Winners of 2010 Frédéric Bastiat Anniversary Essay Competition Announced
We are pleased to annouce the winners of our 2010 Frédéric Bastiat anniversary essay competition. From a pool of 70 essays from 15 African countries, the following emerged winners.
First prize winner is Chofor Che from Cameroun-USD 800, second prize winner is Tom Siwe from Kenya-USD600, third prize winner is Ndifreke Ette from Nigeria-USD400, fourth prize winner is Japheth Omojuwa from Nigeria- USD 200, fifth prize winner is Laolu Adeniran from Nigeria- USD200 and sixth prize winner is Samuel Amaral from Angola- USD150. Their unedited essays are attached here.
Two entries received honourable mention and for their efforts they receive USD100 each. They are Ms. Dismas A. Massawe from Tanzania and Ms. Pamela Tumwebaze from Tanzania.
The Bastiat Legacy Project
The Bastiat Legacy Project has been inaugurated by the Atlas Global Prosperity Initiative (GPI), to publish books, articles and other works of art that reflect the thinking of one of the most prolific intellectual heavy weights of the 19th century- the French Philosopher, Journalist and Economist, Frédéric Bastiat. The zenith of the project is an essay competition to be organised by each project within the GPI network to celebrate the work of Bastiat and also mark his 209th birthday this year.
Writing in the early 19th century, Frederic Bastiat capably weighed in, with wit and insight, into the popular discussions of individual freedom versus power. We have seen how much carnage the politics of big men has caused in Africa. Bastiat warned of the penchant for governments legislating powers to enable them to drive their utopian ideas of equalizing welfare for everyone, when, in fact, the only way to achieve that was by un-equalizing power by giving rulers the power to take what everyone had productively applied their minds and physical labour to. There are a lot of these often misdirected do-good attitudes by many African governments with dire consequences for “prosperity, morality, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility, cooperation, property, labor, trade, capital, wages, taxes, population, finance, or government”.
AfricanLiberty.org’s essay topic was titiled “Bastiat shows that, every time we make a choice, we give something up. This is what economists call opportunity cost. In 1500 words, identify three actions of your government you consider curious or rather suspicious and describe some of the hidden costs behind the actions.” The essay was opened to all Africans between the ages of 18-35. We will be publishing the winning essays as well as all the essays written for the competition. Meanwhile, below are some books and articles published in praise of Bastiat.
1. Bastiat: Champion of Economic Liberty by Richard Ebeling
2. Franklin Cudjoe’s introduction to Frederic Bastiat’s Essays on Political Economy
3. Frederic Bastiat’s Essays on Political Economy
4. F.A. Hayek’s introduction to Frederic Bastiat’s Essays on Political Economy
5. Frederic Bastiat: The Primacy of Property by James A. Dorn
6. Bastiat’s Life by Sheldon Richman