It's too early on a Monday morning ...

... to be banging my head on the desk over stuff like this:

I have to admit to being fascinated by this development project that The Guardian is running in Katine, northern Uganda. Over a period of several years they're trying to see how and if it's possible to kick start development: a noble and worthy goal.

The Guardian is trying to run a development project? This will be fun!

The fascination comes in part from my not quite understanding the mindset of those attempting to do the developing.

Ah. The game has been given away!

There was one report about how there were not enough desks in the schools: not enough had been delivered by the Government apparently. But, umm, who would assume that in a poor country the Government ought to be delivering school desks? A table is not really all that high technology, a few burly blokes with machetes and a few days work in the woods would knock up something useable wouldn't it? Why this reliance upon the State, some hundreds of miles away over near impassable roads?

Ah, that would have nothing to do with the Guardianistas' belief in the state as the font of all munificence, would it? The idea that individuals could do things for themselves, exercise self-reliance and function without the state providing is completely beyond them.

But of course, with Guardianistas, you just know it's going to get even better.

Another example is this piece about how a Coke (that's as in cola, not Charlie) is available in every village store but medicines are not. Or rather, medicines are indeed available in private stores, but not in the State run health care centres. The end of the piece is:

The new battle is now not just to get HIV medicines to people with Aids, but to get a consistent, affordable supply of essential drugs to all who need them. That means that governments in the west, as well as in developing countries, need to make money available, and turn their attention to supply systems. It can't be left to Coca-Cola barons. It's too important to leave to the market. Not just for Uganda, or Africa, but for all of us.

What the fucking fuck? Coke can do it, private medicine can do it, but the useless dead hand of government can't fucking do it and then you have the audacity to have a go at the market?

What the fuck goes on in the minds of these people? If Coca-fucking-cola can get from its distribution centres out into the sticks reliably and the lazy cunts in government can't (and I can safely vouchsafe on the superlative laziness of African government employees, who make UK government employees look like the Japanese by comparison!) then what is wrong with entrusting it to the nasty market? Do you prefer your ideology to live human beings?

Well, I guess we already know the answer to that, don't we? Socialists would rather let innocent people died than acknowledge the value of the market.