20 The EconomistSeptember 28th 2019
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In demand
Economists helped shape
American policy and public
attitudes well before the 1950s
(“The numbers guys”, August
31st). This is exemplified by the
rise of national-income
accounting in the late 1920s,
the influx of economists into
Franklin Roosevelt’s wartime
government, the Employment
Act of 1946, which created the
Council of Economic Advisers,
the Committee for Economic
Development’s influential
policy books in the 1940s, and
the sharp rise in economics
phds in the late 1940s. Before
that, John Commons, the
president of the American
Economic Association, urged
colleagues to assist federal
agencies during the first world
war. The National Bureau of
Economic Research, founded
in 1920, embarked on the first
systematic efforts to gauge
national income and study
business cycles.
andrew yarrow
Washington, DCThe land is their land
It is simplistic to blame the
collective ownership of Afro-
Colombian lands for the
poverty in Colombia’s Pacific
coast region (“No-man’s land”,
August 31st). We have evaluated
the effect of collective property
on development in the area,
comparing Afro-Colombian
communities who have col-
lective land titles with those
who have none. Collective
titling significantly reduces
extreme poverty, increases
mean household income,
improves children’s school
attendance in primary educa-
tion and promotes housing
investment.
Holding a stake in collective
property indicates to inhabit-
ants that theirs is no longer a
“no-man’s land” and motivates
investment. There are still
sizeable gaps in socio-eco-
nomic indicators between
Colombia’s Pacific and the rest
of the country, but without
collective titling the situation
would be even worse.
You further claim that the
right to prior consultation inthe region delays the provision
of public goods, again, with no
empirical evidence. In fact, I
have noticed the opposite.
During negotiations, commu-
nities demand public goods
that the Colombian state has
failed to provide. You conclude
by pointing out that not every-
one shares the government’s
idea of “progress” for the
region. Here, we agree. It is
untenable to endorse a view of
progress that ignores local
governance merely for the
benefit of a few people.
Indeed, the law from 1993
establishing collective land
titling and the right to prior
consultation constitute the
only noteworthy government
policies favouring Afro-
Colombian communities since
the country’s abolition of
slavery in 1851.
maria alejandra vélez
Professor of economics
Los Andes University
BogotáHow to help Syria
You say that the West should
offer Syria “strictly humanitar-
ian assistance” (“Assad’s
hollow victory”, September
7th). There is evidence that
humanitarian assistance to
Syria has systematically been
distributed only in areas loyal
to Bashar al-Assad. The con-
centration of unoperations in
Damascus only makes the
matter worse. Many other
conflicts that featured
extensive civilian suffering,
including the famine in Ethio-
pia during the 1980s, were
marked by the political dis-
tribution of aid, which extend-
ed the length and cost of war. It
is a morally difficult choice to
withhold assistance from
those in need, but in the case of
Mr Assad’s regime it is the
correct one, regardless of the
form of foreign assistance.
jessica trisko darden
Assistant professor of
international affairs
American University
Washington, DCMedical infrastructure and
staff have been systematically
targeted by the Assad govern-
ment and its Russian allies intheir brutal strategy of war. We
have corroborated 583 attacks
on at least 350 separate health
facilities as well as the killing
of 912 medical personnel be-
tween March 2011 and August
2019, using a highly conserva-
tive methodology. More than
90% of these attacks were
perpetrated by the Syrian
government and its allies.
Among other efforts to end
impunity for war crimes in
Syria, it is imperative that the
un’s investigation into such
attacks be conducted without
delay and its findings made
public. It should assign cul-
pability for these heinous acts.
Hospitals should never
become death traps.
susannah sirkin
Director of policy
Physicians for Human Rights
New YorkPutting country above party
I was disappointed by the
omission of Stanley Baldwin
from your list of British prime
ministers who have headed
governments of national unity
(“Of gnus and other animals”,
August 31st). The contrast
between Boris Johnson and his
interwar predecessor is stark.
Baldwin devoted much of
his leadership to combating
populist politics and powerful
press barons, which he viewed
as existential threats to Brit-
ain’s system of parliamentary
governance. He agreed to
participate in forming a
national government in 1935
rather than taking advantage of
the fragmentation of other
parties in the House of
Commons, believing that all
parliamentarians have a duty
to place country over party.
lex ray
LondonSacred scripture
Your review of Tom Holland’s
“Dominion” makes the
assertion that “the Bible is a big
and incoherent book” (“The
cross’s shadow”, August 31st).
Actually, the Bible is a
collection of scores of books, a
mixture of histories, letters,
biography, song and more. The
sense of incoherence comesfrom not understanding the
contextual situation of each
book and the type of literature,
giving rise to puzzlement,
occasional strangeness and
difficulty.
Yes, people have used
verses out of context to sup-
port all kinds of monstrous
positions, but what part of
humanity has not been used
for the purposes of warped
political and social ends?
rupert higgins
Bournemouth, DorsetChina’s gay history
Chaguan reported that “only
two decades ago, officials
insisted there were no gay men
in China” and that “censors
have stepped up efforts to
shield Chinese audiences from
depictions of gay life” (Septem-
ber 7th). Xi Jinping constantly
urges his countrymen to
remember their historical and
Confucian roots. An early
emperor of the Han dynasty,
Ai, cut off the sleeve of his robe
rather than awaken his male
lover, Dong Xian, who had
fallen asleep in his arms, hence
the Chinese expression, “cut-
sleeve love.” There are indeed
gay men in China, and there
always have been.
michael arkin
TorontoThe old brigade
Bagehot described the Conser-
vative Party membership as
mostly “over 55 years old, 70%
are men, 97% are white and, as
a group, they have far more
authoritarian and Eurosceptic
views than the population at
large” (September 7th). That
seem like a pretty good de-
scription of the outgoing Euro-
pean Commission. All right,
except for the Eurosceptic bit,
but the rest of the characteris-
tics are uncannily similar.
neil wood
Aylesford, Kent