NEWSWEEK.COM 17
“We have no way to
insulate ourselves
from their problems:
Deforestation. AIDS.
Ebola. Terrorism.
Drugs. Gangs.
Illegal immigration.
Ecological disasters.”HOPE? Sierra Leone’s President,
Julius Maada Bio (pictured lower
left), is trying to embrace the private
sector to revive the country; civil war
victims near Freetown (top right).workers support this approach. Peggy
Murrah, head of the Friends of Sierra
Leone group, describes that vision as
the “sweet life.”
While appealing, that approach is
probably impractical. Microfinance
makes for heartwarming stories, like
those in Roger Thurow’s acclaimed
book, The Last Hunger Season. But Col-
lier says it is too small to make a differ-
ence. There’s limited land available to
support an expansion of subsistence
farming. Much subsistence farming is
slash-and-burn, where farmers clear
and burn new forest each year, which
is an ecological nightmare. And there’s
an even bigger problem: Is peasantry
what people want? Subsistence farm-
ing is a life of poverty where success
means having enough to last until the
next harvest. It’s backbreaking, brut-
ish work. None of the young people I
spoke to wanted any part of it.
The alternative is to create a moremodern, urban society funded by a
strong private sector, the Singapore
Solution. In Rwanda, President Paul
Kagame has set out to do that. He’s
taken aim at things that turn off inves-
tors like poor sanitation and corrup-
tion. He’s invested in infrastructure
and technical training and installed
the rule of law for business, ensuringenforcement of contracts. He’s worked
to build Rwanda into a financial ser-
vices and information technology pro-
vider. The net result is that Rwanda is
ranked 29 in the world by the World
Bank for ease of doing business.
According to Patricia Crisafulli, who
co-wrote Rwanda, Inc., it’s working.
Might that formula work for other
small African nations like Sierra
Leone? Perhaps. Rwanda and Sierra
Leone are similar in size, population,
demographics. Both have ethnic fric-
tion and are recovering from conflicts.
However, the Rwanda solution comes
at a price. Freedom House scores
Rwanda very low because Kagame
has created a one-party state, been
re-elected with a suspicious 98.8 per-
cent of votes cast and changed the
constitution to allow him to serve
until he’s 77. Many Sierra Leoneans I
talked to would take that deal: pros-
perity for democracy. But the chal-
lenge is finding the right leader. It’s
proven easy for developing nations
to recruit dictators, but not so easy
to find a Lee Kuan Yew, as Singapore
did. As Collier says, “If autocracy were
a formula for success, African nations
would be rich.”
The recently-elected president of
Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, is
trying to embrace the private sec-
tor. He’s toured the U.S. and Europe
telling business leaders that Sierra
Leone welcomes investment. But it’s
not that simple. For business to work,
it needs the right conditions. A free
market without rules dissolves into a
kleptocracy. The Heritage Foundation
publishes an annual ranking of “Eco-
)^5 nomic Freedom,” which is in effect a
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