
“cutting it off from us now will not kill us, rather it will motivate us to work and rely on ourselves”
Is not a philosophical point… well then I guess saying “give a man to fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for life” doesn’t make any philosophical points either.
I just never thought I’d find a conversative pontificator arguing so stringently for welfare and handouts.
I just never thought I’d find a conversative pontificator arguing so stringently for welfare and handouts.
Nobody argued for that. That might be appropriate if the Sahel were suffering an acute problem like a famine. They’re just suffering from a deficit of skills and institutional development, which isn’t addressed with handouts.
I just never thought I’d find a conversative pontificator arguing so stringently for welfare and handouts.
Keep searching; maybe you’ll find one.