Annabel Crabb in
The Age:
Then Mr Howard arrived [in Davos].
After switching on the lights, turning down the music and briskly fanning away the lingering suggestion of smoke from funny cigarettes, the Australian Prime Minister stoutly argued that it would just be silly to blindly increase aid or forgive debt when there were concerns about exactly where the money ends up.
Governments of developing nations, he said, had to pull their weight by sorting out their own problems with internal corruption before wealthy nations could successfully convince their own constituents to loosen the sporran strings.
See the Niall Ferguson reference
below. I really want to dig deep to enlarge the Swiss bank account of some Third World Thugocrat.
Warming to his theme, the PM had a shot at the Europeans themselves, pointing out that they had no right to harp on about the US approach when the EU itself maintained trade barriers that actively harm the interests of developing nations.
This sort of talk is not fashionable; not in the least.
I guess we'll have to give the
haute couture a pass.
