NYP: MISPLACED AFRICAN AID

New York Post ^ | July 6, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

It's G-8 time again — which means that President Bush is about to face concerted pressure... to see things their way on a host of issues.

Not least of these is the question of financial aid to Africa — an issue buoyed by the recent publicity over the politically charged "Live 8" worldwide rock concerts (modestly praised by one performer as "the greatest thing that's ever been in the entire history of the world"), designed to "raise awareness" about Africa's desperate plight.

Actually, it's not as if the G-8 leaders are unaware of the intense poverty and despair that has sub-Saharan Africa in its grip. And least of all George W. Bush — who recently pledged to double U.S. developmental aid to Africa from $4.3 billion last year to $8.6 billion annually by 2010.

He also has endorsed the G-8's proposal to forgive $40 billion in Third World debt — most of it in Africa.

But just wishing to "make poverty history" won't magically make it so. Because much more is at work in Africa than a simple lack of Western aid.

Nothing was heard at the "Live 8" concerts — and little will be heard from the proponents of vastly greater aid — about people like Robert Mugabe, the despot of Zimbabwe, who has not only fomented murderous racial violence but has turned what was once an African breadbasket into a nation on the brink of famine.

Or of the ongoing genocidal attacks in Sudan's Darfur region, which already has cost 200,000 lives and has created a humanitarian crisis comparable to the tragedy in Rwanda....

Indeed, Africa remains plagued by a virtual klepto-culture in which money-hungry warlords and government leaders have cruelly allowed their own people to starve by shamelessly stealing the West's humanitarian aid....

[gridlock]

(Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of South African President Thabo Mbeki and deputy chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs) wrote in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, "At the root of Africa's problems are ruling political elites that have systematically exploited their positions in order to line their own pockets."

Back in the good ol' days in Somalia, back before they went whole-hog Islamakazi, the entire budget of the government was funded by foreign aid. There was not a single sector of the economy, industrial or agricultural, operating at over 5% of capacity. The only thing that kept them going was money from abroad. And the only way to get money from abroad was for the people to be desperately poor and starving.

The governments of these countries are so mind-bogglingly cynical to realize that the worse off their people are, the more desperate the West is to give them money. And most of that money will wind up in the pockets of the powerful who keep the people in poverty. It is a perverse incentive of the very worst kind. And yet it happens, over and over again, all across Africa.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

$ millions from rock & Rollers. Not a word about the right to own property.

[SMARTY]

I read a couple of biographies of R. F. Burton and some of his personal accounts of his travels in Africa. I don't see that much has changed with Africa and Africans since then. The greed, blood lust, tribalism and brutality are unchanged and the real impediment to progress... not the lack of money. It is a rich and diverse country, there is NO reason for their continuing in the condition they are, especially since they have been the recipient of so much 'indulgence' from other nations. Nothing justifies the way in which they treat their own. It is a disgrace and a further insult that nations who have so far assisted generously continue to be blackmailed into ridiculous levels of aid which yet refuses simpling on accountability for the use of funds or aid. The world needs to recognize that money or aid from America comes from working men and women in the US who themselves are having a more and more difficult to make their own for work, or earlier, and has maybe a part time job too, just to get by. This BS shakedown has to stop.


Time for the Africans and others to get up off their asses, like we do and take care of themselves. Don't like your gov't? Change it. Don't like to be hungry? Work. Sorry if that sounds cold, but if the US has money to burn for these guys, why not take care of some of OUR problems here.

[SMARTY]

The system just mangled my post. Sort of corrected:

...refuses compliance...

The world needs to recognize that money or aid from America comes from working men and women in the US who themselves are having a more and more difficult to make their own for way. America = the guy who gets up at 6:00 am or earlier, and has maybe a part time job too, just to get by. This BS shakedown has to stop.