... that isn't reassuring to many African ears. It's a Kipling-esque ring, perhaps: something to do with the White Man's Burden, something that reminds many Africanists of the bad old days of colonialism, when European imperial powers also ...

... to the world. The British built a worldwide empire, firm in the conviction that they were nobly upholding "the white man's burden" - and if they got rich, too, well, that was OK. Then, starting in 1914, they discovered that their imperial ...

... EDITOR's NOTE: William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and author of "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good" (Penguin Press). He is ...