The far-right, as based in the United States, has generally stepped up its efforts to export its ideology and policy abominations to the rest of the world (recall the teams of flat-taxers that descended upon eastern Europe in the early 90s, or the NRA’s latest efforts to make sure that anyone can have a gun anywhere). This NY Times article gives us another example, of a Mr. Shikwati, a:
young teacher in western Kenya when he came across an article by Mr. Reed on the genius of capitalism. In this isolated village where Mr. Shikwati was raised, life revolved around mud huts and maize, not smokestacks. Still he dashed off a note to Midland, Mich., where Mr. Reed runs a think tank that promotes conservative economics and offers a program teaching others to do the same.
Ah, yes. Just send a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and I’ll send you my materials, which will teach you how to get rich, rich, rich! To be honest, though, it sounds like Mr. Reed has been generous enough to pick up the up-front costs:
Over the next four years, Mr. Reed sent books, reports, magazines, tracts — even occasional sums of money — as Mr. Shikwati embraced capitalist theory with a passion.
But nothing is free, right? Especially when it comes to capitalism. Perhaps you can see the future costs here:
On a continent where socialists have often held sway, Mr. Shikwati is now a conservative phenomenon. He has published scores of articles hailing business as Africa’s salvation; offered free-market lectures on five continents; and, defying the zeitgeist of the Bono age, issued scathing attacks on foreign assistance, which he blames for Africa’s poverty. When Western countries pledged to double African aid last year, an interview with an angry Mr. Shikwati filled two pages of Der Spiegel, the German magazine.
“For God’s sake, please stop the aid!†he told the magazine.
Now, I’m no socialist. And I do think that, in the end, African countries would be better off with more open markets than most of them have right now. But it’s a hell of a long way between here and there. And to see these free market fanatics – who’s ideas can’t even work in developed Western countries – descend upon the rest of the world in an effort to sow the seeds of their idiocy (and, to be sure, their own great profit, should anything ever come of it) is just appalling.  Now, the free market conservative movement generally a patient one – they’ve been bankrolling American ideological institutions for decades, in a slow roll approach to shifting the cultural and political norms in the US. But they’re not unwilling to take short term gains where they can. Now guess what they’re getting out of Mr. Shikwati?
[N]ine months after he started his group, Western supporters flew him to the United States, where he joined a dinner of the conservative Heritage Foundation and toasted an A-list crowd that included Edwin Meese III, the former attorney general.
I guess J.C. Watts was busy. Okay, I should probably have skipped the easy joke about how far Republicans are apparently willing to go to find a little color for their party. Now take a look at the more serious consequences:
With no academic credentials, Mr. Shikwati made a mark as an author of opinion articles. He defended McDonald’s against critics of globalization and drug companies against charges of price gouging. He called for the legalization of the ivory trade, which he argues would protect elephant herds. Above all, he called for an end to foreign aid, saying it hurt local markets, corrupted governments and promoted dependency.
There’s the immediate payoff. Add a local face and voice to nod and agree with your absurd no tax, no regulation, free market plans for a place that can’t yet manage basic education, roads, or utilities, and the Western press will treat it as credible. Note:
His iconoclasm and his authenticity as an African made Mr. Shikwati attractive to the Western press, despite his lack of prominence at home. His views quickly traveled the globe, appearing in places as diverse as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of London, Forbes and The Washington Post.
Echoing his calls to end foreign aid, Suzanne Fields of The Washington Times lauded Mr. Shikwati, who has a bachelor’s degree in education and no economics training, as nothing less than “a distinguished Kenyan economist.â€
Maybe that’s the real American export, here – a trademark conservative method of claiming ideology as fact, by carefully packaging and repeating it. Buyer beware.
