Tropical Gangsters

Yesterday I read Tropical Gangsters by Robert Klitgaard for my Managing Economic Policy Reform class. I finished at 2:30am, super-sleepy, but it was so good! It's Klitgaard's story of his two-and-a-half years in Equatorial Guinea in the mid 1980. He has been sent by the World Bank to try to develop a "medium-term economic strategy" with the leadership there.

Some of his managing techniques were things I tried in Haiti. By about page 200, I really had my hopes up: "Maybe he's doing it! Maybe it'll take, and they'll move forward!" I was hoping for my own sake, for my own work, as much as for his. Alas, it's never so simple, and in the end, simple politics are enough to wipe out all his efforts and those of the group he has worked with.

I checked out the country's history since then. At first glance, I was thrilled to see that their GDP has shot up and is growing rapidly. But the next thing I read was that they've discovered oil. So a few well-positioned individuals benefit, while the rest of the country is left behind. More, they can forget all the reforms they were attempting before, as they're no longer desperate to find lenders (World Bank and IMF, usually) to resolve their debt crisis.