Government is Always and Everywhere the Wellspring of Problems

The book by Martin Meredith entitled "The Fate of Africa" is reviewed in the August 31th edition of the Wall Street Journal (link here, subscription required). To reviewer Robert Guest, the book successfully shows:

"Most African countries have been atrociously governed in the past half-century. A lack of institutional checks has allowed an array of incompetent strongmen to rule as they pleased until the money ran out, at which point northern donors oftern tossed them an extra bundle of cash."

Foreign aid advocates, Jeff Sachs and Bono type folks should all get hold of a copy of this book.
Bottom line: Government Sucks. Period.