Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Incentives of Recognition

Here is an excerpt from a recent NYT op-ed calling for the 'de-recognition' of weak African states by the international community:

"If [de-recognition] were to happen, relatively benevolent states like South Africa and a handful of others would go on as before. But in the continent’s most troubled countries, politicians would suddenly lose the legal foundations of their authority. Some of these repressive leaders, deprived of their sovereign tools of domination and the international aid that underwrites their regimes, might soon find themselves overthrown."

Hwhile my first reaction is to conjure up in my mind a situation where this idea might wield any beneficial results, my second (more entertaining perhaps) reaction is to say go for it! We gave them their identity the first place and it's not really working out, so they honestly don't deserve it any more. Maybe if we ignore them for a while they'll just get better on their own. In fact lets de-recognize all of the headaches in the world!

But then again, we could definitely do a better job of ruling those places over there so lets not be passive about this. Being the humanitarian that I am, I say why don't we just buy them all up and create new states and good governments that provide for their citizens? And while we are at it, we should also revoke all of their human rights; I really can't stand hearing about all the atrocities any more, also that'll make them easier to rule when the time comes.

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