Once over dinner the former head of civil the civil service in one of the big bottom billion societies described what had happened to the civil service that he had helped to build. Hes asked me to imagine being a schoolboy in his country on the eve of independence. The bright boys in the class aspired to join the civil service to help build the country. At the other end of class, what were the aspirations for the dumb class bully? Forget the civil service with its tough exam. So the class bully set his sights on the army. Fast-forward two decades and a coup detat. The army was now running the government. Between the class bullies, now the generals, and their objective of looting the public sector stood the class stars now running the civil service. The generals didnt like it. Gradually they replaced the clever boys with people more like themselves. And as they promoted the dumb and corrupt over the bright and the honest, the good chose to leave....... Politics is full of idiosyncrasies, and from time to time reform-minded ministers and presidents come to power. But it is very difficult for them to implement change because they inherit a civil service that is an obstacle rather than an instrument. From Bottom Billion
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 05:10:13 +0000
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