Development in Africa - and infrastructure / "culture"

If you have been reading here at all, you should know that I am persuaded that the large difference between developed and developing nations lies at least part in the "cultural" or "world view" differences.

BUT - it is clearly a complex problem. In an article about Africa, the author is very clear that the legal infrastructure of land ownership is a major problem for African development. This is certainly for agriculture - which is pretty much the basis for any solid level of developed society.

You can find the article here:  Maximizing Africa's Agriculture.  Part of the problem is that most of Africa's farmers are women, and women cannot legally hold title to land in many societies. Another part is that only a 10 percent of African land is actually titled or registered in such a way that one can even claim ownership.

In one instance I am aware of, the government of Tanzania dedicated a part of the Serengeti, the historic home of the Maasai tribe, to an Arab hunting ground. Of course, some money changed hands in the course of this. The Maasai are barely farmers, but the little farming they do is severely restricted by the government, so as not to interfere with tourism and the like.

So, besides a favorable world view, it is also essential to development that the social infrastructure be consistent and supportive. As Amartya Sen has clearly shown, humans will prosper, provided we have some basic "freedoms" - a stable, supportive government infrastructure is one of them. And that depends largely on a world view that finds such an infrastructure important to create and maintain. Where the world view is top down - the top is in charge and the rest of us depend on it - that infrastructure is unlikely. Corruption, failure of the legal system, no land ownership system, all work against our innate ability to prosper.

Prior to the invention of agriculture, land was NOT owned by anyone. You used it, you moved on, no one complained. With agriculture, it became important to own that piece of dirt that you used to maintain your livelihood. And MOST of us were farmers - we fed ourselves and sold a bit for other things we could not make. We also settled down, and needed a place to call home. Now, in the U.S., less than one per cent of us actually farm. Yet our amazing agriculture productivity is one of the major sources of our wealth and prosperity.

And, once again, given that we know this, how the heck do we change it? My biggest fear is that the "world view" that underlies the amazing creativity and productivity of the U.S. is gradually being worn down by our individualistic, selfish approach to sharing the wealth. We are so divided now that we cannot do the simplest thing in our infrastructure to foster growth and freedom in our society.

One of the most recent efforts at a bi-partisan law was to restrict the ability of NSA to spy on all of us. Now, who would not support that?  Well, a bipartisan group supports it, and another opposes it. The opposition includes the Speaker of the House and the President. With those two agin it, it ain't going anywhere - ever. We are giving up freedoms for security - the same thing happened during the civil war and the World War II. But those wars ended and we got back to normal. The current war is never going to end.

Canadians do better. Scandinavians do better. Baah.

Your thoughts?