Viewpoint
Don Pittis
Economically speaking, it's time to invade Eritrea
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 11:25 AM ET
By Don Pittis CBC News
Don Pittis has reported on business for Radio Hong Kong, the BBC and the CBC. Maybe it is time for the rest of the world to follow Canada's lead and pull out of Afghanistan. Then we can all invade some place equally needy like Eritrea. It only makes economic sense.
The idea struck me the other morning when I heard my old friend from Hong Kong days, Adrian Edwards, on the radio announcing that the UN was evacuating 600 of its foreign nationals from Kabul.
Adrian has worked in some the world's most exotic locations as a correspondent and then as a UN official. He is not easily moved.
In fact, in talking to his wife a while ago, apparently his biggest hardship complaint about Afghanistan was having to eat too much goat.
But as I heard Adrian's familiar pommy tones on the radio, a light bulb went off in my head. It's time to invade someplace else!
Starting fresh
Frankly, except for the initial defeat of the Taliban government in 2002, the invasion of Afghanistan has not gone particularly well.
Since then, the Taliban have bounced back. Most annoyingly, they seem to be bouncing back in areas where NATO troops have been strongest.
Despite all that, Canadians and Americans tell us we are in Afghanistan to help out. We are there to quell the fighting and stabilize the country.
We are there to build hospitals and schools, to create democracy, and to teach Afghan farmers that there are better crops to grow than opium poppies.
Kabul used to be a relatively safe city. But the recent murderous attack on the UN barracks last month shows it isn't safe any more. As Adrian said, "Our security clearly isn't up to the job of dealing with these kinds of attacks."
Unlike Afghanistan, Eritrea is not landlocked, as this bridge across the Red Sea port of Massawa shows. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters) So if things aren't going well in Kabul, let's take all those hard lessons we've learned about development and peacekeeping and try somewhere else. Let's start fresh.
Why Eritrea
I only chose Eritrea because in many ways it is similar to Afghanistan. We could always send the troops someplace else instead.
Like Afghans, Eritreans are some of the poorest people in the world. According to the CIA's helpful online database, the wealth of both countries, divided by the total population, is about $700 dollars per person per year.
That compares to about $40,000 per person in Canada and a world average of roughly $10,000, according to the CIA.
Both countries have low levels of basic education, literacy and skills. In both countries there is a shortage of schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
The difference is that, in Afghanistan, even if you can find UN workers brave enough to build schools, hospitals and infrastructure, the Taliban blows them up. And now they are blowing up UN workers too!
What a waste of money. What a waste of good people.
The Pittis plan
Here's my plan. And since Prime Minister Steven Harper apparently doesn't read the Canadian media, perhaps one of you would mention it to him the next time he's announcing something in your neighbourhood.
First of all, before invading anyone else, next time we ask permission. We go to the Eritrean government and say "Hi. We'd like to spend a few billion dollars in your country. Is that okay?"
Of course if they say No, it's all off. We'd have to go and find someplace else to invade.
After Afghanistan, getting permission would be a huge leg up all by itself.
No one would be shooting at us as we give them money to build schools and hospitals. No one would be setting roadside bombs to blow up our troops.
We'd save a bundle on danger pay. And, also good, our soldiers would not have to shoot and blow up the local people.
That is very bad if you are trying to win over a population. It creates understandable hostility.
Lots to do
But there would still be lots of work for our troops. One of the biggest problems for the Eritrean economy is the recurring war with Ethiopia, which disrupts planting in the fertile border areas and uses up productive capacity and foreign exchange.
Canadians have decades of valuable experience as peacekeepers. Invading Eritrea would give us a chance to use that experience again.
As a nation to develop, Eritrea has a lot going for it, including 1,000 kilometres of coast on the Red Sea.
One of its languages of instruction is English. We could recruit Canada's unemployed youth to teach courses there.
The population, like Canada's, is fractured into many ethnic and religious groups. The country's constitution calls for democracy.
With education, maybe, gradually, reality would begin to match.
Another big plus about Eritrea is that there is no tradition of growing and exporting heroin to feed the world's drug addicts. And surely no one would mind a little bit of mild-mannered Canadian influence in that area.
Of course, it is possible that invading Eritrea wouldn't help matters much. Italy made a mess of it in its day.
Besides, many critics say that development aid just doesn't work, that foreign money pouring into a destitute country does nothing but create a corrupt and destabilizing elite.
Maybe this new kind of colonialism just creates the social rifts that lead to civil war and the popular urge to chase the foreigners out and damn the consequences.
That may all be true. But if an adventure in Eritrea doesn't work, if spending billions doesn't make people richer and more peaceful and more democratic. Then how absurd is it to think we can make that happen in Afghanistan at the point of a gun?
Just asking.
