In an email, Nick Schulz of TechCentralStation chimes in on Zakaria:

“That Zakaria stuff is an outrage. He has no idea what he’s talking about. All the interesting ideas about development in recent years have come from the political right or from non-ideological folks (Hernando de Soto, William Easterly, etc.). Fareed cites the WHO success in smallpox. He’s right, and that was the WHO’s most notable success – almost two generations ago. Since then the WHO has become a highly politicized agency that has strayed wildly from its core mission. It has badly bungled treatment of malaria and TB – which, ironically, Fareed mentions at the end of his piece as chronic problems without mentioning WHO’s role in blowing it. And he doesn’t dwell on HIV/AIDS, which the WHO is also managing badly (while the conservative Bush administration has stepped up with serious money and smartly-designed treatment programs). WHO is a textbook case of what’s wrong with global aid today. The green revolution has been successful, but it’s not typical of the kind of aid conservatives criticize – namely, government to government transfers. What conservatives have championed (technology transfer and private sector involvement) were instrumental in the green revolution. I’m not surprised at the gratuitous swipes at conservatives from Fareed, but he might want to get his facts right in the future. Most Africans would put more ‘work’ into op/ed columns than he did.”