>>2732237Ever heard of Burkina Faso and Thomas Sankara?
>vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks>initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987>planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification>built roads and a railway to tie the nation together without foreign aid?sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5, the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time, the official service car of the ministers
>reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets>redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient>called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. >argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting>converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).>forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen. The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity.
>wrote the new national anthem himselfIf it can be done in a landlocked and poor African country, then surely it can succeed in a formerly socialist and much more resource-endowed nation.
