Trade not Aid

The attendees of the Geldolf live 8 converts are being told that they are helping to reduce or remove poverty in Africa.

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If Geldolf's concerts are in any way improving the drive to remove poverty from Africa I would support the initiative.

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I in my youth whitnessed appalling poverty in Northern (Sahara) Africa.

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I am, however, convinced that the Live8 concerts are instead unwittingly making the situation worse.

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What is so depressing is the thought that the newspapers and most of the media should become part of, and indeed be feeding, what can only be described as Live8 hysteria.

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Despite carefully argued pieces in its own sister paper and other publications, including the Guardian; despite well attended conferences and talks given by people from every continent, who have studied the subject; despite papers produced by experts in various fields to do with development the fragrant editress of the Sunday Telegraph seems not to have grasped something should be patently obvious; aid does more harm than good.

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Forty years of aid have helped to reduce African countries to chaos and their people to complete poverty.Aid helps the political elites of Africa, who are the problem, and the NGOs, who have a vested interest in not seeing any real development. Aid means that people spend their time filling in forms and applying for money from various donors instead of participating in the economy.

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I could go on. Instead, let me quote two people on the subject, who, astonishingly enough, express similar views.

“At the root of Africa’s problems is ruling political elites that have misused the economic surplus generated by the African continent over the last 40 years. African political elites have exploited their position in order to- bolster their standard of living to Western levels,
- undertake loss-making industrialisation projects that were not supported by the necessary technical, managerial, and educational development, and
- transfer vast amounts of money from agriculture and mineral extraction to overseas private bank accounts, while borrowing vast amounts from developed countries.”

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All this was eased by the perpetual aid giving, debt writing off and more aid giving that seems to have been the West’s only response for a long time. The G8-Live8 farce, to be lovingly covered in this week’s media perpetuates this vicious circle.

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Here is the second quote:

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“Economic development is not something we do four countries; it is something they achieve with us. Their leaders, by definition, must play the main role as agents of reform and progress, instead of passive recipients of money.”

Money that is then miss-spent in a system where the donors know nothing about the ultimate destination of the money and the people who are in the power of the “leaders” have no way of calling them to account.

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The two quotes say make very similar points, despite the vaguely Marxist phraseology of the first one. That was made by Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of Thado and deputy chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs. The paper was first published by Cato Institute in Washington DC and, just two days ago, by the London based International Policy Network, who also organized a meeting that Mr Mbeki addressed.

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The second quote is from President Bush. It is part of his explanation why American aid is being targeted to certain particular projects and is tied to democratic development.

Africa needs trade not aid.