human
Sorry we're late, he said,
gpt
Particularly in view of the fact that the idea of this meeting originated with my team. We had some difficulty with a nomad raider, up in Chaambra country.
human
I suppose in typical African Development Project style, you killed the poor man.
gpt
He got back to the meeting.
human
I had originally thought of this being an informal get-together of a score or so of us, but in view of the numbers I suggest we appoint a temporary chairman.
gpt
You're doing all right,
human
I second that,
gpt
All right. If there is no objection, I'll carry on until the meeting decides, if it ever does, that there is need of elected officers.
human
I object. In the third row a white haired, but Prussian-erect man had come to his feet.
gpt
I wish to know the meaning of this meeting. I object to it being held at all.
human
Dad, how can you object to it being held if you don't know what it's for?
gpt
Suppose I briefly sum up our mutual situation and if there are any motions to be made--including calling the meeting quits--or decisions to come to, we can start from there.
human
I don't know most of you. The word of this meeting must have spread from one group or team to another. So what I'll do is start from the beginning, saying little at first with which you aren't already familiar, but we'll lay a foundation.
gpt
This situation which we find in Africa is only a part of a world-wide condition. Perhaps to some, particularly in the Western World as they call it, Africa isn't of primary importance. But, needless to say, it is to we here in the field. Not too many years ago, at the same period the African colonies were bursting their bonds and achieving independence, an international situation was developing that threatened future peace. The rich nations were getting richer, the poor were getting poorer, and the rate of this change was accelerating. The reasons were various. The population growth in the backward countries, unhampered by birth control and rocketing upward due to new sanitation, new health measures, and the conquest of a score of diseases that have bedeviled man down through the centuries, was fantastic. Try as they would to increase per capita income in the have-not nations, population grew faster than new industry and new agricultural methods could keep up. On top of that handicap was another; the have-not nations were so far behind economically that they couldn't get going. Why build a bicycle factory in Morocco which might be able to turn out bikes for, say, fifty dollars apiece, when you could buy them from automated factories in Europe, Japan or the United States for twenty-five dollars?
human
For a time aid to these backward nations was left in the hands of the individual nations--especially to the United States and Russia. However, in spite of speeches of politicians to the contrary, governments are not motivated by humanitarian purposes. The government of a country does what it does for the benefit of the ruling class of that country. That was the reason it was appointed the government. Any government that doesn't live up to this dictum soon stops being the government.
gpt
That isn't always so,
human
Bear with me a while, he said.
gpt
We can debate till the Niger freezes over--later on.
human
For instance, the United States would _aid_ Country X with a billion dollars at, say four per cent interest, stipulating that the money be spent in America. This is aid? It certainly is for American business. But then our friends the Russians come along and loan the same country a billion rubles at a very low interest rate and with supposedly no strings attached, to build, say, a railroad. Very fine indeed, but first of all the railroad, built Russian style and with Russian equipment, soon needs replacements, new locomotives, more rolling stock. Where must it come from? Russia, of course. Besides that, in order to build and run the railroad it became necessary to send Russian technicians to Country X and also to send students from Country X to Moscow to study Russian technology so that they could operate the railroad. Crawford's voice went wry.
gpt
Few countries, other than commie ones, much desire to have their students study in Moscow.