Laying Africa's ghosts
THE SIX-LEGGED yurt must be extinct in Africa, for the World Bank reports no trace of it. There are ghosts, though. I am sorry about the yurt, which (as you may recall) was spotted last year in Kazakhstan by a team of 41 World Bank researchers. This hexapodal pushmepullyu of the steppes was put down as the country's rarest export, confirming my view that, as a development agency, the World Bank writes great reports. Now comes its report on Africa, with a marked change of style. It says that what is wrong with Africa is bad govern- ment. This conclusion has made many hearts bleed faster, and will distress Dr Heinz 'We are all guilty' Kiosk, who must have lost his job as chief psychiatric adviser to the World Bank. I found it encouraging, about Africa and about the World Bank. As for the ghosts, some African governments have them on their payrolls. The Congo has just laid off 5,000 of them — fictitious employees (says the civil service minister, Jean-Prosper Koyo) created to enable peo- ple to obtain five to ten salaries each month. Now I know where the printers went when we left Fleet Street.
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