mac·ro·ec·o·nom·ics
I am reading Stephen Lewis's lectures (titled: Race Against Time) and couldn't get over the following paragraph.
here you had a country Malawi with huge human capacity problems that wanted desperately to retain its professionals in health and education, and increase their numbers, but the IMF wouldn't allow them to do so. We're talking about a sovereign government, fighting the worst plague in history, with but a handful of professionals: according to the minister of health, Malawi has one-third of the nurses it needs (4,000 instead of the 12,000) and perhaps 10 per cent of the doctors (300 rather than 3,000) for a population of 12 million. And they weren't being allowed --I repeat, this sovereign government wasn't being allowed -- to hire more staff and pay better salaries, because it would breach the macroeconomic straitjacket.
Yet, politics are bullshit right? Who cares, they're all liars anyway so let's just ignore them. Well, I guess there are people so cushioned by the bullshit safety of their life that they only have to think about things like this when forced to. They get the illusion of thinking that ignorance is a good option they are welcome to take.
here you had a country Malawi with huge human capacity problems that wanted desperately to retain its professionals in health and education, and increase their numbers, but the IMF wouldn't allow them to do so. We're talking about a sovereign government, fighting the worst plague in history, with but a handful of professionals: according to the minister of health, Malawi has one-third of the nurses it needs (4,000 instead of the 12,000) and perhaps 10 per cent of the doctors (300 rather than 3,000) for a population of 12 million. And they weren't being allowed --I repeat, this sovereign government wasn't being allowed -- to hire more staff and pay better salaries, because it would breach the macroeconomic straitjacket.
Yet, politics are bullshit right? Who cares, they're all liars anyway so let's just ignore them. Well, I guess there are people so cushioned by the bullshit safety of their life that they only have to think about things like this when forced to. They get the illusion of thinking that ignorance is a good option they are welcome to take.
posted by Sj @ 11/01/2006 06:05:00 PM
3 Comments:
At 01 November, 2006 20:20,
kristin said…
i don't even know how to comment but it seems important. this all sounds familiar, I think I saw lewis on tvo speaking about this. it makes me cry. nations of people who lose their statehood to these multinational organizations. postmodernism is upon us and it's a scary muhfoh.
At 02 November, 2006 15:14,
Sj said…
It ends nowhere. He goes on in the book to mention how he was reprimanded for publically saying negative things about a technical brother nation in the UN (IMF) talk about retarded.. one brother nation can ruin another but don't comment on it!!
At 02 November, 2006 23:15,
Unknown said…
In the end each nation has to find its own solution. The problem here is some of these nations' leadership is so wasteful that the IMF probably has a point. Corruption and populism is the root cause not that I am letting IMF off the hook just that in the end the IMF is just an organization that manages money Malawi has to be run by Malawians.
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