← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · kminta
Thread ID: 19032 | Posts: 13 | Started: 2005-07-07
2005-07-07 23:31 | User Profile
[I]Finally, an intelligent African who understands what Africa really needs.[/I]
[B][URL=http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html]"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"[/URL][/B]
[B]The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.[/B]
Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.
SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.
Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.
SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?
Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.
SPIEGEL: Even in a country like Kenya, people are starving to death each year. Someone has got to help them.
Shikwati: But it has to be the Kenyans themselves who help these people. When there's a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program -- which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated. It's only natural that they willingly accept the plea for more help. And it's not uncommon that they demand a little more money than the respective African government originally requested. They then forward that request to their headquarters, and before long, several thousands tons of corn are shipped to Africa ...
SPIEGEL: ... corn that predominantly comes from highly-subsidized European and American farmers ...
Shikwati: ... and at some point, this corn ends up in the harbor of Mombasa. A portion of the corn often goes directly into the hands of unsrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN's World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It's a simple but fatal cycle.
SPIEGEL: If the World Food Program didn't do anything, the people would starve.
Shikwati: I don't think so. In such a case, the Kenyans, for a change, would be forced to initiate trade relations with Uganda or Tanzania, and buy their food there. This type of trade is vital for Africa. It would force us to improve our own infrastructure, while making national borders -- drawn by the Europeans by the way -- more permeable. It would also force us to establish laws favoring market economy.
SPIEGEL: Would Africa actually be able to solve these problems on its own?
Shikwati: Of course. Hunger should not be a problem in most of the countries south of the Sahara. In addition, there are vast natural resources: oil, gold, diamonds. Africa is always only portrayed as a continent of suffering, but most figures are vastly exaggerated. In the industrial nations, there's a sense that Africa would go under without development aid. But believe me, Africa existed before you Europeans came along. And we didn't do all that poorly either.
SPIEGEL: But AIDS didn't exist at that time.
Shikwati: If one were to believe all the horrorifying reports, then all Kenyans should actually be dead by now. But now, tests are being carried out everywhere, and it turns out that the figures were vastly exaggerated. It's not three million Kenyans that are infected. All of the sudden, it's only about one million. Malaria is just as much of a problem, but people rarely talk about that.
SPIEGEL: And why's that?
Shikwati: AIDS is big business, maybe Africa's biggest business. There's nothing else that can generate as much aid money as shocking figures on AIDS. AIDS is a political disease here, and we should be very skeptical.
SPIEGEL: The Americans and Europeans have frozen funds previously pledged to Kenya. The country is too corrupt, they say.
Shikwati: I am afraid, though, that the money will still be transfered before long. After all, it has to go somewhere. Unfortunately, the Europeans' devastating urge to do good can no longer be countered with reason. It makes no sense whatsoever that directly after the new Kenyan government was elected -- a leadership change that ended the dictatorship of Daniel arap Mois -- the faucets were suddenly opened and streams of money poured into the country.
SPIEGEL: Such aid is usually earmarked for a specific objective, though.
Shikwati: That doesn't change anything. Millions of dollars earmarked for the fight against AIDS are still stashed away in Kenyan bank accounts and have not been spent. Our politicians were overwhelmed with money, and they try to siphon off as much as possible. The late tyrant of the Central African Republic, Jean Bedel Bokassa, cynically summed it up by saying: "The French government pays for everything in our country. We ask the French for money. We get it, and then we waste it."
SPIEGEL: In the West, there are many compassionate citizens wanting to help Africa. Each year, they donate money and pack their old clothes into collection bags ...
Shikwati: ... and they flood our markets with that stuff. We can buy these donated clothes cheaply at our so-called Mitumba markets. There are Germans who spend a few dollars to get used Bayern Munich or Werder Bremen jerseys, in other words, clothes that that some German kids sent to Africa for a good cause. After buying these jerseys, they auction them off at Ebay and send them back to Germany -- for three times the price. That's insanity ...
SPIEGEL: ... and hopefully an exception.
Shikwati: Why do we get these mountains of clothes? No one is freezing here. Instead, our tailors lose their livlihoods. They're in the same position as our farmers. No one in the low-wage world of Africa can be cost-efficient enough to keep pace with donated products. In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria's textile industry. By 2003, the figure had dropped to 57,000. The results are the same in all other areas where overwhelming helpfulness and fragile African markets collide.
SPIEGEL: Following World War II, Germany only managed to get back on its feet because the Americans poured money into the country through the Marshall Plan. Wouldn't that qualify as successful development aid?
Shikwati: In Germany's case, only the destroyed infrastructure had to be repaired. Despite the economic crisis of the Weimar Republic, Germany was a highly- industrialized country before the war. The damages created by the tsunami in Thailand can also be fixed with a little money and some reconstruction aid. Africa, however, must take the first steps into modernity on its own. There must be a change in mentality. We have to stop perceiving ourselves as beggars. These days, Africans only perceive themselves as victims. On the other hand, no one can really picture an African as a businessman. In order to change the current situation, it would be helpful if the aid organizations were to pull out.
