Republic of the Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh and his wife, Zineb Jammeh, arrive for the official U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, August 5, 2014.
Posted on 01/24/2018 6:39:46 AM PST by mandaladon
(CNN)President Donald Trump has a big fan in Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni.
Less than two weeks after Trump allegedly used a vulgar term to describe nations in the continent, the Ugandan President is applauding him, saying he "talks to Africans frankly." According to sources at an immigration meeting between Trump and lawmakers this month, the President referred to African nations and Haiti as "shithole countries." He later denied making the comments. Trump's remarks sparked a diplomatic uproar, with the African Union demanding a retraction and an apology. But Museveni is of a different opinion, describing Trump as honest and saying African nations only have themselves to blame for lagging behind.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Make Africa Great Again!
The left is indifferent to human suffering. After all, it’s politics that matter.
Yes, and, it is human suffering that demands intervention from the government. Without it, they are lost.
Improvements can only come after one acknowledges the reality of a situation. Uganda is in good hands.
The left is indifferent to human suffering. After all, it’s politics that matter.
They always have been: “You’ve got to break a few eggs, to make an omelet.”
Trump's suspicion of foreign aid to Africa is right on the money
BY AL MARIAM, THE HILL OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 03/09/17
Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the White House Office of Management Budget confirmed that the Trump administration is set to make “fairly dramatic reductions” in the U.S. foreign aid budget. This announcement will likely disappoint and alarm many in the foreign aid industry. There is already talk that proposals for significant cuts will face a “wall of resistance” in Congress. But serious discussion of U.S aid, particularly in Africa, is long overdue.
In early January, the Trump transition team sought clear answers from the State Department to a set of probing questions:
1) “With so much corruption in Africa, how much of our funding is stolen?”
2) “We’ve been fighting al-Shabaab for a decade, why haven’t we won?”
3) “How does U.S. business compete with other nations in Africa? Are we losing out to the Chinese?”
4) “Why should the U.S. continue the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which provides massive support to corrupt African regimes?”
These questions have yet to be answered adequately. In 1961, President John Kennedy pledged “our best efforts” to help “peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery for whatever period is required.” Such a magnanimous approach to helping the newly independent African countries reflected the deep generosity of the American people.
Yet, after six decades and tens of billions of dollars in aid and loans from the U.S. and other Western countries, Africa remains a “beggar continent” hopelessly addicted to handouts and alms.
USAID’s philosophy is based on ending “extreme poverty” by maintaining a large welfare program of food assistance, balance of payment and general budget support and rural income support programs and providing other “development” aid for African countries. In 2015, the U.S. provided more than $8 billion in assistance to 47 sub-Saharan countries; and USAID maintains 27 regional and bilateral missions in Africa.
The Trump administration appropriately questions how much of the aid given by the U.S. to Africa is susceptible to corruption, fraud, abuse and waste in Africa. Indeed, corruption is the principal cause of poor governance and state failure in Africa.
According to the African Union, an “estimate(d) 25 percent of the continent’s GDP (nearly 150 billion dollars) is lost due to corruption.” In 2013, Global Financial Integrity reported between $1.2 trillion and $1.3 trillion has left Africa in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009”, roughly equal to Africa’s gross domestic product for 2014.
As of March 2014, 20 African countries carried foreign debt of nearly $390 billion. One African country alone “lost U.S. $11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009.” A 2016 United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa report indicated that one of the major factors in the increasing levels of corruption in Africa has to do with the “the blind eye often turned to corruptors by Western countries.”
But corruption manifests itself in other ways. Recently, the regime in Ethiopia signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” to pay the Washington, D.C.,-based firm SGR Government Relations and Lobbying $150,000 per month for lobbying services for an annual total of $1.8 million. It makes no sense for a regime whose population, some 5 million of them, is facing famine and pleading with the U.S. government for emergency humanitarian assistance of nearly $1 billion to spend nearly $2 million on political lobbying.
U.S. aid in Africa has become a “moral hazard” absolving African regimes from responsibility to care and provide for their own people. African regimes that are heavily dependent on the safety net of foreign aid, receive sustained infusions of multilateral loans and a perpetual supply of humanitarian assistance will behave differently if they were left to their own devices to deal with the consequences of a mismanaged economy, debilitating corruption and proliferating grinding poverty.
But by shifting the moral risk of economic mismanagement, political incompetence and corruption to the U.S. and other Western donors, and because these donors impose no meaningful penalty or disincentive for poor governance, inefficiency, corruption and repression, African regimes stay afloat and cling to power for decades abusing the human rights of their citizens and stealing elections. Many African regimes regard U.S. aid as a fail-safe insurance policy for their survival.
