Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Indicator of International Development

All that glitters isnt gold

International aid is big business for small countries. The development of sound institutions is necessary for economic growth, for example without trust in the banking sector, or governments, people wont save their money but wear it in fine cloths or horde it in gold and jewelry – you can see this all over Africa and India.

In Tajikistan, which is back on in the aid dole after years of unrest, President Imomali Rakhmonov has laid down the law after seeing that many if not most government employees have gold teeth, so he has done the right thing and had banned gold teeth for government employees (my new tailor in Brooklyn, who is from Kazakhstan, has gold teeth fyi). “How can international organizations believe in your poverty when the mouth of a teacher is full of gold?” The people seem to be doing ok, but the government can do much much better.