SPIEGEL: If they did that, many jobs would be immediately lost ...
Shikwati: ... jobs that were created artificially in the first place and that distort reality. Jobs with foreign aid organizations are, of course, quite popular, and they can be very selective in choosing the best people. When an aid organization needs a driver, dozens apply for the job. And because it's unacceptable that the aid worker's chauffeur only speaks his own tribal language, an applicant is needed who also speaks English fluently -- and, ideally, one who is also well mannered. So you end up with some African biochemist driving an aid worker around, distributing European food, and forcing local farmers out of their jobs. That's just crazy!
SPIEGEL: The German government takes pride in precisely monitoring the recipients of its funds.
Shikwati: And what's the result? A disaster. The German government threw money right at Rwanda's president Paul Kagame. This is a man who has the deaths of a million people on his conscience -- people that his army killed in the neighboring country of Congo.
SPIEGEL: What are the Germans supposed to do?
Shikwati: If they really want to fight poverty, they should completely halt development aid and give Africa the opportunity to ensure its own survival. Currently, Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.
2005-07-08 00:25 | User Profile
Glad to see this making the rounds. An important and timely article.
2005-07-08 01:31 | User Profile
I think this Black fellow actually has the right idea. Good.
2005-07-08 02:42 | User Profile
Oh please, aid isn't Africa's problem. The place is hopeless. Look at America, where blacks have the most expensive public education on the planet, interact daily with whites, are given free welfare and jobs, yet anything in America that blacks get control of, they destroy. How much more hopeless is Africa where we can't hire blacks and pretend that they're earning their pay.
Look at Africa before it was ever given any aid. Everything Africa has comes from aid, just like everything American blacks have is given to them.
2005-07-08 02:44 | User Profile
See I disagree. I think they are better off on their own.
2005-07-08 02:58 | User Profile
I just wrote a similar article to the one this African fellow wrote. His is better. Hey listen, the jigs are not going to create a great civilization, but maybe, just maybe, with a little nudge and a cutting off of aid, they just might be able to feed themselves and make life a little better.
Before the civil rights movement and modern welfare, the blacks in America built themselves a decent sub-culture. They weren't always such a freakin pain in the ass as they are now. They can do it again if we stop being their enablers. Maybe with a revived black civilization (or semi-civilization) we can start a kind of modified aparthied system.
2005-07-08 16:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE=CornCod]
Before the civil rights movement and modern welfare, the blacks in America built themselves a decent sub-culture. They weren't always such a freakin pain in the ass as they are now. They can do it again if we stop being their enablers. Maybe with a revived black civilization (or semi-civilization) we can start a kind of modified aparthied system.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I mostly agree. However, the trick would be to keep the jooden from pulling the puppet strings of fedgovinc and stay out of local affairs in this regard. There again is the real problem...fedgovinc and its kosher infiltration. The kosher types were behind much of the so-called civil rights movements, im sure most here know that.
2005-07-08 17:05 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Shikwati: AIDS is big business, maybe Africa's biggest business. There's nothing else that can generate as much aid money as shocking figures on AIDS. AIDS is a political disease here, and we should be very skeptical.[/QUOTE]Exactly.
2005-07-08 18:06 | User Profile
[QUOTE=CornCod] Before the civil rights movement and modern welfare, the blacks in America built themselves a decent sub-culture. They weren't always such a freakin pain in the ass as they are now. They can do it again if we stop being their enablers. Maybe with a revived black civilization (or semi-civilization) we can start a kind of modified aparthied system.[/QUOTE]
They sure did come up with same great music. Dance and theater, too. Even a few decent novels (not really my thing, though).
The Harlem Renaissance was a major historical event.
I think that the best thing we could do for Africa is to agree to buy their agricultural products. We don't grow stuff lke bananas, cocoa, coffee, vanilla, spices and so forth ourselves (at least not much), and there's no reason Africa couldn't be a major supplier of all sorts of agricultural products to the developed world.
Well, except for that small problem of African inability to manage a modern farm. I mean, look at what happened in Zimbabwe when they took the land from the white farmers. Freeking famine in a year.
Africa will need to import management staff. There's just no other way. But in order to do that, we'll need to have a frank, open and honest discussion about why that's necessary: low African IQ and the limitations it places on Africa's ability to develop and maintain modern infrastructure.
So, what it all really boils down to is that if we really want to help Africa, we need to speak openly about a very unpopular truth.
And that's the one thing we're not willing to do.
We'd rather pour another $50 billion down another rathole while Africa decends further into misery than break the social taboo against speaking openly about the obvious racial differences all around us.
Such is the human race, my friends.
Better for millions to suffer and die than to look bad in front of others.
2005-07-09 00:24 | User Profile
Kudos to Mr. Shitakwi. He has expressed more wisdom in that short interview than I have heard in a lifetime of listening to the "Black Leaders" in the West.
