Fix a country!

[Az]

Hello, boys and girls!

today, we're going to fix a country! That's right! Fix an entire country and make it prosper! Ok, who am I kidding, we're not going to do this, but we can sure try to discuss the country's current situation, and figure out strategies to get it out of the dirt, and build a great modern society there. To do this, we'll use google to find out about the situation in the country, our general starting point.

Let us decide on a country. I propose Mauritania.

[Urban Ranger]

Too many people

[connorkimbro]

can't we each choose our own country, do some research, provide basic facts about the country, and our strategies to do what you propose?

[Az]

what do you propose to do about it?

seriously, deal with it.

[Urban Ranger]

Ship a whole buncha people to the US

[Gangerolf]

Economy - overview:

Half the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood, even though many of the nomads and subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s. Mauritania has extensive deposits of iron ore, which account for nearly 40% of total exports. The decline in world demand for this ore, however, has led to cutbacks in production. The nation's coastal waters are among the richest fishing areas in the world, but overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key source of revenue. The country's first deepwater port opened near Nouakchott in 1986. In the past, drought and economic mismanagement resulted in a buildup of foreign debt. In February 2000, Mauritania qualified for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and in December 2001 received strong support from donor and lending countries at a triennial Consultative Group review. In 2001, exploratory oil wells in tracts 80 km offshore indicated potential extraction at current world oil prices. A new investment code approved in December 2001 improved the opportunities for direct foreign investment. Ongoing negotiations with the IMF involve problems of economic reforms and fiscal discipline. Substantial oil production and exports probably will not begin until 2005.

OK, so we've got lots of:

- iron ore
- fish
- oil (soon)
- unemployed nomads and subsistence farmers

not enough:

- money

I say we need to attract more foreign investors

[Az]

sure, connor: but it has to be a real 3rd world ****hole.

[Gangerolf]

also, we need to rename our currency. "ouguiya" just doesn't do it for me

[Saras]

Mauris as large units and mauritos as small 1/100 units. Cool. Euromauribonds

How about law and order and fixing protection of property rights?

[Gangerolf]

Legal system:
a combination of Shari'a (Islamic law) and French civil law

Hmm. yep, we might want to do something about that

[Az]

Gangerolf: easier said than done. I think we should send a bunch of people abroad to let them study engineering and crafts, or better yet, pay specialists to come to us. Let's use our cheap manpower to operate a more profitable steal mill. and let's use our connection with Israel so that we can get desert irrigation stuff from them. If we'll start exporting oil, it could be great, too, and we should raise our benefits from it, by raising government dividents. We should also somehow reclaim our waters for our fishermen, though how can we do this, I don't know.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

First off- abolish slavery. I believe Mauritania still has more slaves than any other nation.

[Datajack Franit]

Shouldn't we fix the problematic countries first, like France and Germany?

[Az]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
First off- abolish slavery. I believe Mauritania still has more slaves than any other nation.

they do? this is going to be more difficult than I thought.

[connorkimbro]

interesting side note: on the fact sheet for the US, under political parties, it lists 4, Republican and Democrats, of course, but 2 minor parties as well. . . the Green party and the Libertarian party! Yeah! Go libertarians!