Why Poor Countries Are Poor (I)

The clues lie on a bumpy road leading to the world's worst library

By Tim Harford (Reason, March 2006)

They call Douala the "armpit of Africa." Lodged beneath the bulging shoulder of West Africa, this malaria-infested city in southwestern Cameroon is humid, unattractive, and smelly. On a torrid evening in late 2001, I was guided out of the chaotic Douala International Airport by my friend Andrew and his driver, Sam, who would have whisked us immediately to the cooler hillside town of Buea if Douala were at all conducive to being whisked anywhere.

It isn't. Douala, a city of 2 million people, has no real roads.A typical Douala street is 50 yards wide from shack to shack. It's packed with street vendors, slouched beside a tray of peanuts or an impromptu plantain barbecue, and with little clusters of people, standing around a motorbike, drinking beer or palm wine, or cooking on a small fire. Piles of rubble and vast holes mark unfinished construction or demolition work. Along the middle is a strip of potholes that 20 years ago was a road.

Down that strip drive four streams of traffic, mostly taxis. The streams on the outside are usually made up of cabs picking up fares, while the taxis on the inside weave in and out of the potholes and other cars with all the predictability of ping-pong balls in a lottery machine.

Douala used to have buses, but they can no longer cope with the decaying roads. So the taxis are all that's left: beaten-up old Toyotas, carrying four in the back and three in the front, sprayed New York yellow, each with a unique slogan: "God Is Great, " "In God We Trust," "Powered by God, " "Toss Man."

Nobody who sees a Douala street scene can conclude that Cameroon is poor because of a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. But poor it is. The average Cameroonian is eight times poorer than the average citizen of the world and almost 50 times poorer than the typical American. And Cameroon is getting poorer. Can anything be done to reverse the decline and help Cameroon grow richer instead?

A Theory of Government Banditry

As our car slowly bumped and lurched through the crowds, I tried to make sense of it all by asking Sam, the driver, about the country. "Sam, how long was it since the roads were last fixed?""The roads, they have not been fixed for 19 years."

President Paul Biya came to power in November 1982 and had been in office for 19 years by the time I visited Cameroon. Four years later, he is still in power. He recently described his opponents as "political amateurs"; they are certainly out of practice.
"Don't people complain about the roads?"

"They complain, but nothing is done. The government tells us there is no money. But there is plenty of money coming from the World Bank and from France and Britain and America-but they put it in their pockets. They do not spend it on the roads. "
"Are there elections in Cameroon?""Yes! There are elections. President Biya is always re-elected with a 90 percent majority. "

"Do 90 percent of people vote for President Biya?""No, they do not. He is very unpopular. But still there is a 90 percent majority. "You do not have to spend a long time in Cameroon to realize how much people resent the government.

Much of government activity appears to be designed expressly to steal money from the people of Cameroon. According to the global watchdog Transparency International, Cameroon is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

I was warned so starkly about government corruption, and the likelihood that officials at the airport would attempt to relieve me of my wad of West African francs, that I was more nervous about that than the risk of malaria or a gunpoint mugging in the back streets of Douala.

The economist Mancur Olson proposed a working assumption that government's motivations are darker still, and from it theorized that stable dictatorships should be worse for economic growth than democracies, but better than sheer instability.

Olson supposed that governments are simply bandits, people with the biggest guns who will turn up and take everything. That's the starting point of his analysis-a starting point you will have no trouble accepting if you spend five minutes looking around you in Cameroon. As Sam said, "There is plenty of money…but they put it in their pockets."

Imagine a dictator with a tenure of one week-in effect, a bandit with a roving army who sweeps in, takes whatever he wishes, and leaves. Assuming he's neither malevolent nor kindhearted, but purely self-interested, he has no incentive to leave anything, unless he plans on coming back next year.

But imagine that the roaming bandit likes the climate of a certain spot and decides to settle down, building a palace and encouraging his army to avail themselves of the locals. Desperately unfair though it is, the locals are probably better off now that the dictator has decided to stay.

A purely self-interested dictator will realize he cannot destroy the economy and starve the people if he plans on sticking around, because then he would exhaust all the resources and have nothing to steal the following year. So a dictator who lays claim to a land is a preferable to one who moves around constantly in search of new victims to plunder.

I cannot confirm that President Biya fits Olson's description of a self-interested dictator. But if he did, it wouldn't be in his interest to take too much from the Cameroonian people, because then there would be nothing to take next year. As long as he feels secure in his tenure, he will not wish to kill the golden goose.