[QUOTE]We'd rather pour another $50 billion down another rathole while Africa decends further into misery than break the social taboo against speaking openly about the obvious racial differences all around us.[/QUOTE]
Walt, We sure are lucky to have the "Fiscally Responsible Republicans" in power instead of "those damn tax & spend liberals who just throw money at problems".
:wallbash:
2005-07-16 01:33 | User Profile
Charley Reese on Africa's problems.
[url]http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20050715/index.php[/url]
Africa Lost
President George Bush is right to balk at doubling foreign aid to Africa and to demand of the African countries that they do something about the corruption that nearly all are riddled with.
White Europeans need to get over their guilt trip and recognize that the problems facing sub-Saharan Africa are caused by the Africans themselves. In Africa you have a land rich in resources, with a surplus of labor, a largely benign climate and fertile soil. What Africa lacks are honest, competent leaders who care about their own people. If any such leaders have emerged since the colonial period, nearly all have been murdered by the thugs who ended up running most of the countries.
Nobody has shown more cruelty toward Africans than Africans. Practically every conflict they have turns into an orgy of mutilation, rape and mass murder. I confess that I don't understand it. To an outsider, it seems like a self-evident case of uncivilized savagery. Whatever the reason, no outsider can save another person from his or her own self-destructive tendencies.
Pouring foreign aid into Africa is like trying to irrigate a desert with spit. Billions and billions of dollars have been poured into that rathole, with virtually no visible results. Africa has a problem with AIDS because it has a problem with widespread promiscuity. You aren't going to make any headway with the disease without changing the behavior that is spreading it. African poverty is a result of overpopulation, corruption and inefficiency.
If the Europeans and Americans really want to help Africa, they should ban all sales of armaments. No country that lacks a decent education system, clean water, sanitary sewers and health care should be allowed to waste money on tanks, armored cars and other weaponry. Last year armament sales worldwide totaled $1 trillion.
Second, the American and European governments should vigorously pursue and prosecute any and all multinational corporations that pay bribes to African leaders in lieu of a fair market price for natural resources.
Third, they should insist on total transparency and total accountability from the African governments for every penny of income and aid as the minimum price for receiving even one bag of flour. It is stupid, wasteful and immoral to feed people whose government leaders are amassing fortunes in Swiss bank accounts.
This might appear to be an overly harsh assessment of Africa, but I believe that far too many Europeans and North Americans prefer the comfort of living with delusions rather than honestly assessing problems. Dumping money and food on the African problem has more to do with people trying to feel good about themselves than with solving the problems facing the African people.
Real solutions to Africa's problems must come from the Africans themselves, and they are unlikely to produce any as long as their leaders can get away with begging and borrowing from the industrialized north. There is no useful point in our caring about them as long as they don't care about each other. Why should we share with them when they refuse to share with each other? What can we do about a people who seem to see every conflict as an excuse to inflict unspeakable atrocities against their fellow Africans?
People who think we can end hunger in Africa with gifts of food and money are wrong. Without systemic reform of Africa's agriculture, without honest governments willing to invest in the people, without an end to the tribal wars, no permanent good can be achieved.
Keeping people alive today so they can die in misery tomorrow is hardly a humane gesture. Several pounds of books have been written about the failures of foreign aid and foreign development in Africa. One common problem is that the provider of aid is often more interested in his own selfish objectives than in the African people. Another problem has been unforeseen consequences of poorly thought-out plans.
2005-07-18 15:35 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Blond Knight] From Charli Reese: If the Europeans and Americans really want to help Africa, they should ban all sales of armaments. No country that lacks a decent education system, clean water, sanitary sewers and health care should be allowed to waste money on tanks, armored cars and other weaponry. Last year armament sales worldwide totaled $1 trillion.
When the arms flow was cut off to both sides in Mozambique, 19 years of civil war ended. Funny how that worked.
[QUOTE]Second, the American and European governments should vigorously pursue and prosecute any and all multinational corporations that pay bribes to African leaders in lieu of a fair market price for natural resources. [/QUOTE] That just opens the door for Indian, Chinese, and Arab bribers to get in. :smoke: [QUOTE]Third, they should insist on total transparency and total accountability from the African governments for every penny of income and aid as the minimum price for receiving even one bag of flour. It is stupid, wasteful and immoral to feed people whose government leaders are amassing fortunes in Swiss bank accounts. [/QUOTE] 1. We don't have total transparency at the UN, nor in Washington. However, the last sentence is pure gold. :smoke:
2005-07-21 18:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Look at Africa before it was ever given any aid. Everything Africa has comes from aid, just like everything American blacks have is given to them.[/QUOTE]
Exactly the point Mr. Shikwati was making in the Q&A. Before they were given aid they were a tribal society who principally hunted and made war upon one another.
Come to think of it your both right. Can't go forward and Can't go back.