Those are the words of a very courageous Kenyan economist, James Shikwati, as interviewed in Der Spiegel. Shikwati is a leader of the Nairobi-based Inter-Region Economic Network, which is doing outstanding work in East Africa and on the African continent generally. (I’ve supported IREN in the past and it’s an excellent cause. An easy way to make a tax-deductibel donation is through the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which can then allocate the funds to support IREN’s work.)
I took part a few years ago in a symposium in Berlin with James, where he delivered a paper on the topic “Do Intellectual Property Rights Harm Africa?,” which is available from the Liberales Institut. (The paper I delivered, “Globalization and Culture: Homogeneity, Diversity, Identity, Liberty,” is available for downloading in PDF format here.