Randomly Noted

The notion that blue-eyed white men brought down the global economy is laughable, of course. (I refer to the recent comments of Brazilian political boss Lula). But my third trip to India – got back a few days ago – underscores that the world’s developing economies had best clean up their own acts before pointing fingers elsewhere. Rampant hygiene and sanitation problems – aka rural and urban areas living in squalor – are most certainly not the creation of the white boys’ club that ran global finance for too long.

Incompetent, corrupt and/or politically paralyzed governments in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Phillipines, Mexico and elsewhere, are to to blame for failing to fix what aren’t exactly rocket-science caliber problems. With fast growing economies and well-educated techocratic leaders, not to mention willing NGOs with heaps of expertise, there is enough money and knowledge to assure the under-classes have a modicum of health and dignity.

Kids playing atop trash heaps, women cooking in mud that is oozing with the dung of local livestock, communal water sources inconveniently located and of dubious cleanliness – not exactly high-tech problems but exactly and precisely the conditions one should no longer see widespread in emerging nations run by the likes of Lula.