In The energy-sapping heat of Uganda, women bend double to tend rows of flowers destined for export to Europe. According to Bono, an Irish rock star, this scene of back-breaking drudgery represents "globalisation at its best". He is right, of course. Growing flowers is hard work, but no more so than subsistence farming, which is the alternative; and it pays better. Everyone benefits: Europeans get roses in winter, and Ugandan rose-growers eat better and put their children through school. This is the sort of thing that advocates of heartless global capitalism, such as The Economist, have been banging on about for 150 years, but it is rare to hear a rock star make the same point. And he is not alone.
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