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OBAMA SPENT $7 BILLION TO BRING ELECTRICITY TO AFRICA, FAILED MISERABLY
Frontpage Mag ^
| 08/01/2015
| Daniel Greenfield
Posted on 07/31/2015 5:37:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
You can take any Obama policy and boil it down to "Billions wasted" and "ultimately unsuccessful".
One of his lesser known plans involved electrifying Africa. You can guess how that went.
When President Barack Obama made his first presidential visit to Kenya over the weekend, he visited not just his ancestral home, but one of the target countries in his $7 billion signature foreign aid initiative, Power Africa.
Launched in 2013, Power Africa aims to boost electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative has prioritized expanding the continents capacity to generate electricity, with an additional focus on small-scale renewable energy investments.
Obama + Green Energy + Third World Aid is such a surefire formula for success that nothing could possibly have gone wrong.
In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to expand the grid across most of the countryside, leaving the majority of Kenyans under grid, or within a half-mile of power grid infrastructure. The same holds in several other African countries.
Yet the electrification rate in Kenya is still only 30 percent, and in our data just 5 percent of rural households and 20 percent of private businesses within a half-mile of the infrastructure have electricity. The low connection rate holds even years after the grid is in place.
At least, unlike most Obama policies, it didn't
1. Kill anyone
2. Leave everyone worse off
3. Lead to a civil war
But give it time...
Even after the households in our study had paid in full for their electricity connections, it took seven months on average for electricity to flow for the first time. Once connected, households experience regular blackouts sometimes lasting days or weeks due to a shortage of maintenance staff and materials. Given these conditions, its really no wonder that so few Kenyans have chosen to connect to the power grid.
I suppose that answers the question of whether Obama would do any better at running Kenya than he did America. But at least he was better at it than that idiot, George W. Bush. Right?
As President Obamas motorcade pulled up on Sunday to a community health center run by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in this picturesque coastal city, people on the streets held signs that read Thanks PEPFAR. It was a reference to the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by President George W. Bush.
Obama has been widely applauded for distinguishing himself from Bushs policies, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. But across this continent, many Africans wish Obama was more like Bush in his social and health policies, particularly in the fight against HIV/AIDS one of the former presidents signature foreign policy aid programs.
Bush poured billions of dollars into the effort to combat the spread of the disease that once threatened to consume a generation of young Africans, and as Obama has spent two days touring South Africa, the shadow of his predecessor has trailed him.
Africa knows Obama is worse than Bush.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; electricity; foreignaid
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To: SeekAndFind
$7,000,000,000.00 should have brought quite a few generators or aaa batteries. There are quite a few criminals and corrupt individuals around...apparently.
2
posted on
07/31/2015 5:45:59 AM PDT
by
hal ogen
(First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
To: SeekAndFind
"At least, unlike most Obama policies, it didn't...
2. Leave everyone worse off" Well, other than the U.S. tax payer, but screw those guys.
3
posted on
07/31/2015 5:47:13 AM PDT
by
Flag_This
(You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
To: SeekAndFind
You mean those dirty tin-horn dictators didn't spend the money where they said they would?
Or did they ever say that in the first place?
4
posted on
07/31/2015 5:48:23 AM PDT
by
Texas Eagle
(If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
To: hal ogen
$7,000,000,000.00 should have brought quite a few generators or aaa batteries.Or a dozen Solyndras.
To: SeekAndFind
But Hillary can install 500 million solar panels.
6
posted on
07/31/2015 5:49:58 AM PDT
by
DungeonMaster
(Of those born of women there is not risen one greater than John The Baptist.)
To: SeekAndFind
Someone I know who has worked on utilities projects on the continent of Africa has told me that as fast as they can erect poles and cable each day, the next moring the poles and cable are stolen without a trace. Local police to guard the projects only seem to make it worse. If they work round the clock, the section out of view, say two miles back will be gone.
7
posted on
07/31/2015 5:50:59 AM PDT
by
blackdog
(There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
To: hal ogen
I hope they are using wind, solar and unicorn farts instead of any of those nasty fossil fuels! Gotta save the planet and all that.
8
posted on
07/31/2015 5:51:28 AM PDT
by
GMMC0987
To: SeekAndFind
I thought his half brother still lived in a mud hut with no electricity or water? ( assumed the poverty of hs relatives was why the Won skipped a home visit and the photo ops that would have shown his failure to help his own “ family”)
9
posted on
07/31/2015 5:52:27 AM PDT
by
silverleaf
(Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
To: SeekAndFind
That was nothing- wait until the African potentates start getting checks from the UN ( actually the US taxpayers) in the name of climate change reparations.....
10
posted on
07/31/2015 5:54:19 AM PDT
by
silverleaf
(Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
To: SeekAndFind
Oh, it didn't fail. The intent here was for someone to get rich. Just like Solyndra. Most of that money is in somebody’s bank account. Just as planned.
