Global Inequality
Should some countries cease to exist? Globalization, migration & the fate of nations
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Branko Milanovic
https://branko2f7.substack.com/p/should-some-countries-cease-to-exist
If Chad, Liberia and Mauritania cease to exist because everybody wants to move to Italy and France, why should one be concerned: people have freely chosen to be better off in Italy and France, and that’s all there is to that.
ReplyDeleteOnly an academic would make such a ridiculous statement.
The ruling class in those countries will do everything in their power to maintain their national sovereignty, and the comfortable lifestyles that their position affords them.
The vast majority of people in poverty stricken countries do not want to leave their homes or abandon their culture. Migration in that context is an act of desperation, not freedom.
He may as well ask if jurisdictions should cease to exist.
Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
ReplyDeleteHere are 3 positions that should cease to exist.
Make that 4 positions.
ReplyDeleteAmazing that a single man can hold down 4 positions at once.
ReplyDeleteWould have been nice, Tom, if the above article, "Should Some Countries Cease to Exist?" were juxtaposed with Franko's "Countries that Need to be Nuked" list. You know, for compare and contrast effect :)
ReplyDeleteTop of the list:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-embassy/iranians-chant-death-to-america-to-mark-u-s-embassy-seizure-idUSKBN1XE0KK
A little history lesson.
ReplyDeleteWhy do the US and Iran hate each other?
You can’t understand the current US-Iran conflict by just looking at recent events. That’s because the move toward open war between the two nations is the result of roughly 70 years of history.
In 1951, a left-wing nationalist named Mohammad Mossadegh became prime minister of Iran through a democratic election. Mossadegh strongly opposed foreign involvement in Iran, particularly in its oil industry (which had been built in significant part by British interests). Just days after Mossadegh became prime minister, Iran’s parliament approved a bill he’d championed nationalizing the massive British-owned oil company in Iran.
The British were furious — at the time, the company was what author Stephen Kinzer described as “the most lucrative British enterprise anywhere on the planet” — and they wanted it back. To do so, they asked the Americans to help them overthrow Mossadegh. They agreed, and the CIA’s Operation Ajax was born. Together, the two Western nations backed a coup that would topple Mossadegh in 1953, replacing his government with an absolute monarchy ruled by the shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
For the next 26 years, the US supported and armed the shah’s regime — a brutal dictatorship that tortured dissenters but was seen in Washington as a staunch ally against Soviet communism.
So in 1979, when Iranians rose up against the shah’s regime, the United States was widely (and correctly) seen as complicit in his crimes; the now-familiar Iranian chant of “death to America” originated during revolutionary rallies. The theocratic Islamic Republic that supplanted the shah made anti-Americanism a central part of its ideology; its leader Ruhollah Khomeini famously described the United States as the “Great Satan” in his official rhetoric. —vox.com
All's fair in love and war...
ReplyDeleteKill A Turk And Rest
ReplyDeleteI was reminded this week of the old tale about a Jewish mother taking leave of her son, who had been called up to serve in the czar’s army against the Turks.
“Don’t exert yourself too much,” she admonishes him, “Kill a Turk and rest. Kill another Turk and rest again...”
“But mother,” he exclaims, “What if the Turk kills me?”
“Kill you?” she cries out, “Why? What have you done to him?” —Uri Avnery
Shouldn't Turks kill themselves?
ReplyDeleteAsking for a friend...