Like the virus whose very existence relies on the bodies it afflicts, Biya would have to keep the Cameroonian economy functioning in order to keep stealing from it. This suggests that a leader who confidently expects to be in power for 20 years will do more to cultivate his economy than one who expects to flee the country after 20 weeks. Twenty years of an "elected dictator" is probably better than 20 years of one coup after another.

Staying with the simplifying assumption that Biya has absolute power over the distribution of Cameroon's income, he might decide to steal, say, half of it every year in the form of "taxes" that go into his personal bank account. That would be bad news for his victims, of course, but also bad news for Cameroon's long-term growth.

Think of a small business owner considering an investment of $1,000 in a new power generator for his workshop. The investment is expected to generate income of $100 a year. That's 10 percent, a pretty good return. But since Biya might take half of it, the return falls to a much less attractive 5 percent. The businessman decides not to make the investment after all, so he misses out and so does Biya.

Comments

[Rexon]

President Biya and his french colonial masters do not know anything about development. How can they speak of development when they are ruling but animals who work for their plantations for no pay, drill petroleum for them and have no right for a future. How do you expect president biya and his CPDM stalwarts to understand even the meaning of the word development? they are interested in developing their stomachs rather than any nation, they belong to a nation called france that is developing everyday, and la republique du cameroun has nothing, and that does not bother them as that is not what they are managing. But they are managing the economies of france, europe and the united states which is growing well. so they are actually good managers and more power to their elbows.

[julius]

What do you expect from a system run by thieves for thieves? The only result can be delapidated infrastructure, poor service delivery and a suffocating police state. The fault lies with the Cameroonian people for tolerating these thieves over the past 25 years, dreaming that one morning they will wake and everything would have magically changed.
Cameroon and Cameroonians will remain poor for a very long time. It will take generations to undue the damage that has been done to them.
The "sun is about to set" on MBiya's reign of terror, indifference, kleptocracy etc. What are Cameroonians going to get next? The same, better or worse, we will know soon.

[Paul Tamku]

The fault lies squarely on the Cameroonian citizen for expediently trading cowardice for peace.

The responsibility is especially heavy on Paul Biya's contemporaries for letting him impose mediocrity on the Nation for so long.

Developed nations and developing nations live on creative tension. Those in elected offices have no God given right to rule. Power emanates from the citizenry. Those in elected offices are fallible, their rule is checked and the course of history is moderated by people power if necessary.

The Cameroonian People deserve what they have. Mediocrity and demagoguery from a lack-lustre performer.

[Don man]

I will like to thank those who have taken time to make comments here. Rexon, Paul and the rest.
I think this topic is a big one that has to call the attention of Europe America and Cameroon. I am not very vest with issues such as these, but after taking a keen look at the situation in Cameroon and in many African Countries, I came to one conclusion. The people are angry but what shall they do. He who has the gun has the power. Biya has the gun, given to him by the French. And we do not want to take a fight because we are afraid to die. But then I had a much bigger conclusion, that America and Europe made Africa to be the way it is for their advantage.
The French have maintain their stay in CAmeroon by what Rexon in one of his comments called the colonial force. This is the real problem, no body can speak or take up action, they have the gun given to them by the french. Look at Congo, why is the war
still on? America has a hand. But they hide behind the curtains of the Red Cross and the UN to take what is not theirs. Look at Chad, they have shown intrest because of the oil. I do not want to talk about the slave trade, colonisation and exploitation, the first and second world wars, where Africans fought for no good reason. Germany after the war was developed from American funds, what have they done to Africa. Africa before the coming of the WHITEMAN was in a state of equilibrium, I mean a balance of the socioeconomic and political stability.. We had kings and princes, we were a proud people. What what have we today, brainwashing by the BBC and the VOA. Africans are regards as good for nothing individuals. I will like to tell Tim Harford to go and read again rather than telling us what we know alread. He should write about the US helping to stop all forms of exploitations and why not paying reparations to Africa. I wonder if African History is thought in the school he graduated. Look for the book 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'.

