Thursday 17 April 2008

A sense of proportion

God knows we all get carried away at times. Because we're passionate, because we care. But sometimes, you find you've overshot hyperbole and hit nonsense. Mr Eugenides digs up some evidence of corruption in Kenya, which is worth repeating in its own right:
Kenya's expanded new government will spend 80 per cent of the entire national budget on luxury vehicles, inflated salaries for ministers and general running costs, a local anti-corruption group claimed on Wednesday.
Clearly there is only one comparison to be made:
And I thought our set of bastards were bad. Still, this has a familiar ring:
"It appears as if the government has ceased to have a development function and exists only to tax Kenyans and spend their money on recurring costs," said Mwalimu Mati, the director of the Mars Group, an anti-corruption body.
Join the club, mate.
Yes, if there's one thing a professional kleptocracy should remind us of, it's a government that has:
  • doubled funding for school pupils
  • employed 85,000 more nurses and 36,000 more teachers
  • opened 2,200 Sure Start centres
  • lifted 600,000 children out of poverty
  • not stolen 80% of the total budget
Isn't it scary how closely this legalised theft follows the Kenyan model?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Andrew, you're missing the point. All taxation is theft. There is therefore no distinction between what the Kenyans are doing and what our government is doing. Similarly, there is no distinction between a Sure Start centre and a cabinet minister's "entertainment" allowance.