Best letter to the editor ever

Bono is following up on his hug of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel at Davos last January and with a visit to Germany to launch “a series of debates with German thinkers on African development and the role of the west.” (“Geldorf and Bono take G8 campaign to Germany,” Dec. 27). What is to debate? Only entertainers and politicians could be unaware of the straightforward starting points for solving Africa's many problems: free trade and governments that neither murder their citizens nor steal their property. The role of the west in implementing these solutions is equally clear: cut tariffs and other barriers to trade with Africa and eliminate official toleration (including foreign aid, official recognition, arms sales, etc.) of murderous regimes like Sudan's and kleptocratic ones like Zimbabwe’s.

Andrew P. Morriss
H. Ross & Helen Workman Professor of Law
University of Illinois, College of Law