In a followup to my previous post on peculiar infrastructure projects, I’d like to also bring your attention to these grand schemese for infrastructure development on a truly global scale. The projects can be seen in greater detail at the Schiller Institute, which is apparently associated with Lyndon LaRouche’s gang. The site proposes breathtakingly ambitious development plans for irrigation canals, high speed rail and infrastructure corridors.
From tunnels and superhighways to canals and transcontinental rail, the plans are pretty ambitious. I’ve never taken anything from the LaRouche crowd seriously, but it’s at least worth look at this group’s alternative blueprint for action in shrinking the gap.
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COMMENTS / 16 COMMENTS
Sean added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 2:28 pmi must vigorously protest using Tom’s trademarks in connection with anything by the LaRouche crowd! ;-)
Justin added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 4:04 pmI must vigorously protest the use of LaRouche’s infrastructure projects in connection to any site that reeks of oligarchial pagan scum.
Curzon added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 4:19 pmIs that a LaRouche-ite leaping to defend the Dear Leader?
Sean added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 4:26 pmTom will be so happy to know he’s part of the oligarchy. Who wants to tell him?
marquer added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 5:22 pmIt would be instructive for LaRouche and his followers to talk to some of the former Western NGO volunteers who have actual experience of implementing infrastructure in Africa, on a micro rather than a macro level.
Contemporary African culture has shown itself demonstrably unequal to the very simple tasks of routine cleaning, lubrication and maintenance required to keep incredibly basic machinery like solar well pumps running. Yet when it is suggested that Westerners take up those tasks so that the necessary items will be accomplished in a timely and effectual manner, it is dismissed as an arrogant and paternalistic and colonialist attitude.
Can Africans learn to do these things for themselves? I am certain that they have the inherent capacity. Have they learned yet? The evidence is overwhelming that they have not. Are they beginning to learn? Sadly, probably not.
Comrade Mugabe just had a trifling road named in his honor this week in Malawi. I read the report of this on the BBC World Service site, and then read the reader comments, which were depressing:
Who we choose as heroes tells us who we are. The sheer number of persons with African surnames who still obviously revere Mugabe as a champion, rather than as a brutal kleptocrat, should say all that needs to be said about the prospects for meaningful African development and progress in our lifetimes.
Until ordinary African citizens begin to clearly recognize the corruption and ineptitude and arrogance of their own indigenous leaders, and to insist on new leaders who embody transparency and competence, every last penny spent on capital investment there will be a farcical waste.
Catholicgauze added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 5:34 pmThe Soviets irrigated the Aral Sea and destroyed it. I wonder what LaRoche’s reforms would do.
Sean added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 7:48 pmwhat did they irrigate a sea for? that’s crazy! ;-)
Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 9:07 pm
what did they irrigate a sea for? that’s crazy! ;-)
Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 9:07 pmHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Catholicgauze added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 9:08 pmThe Soviets had the idea that the desert would be a great place to grow cotton.
Go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea to see some pictures of how the Aral Sea is drying up.
Catholicgauze added these pithy words on 05 May 06 at 10:43 pmWhat a minute, if one can irrigate a river why can’t one irrigate a sea? I think I used correct grammer.
Justin added these pithy words on 06 May 06 at 12:59 amEmma, Bakunin, et al., were the oligarchial connected scum. Also the British Aristocracy has a fetish for paganism. Whats with the name of this blog anyways? The whole bloody layout is colonial.
Curzon added these pithy words on 06 May 06 at 2:26 amSean: see a before-and-after comparison at an old post here.
Sean Meade added these pithy words on 06 May 06 at 2:09 pmdidn’t mean to cause such a stir. i was just trying to note (albeit, archly) that i think one usually irrigates land forms like plains, deserts, and fields FROM a source of water.
‘I think I used correct grammer [sic.].’
Cg: if that misspelling of ‘grammer’ is a joke, it’s a good one. if not, then just disregard this comment.
i’m not trying to be the spelling, grammar, turn-of-phrase, etc. police. it’s only that i notice (and get paid for it) and hope others, especially the authors, find the notes humorous.
end apologia pro vita sua (mia?)
Jay added these pithy words on 06 May 06 at 5:49 pmAssuming any of this could be done, I wonder what the enviromental impact would be. They seem like good ideas, but these projects would cut through a lot of things.
I know that the LaRouchists have virtually nothing but contempt for enviromentalists and their concerns, viewing most of them (_all_ of them?) as little better than…Nazis (or something like that). But while “green” folks have believed (and advocated) some stupid things, they’re not always wrong—”stopped clocks” and all that.
Would the enviromental costs (such as they can be accurately determined) be worth it?
If Marquer’s correct, than perhaps neocolonialism would be the only way such schemes could be [successfully] implemented.
Did anyone see the “North American Water and Power Alliance Plan (NAWAPA)” or the “Australia Ring Rail Map”? They might have some promise?