Many African regimes today simply avoid the demands of good governance, ignore the rule of law and commit gross violations of human rights in the belief that U.S. and other Western aid will always bail them out of their chronic budget deficits and crushing foreign debts and replenish their empty grain silos.
American tax dollars in Africa often serve to support the interests and lifestyles of corrupt regimes and the armies of experts, consultants and lobbyists who cooperate with them at a huge cost to Africa’s poor.
Political correctness aside, the best way America can help Africa is by letting Africa help itself, and by making sure the culture of panhandling on the continent is permanently ended. The Trump administration should provide aid to African regimes only if they meet stringent conditions of accountability and transparency.
The era of U.S. foreign policy of aid handouts and alms giving to Africa generously supported by American taxpayers, without strict accountability, must end. The Trump administration’s proposal to reduce foreign aid is a step in the right direction.
Al Mariam is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino and a constitutional lawyer. The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.
Of course, it is not really important if President Trump used the adjective "shit-hole" in a private conversation during a moment of frustration. It only matters that CNN SAYS he did.
All narratives are about CNN being proved right. NO narratives are about Trump being honest, Africa having problems or anything else -- CNN is telling the truth in its FAKE NEWS.
Republic of the Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh and his wife, Zineb Jammeh, arrive for the official U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, August 5, 2014.
=====================================
Can you say kickback?
CIRCA 2013---Obama pledges $7 billion to upgrade power in Africa (CNN) — U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $7 billion Sunday to help combat frequent power blackouts in sub-Saharan Africa. Funds from the initiative, dubbed Power Africa, will be distributed over the next five years. Obama made the announcement during his trip to South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy.
“Access to electricity is fundamental to opportunity in this age. It’s the light that children study by, the energy that allows an idea to be transformed into a real business. It’s the lifeline for families to meet their most basic needs, and it’s the connection that’s needed to plug Africa into the grid of the global economy,” he said.
Two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to electricity, including more than 85% of those living in rural areas, the White House said. “A light where currently there is darkness — the energy to lift people out of poverty — that’s what opportunity looks like,” Obama told students at Cape Town University. “So this is America’s vision: a partnership with Africa for growth, and the potential for every citizen, not just a few at the top.”
The program includes $1.5 billion from the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation and $5 billion from the Export-Import Bank, the White House said. Sub-Saharan Africa will need more than $300 billion to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, it said.
The preliminary setup will include Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique.
“These countries have set ambitious goals in electric power generation, and are making the utility and energy sector reforms to pave the way for investment and growth,” a White House statement said.
Obama’s three-nation African trip started in Senegal and will end in Tanzania this week. The visit aims to bolster U.S. investment opportunities, address development issues such as food security and health, and promote democracy.
It comes as China aggressively engages the continent, pouring billions of dollars into it and replacing the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner. Obama applauded China’s investment in Africa, saying he is “not threatened by it.”
Africa’s greater integration into the global economy will benefit everyone with the potential creation of new jobs and opportunities, he said. “I’m here because I think the United States needs to engage with a continent full of promise and possibility,” Obama said. “It’s good for the United States. I welcome the attention that Africa is receiving from China, Brazil, India and Turkey.”
However, he urged African officials to ensure that those who invest in the continent and its natural resources benefit Africans in terms of jobs and other assets.
Obama also visited Robben Island, where anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela spent a majority of his 27-year imprisonment, on Sunday. And he spoke at Cape Town University, the site of a famous speech by Robert F. Kennedy at the height of apartheid in 1966.
Obama heads next to Tanzania, where he is scheduled to attend events until Tuesday.
“Uganda is in good hands.”
Museveni is pretty rough, especially to his opposition. But Uganda was in complete chaos when he took over and most of it no longer is. If I remember correctly, 4-5 years ago he publicly dedicated his country and government to Jesus Christ.
:)
In all honesty, I know nothing about Uganda. But I think that it would be wonderful if this leader of Uganda turned out to be a good guy and not like most of the corrupt leaders on that continent.
Being “Frank” is quickly being replaced by being “Trump”.
Screw Frank!
Good Read
“Museveni is pretty rough, especially to his opposition. But Uganda was in complete chaos when he took over and most of it no longer is.”
There are times when a tough bastard is the best medicine, especially if he’s genuinely interested in improving the situation and is grounded in reality.
Uganda has experienced relative stability and economic growth during President Museveni’s time in office.
There, fixed it.
But....but....We Wuz Kangz 'n Sheeeit!
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