Does Africa really need aid?

BBC World Service ^ | 7/6/05 | Andrew Mwenda

[wideminded]

I am Andrew Mwenda. I host this live radio show five times a week. I am particularly interested in the topic for this evening: The role of foreign aid in Africa. When British Prime Minister Tony Blair set up his commission for Africa, to find new solutions to solve problems on the continent, I was hopeful that it would breathe fresh ideas into the debate on Africa. I was disappointed. The commission came up with the same old failing mantras of doubling aid, canceling debt, and removing agricultural subsidies in the West.

They're ignoring the reality! For the last forty years Africa has been getting more and more aid. We have received over 500 billion dollars, but we are getting poorer, not richer.

Let me show you, through the experience of Uganda, my country, how these recommendations don't work ...

Audio: (Real Player format)

[wideminded]

Fascinating radio piece by a popular Ugandan radio host and commentator offering his contrarian view on aid and debt relief.

This appeared on the BBC World Service during the G8 conference.

"Uganda is considered one of Africa's economic success stories. Yet it relies on foreign aid for nearly half of its budget. Now you'd assume that Uganda cannot fund its own development, but that's not the case. The government has got money but it chooses to spend it on political patronage and an oversized army. It doesn't even collect any taxes. It should!" ...

"But Tony Blair is talking of doubling aid to Africa. Yet some of the economies of these African countries are so small that aid actually creates problems. Aid tends to enrich politicians, bureaucrats, and aid workers, whose consumption fuels inflation."

"So here we are at the Bank of Uganda, which is the central bank of the country, that houses the government's treasury. The Ugandan government is receiving so much foreign aid that the economy is unable to absorb it ..."

...

"The lesson we learn is that it is the domestic environment which constrains Africa's development opportunities, not the external environment."

[goldstategop]

The West is killing Africa with kindness. A generation of Western handouts has bred regimes run by corrupt kleptocrats ruling over impoverished populations. Our liberals have learned nothing from history. The last thing Africa needs is more Western aid.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[endthematrix]

I don't know the economics of it, but isn't akin to dumping goods into the market? Imagine attempting to open a business or farm? Forget it, just sit on your arse and get your allotment.

[tamalejoe]

Things which might help Africa would include:

• DDT to kill mosquitos and other disease vectors.
• Simple firearms such as the AK47 for the common people, to kill dangerous animals and prevent genocides.
• Assistence in taking down feral regimes such as that of Robert Mugabe.
• Instruction in normal, decent sex techniques (as opposed to "dry sex") which do not spread diseases and create new diseases.
• Assistance in developing an industry in ordinary pigs and chickens, and the elimination of the trade in "bush meat" which allows crossover of diseases like AIDS from the jungle to humans.
• Aid in developing institutions like the "peoples bank" which you read about in Bangladesh.
• Christian missionaries.

[thelastvirgil]

Let's try this: Forgive billions in debt, never ask for a dime's worth of accountability from the Robert Mugabe types, and send even more billions into the shithole. Makes a lot of sense to me, and the Swiss banking gnomes will be forever grateful.

[goldstategop]

How come our august leaders are not asking for the loot in Swiss bank accounts to be returned to Africa instead of transferring more of our wealth to a continent that doesn't seem to know how to make productive use of it? Every one assumes the West is the culprit - not that it holds African leaders responsible for the rape of their own continent's destiny.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[midnoon]

What Africa needs is industry, not money. We send food and it hurts their farmers. We send clothing and it hurts their textile mills. To say that Africa can't stand on it's own is wrong. Instead of sending aid, we should send investors. It seems to me that, finally, many of them want to get off the "welfare wagon". If we are going to help, lets give them a hand-up, not a hand-out.

[fatnotlazy]

"Assistance in taking down feral regimes such as that of Robert Mugabe. "

***

Actually, it seems that most, if not all of Africa needs an infusion of new leadership, not just bringing down the most notorious regimes, but also, getting rid of the ones with the old mindset that Africa should continue to be a welfare state supported by the so-called "richer nations."

***

"Instruction in normal, decent sex techniques (as opposed to "dry sex") which do not spread diseases and create new diseases."

***

In other words, stay with the one you're married to -- no more "marrying" new wives or doing the hump-de-hump with strangers.
***
I have a friend of a friend who did some missionary work in various parts of Africa. This missionary and her team tried their best to instruct the people on abstinence and monogamy and practicing safe sex. But in the end their words were largely ignored. The reason: This is the way it always has been. Father had several wives and mistresses, grandfather had several wives and mistresses, and so on through the generations. It's tradition, and they don't want to change.

Same with farming. This missionary team had brought in experts to teach the residents new farming methods, particularly those that would preserve the crops in drought. All that instruction went down the drain. Again -- tradition. They refuse to try any alternative.

[wideminded]

bttt