African aid

[frankthring]

I see the African Union conference on aid to the Horn of Africa - the first
ever attempt to get African nations to help one another deal with
starvation - has ended in tragedy. Only 4 heads of state attended and
32 countries - including biggies like Zambia, Botswana and Uganda - sent
no money at all. One courageous African schoolboy from Ghana raised
?2,500 through sponsored walks and similar stuff, while 32 governments
did nothing (his effort was almost double of that of Lesotho`s that gave
?1,500).....and the British public (I am not even including Brit Govt aid),
well you gave in collection boxes ?57 million. This compares with a final
tally of ?49 million from the whole of Africa if "pledges" can be believed...
Now, folks, go and look at the gold bling loot from the Libyan dictator`s
palaces, think of the billions in Euro aid money siphoned off each year by
African despots and it makes you wonder...........

[one eyed jack]

Why give them money at all?

Just give them the tools and the education to use it, bring the food and grain over, give them water then let them go about their business.

I know thats been done already so whats wrong with sticking with that? if the government and rebels are nicking it then send in the troops to escort the goods and makes sure it gets there and used by the people that needs it. I bet it would cost a lot less too

Just giving money is useless. That always leads to corruption by skimming off the top all the way down from here in the UK all the way to Africa until theres nothing left.

Anyway Frank, are you trying to say that if they dont care about each other enough then why should we bother help?

I could give you a very good answer to why the western world is compelled to help Africa despite all the troubles but I think you already know the answer to that already

[David Johnson]

Well here you go lads, a slightly differing view

"Developing nations in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere are especially vulnerable to the offshore world. As corrupt dictators and other ?lites remove vast sums of private and relocate them to financial centres like London, New York and Zurich, developing countries? economies are deprived of local investment capital and their governments are denied desperately needed tax revenues ? with the result that capital flows not from capital-rich countries to poor ones, as traditional economics suggests, but, perversely, in the other direction"

"Over the past decades, African countries have been forced by external debt burdens to undertake painful economic adjustments while devoting scarce foreign exchange to debt-service payments. On the other hand, African countries have experienced massive outflows of private capital towards Western financial centers. Indeed, these private assets surpass the continent?s foreign liabilities, ironically making sub-Saharan Africa a ?net creditor? to the rest of the world."

http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2008/04/ ... frica.html

"The difference is that while the assets are in private hands, the liabilities are the public debts of African governments and, through them, their their people. South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel was right when he said: "It is a contradiction to support increased development assistance, yet turn a blind eye to actions by multinationals and others that undermine the tax base of a developing country."


All together now
"It's the rich wot gets the money, it's the poor wot gets the blame".

Just like here in the UK, really.

Cheers
D