How to be a great girlfriend

I was in Cotonou (Benin) this past weekend when news broke on Sunday afternoon that the Minister of Energy had been fired from her post.  Over dinner, there were stories of her time in office that I can't publish.  One story led to another and, eventually, a 'funny' one about another female minister in one of the countries on the southern tip of the continent (a potential bric).

As Communications Minister, she proposed to host an ICT conference and invited bids from event organisers.  The highest bid was the equivalent of $4.5m, the next highest was about $3m and less and less...

The $4.5m bid must have been truly outstanding because it won! The company had been incorporated for less than 1 week, it was owned by Madam Minister's boyfriend and the successful bid was settled 100% upfront.  Gives 'sweetheart deal' a literal meaning, eh?  The smart owner promptly sub-contracted the work to the $3m bidder which was a firm with a long track record in organising conferences.

Madam Minister took a short holiday in Madrid before the conference to recover from the rigours of the tendering process.  She returned in time to give the opening speech on how the ICT industry should do things right, a very well-delivered speech in her spanking new Louboutin shoes.

A girlfriend to be very proud of :)

Consensus

I was led by a post on Greg Mankiw's blog to read an op-ed by Larry Summers on ft.com. The quote below is interesting:

Concern about politics and the processes of international co-operation is warranted but the best one can hope for from politics in any country is that it will drive rational responses to serious problems. If there is no consensus on the causes or solutions to serious problems, it is unreasonable to ask a political system to implement forceful actions in a sustained way.

In a large population, it is reasonable to expect consensus in broad terms, for example, on property rights. However, can we expect consensus on the causes of and solutions to specific problems? Perhaps Mr. Summers' opinion gives politicians an unmerited free pass.  They put themselves forward to be elected as leaders based on their implicit and explicit promises to "drive rational responses to serious problems". In my opinion, a consequent expectation for them to do exactly that, to fulfill their promises, is reasonable.