The Lighthouse
“Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy”
Volume 10, Issue 20: May 19, 2008
In this week’s issue:
1) The Other Burmese Disaster
2) U.S. Military Reform Unlikely, Eland Argues
3) Latin America’s Populist Party and Coming Hangover
4) Freedom’s Future: Tempering Optimism with Realism
The Other Burmese Disaster
Although natural disasters often bring out the best in people, Cyclone Nargis has brought out the worst: it has shown the world that Myanmar’s (Burma’s) generals are concerned more with retaining and enhancing their political power than with saving the lives of the unfortunate people they rule.
“The Myanmar catastrophe is the result of a political mind-set—that is, of cold-blooded decisions aimed at protecting the military government from the threat of instability,” writes Alvaro Vargas Llosa, director of the Independent Institute’s Center on Global Prosperity.
Myanmar’s rulers concealed from the public the magnitude of the approaching tempest, lied about the number of victims left in its wake, obstructed the efforts of foreign relief agencies, forbade civilians from distributing the little aid that made it through, and sought to legitimize and further entrench their rule with a bogus referendum. “The Myanmar government’s conduct in the last few weeks,” continues Vargas Llosa, “may soon rank among the worst tragedies in living memory caused by people obsessed with power.”
“Myanmar’s Real Cyclone,” by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (5/14/08) Spanish Translation
Purchase Liberty for Latin America: How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa.
“You may not agree with everything Alvaro Vargas Llosa says in his Liberty for Latin America, but you should take very seriously his central argument: that lack of political and economic freedom is at the root of our region’s underdevelopment. With this volume, Alvaro makes an important contribution to the present debate on the causes of Latin America’s poor economic and social performance.”
—Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico; Director, Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University
