Dogwash

Am I alone in experiencing a soupçon of Schadenfreude at the current fracas over the unduly "Anglo-Saxon" nature of St Bob's self-indulgent Live8 gig? Couldn't happen to a more appropriate smug self-satisfied git. The plight of Africa is due mostly to African cupidity and incompetence. That is the issue that needs to be addressed.

In yesterday's Times, and possibly elsewhere, there was a full-page advert (half page to those of you still viewing in broadsheet mode) about Bhopal and the ongoing aftermath of the Union Carbide débâcle. The continuing suffering of the local people and the indifference of the local authorities were graphically described. At the end of which we were invited to put our hands in our pockets and donate towards aid efforts.

Just a minute. This is not some dismal fourth-world hellhole populated by ten million disease-ridden starving tribesmen taking turns to share the single National Oxcart. We are talking about India. A moderately effectively run nation of over a billion souls, capable of launching space missions no less, and, to get personal about it, currently doing its best to steal my job.

If the people of Bhopal are being shabbily treated, by all means encourage Westerners to visit their moral outrage on the dilatory authorities, but spare us the begging bowl. India might not be as universally prosperous as the West, but it is not without resources to address this problem, if it is minded to do so.