The Failure of Governance

Between the last post on 13th March and now my plan was to post four times before the end of March. So here we are at the 4th of April, rather late, with the first of those posts.

To begin with, I got involved with the Living Economies Expo, at Lyttelton over the weekend, 31 March, 1st and 2nd of April. There was a week of preparation before hand. It's been a busy time, but I've had lots of energy, and working hard is good for you. In addition I learned a lot.

Although that site was last seriously worked on five years ago, most of what it says is still relevant. I'm pleased to report that across the world the sort of thinking I was doing back then is now bearing fruit. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Failure of Governance and Political Corruption

When governance fails, when politics is used for personal enrichment, where economic opportunity is destroyed by lack of investment in education, infrastructure and fair rules of trade, most people live in enforced poverty.

We can see that pattern in Eastern Europe in particular, where poor governance and lack of economic opportunity has caused both a severe decline in the birth rate, and a strong desire among the young to emigrate to a country that offers better education, employment and lifestyle choices. Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal also have this problem.

Population Decline is Already Happening

In Syria, drought was followed by a failure to support bankrupt farmers, those farmers migrated to the city, leading to discontent, protests, and finally to civil war. Syria has suffered the greatest population decline of all nation states in 2013-2016. Expect more of that, in many other countries.

Poor governance has also caused the populations of South Africa and Puerto Rico to decline. Another way to see where there are problems in the world, is to look at the statistics for orphans in various counties. In Asia, for instance in India, China and Bangladesh. In Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have extreme problems with children who have no parents.

John Stephen Veitch