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Mwenda Vs Bono In Tanzania

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Jun 05 2007 12:00am EDT

Mwenda vs Bono in Tanzania

The great Easterley vs Sachs debate on whether aid works has now travelled to Tanzania, home of TEDGlobal 2007. William Easterly and Jeff Sachs weren't able to make it, it seems, so the conference kicked off with Easterly-by-proxy Andrew Mwenda. Ethan Zuckerman was there to hear Mwenda run down the standard Easterly talking points – but at TED conferences, the points have a way of talking back. And when Mwenda challenged the audience to name a country where aid had led to development, Bono, of all people, stood up and named Ireland, in the days of the potato famine.

Bono was scheduled to speak on Day Two, and he devoted his time not to his own ideas but to rebutting Mwenda's. He came with a video greeting from Angela Merkel, and said that the Marshall Plan was hugely successful for both the US and Germany. The same kind of thing can be done in Africa too, he said, getting a standing ovation. Sachs himself would probably not have done any better.

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