[rexon]

Great Comments by Julius, Paul and Don man. Paul, your idea that "The fault lies squarely on the Cameroonian citizen for expediently trading cowardice for peace" is actually great. We are trading our future for what we call peace, simply because, some of us do not want to stand for the truth. I have been raised in the streets of mutengene, i have seen our parents being tortured by colonial agents simply because they stood for the truth. I remeber during the early 90's when colonial gerndarmes raided my fathers workshop, collected him and his boys, gave them several strokes of the cane simply because they sided with the then SDF which was blindly the truth. I remember constant news of my SCNC parents and grandparents in mutengene being harassed by colonial gerndarmes simply because they are siding with the truth, the youths and almost everybody is being forced to accept wrong for rights, simply because colonial gerndarmes have bullets. Politicians dupe our parents with cows, rice and salts during election times to vote for them. Yet we tolerate all this nonsense. Our concience is being sold for material concerns. We must grow up. Our future depends on our ability to recognise the truth and nothing but the truth. Mr Biya's reign of terror will soon end and he will have a high price to pay here or in heaven. We need to grow up, our future need to lie in our own hands rather than the hands of colonial agents who have no interest in us. All those siding with colonial agents to destroy our childrens future need to be moderated, they need to recognise that our future does not lie on their abilities to steal our resources to satisfy their selfish desires. While other nations are developing, others are instead being underdeveloped everyday. If you left cameroon, say 10 years back, dont expect any development if you pay your first visit there. What you will instead be entertained with is delapilated roads, infrastructures, etc. We have a moral responsibility to defend our land, our future and our hope.

[Paysan]

This article again!!!! It was posted in a shesan chatroom i am active in and leadto heated debates reflecting the different view of cameroonians. I would not write again on this but i'll just put im my views like in the other chatrooms.

All what this hill billy etasien is writing here is not new. Its a pitty that all what people see in that country negetive. Some hill billy yankee would just ride through Douala and thinks he knows the place or what??? I never said the roads were paved and there was no dust but what i am tired of is there cameroonians having nothing to do but complain everyday without thinking of doing their own bit about it. As a colleague of mine put it, a bunch of Afro persimists.Mostly siutting in the West and doing as if they invented the standards there.
That same douala could also be described in a different manner depending on the wriuter. The douala i grew up oin and the one i visit atleast two times each year, has got more than what that hill billy is saying about it.

I am tired of hearingcameroonians complain! Those copuntries in which you sit and write everyday in this chatroom are not yours. Go home and do your part so you can be proud of it. Yes we have political issues but the country does not get bad of Mr. Biya alone.
Stop using his name as an excuse. Go home and in your own small efforts change one small think.If not, stop filling chatrooms with old and boaring stories

A cameroonian who cares!

[rexon]

Paysan,
That douala is a shame to cameroonians in particular and africa in general. Our micro objectives alone cannot develop any country if macro policies are not realistic. Besides, financial development precedes economic development and in a system of corruption instituted by macro objectives influenced by the CPDM regime, no meaningful development can take place. The plan to develop Ireland was developed from abroad, so dont think we the bunch of african living abroad do not have any concern for our country. What the author has written is real. apart from a few issues relating to the conduct of certain honest individuals, there is nothing to admire in cameroun.

[Njei Moses Timah]

Cameroon's crime is that she is very rich in natural resources. Cameroon is suffering the same fate with Congo DR and other nations with natural resources. Corruption, unaccountability and puppet regimes are encouraged in those countries so that both foreign and local predators can plunder the resources. There is undeniable evidence that those people willing to exercise good governance in these 'rich' African countries are denied the opportunity to do so thanks to the complicity of the West. The situation of Cameroon is not going to change significantly even with the departure of Biya. Our 'masters' will tolerate only limited reforms that will gurantee the 'stability' for them to continue business as usual. If you try to radically change the status quo, you will get turmoil and war in return. Ask Angola and Congo DR.
Njei M.T
http://www.njeitimah-outlook.com

[julius]

Paysan,

who says we are not doing our part to contribute to the development of Cameroon? The thousands of dollars that those abroad send as remittances to their families is a huge source of foreign exchange for that kleptocratic, ethno-facist cabal. The "gov't" has withdrawn or participate minimally in certain areas of development such as education and health and some of us abroad have picked up the slack. In my village, we have built schools, equiped the only hospital in the village, set-up anti AIDS education and treatment programs, water supply etc. Don't tell me that we are not doing our part to contribute to the development of that country. The fact of the matter remains that you have a "gov't" that has abdicated its responsibility to the people and focused its energy on thievry. I just cannot believe that anybody can look at this gov't and feel any sense of optimism about the future, unless you are eating from the same trough.
Mr. Estasian did not lie, Douala is a cess pool.

