From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Mon Aug 04 2008 - 13:32:49 EDT
Irish Independent News Ireland | Irish Newspaper
Aid to Africa is rarely altruistic
By Safi Asmeron
Saturday August 02 2008
The black American journalist Keith Richburg, after spending three years
in Africa covering war and genocide, wrote: "Thank God my (slave)
ancestor got out (of Africa) because, now, I am not one of them."
Surely this is understood as hyperbole to make a point about the state
of affairs in Africa.
Kevin Myers's article (July 10, 2008) does the same. Removing the layers
of polemic and exaggeration, one finds that the article correctly raises
concerns about the objective and ethical pitfalls of aid.
The reality is that foreign aid is in the donors' national interests,
which rarely includes altruism.
In order to hide this reality, donors tend to manipulate accountability
indexes to suit their own agendas.
Aid, for the recipient population, becomes nothing more than another
resource curse.
Such is the case for most African countries, where governments, because
of aid, are not answerable to their own people, and use their massive
aid resource to continue to conduct wars and oppress their populations.
Another unintended consequence of aid is that it crowds out indigenous
development -- political, economic, and especially social -- resulting
in a shiftless and uprooted society, prey to random images and
destructive impulses.
Witness the soaring inequalities and crime rates in much of Africa.
These are the issues that should concern those outraged by Mr Myers's
article. Perhaps if they would expend their energies demanding more
accountability from donors and recipient governments, and if they would
face up to the reality that donor governments and their public are
complicit in exacerbating Africa's woes, some genuine progress would be
made.
SAFI ASMEROM
OTTAWA, CANADA
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/aid-to-africa-is-rarely-altrui
stic-1445568.html
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