Money For Nothing

So, after the sudden arrival of frozen "aid" funding, North Korea's government has suddenly [!] decided to close up that oh-so-troublesome nuclear reactor.

Remember the one that had the US news media predicting WWIII if Kim Jong Il wouldn't back down and let in some UN inspectors?

This is what we in the normal, not-coercing-international-state-governments-to-do-what-we-want world would call "bribery."

What makes it OK that the US government does this?

I am a fan of economic incentives. I am the last to criticize that method of influencing people - it has proven effective (even without agenda-directed manipulation) over hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It is the best way to harness the billions of dollars worth of human capital AND provide opportunities for people to experience different sets of cultural expectations and social behaviors.

[It goes without saying that this observation does not translate to whole-hearted adoption, nor should it. It is a comparison method only.]

[It should also go without saying that I am not a proponent of US values, per se. I appreciate the freedoms I have, but I resent many of the "freedoms" I am supposedly granted, and horrified by the lack of many of those that I am not.]

When Coca Cola Co. goes into Azerbaijan, for example, and they buy a building, and they hire some Azerbaijanians to work for them, there is an obvious goal - sell more Coke, make more money - and an obvious reward for reaching those goals.

But inside the Coca Cola building in Azerbaijan there is another level of incentive - adapt to the corporate culture so you can get ahead and make more money. The underlying message is that you must adopt and apply Coca Cola values (based in US/Western cultural paradigms: competition, individualism, straightforwardness - liguisitic and behavioral, friendly & horizontal attitude across all segments of hierarchy, reward & remediate rather than punish, etc.) in everything from the way you dress and say hello to your colleagues, to the way you write your memos. The ability to do this successfully catapaults you into a global reach - if you can live Coke values in Azerbaijan, you can live Coke values anywhere!

The fact that the governments of the world use "humanitarian aid" packages for the same purpose is questionable - not in its aims, but in its execution, and the completely delusional presumption that it adheres to at base: buy your friends, starve your enemies.

This is an idiotic notion. Not only because your enemies will still be your enemies, but because friends can't be bought.

They say you get what you pay for, so do you really want the kinds of friends you have to bribe?