A rchive Date
[ 21-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/worthington.html
African aid plan won't help people in need
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
July 5, 2002
When Richard Nixon decided it was time to sell out South Vietnam to the communists, he declared "peace with honour" and American troops went home.
When Jean Chretien didn't get the G8 nations attending the two-day gabfest at Kananaskis, Alberta, to pledge $64 billion in aid for Africa over the next decade, but "only" $1 billion, he declared it a "new beginning and fresh hope ... we have succeeded."
In short, Chretien's centrepiece policy of aiding Africa is about as meaningful as "peace with honour" in Vietnam was - or endorsing democracy for Palestine is today.
The G8 leaders were courteous but not buying.
And why should they?
Chretien and Africa are odd bedfellows. His enthusiasm for things African smacks of opportunism without responsibility. Arguably, more aid has been funneled to Africa since the death of colonialism than to any other region on Earth - and to less effect than anywhere else.
The developed world's leaders support aid (and trade) with countries where there's modest hope for progress and accountability.
Even African countries that drew up the celebrated New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), say African countries should watchdog their neighbours and insist on good governance and human rights. Sort of. NEPAD is theoretically supposed to reduce poverty by 50% and infant mortality by 65%.
Words, words, words. More declarations of intent that get confused with achievements. South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, successor to Nelson Mandela, while agreeing that African countries must police themselves, supports and congratulates the frightful Robert Mugabe on winning Zimbabwe's rigged elections.
Old African hand Jean Chretien thwarted Commonwealth condemnation and sanctions against Mugabe prior to his rigged election, and urged he get another chance.
Canada has forgiven loans to Zimbabwe, to show our goodwill. This benefits Mugabe, not the people of Zimbabwe.
Chretien's sudden obsession with Africa is puzzling. It's a part of the world he knows little about and, until recently, cared about even less. In the first six months of this year, Chretien has been linked with Africa in Sun stories 60 times; in all of last year he was linked 38 times; the year before that 10 times.
Africa is a new hobby.
The proposed $64-billion "action plan" to rescue Africa from itself hadn't a hope of being realized, despite the presence of African leaders at Kananaskis with begging bowls at the ready.
Still, $1 billion extra was pledged, with precious little of it going to improve the lot of African people. Wanna bet? To most politicians, Africa is a safe, fashionable, risk-free topic that entails mostly words, promises, declarations of intent.
The last 45 years have proved that blank cheques to tyrants - of which Mugabe is one of the worst in Africa - mostly entrench dictatorships. The Zimbabwe that Mugabe inherited from Ian Smith's Rhodesia was the most hopeful, self-sustaining, economically viable country in all of Africa. Now it is a basket case - starvation amid plenty; whites forbidden to farm and being driven from the country which they made the envy of Africa; unemployment rampant.
Let Mbeki and pals promote democracy in Zimbabwe, before squeezing the conscience and wallets of the democratic world.
South Africa is one of the few African countries today that resembles democracy, with weak opposition parties that don't threaten the ruling ANC. It's also the most dangerous country in Africa in which to live or visit. Crime and violence are endemic.
Botswana, plagued with problems, not the least of which is AIDS, has been a struggling democracy for longer than most. Perhaps Senegal, in the north, is the closest to true democracy, whose leader, Abdoulaye Wade, sees better than others how hopeless most of Africa is.
There's little to suggest that increased aid won't increase tyranny, as it has done since the end of colonialism. Corruption, racism (tribalism) and tyranny are the curses of Africa. So is foreign aid, which prevents change and is a boon to despots. Aid makes western donors feel good, but it also makes African dictators richer.
Social workers and humanitarians also feed at the foreign aid trough, and draw salaries and live far more comfortably than those they seek to help. They have a vested interest in such aid.
There are no easy answers in Africa, but the best hope for any undeveloped country is to first get a democratic system, because in democracies, all people (except tyrants) are better off than those who don't live in democracies.
In this violent world, democratic countries do not go to war against other democracies, so aid should be directed only to countries that progress towards democracy.
That's not too tough to understand, even for Chretien, if he's serious about helping Africa.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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