Africa is in the news. I lived in Madagascar and then Kenya from 1985 through to 1992.
Here I am in in the far south-west of Madagascar in about 1986,
Jen stopping for lunch.
This was one way of getting about in Madagascar in the mid 1980s,
by taxi brouse.
Taxibrouses would run the more common form of transport off the road,
the bullock cart .
I read about the planned Live 8 Concerts for Africa last week and I was sceptical. I thought of the proverb, “Give me a fish and I eat or a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a life time”.
“Forgiving debt, or giving money, is not going to do much more than reward bad management,” were my thoughts.
Others had similar concerns. According to ABC Online,
“Some aid workers and Africans worry that the Live 8 initiatives will only serve to bolster corrupt regimes while scepticism persists that rock stars can change anything.
“I don’t believe it will do any good,” said 18-year-old Nir Livneh in the London crowd. “It won’t stop poverty in Africa.”
In Johannesburg, most of those interviewed among the crowd of 10,000 had never even heard of Geldof but Edward Romoki, yelling over a booming hip-hop act, said: “Maybe a concert like this can put Africa in the news and change things.””
How might putting Africa in the news change things?
I read today that Bob Geldof asked for more than just debit relief, he is asking for three things:
1. Action to wipe out Africa’s debt,
2. Double aid, and
3. The scrapping of trade barriers.
According to theSydney Morning Herald one million people attended the 10 free concerts in Europe, North America, South Africa and Japan, while an estimated 3 billion watched on television.
Bob Geldof, brought the computer billionaire Bill Gates to the Hyde Park stage, introducing him to the crowd of 200,000 as “the greatest philanthropist of our age”, who had given away $US5 billion.
Gates believes in technology including biotechnology (GM food crops). He believes in not only teaching people ‘how to fish’ (remembering the proverb) but also in providing them with the best technology. Towards this end he is supporting the work of a woman I once met, and admire immensely, Florence Wambugu. And you can find more about Florence at
http://whybiotech.ca/canada-english.asp?id=3603 .
Some of the projects supported by her group and that will be given a kick-along by the funding from Bill Gates can be found at
http://www.ahbfi.org/msv.htm .
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
One of the greatest sources of trade protection and barriers is the EU – they cannot exist on a ‘level playing field’. A lot of the subsidies have been ‘decoupled’ and are now ‘environmental grants’.
http://www.agritrade.org/Brown%20Bag%20Series/Moehler.pdf
The UN have also been busy with a War on Obesity.
http://techcentralstation.com/063005F.html
I read a comment by Mr Geldorf which implied that poverty causes corruption. Corruption without being tackled destroys aid and normal trade. Africa’s problems in the area of poverty are not one of a thing but many things, perhaps colonial transition not being say transitional but cut and run originally was the original issue but this is not the problem now. (This is a general statement). But the fact now is that if 95% of aid is skimmed through corruption and poor practice then the aid (or loan wotever) is not aid but corruption itself.
Timor L’este and Iraq now show how hard the transition is. In Iraq we are watching the aged hands of generational corruption fight to the death, why is any African nation in the hands of a despot different. Not saying there shouldn’t be aid but every cent of it must be supervised. It would be better it we lost 20cents in every dollar though bean counting and transparency (even mico management)cost then the status quo of now. Apology for length of post.
If every one of people emoting on stage donated 20% of their annual income for a year I would be less than skeptical about them and I don’t remember any election in a G8 country giving them (the emotional) the right to demand how to spend of the treasuries of individual G8 nation’s. I’ll listen ot Gates coz he puts up and also he will have been banging his head against a wall for half a decade. He’s probably done more against aids than any vocal activist since 1970.
Like Jennifer, I have lived for some years in Africa. An old African once told me that the difference between Africans and Europeans is that Africans have curly hair and straight brains, but Europeans have straight hair, and curly brians. There is certainly a lot of curly thinking about Africa by experts who have never lived there.
One has to admire the committment and dedication of Bob Geldorf for his efforts in organising Live Aid 20 years ago and Live8 this year. He proves that with organisation, application and a good cause anything is possible.
However, it troubles me that Geldorf and his other ‘rock idols’ now feel they are experienced international diplomats in relation to world poverty. Solving world hunger requires more than simple philanthropy and lobbying of the G8. It requires structural change and tough decisions.
Unfortunately, we are already seeing the media placing pressure on the Australian government to ‘forgive debt’. By simplfying the issues and placing an emotive element to the situation creates unwanted outcomes. While the music was good I hope that Live8 does not entrench the same problems which have hampered previous efforts: subjective critism and unrealistic expectation of the ‘developed’ world.
While those who attended and watched the concert may have gone to bed contented that they had contibuted to changing the world, the real test is those going to bed hungry in African countries.
Bill Gates thru the Bill & Melissa Gates foundation has devoted enormous funds to trying to find ways of stopping the advance of TB, HIV and Malaria in developing countries – disease breeds poverty.
Retiring debt will not provide solutions to poverty it will only provide capital to those who control it.