Capitalism

As Churchill used to say about Democracy, Capitalism is the least bad of all the systems we have tried so far. true, like Democracy, it seems that the Chinese version is more popular in today's world than its US counterpart. But just like the US version of Democracy, the Bush version of capitalism has left the world in shambles. It all started under Ronald Reagan. A pleasant fool, who understood absolutely nothing about economics (I witnessed that first hand during the Williamsburg G7 summit in 83), he was persuaded by rich friends to deregulate beyond reason and privatize everything that moved. He gave us the 1987 crash, millions of unemployed and the beginning of the end of the auto-industry.
Enters Georges W. Bush. On his watch, the financial industry pushed lobbying to new heights, paid generous sums to Republicans and blew up the last dams, the last safeguards and the last brakes of the running freight train of unfettered capitalism. Alas, John Stuart Mills, the father of capitalism, makes sure that the "invisible hand of the market is operating within bounds, with accountability and guidance from Congress.
The schemes devised by feckless financiers, in order to capture ever higher bonuses from their shareholders, were so opaque and arcane, that nobody, not even themselves could understand them. Besides a dereliction of duty from bought congressmen, and inept Administration officials, it must be said that the remnants of a regulating industry was way behind the curve, so dizzying was the inventive mind of our scheming heroes.
Greed, ineptness, and gullibility gelled to give us a horrible and dangerous mess.
Gone are all hopes of creating a single payer universal health care system. It will take generations to repay the trillions of dollars needed to plug the leaks (borrowed from which new master of the World?), and capitalism and the US way of Life have suffered yet another terrible blow.

Africa

I just come back from Ghana, after a visit to China and Europe.
China is still vibrating from the Olympics. many in the West have dwelt on human rights and Internet ban, on Tibet and arrests of dissenters. And yet, one has to admire the vitality and the progress accomplished by the Chinese since the revolution. Besides, we westerners will not engage the Chinese if we start by making them lose face. The incidents with the OLYMPIC flame only gathered the Chinese around their flag.
In Africa, I was attending a conference on "Aid Efficiency" .50 years after independence,Africans still live a precarious life, with 1 dollar and 25 cts a day. The bottom billion lives below subsistence level, still.
China's presence on the continent is impressive . They are building infrastructure, supplying manpower, and impressing African leaders with their brand of authoritarian cum prosperity regimes.
With the terrible reputation of the US and the lethargy of Europe, democracy is no longer the way of the future for Africans.