Good Money Wasted

[Said1]

Good money wasted?

UNLESS G8 HAS A SAY, THEY'LL POUR GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD, WRITES BOB MACDONALD

IN 1979, I had just returned from a working trip to Africa, which included covering the Commonwealth Conference in Lusaka, Zambia.

When I returned, a local TV show asked me what I thought was Africa's greatest problem. I said it was covered by one word -- "maintenance."

I explained that such aid organizations as the Canadian government's CIDA spent huge amounts of Canadian taxpayers' money on messed-up African projects.

ONE-PARTY REGIME

For instance, in Zambia, Canada had spent millions supplying diesel locomotives for a new railroad. Unfortunately, neither the locomotives nor the railroad tracks and bridges were maintained. Result: The railway ground to a halt with little or nothing done to get things working again. The locomotives became inoperable.






Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, lionized by western liberals, imposed a one-party socialist regime after Zambia received its independence from Britain in 1964. He ruled for 27 years, and turned a once-prosperous nation into an international basket case, increasingly dependent on foreign aid just to maintain a subsistence economy.

He was finally driven from office in 1991, but only after he, his family and close aides made themselves millionaires who lived in luxurious mansions and drove the best German-made cars. Most fled to comfortable exile in Switzerland and other countries.

However, when I was there in 1979, Kaunda was busily supporting an armed rebellion against the Rhodesian government. One of the rebel leaders was Robert Mugabe, a Marxist who later became the President of Zimbabwe.

And one of the ironies of the Commonwealth Conference was that the once-prosperous Zambian agricultural industry couldn't even supply cattle and prize produce to show to delegates. Kaunda's folks had to sneak in livestock and produce from guess where? Yep, the still-prosperous Rhodesia.

RIGGED ELECTIONS

Of course, we all know what Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe's economy. Basically, he has stolen land from efficient white farmers and turned it over to many black owners who proved to be poor farm managers. And he's consistently rigged elections to cling to power.

However, despite his woeful, anti-democratic record and destruction of his country's economy, Mugabe is still supported by many other African leaders.

And we have such horrible African atrocities as the 1994 genocidal slaughter of more than 500,000 Tutsi men, women and children by supporters of the Hutu government in Rwanda. I remember writing a column about it at the time, noting that the horrific killings via guns, machetes, knives and clubs included mass rapes of Tutsi women.

But I also noted the story was receiving little notice in the outside world at the time because it was looked on as "just blacks killing blacks."

Which gets me to today's concerns by the more prosperous outside world -- especially the G8 nations -- with African regimes that have piled up a foreign debt of over $300 billion. This week-end, it has received major attention because a group of pop musician stars put on a televised worldwide concert yesterday urging the G8 to forgive the debt.

Fine and dandy. But there has been little attention given to the fact that many of these African nations are plagued with corrupt and often-murderous dictatorships.

For instance, the African Union has estimated corruption costs African countries $148 billion a year -- equal to half of that $300 billion debt.

Why forgive the debt when such massive amounts are being stolen? Hell, do they think this is Canada where the Liberal regime has ripped off $250 million of Canadian taxpayers' money in the AdScam scandal and still leads in the public opinion polls?

SWISS ACCOUNTS

In other words, there has to be some way for the G8 and other nations owed money to have a say in how the African debtor governments handle their finances. Otherwise, they'll just continue to pour good money after bad -- and see it disappear into numbered Swiss bank accounts.

Meanwhile, it would be interesting to know how much some of these billionaire and millionaire pop music stars have pledged of their own money for African aid.

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[Wolfe]

said1,
a lot of money is wasted in africa and its nothing new. this has been going on since we started to send money and materials to africa. A friend ofmine who lived and worked in africa told me that to understand the mentality of those that are receiving help you need to see it to believe it. Routinely maerial is stolen, destroyed intentionally, misused and broken, or simply left to rot where it is dropped. They are so used to being helped that the notion of working to advance oneself is unknown. Africa is a money sieve and we in the west should wake up to the fact.

 

[Big Blue Machin]

But Wolfe, in my opinion, we will never wake up to the fact that money is going to be wasted in Africa. And I also think it won't change ever. This seems little pessamistic (sorry for the spelling).

 

[Isaac Brock]

Half the problem with CIDA development projects is that it assembles a technical team with a narrow focus to provide one source of aid to one problem. It would be like a doctor treating lung cancer by giving a throat soothing losange. The G8 needs to set up a fostering plan where one developping country takes on one adopted poor country. This way aid is not spread thinly and without organization, but rather is targetted and well planned.