africa and molly langer
This afternoon I e-mailed Molly Langer with a controversial nytimes op-ed by Nicholas Kristof (it's a few days old now). She offered a very thoughtful response and included an op-ed of her own. I copied the articles and our conversation below. Molly is working at the Brookings institute this summer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM: HENRY VAN WAGENBERG July 6, 2:42 PM
Molly, I imagine you read this op-ed already, but just in case you didn't, I copied it below. I'm not sending this to you to say "I told you so" or even to defend Bush -- the op-ed itself is ultimately critical of him. But I think it makes the point very well that things aren't black and white; Bush and republicans are not "bad" for developing countries, liberals are not "good" for them. I also find Kristof's skepticism of financial aid both appropriate and healthy.
link to article I sent: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/opinion/05kristof.html?ex=1120795200&en=b1e9fb1ad01d25bc&ei=5070
--------------------------------------------------------------
FROM MOLLY LANGER July 6, 10:27 PM
Henry,
thanks for the article, i thought it was pretty interesting and partially accurate. Kristof, as im sure you know, has been closely following Bush's response to the genocide in Sudan and has been highly critical of the administration. He knows that the G8 summit represents a rare opporunity in that Africa is at the top of the agenda, and my opinion of the article is that he is kissing some bush administration ass in a last-ditch effort to get Bush to make real commitments. That said, "conservative" has a lot of meanings, and the part of conservative that equates with morally conscious and, in most cases, religious, I have no problems with. In fact, by that definition, I come from an extremely conservative, catholic family. And i agree that the religious right does a TON of good social work, more than most liberals who go blabbering about doing good work but never actually get around to doing any. However, as I said, when it comes to Bush's actual commitment to African aid and development, I am highly skeptical. Mostly because I am working here at Brookings with a couple of scholars who specialize on U.S. policy toward Africa, and when you actually look at the numbers versus what Bush says he is commiting, there is a huge discrepancy. Similar to the Iraq issue....more than anything I just wish this administration would have an honest discussion. I've attached a Washington Post op-ed from yesterday, written by a woman who works here at Brookings. Remember the difference between the individual conservative and this conservative administration in terms of which is effective and which follows through on big talk.
link to article Molly sent: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/04/AR2005070400863_pf.html
posted by Henry van Wagenberg at 7:31 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Henry (and Molly),
Nice discussion. I remember reading Kristof's column when it came out a few days ago and was also fairly surprised by it. And I don't disagree (because I don't know at all) with any discrepancy that might exist between actual figures and Bush's rhetoric. What I doubt is that Kristof's admission of Bush's progress amounts to any sort of "ass kissing."
I don't think Bush or any administration official's decision about commitment to helping Africa hinges on the opinions expressed by a NYT columnist. I don't think Kristof would all of a sudden buddy up to the White House in order to try and swing their vote. Besides, Bush has himself admitted that he doesn't read the papers anyway.
I confess upfront that I know next to nothing about Africa, development, Millenium Challenge, etc. What I do know is how closely Kristof follows this, and how it would take something real to admit that Bush is doing something right.
My two cents: I am relieved about two things.
1) Even not knowing much about Africa and the aforementioned subjects, I am really glad that Africa is headlining the G8. The entire continent has been neglected in mainstream discussions in International Relations and needs to be brought into the spotlight. Hopefully Gleneagles and Live8 will help start that process.
2) I am also relieved that one of the notorious Bush critics is brave enough to say that Bush is actually doing decently (though not perfectly) in a major area. I don't think that this is happening just because Bush is all of a sudden doing one thing right. I think that it is a step in the right direction of looking past some bias to actually handing some appropriate accolade to the Commander-in-Chief. Ever since the election season we have been bogged down by either Bush-lovers or Bush-haters. There has been a shortage of people who just give credit where credit is due, and deliver blame where blame is due.
Again, I literally don't know if Bush deserves what Kristof gives him in the column. What I do know is that Africa is reentering political conversations (good), and that Kristof's gesture shows some glimmer of hope for the reconciliation of this polarized nation (very good).
Peace out,
Jrod
1:30 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home