[jevgeni]

The program follows practices already common in the West. That means it makes it easier to convince Western companies to make long term investments there without fear of some arbitrary action to their assets (cough-Sakhalin-2-cough).

But yeah, important thing is that the western upper-middleclass has a convenient boogeyman to vilify in a digestible form for day-time viewing.

[AndrewBissell]

> The program follows practices already common in the West.

Is this supposed to be some kind of defense?

[hnracer]

The sentence following the one that you quoted is the defense, perhaps you should argue against that instead?

[AndrewBissell]

That sentence is just more question begging. "Running things the way it is done in the West (i.e. encouraging 'investment' by Western firms) is good, therefore a program which furthers that end is a good one."

[hnracer]

The burden of proof is on the individual claiming that agricultural investment by Western firms into Africa is a negative, given that it's commonly believed that FDI is a good thing and African governments routinely and actively seek out FDI as part of their policy. So I don't believe that to be question begging.

[jevgeni]

It is natural that questions arise, when you insist on not understanding what I've said.

[fierarul]

What are you trying to say, exactly?

The program is supposed to improve agricultural yields and they claim it did not. Is the program just about helping Western investments? So the investments result in unchanged yields?

[jevgeni]

What I have said was that the measures taken are means of attracting direct investments from Western countries. As an example, I've given the Sakhalin-2 project, where the Russian state essentially raided away billions of Western investments to the benefits of their chosen oligarchs.

What I have implied here, in case it is not clear, was that the Jacobin either willfully misinterprets facts or makes constant pleas to emotion of sheltered Westerners to sell their store-brand let-them-eat-cake progressivism.

[jevgeni]

It is as much of a defense as saying that software which needs to unzip files needs to implement at least the deflate algorithm.