[Fon Lawrence]

The problem of Cameroon is the mentality of its citizens.Cameroonians are sufferring because they have tolerated too much.This is the reason why some one is forced to ask whether there are elections in Cameroon.Cameroonians cannot fold theirs hands and say elections are always rigged;is that enough for us to go yearning when we have aboundance of resources? Until we learn to revolt,our situation will remain the same.People should be able to stand up and resist all odds.

[Ngum]

first destroy the breweries, and in so doing relieve the peoples righteous anger from the grip of the stupidness causing poison ethanol. after the hangover something might happen. what you think fon lawrence?

[Awasum Marcel]

Computer science being the bases of Engineering as a whole,if introduced in the GCE syllabus is an indication of the modernisation of the educational system of Cameroon and worths encouragement.I found this course a little bit complicated during my first semester at the university of Duisburg (Germany), meanwhile students from other countries were OK with it since there already did it in thier respective high schools and this gave them an advantage during Cax laboratory work.If Cameroon would like to train engineers in the near future then she should start today without delay.

[YAMHEAD]

Please don't come back home.Not now.Please look for money abroad. Please don't listen to that cocoyam. If you come here you will have no job. You will be idle,You will borrow mimbo, it will lead you to a popular tipe of sickness.The only income i depend on will be gone.I will die early. If something could be done those here, including this cocoyam, would have. Please don't feel gilty you are doing just what you are supposed to do. Peter Mah tell this to your friend if you like them.

[Fon Lawrence]

Hello Ngum,
My approbation.what you said is a platitude and that is exactly what I hold for Cameroonians.
Cameroonians,although poor can still afford their three meals a day and enough to drink.They see life O.K and can tolerate anything.When salaries of civil servants were reduced to allowances and they did not revolt,I thought it was because that only affected a small percentage of the population.I was alterly biwildered when AES sonel increased the price of electricity which was not even regular,yet people simply grumbled in silence.How many countries will tolerate that? In neighbouring Nigeria,when the price of fuel is increased by a few kobos,people go to the streets until the situation is reversed.
I think the only thing which may provoke the wrath of Cameroonians is a situation where they are deprived from Alcohol and food.
It is infelicitous.

[Rexon]

Honestly Fon,
Most cameroonians cannot afford even a meal a day. Lets be honest about the reality of cameroon. I recently went for the funeral of my father mostly spending time around Mutengene, Bamenda and my Village Mbatu. What i found was abject poverty and a very embarassing lifestyle. Lets be honest, there is just no hope. We turn to live abroad, accuse people back home of being lazy, etc. In reality, most people back home are just frustrated and do not know what to do as there is habitually nothing they can do. I saw thousands of meaningful first degree holders, able bodied individuals, involved in subsistence farming for livelihood. Honestly, things are really hard for a majority of cameroonians and the earlier we do our utmost best to save the future generation of africans, Who are subject to such man made poverty, the better. Cameroon is not poor but the regime in power, some CPDM stalwarts, colonial french have hidjacked all the resources in the country to satisfy their own selfish desires.

[Fon Lawrence]

Rexon
I don´t dispute the fact that Cameroon is rich but Cameroonians are poor.My emphasis is on the fact that Cameroonian tolerate anything because they are still able to make ends meets.

Believe me,when it will reach that kind of desparate situation where majority of them go to bed without food and spend a sleepless night;the least provocation will make them go on rampage.

The only way that we can help is to sensitise our people;let them know their rights;let them know that if they are cheated in elections,they should stand firmly against it.They should not suffer in silence.Absence of war does not necessarily mean peace.
Rexon,accept my heart felt condolences

[Don man]

Please if you have time. Take a look at the link below and if possible spread this link to others. Its our duty to know the truth and the reason why we are at the state of affairs we find our selfs today.
God bless you all in the Struggle.

http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/rodney-walter/how-europe/

[courtney eko]

Some patronising tourist who thinks we should listen because he is from outside.Ain't nothing new in what you said,sir.we know it all and worse still live the daily reality.More so,there are many people who are working hard to change the system,and some have sacrificed their lives!!! The are many parts of the US that can be similarly described,if you do not talk about roads.Did you visit Bonanjo? The Blacks who could not escape Katrina are no better than the poor in Douala. if there were a katrina hitting Douala in 2 weeks,I bet you the city will be bare. In their poverty the poor are all the same:newyork,newtown limbe or London.Your pseudo intellectual economic theoies wiil not get us out of our poverty.Your government should stop supporting Biya.

[Rexon]

Thanks Fon for your condolence message.