Okay, I more or less agree with his main thesis here: that sympathy, political correctness, and lots of money have not effectively developed African countries economically, and have often prevented that development from happening. Corruption, a lack of civic rights, and repeated squandering of economic opportunities have kept much of the continent living in extreme deprivation; similarly, honest and outspoken critics of the current system are a rarity, from inside or outside of it.

But I was a little disappointed with this one. Primarily, it is light on substance. He says he wants to make it a work for the general reader (i.e. not drown the main points in technocratic jargon), but almost the entire work is backed up solely through anecdotes, sweeping generalizations, and highly contentious opinions passed off as facts. For example, he claims that one of the three main reasons why African aid rarely achieves its objectives is due to the "culture" of Africans. This assertion is dispatched in a breezy nine pages of stories, reflections based on personal experience, and cherry-picked quotes from Africa-lovers (and haters). He is far better (as a former World Bank official) in the "The Trouble With Foreign Aid" chapter, where he sticks to his field of expertise and buttresses his contentions with hard statistics and sound theory.

This book certainly deserves to be read - I just don't know if this edition does. Meaning, Calderisi should stick to writing what he really knows, not be afraid of the jargon when it will hammer his point home with force, and spend much longer than another nine breezy pages delving into the meat and potatoes of his ending 10 recommendations. That would be a work the world needs to read, and one I would happily recommend to everyone I know.