Africa and The Third World Do Not Need Aid
By
Antony Simbowo
Much to the chagrin of
Western countries, many poor African and third world countries would
rather go to the World Bank, IMF and other Western funding
institutions so as to off set their self-created ‘budgetary
deficits’. The fact noted by the Swedish Ambassador to Kenya Mr. Bo
Goransson (Sunday Nation Kenya April 25th 2004), that “we can start
by removing the rucksacks (developing countries debts), taking away
the hurdles (our trade barriers) and disallowing false starts (our
subsidies)” has never been aptly expressed at a better time.
The
truth that the agricultural policies of the developed nations are an
obstacle to growth, poverty reduction and development in the third
world/less developed world has always been harboured by benign
selfish interests and greed under the aegis of protectionism by the
rich countries. Many are the developing countries whose loans
(erroneously tagged ‘aid’) have gone beyond their ability to pay
such that generations of their citizens are enslaved into avoidable
taxation to repay said loans. These mirrored against a backdrop of
desire for growth and development is but a yoke and a death sentence
to the guillotines of economic stagnation and absolute poverty.
The
loans in as much as they are ignorantly drooled for by the developing
world are the real causes of stagnated economic growth in these
countries. This is because many times they pegged on various “reform”
programs not relevant to the growth of the third world. For example,
the structural adjustment program much implemented by many poor
countries has never been in their development interests considering
that the unemployment levels are usually extremely high with each
working person having many extended dependents for basics such as
food and education.
Privatization though sheepishly cloaked as
good idea, is an economic wolf not suited for all third world state
corporations for strategic purposes and these unfortunately, have
been continuously and fatally harped on and supported by the
so-called lenders. The secret to the development of the poor
countries lies in good economic management and adoption of policies,
which suit them and their development aspirations. Noting that the
costs of “gross inequalities” “have the potential for fueling
frustration and conflicts” by marginalizing “the poor and are a
breeding ground for social unrest and violence”, which affect
economic growth, Mr. Goransson gave an insight into points more often
than not given cold shoulders by the poor countries due to crass
ignorance.
Poor countries need to clamp down on gender
inequalities, the poor-rich disparity, ethnic/tribal animosities and
unproductive public political debates at the expense of productivity
if they expect to increase their Gross Domestic Product and feed the
many hungry lots who have hardly a single proper meal a day.
The
reality however, is that much of the third world media and public
debate are rife with politics, rumour mongering and gossip which
contribute very little if any to national growth and development and
are luxuries which should only be afforded by the developed world.
The illusion seems to be that when the developing world media adopt
foreign programmes and concepts, then that is a sign of growth, which
is a pathological lie. This is an affront to development since these
unproductive media debates happen as the obscene disparity between
the rich and the poor increases at an increasing rate. Therefore,
African countries and other developing nations should strive to adopt
policies that are unique to their specific problems as well as unite
to learn from each other on the ways of tackling the problems because
a majority of them faced concordantly alike situations.
The
collapse of the Cancun talks charted the way forward for poor
countries to resist repressive economic policies from the developed
world, which have incessantly served to retard growth and increase
over dependence on loans from the World Bank, European Economic
Commission and other world lending institutions. The third world
should realize that rich countries are intent on maintaining their
status quo and only adamant refusal to budge from their stance would
help unyoke them from years of economic slavery more or so in the Sub
Saharan Africa.
What the African countries and the rest of the
developing world need to inspire growth is a fair economic playground
and not burdensome loans falsely labeled ‘aid’. This fair
playground should be free of ubiquitous agricultural subsidies, trade
barriers, and other forms of economic malpractices giving the rich
developed world an undue advantage over the poor developing world in
the world trade arena. Should these be implemented, then the falsity
that African states and the developing world at that are economically
athirst without loans shall be disproved.
Let the developed
world stop sponsoring rebels and guerrillas in Africa and the rest of
the third world, let them write off loans to the developing nations,
let them remove trade barriers and agricultural subsidies. Let us
start afresh for the betterment of the worlds poorest. As for the
poor countries, more or so Africans, it is time you stopped this
vicious cycle shameless begging and focused on better policies and
politics for your nations. It is time you stopped being used as trade
paraphernalia by international lenders. It is time you spent wisely
the little resources you have and curtailed the economic slavery and
yoking of generations of African off springs, which you have abetted
heartlessly for years.
Alex F. McCalla,’
Agriculture and Food Needs to 2025: Why Should We Be Concerned?”
(Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),
Sir. John Crawford Memorial Lecture, Washington, D.C., 27th
October 1994).
Agriculture
towards 2010, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United
Nations, Rome, 1993.
Bo Goransson,
“Sunday Nation”, Kenya, April, 25th 2004
– – –
Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 02:07:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Volunteer Work