Poverty and governments

It was heart warming to have listened to Wen Jiabao's (chinese premier) speech at the UN moreso because I believed he sounded truthful and believing that the other developed countries will follow suit in his charge to them. He listed how far China had come, how much it had invested in developing countries and what its intention is by way of assistance to the developing and under developed countries. It is mind blowing how far China has come since Mao's revolution even though what China is today might not be exactly what he had in mind just like Lenin might be wondering how a mad man like Stalin ruled Russia.I have always believed that communism or welfarism of some sort is the mode of government that can ensure equitable development in developing or under developed countries. You do not have to do it like China or Russia. China oppressed and silenced her people for decades; there were imprisonments, killings with no regard to world views, compulsory birth control and the people were voiceless. Can we say that all those atrocities were a necessary price to pay for their achievements today? Those things were horrendous and that is why I call my idea Communism of some sort, something different and peculiar to us.Communism is all about affording equal opportunities to everyone and the burden is on the government to provide all the infrastructures but for how long can a government carry such a burden? This is where slowly but surely China is opening its doors to the international market and allowing its citizens to participate in free enterprise, challenging international conglomerates and at the same time allowing foreign investments in China. A communist country can go bust if it does not know when to call it quits and this is where China has excelled. Castro overthrew the very debauched and corrupt government of Batiste and introduced communism. He has done well for his people but he has failed to see the sign for change even when his allies have moved on. Never the less, he has been a great leader and he gave his people an identity. No matter how good you are, you must have opponents. In our country we say we have a democracy but considering all that has happened, there is no difference between our democracy, communism and dictatorship. Journalists are molested, the police belongs to the powerful and justice is hardly seen to be done. The minority is the majority that has bought the hungry real majority for a pittiance. Do not believe the government stats but the divide is growing wider and wider; street urchins are a threat to motorists; beggars are our decoration at major street junctions; mothers carrying their babies begging for alms to buy food so that they may in turn produce sufficient milk for their infants. Armed robbery and prostitution are on the rise. In communism, who do you want to rob or sell sex to when you are more or less equal in each and every way.The present system assures us that there is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich; that the chances of a have not infiltrating the system is next to nil. I asked my former driver who had 6 kids with one more on the way why it was so and he said that one of them might grow up to be an Abiola and bail them out of their poverty. I did not know how to give him the percentage or odds of one of his kids being an Abiola or Obasanjo(if he accepts). If there was a government that assured him of his tomorrow he would not think that breeding like a rabbit was the way out. One other yard stick by which we can measure poverty is the prevalence of religion. Believe it or not, a majority that goes to church is seeking financial salvation but more often than not comes out poorer while the bishops , pastors or whatever names they go by extort every kobo from them.Remember Argentina and what they did to all those generals; remember Rawlings in Ghana, Kenyatta, kaunda, Nyerere and Mandela who could have caused chaos in South Africa.Let us ask about our country: who will bell the cat; who is ready to grab that mad tiger by the tail or the raging bull by the horn? We do not suffer from natural disasters but our leaders are tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes and monsoons.