You are made president of Chad. How do you ameliorate the situation of your country?

You are made president of Chad. How do you ameliorate the situation of your country?

Chad is one of those countries that I really can’t imagine turning around.

Chad is landlocked.

But it isn’t just landlocked.

It’s landlocked and mostly desert.

And it’s not just landlocked and mostly desert.

It’s a landlocked desert in one of the most unstable regions on Earth.

This is the sort of foundation that would have sent Lee Kuan Yew and Paul Kagame running away in terror.

I mean, holy shit.

This isn’t the kind of thing you just fix with some road-building and ribbon-cutting.

Chad has virtually no economic advantages compared to its neighbors, much less within the global system.

If I were leading Chad, the only thing I could think to do is work out labor agreements with other countries. Do my best to pump state funds into top-tier education and get as many skilled professionals out of the country as possible (France probably the main destination), so they can send remittances back home. Maybe nationalize the vital sectors (like healthcare) and offer high pay for these to retain some number of professionals in the country.

But otherwise, I would really focus on getting people out and remittances up. Anything beyond that, I’d have to handle on an ad hoc basis.

You know, Chad is kind of famous for its mercenaries. I can see why.