Book Review of Robert Klitgaard's Tropical Gangsters Essay

Book Review of Robert Klitgaard's Tropical Gangsters - Essay Example The book tells the story of the author who, equipped with his surfboard and a $10-million-dollar loan from the World Bank, makes an attempt to rehabilitate the ruined economy of Equatorial Guinea, one of the most backward countries in the world. Robert Klitgaard, a Harvard-trained economist, in the story, deals with several important questions which are relevant to much of the world. "As in most other countries carrying out free market reforms, Equatorial Guinea's leaders have not always known quite how to make the new strategy work - or, in some cases, whether they should really try. This ignorance and reluctance, though extreme, are in many ways prototypical, and they raise general questions. How does one go about assessing an economy's strengths and weaknesses How does one go about developing the institutions needed to make free markets work And how can one help recalcitrant, inefficient, sometimes corrupt government move forward" (Klitgaard, ix-x) Apart from these essential quest ions, the author also deals with the important role of international aid which further gives rise to new questions. Thus, the author investigates the creative possibilities and inherent limitations of outside assistance, the tensions between aid and dependency, between benevolence and autonomy, and the possible ways of action in this context. In the context of economic and political changes taking place in Africa, Robert Klitgaard is engaged in a fascinating and compelling account of his two-and-a-half-year adventure in Equatorial Guinea and it provides an insightful explanation of why foreign aid often fails to achieve its goals. In the book Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa, Klitgaard, who is the former head of a multi-million dollar economic development program in the Equatorial Guinea, convincingly gives an account of his struggles against government corruption, capitalist adventures, and bankrupt economic theories. The narrator was sent as an economist-consultant to Equatorial Guinea, a small West African nation which is one of the poorest countries of the world, by the World Bank in 1985. Klitgaard has been highly effective in blending his personal reminiscence and economic analysis in his engaging memoir of his two-and-a-half-year struggle to rehabilitate the local economy. In the background of the modern tendency to move toward the free market across the world, the author suggests how the countries of Africa welcomed free market for economic development. "Africa has been the vanguard of a worldwide movement away from state-controlled economies and toward the free market. For years the prevailing wisdom concerning economic development advocated an interventionist state. Government should be the mobilizers and managers of resources. In contrast, the new movement says that the private sector is the key to economic growth, and downplays the state's role as mobilizer and manager." (Klitgaard, 7) Thus, the author deals with the various aspects of the backward economies of the African countries and he makes exceptional note of lethargy, corruption, and adventurism as the basic issues affecting the progress of these economies. In his analyses of the economic problems facing Equatorial Guinea, Klitgaard focuses on cogent and convincing issues such imports outstripping exports, lack

Sexuality in Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sexuality in Islam - Essay Example Allah has described very dreadful punishments both in this world and in the world hereafter for the people who practice homosexuality. Allah says in the Quran, â€Å"What! Of all creatures do ye come unto the males, and leave the wives your Lord created for you? Nay, but ye are forward folk† (Qur'an 26:165 cited in â€Å"Islam and Homosexuality†). The people of Hazrat Lut (P.B.U.H.) practiced homosexuality. They practiced it both indoor and in the public. Prophet Lut (P.B.U.H.) repeatedly told them to stop this practice, but they would not listen, thus inviting the wrath of Allah and one day, those people were all destroyed together by Allah. Islam condemns homosexuality because it has myriad evil consequences. Homosexuality distorts the family system and deprives people of their gender traits. Islam allows the man to marry no more than four women at one time. Polygamy has been practiced by a lot of prophets in the history of Islam. Prophet Abraham, Prophet Moses, Proph et Jacob, and the Prophet Solomon had three, two, four, and 700 wives respectively (â€Å"An Introduction to Polygamy†). Critics say that if man is allowed to keep four wives at one time, the woman should also be allowed to keep up to four husbands at one time. But polygamy is in no circumstances allowed for the women in Islam. This makes sense. When a man marries four women, the child any of the wives would bear would be certainly his. On the contrary, when a woman makes love with more than one man at a time, there is no certainty in the child’s belongingness to a particular man unless the child is genetically tested. In addition to that, women generally outnumber men. Thus, when a man marries more than once, more women are likely to get married in their life than otherwise. Although polygamy for men is allowed in Islam, yet it is not practiced equally in all Islamic countries. Polygamy is so well-practiced by the Muslims in the Arabia, that it has also become a cultu ral trait. Polygamy is so ingrained in the Arab culture that a man keeps all the wives in the same home but in different rooms. In many Muslim countries including India and Pakistan, women cannot stand another wife of their husband. They cannot share their husband’s love with another woman. This is the reason why practicing polygamy for a Muslim man in these counties exposes him to a lot of cultural and social issues, though he is religiously justified as long as he does justice to all of the wives. There is a very sheer population of Muslim men in India and Pakistan that have more than one wife at the same time. This is purely a cultural issue. In these countries, women cannot even bear a look of their husband’s wife, what to talk of living in the same home like the Arabian women do. It is noteworthy that while Islam allows the man to keep up to four wives at one time, Islam also obliges the man to do justice to each of the four. This essentially means that a man has to distribute equal amount of money, time and assets among the wives. If a man has two wives and he lives with one more than the other, he is doing injustice and will be held accountable for his actions on the doom’s day. There are no age restrictions in marriage in Islam. A man can get married to an elder woman and so can a woman. Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) was only 25 years old when he was proposed by Hazrat Khadija (P.B.U.H.) who was 40 years old at