"The Tyranny of Experts" recounts the military invasion of Wood County on a Sunday morning
February, 2010. Twenty thousand farmers saw their homes and crops burned, their cattle machine gunned,
and were told their land was no longer their land. Go!
In actuality this tragedy took place in the Mubende District of Uganda. Imagine the uproar if this had
happened in First World Ohio? The book explores how such a violation of human rights could happen with
no public outrage, investigation or accountability – all in the name of economic development. A British
"income increasing" reforestation project financed by The World Bank, supported by the Ugandan
government took the land in the name of progress.
Nobody knew or cared – except the farmers, Oxfam and William Easterly.
William "Bill" Easterly, M.I.T. PhD. is Professor of Economics at NYU , winner of the Hayek
Book and Adam Smith Awards and author of the best selling "White Man’s Burden." He describes
himself as Bowling Green’s eleventh most famous native. Well, there is Scott Hamilton.
A graduate of Bowling Green schools, he majored in math and economics at BGSU where his respected
botanist father, the other Dr. William Easterly, taught. A 1970s Fulbright took the family to Ghana, and
started his interest in Africa. He has deep family roots in a BG that, "helped make me the man I
am." A man willing to confront accepted practice.
Easterly is described as "one of the most consistently interesting and provocative thinkers on
development."
"Bracingly iconoclastic" says the NY Times.
His writings have been translated into at least fourteen languages. He has published more than 70 juried
papers with 45,979 academic citations. No admirer of the "great man" theory of history, he
uses his experience, research and insights to argue for the powerless.
Most famously and fatefully he was a researcher with The World Bank for 16 years. He names "Original
sin" as the founding of the World Bank. Easterly, acting like Milton’s Archangel Michael demands
individual rights for the poor – standing against the arrogance of the rich, the powerful and the
technocrats i.e. the prideful Satan of The Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and
overweening local governments. Paradise is hard to find.
He angrily asks and explores hard questions.
How does the latent racism from colonialism affect decisions and attitudes?
Why do the economic planners ignore local input.
Why are dictators tolerated and even admired?
How did Hyundai happen in South Korea?
Why is the human rights record of development so dismal?
Why is local history so routinely ignored?
How has new freedoms affected China’s growth?
With all that money and expertise why isn’t the problem of extreme poverty solved?
How can the powerful "good" guys be held accountable when they aren’t so good?
What can we learn from the history of one block on Greene Street in the SoHo section of New York ?
What does a summer spent tightening bolts in the Modine Plant in Pemberville, OH have to do with
anything?
His writing is accessible and non-technical. Easterly says: "The book is written for anybody who
wants to read it."
Each section begins with a brisk preview, ending with a concise review. Sort of "Developmental
Economics for Dummies." Readers get to know Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek and Gunnar Mydal.
Interesting fellows.
Everyone, from The Gates Foundation, The UN, The World Bank, Foreign Aid, Bono and William Easterly agree
that extreme poverty should be eradicated. He deplores current planning that ignores human rights and
the insights of locality – the hubris of the West determined to save the Rest, whether they want to be
saved or not.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in world affairs and the fight against poverty. Barbara
Kingsolver’s "Poisonwood Bible" is a good companion read.