To: SeekAndFind
OBAMA SPENT $7 BILLION TO BRING ELECTRICITY TO AFRICA, FAILED MISERABLYWhat makes the author think it was such an abject failure? Weren't their cronies in the green energy businesses enriched?
To: SeekAndFind
They failed because Kenyans are siphoning off the oil from transformers and selling to street vendors to use as cooking oil... It lasts longer than regular oil.
Kenyan power companies have been facing difficulties keeping the lights on even in areas that are connected to the electrical grid, as vandals have reportedly been stealing oil from electrical transformers to sell to chefs as cooking oil.
According to Yahoo News, electrical transformers are no great difficulty for determined thieves, who are willing to climb 20-foot poles to get to the transformers and siphon off the oil that powers them. They can then sell the oil for about $12 per liter to chefs at cooking stands who use it to fry food. The oil reportedly looks just like regular cooking oil, but it lasts much longer. It is not exactly edible, though, as the transformer oil contains toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been illegal in the U.S. since 1979. But still, chefs are using the stolen oil to make chips and other fried foods.
Dr. Esther Maina, a biochemist at Nairobi University, told Yahoo News that, “Consumption of PCB-laden chips poses a health risk to Kenyans in a country where health services are already underfunded and doctors are in short supply.”
At a loss for a way to combat the problem, Kenya Power is reportedly considering switching to transformers that dont use oil. The oil-free transformers are much more expensive, but might last longer if no one is trying to pry them off poles to get at their oil.
http://www.thedailymeal.com/thieves-kenya-steal-electrical-transformer-oil-cooking/122814
13
posted on
07/31/2015 6:20:48 AM PDT
by
Syntyr
(Happiness is two at low eight!)
To: SeekAndFind
Well, sure it failed miserably if you were expecting some results for spending seven billion dollars.
Let’s use a different metric. Let’s look at how happy this made Chris Matthews. We’ll call it the See How It Tingles scale.
So, on the SH*IT scale, how tingly did Chris Matthews get over this program?
I think Chris would get really tingly over this. I think it would be running down his leg....the tingles, not the SH*IT. Though that does happen at times.
So, always remember, when Obama does some stupid crap (and that’s an hourly phenomenon) bring it over to the Chris Matthews See How It Tingles scale and see just how much SH*IT Obama has put out this time.
If there’s a big pile by the shoe of Chris Matthews, then you know it was a good one.
14
posted on
07/31/2015 6:32:08 AM PDT
by
blueunicorn6
("A crack shot and a good dancer")
To: SeekAndFind
“Even after the households in our study had paid in full for their electricity connections, it took seven months on average for electricity to flow for the first time. Once connected, households experience regular blackouts sometimes lasting days or weeks due to a shortage of maintenance staff and materials.”
Yes, billions of American tax dollars wasted in another African boondoggle to make the share the wealth crowd feel good about themselves. And the result? Another colossal failure. After all, it is Africa.
15
posted on
07/31/2015 6:32:17 AM PDT
by
SharpRightTurn
(White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
To: hal ogen
“$7,000,000,000.00 should have brought quite a few generators or aaa batteries. There are quite a few criminals and corrupt individuals around...apparently.”
(The Conservative Position) “That’s 5 desalination facilities, infrastructure to move fresh water inland which will create thousands of jobs, provide fresh water for millions, reduce global warming and at the same time prevent the oceans from flooding. Everything you as a liberal want.”
(The Liberal Position) “You are racist.”
16
posted on
07/31/2015 6:38:05 AM PDT
by
EQAndyBuzz
(Democrats are parasites. It really is that simple.)
To: Syntyr
At a loss for a way to combat the problem, Kenya Power is reportedly considering switching to transformers that dont use oil. The oil-free transformers are much more expensive, but might last longer if no one is trying to pry them off poles to get at their oil. Well, they're also raiding the transformers for the copper, so that plan won't do much good either.
17
posted on
07/31/2015 6:38:45 AM PDT
by
Moltke
To: SeekAndFind
Copper thieves are not mentioned.
18
posted on
07/31/2015 6:55:02 AM PDT
by
MaxMax
(Call the local GOP and ask how you can support CRUZ for POTUS,)
To: SeekAndFind
The numbers in this article don't hold up. It's describing problems that have been around for years but the inititive wasn't launched until 2013.
I've no doubt there will be failure and waste but it's just lazy reporting to attribute longstanding problems to this effort.
19
posted on
07/31/2015 7:12:57 AM PDT
by
semimojo
To: SeekAndFind
20
posted on
07/31/2015 7:38:41 AM PDT
by
pa_dweller
(But 'twould be an ill world for weaponless dreamers if evil men were not now and then slain - JRK)
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