Via 2Blowhards, some excerpts from an interview with Shikwati in Der Spiegel in 2005:
"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"Corrupt leaders? Complacency? The people have become beggars?! What hateful talk!!
July 04, 2005
The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.
(...)
Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor....
Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems....
When there's a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program -- which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated....
A portion of the corn often goes directly into the hands of unsrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN's World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It's a simple but fatal cycle....
If they really want to fight poverty, they should completely halt development aid and give Africa the opportunity to ensure its own survival. Currently, Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.... [link]
Shikwati is clearly a raci....
Oh. Hang on. He's the wrong colour to be that.
See also: Will Money Solve Africa's Development Problems? No Way. and If The West Really Cared
This is not a hate site
7 comments:
I've looked and I've looked but nowhere in this article can I find Shikwati calling Africans 'sexually hyperactive indigents'....
I have no problem with people saying the system of Aid as is is bad for Africa--it obviously ain't helping..... but Myers' article contained a lot more bile and bigotry than simple criticism of a system.
The title of the article alone was despicable, short-sighted and narrow-minded. The Indo is clearly encouraging Myers to be as shocking as possible to encourage more sales as opposed to facilitating rational discussion.
"Shikwati is clearly a raci.... Oh. Hang on. He's the wrong colour to be that. "
How true. How true.
The word racist has been turned into a blunt instrument by certain groups to bully by verbal force other groups.
And the sickening part is that certain elements of the groups under attack actually encourage and condone it.
It's 21st century tribal warfare.
Unfortunately only one tribe has all the clubs!
Nice one. Of course the actions of the west suit the needs of the west. In particular the IMF has had a tendancy to insist that countries throw their economies wide open to the jackals in return for some cash to stabilise an economy that has probably been destabilised by western speculation. Good to see South American countries trying to band together to form an IMF-proof economic club.
Actually ms. bones, being married to an African and having spent time in Africa myself I have observed the way it is a cultural norm for males to, for a large part, sit around while the ladies till the fields. I have seen this on many occasions. Hence I have no problem with Myers use of the word 'indigent' as it seems to be simply fact.
It is also well known that African men are notoriously promiscuous, It leads to much of the continents woe's. Sexual hyperactivity is simply one way of putting it.
I agree, if I were an African male I would be affronted by this statement as it seems to blanket all Africans, but It would it would also embolden me to desire that there could be no longer any reason for people to say such things of Africans.
In terms of African conditions -- it takes two to tangle, folks, two to tangle. Western business elites have debased one place more savagely than the West itself and that place is Africa.
In terms of Myers being a "racist". He isn't. But even if he was racist -- it doesn't matter. They are only words, so rather than assembling together a baying lynch mob and jumping into a wild lather of indignation and shock how about having the maturity, common sense and sanity to rise above mere words and deal with the issues raised rationally, hard truth or bad rant or not? Of course getting so scandalised gives reason to the thought police and coal to the gravy train.
Remember: Words don't kill. Recognising this is a testament to a truly mature society -- a society that can discuss things -- and it's clear to me that this society is anything but mature.
Political Correctness is simply a demand to be told what one wants to hear!
Ah, Maturity. The teenager's put down.
Post a Comment