Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 00:41:20 +0200
<http://www.africaw.com/how-western-foreign-aid-destroys-africa> How
Western (foreign) Aid destroys Africa
05.09.2014
Greater parts of the foreign aid Africa receives, end up in private bank
accounts in foreign lands. In Africa, foreign Aid fuels corruption, starts
conflicts, and pays to kill innocent people especially the poor and the
weak. This is how foreign Aid destroys Africa. Foreign aid turns African
governments into monsters and causes them to destroy the very own people
they were supposed to be protecting. Many African leaders stay in power for
decades why because they receive free aid money to pay the military and
private killing machines to enable them remain in power forever. Besides
turning governments into monsters, foreign aid brings in a lot of other
negative incentives. External people see Africa as even poorer why because
they "feed" Africa in the form of aid. Taking the past 50 years for example,
over 1 trillion dollars has gone to Africa in the form of aid yet what do we
see? Poverty is getting worseand innocent people continue to die while
African leaders continue to pile billions of dollars in private bank
accounts in foreign lands and that is because foreign aid to an African
government is "free-money" and they need not give any account of it. In
other words, foreign aid disenfranchises the poor African why because poor
Africans are not able to hold their governments accountable. One other very
negative aspect of Foreign aid in Africa is that, it discourages investment
and entrepreneurship.
So should foreign countries turn their backs on Africa? The answer is No.
Africa needs help just like any other continent. However, Africa shouldn't
be considered and treated as a beggar as it appears in today's world.
Western countries can help Africa but they should learn to do so in the
proper way instead of handing out aid which only worsens our already bad
situation here in Africa. The point I am trying to make is that, Africa
should be treated as a partner on the global stage and not as a beggar as
most western donors consider us to be. Africa needs help but we need help to
enable us stand on our feet and do it on our own and not daily manna and
diluted Fanta from any western country. Western countries can help by
encouraging African governments to get off the aid and start looking for
alternatives such as encouraging trade, assisting in the capital markets,
encouraging remittances (money sent home by migrants. This constitutes the
second largest financial inflow to many developing countries exceeding even
international aid.) Taking remittance for example, Today's African Diaspora
consists of about 25 to 30 million working adults, who send about 40 billion
dollars annually to their families and local communities back home.
Encouraging remittance and other such programs can have far greater positive
impacts on Africa than just sending free aid which ends up in private
accounts in foreign lands.
Once again, I am not saying western countries should turn their backs on
Africa. There are several ways of helping and there are several types of
aid. In times of disaster for example (take the Haiti earthquake for
example), any form of aid can help save lives. However, emergency aid is
quite different from the everyday foreign aid that rich countries continue
to send to poor countries thinking they are helping save lives not knowing
they are actually destroying precious human lives from their "five loaves of
bread and two fishes" they continue to send every now and then.
On the individual level for example, we can encourage African
entrepreneurship through programs such as Micro-finance. Giving a
small-scale shoe-maker in Nigeria just a tiny fraction of this aid can go a
long way in helping him expand his business and taking care of his family.
The same thing applies to small-scale farmers in Ghana, small-scale shop
owners in Congo, etc. However, what do you we see today? Western countries
continue to send billions of dollars to Africa thinking they are helping in
any way not knowing these monies end up in private bank accounts abroad
while the poor continue to die in poverty. Some of these monies also go into
financing wars and butchering innocent people just so those crazy bastards
can remain in power. This is how foreign aid destroys our beloved continent
and that is why western countries should stop sending Africa any more of
those "deadly manna".
ForeignAid
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