Couldn't we buy pretty much all of Africa for $16 billion?
I guess Wolfowitz is trying to get back into the good graces of teh new world order crowd at his new job.
africa is loaded with minerals and natural resources - they need money, we need to strip mine and suck all the oil out of their continent - let's make a deal.
I think it's high time someone in the administration wakes up and quits taking advice from Wolfonut. If the Bush administration wants to appear in any way conservative (which would be a very long shot) they should make an announcement that they appreciate what Paulie has to say but no. And then follow through with it.
Enough's enough already.
Just because they "need," and we "have," doesn't mean we "owe." It's their own culture that holds them back.
Africa is blessed with incredible natural resources -- gold, diamonds, oil, etc. Why can't this be redistributed among the African nations before they come to us for more handouts?
No aid without ACCOUNTABILITY.
Too much has been wasted on fraud and corruption.
So am I...provided by the European Union and China. ;)
Credit Suisse in Zurich will welcome the additional $24.9 billion in aid for "Africa".
If all western countries withdrew from Africa and waited ten years, there wouldn't be anyone left alive and we could do whatever we wanted with the place.
Giving aid ensures that nothing will ever get better there.
Weeeeeeee're RIIIIIIIIICHHHH!!!!!!! Yiiiiiipiiieee!!!!!
Who wants money? Got it rightchere!
Why don't I just go flush my share down the toilet?
If Africans can't solve Africa's problems, how can they keep things going in the long term anyway?
Wolfowitz of all people must know better.
Poverty is not caused by a lack of money. You eliminate poverty by creating wealth. You set the stage for wealth creation by establishing clear, predictable laws, and by protecting the rights of individuals.
If we want to build a prosperous Africa, we have to first build a just Africa, and that means overthrowing at least a couple of the more egregious examples of brutality presently governing there.
If you're not prepared to do what it takes to save Africa quickly, then the alternative is to build lots of clinics, refugee camps, and orphanages, to patch people up after they've been attacked by one mob or other, to feed them after they've been driven off their land by one mob or other, and to care for their children after the parents have been slaughtered by one mob or other.
It's like my mom and dad told me, if we have to support you, we own you.
If we are going to support Africa because they can't manage to elect decent people to run the countries, or those leaders can't get a hold on the tribal wars, then we need to take the freaking place over. Africa could be wealthy nations, but ignorance abounds.
So what?
They are not my friend, not my kin, and I wouldn't want them for neighbors. So charity is right out.
We won't get anything in return, so the profit motive is out, too.
To hell with Africa. They're most of the way there already.
Tell Wolfie to shove it. Stay the hell out of my wallet.
Just Once. Once. I would like bureaucratic nitwits to ask the United States Taxpayers to VOTE on sending more money down the bottomless pit of Africa.
These Nations never help their people with the money, and we could use it to pay for Border Security, or Pay Back Social Security..what the hell is wrong with our Government?
If we'd quit spending money on every stinking potentate, drug dealers, welfare queens, et al into seeming infinity...Our NATION WOULD PROSPER...
And his evidence of that is ... ??? Which totalitarian socialist government in Africa implemented free markets and property rights while I wasn't paying attention ?
Once, just once I'd like all these people grabbing for American taxpayer dollars to ask my opinion.
I got a better idea. Let Africans clean up Africa