Africa’s addiction to Western aid is the source of its dysfunctional economies

Where I come from in West Africa, we have a saying: “A fool at 40 is a fool forever”, and most African countries have now been independent for over 40 years.

Most are blessed with all the elements to help compete on a global stage — abundant natural resources, a young population and the climate and conditions to be a major agricultural force.

And yet, Africa, which is home to 10 per cent of the world’s population, represents just one per cent of global trade. But when 50 years of foreign aid has failed to lift Africa out of poverty, could corruption be the reason? Could that really be all there is to it?

The symptoms of corruption are easy to spot. Teachers demand bribes from their students because they cannot get by on their wages. Government officials, doctors and nurses steal drugs meant for their patients to sell on the black market. African leaders have property portfolios across the globe, while their citizens live on $1 a day or less.

But searching for the causes, I had to ask myself some difficult questions. People often say a nation gets the government it deserves. And we Africans have certainly made some bad choices in terms of leaders, but all too often, Western aid has ended up bankrolling them.

Aid has offered legitimacy to corrupt and autocratic regimes, allowing them to hang on to power even when they have lost popularity with their own citizens.

The aid has had little effect because it never gets to the people and the organisations that need it.

I ask myself: Why can’t Africans demand greater accountability from their leaders. Why do they keep getting away with this level of neglect?

But I am quickly reminded of the proverb taught as a nursery rhyme to African children — he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Many sub-Saharan African countries have had high levels of aid dependence — in excess of 10 per cent of gross domestic product, or half of government spending — for decades.

When half the government budget comes from aid, African leaders find themselves less inclined to tax their citizens.

As a result, governments that are highly dependent on aid pay too much attention to donors and too little to the actual needs of their own citizens.

And unfortunately, donors have their own objectives which are not always the same as the citizens of African countries. Building new schools and clinics in record numbers looks good on paper and makes politicians look good in front of voters.

But when these clinics lack the most basic facilities and there are not enough teachers in the classroom, it is the ordinary Africans who get a raw deal.

While I was filming in Uganda, local newspaper editor Andrew Mwenda took me and my crew to his home village near the town of Port Loco in the west of the country. There he introduced us to two men, one in his 60s and the other aged 26.

“This man represents the tragedy of aid,” he said, pointing to the older of the two. “While this man represents the potential of aid,” he said, indicating the younger man.

Mwenda explained that the sexagenarian was the chairman of the local parish council who had spent most of his life living off aid money, supervising projects meant to benefit the community.Today he is an alcoholic who still lives with his mother.

The younger man started selling potatoes in the village square at the age of 17. Less than 10 years later, he owns the largest and busiest store in the village.

He has not received one penny from aid, yet he has bought himself land and has built a house. Instead of funding innovation and creativity, aid has funded the chairman’s dysfunctional lifestyle.

At least 70,000 skilled graduates abandon the continent every year, often trained by Western aid, but unable to stay in the market because salaries are so low.

Until these gifted and enterprising people can be attracted to return, most of the world’s peacekeeping efforts, on the continent, and certainly most of its aid, will have little effect.

Article by: Sorious Asamura – Eastandard

Zimbabwe unity unlikely with defiant Mugabe in power: US

The top US envoy for Africa said Sunday Zimbabwe‘s power-sharing deal cannot work with Robert Mugabe as president, but the defiant 84-year-old has said he will not go to his “political death”.

“We have lost confidence in the power-sharing deal being a success with Mugabe in power. He has lost touch with reality,” said Jendayi Frazer, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

Frazer was in the South African capital to consult with regional leaders about the deteriorating political and economic crises in Zimbabwe, now also in the grips of a cholera epidemic that has already claimed more than 1,120 lives.

Mugabe is “completely discredited” and southern African leaders now want to know “how do they facilitate a return to democracy without creating a backlash like a military coup or some sort of civil war,” she said.

Washington’s tough talk on Zimbabwe comes after Mugabe announced last week that Zimbabwe “is mine” and that he would never surrender to Western pressure to resign.

Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, used his ZANU-PF party‘s 10th annual congress this weekend to brush off the mounting international pressure.

“They now want to topple the Mugabe government. ‘Mugabe must go because Bush is going,’” he said, referring to US President George W. Bush, who leaves office next month and is among the world leaders calling for his resignation.

“Zimbabweans will refuse that one of their sons must accompany Bush to his political death,” Mugabe said in his speech Saturday.

He also urged his party to remain united to avoid a repeat of its historic election defeat in March, when the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won control of parliament.

However, the opposition ceded the presidency to Mugabe when challenger Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election citing violence against his supporters.

Talks have stalled over implementing a power-sharing deal which would have left Mugabe as president and made Tsvangirai prime minister.

With the two sides deadlocked, Frazer said that “there has been no government in that country since the March elections.”

Mugabe threatened this month to hold new elections “in the next one-and-a-half to two years” if the power-sharing arrangement fails.

While the political process is paralysed, the southern African nation economy remains in free fall, with the world’s highest inflation rate of around 231 million percent.

Washington has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and shows no signs of lifting the economic pressure as long as Mugabe is at the helm.

“We were prepared to use American influence to negotiate with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to clear the 1.2 billion dollars Zimbabwe debt, but now we are no longer prepared to do that,” Frazer added.

The US envoy also let it be known that Mugabe may one day pay for his strong-arm tactics against his political opponents.

“The longer he continues to hold on to power the better the chances of him taking a seat next to Charles Taylor in The Hague,” she said in a reference to the former president of Liberia now on trial for war crimes.

Meanwhile, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional bloc, announced that it would send an undisclosed amount of humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe.

SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao said part of the package was South Africa’s donations worth 30 million dollars (22 million euros) of seed, fertilisers and fuel to help revive the country’s agricultural sector.

“This is regional solidarity. When you are facing difficulties, you have to count on the solidarity of your brothers. We cannot fail in assisting Zimbabwe, that’s the critical and most important thing,” said Salamao.

Article by AFP

In Kenya, land is the root of most problems

In western Kenya, Masai warriors gather in a battle field armed with bows and arrows as they clash with members of the Kalenjin tribe in the Transmara district in March. As the East African nation struggles with food shortages, a sluggish economy and wounds from post-election violence, there’s a growing consensus that one issue rests at the heart of Kenya’s woes: land.

From his tented refugee camp, James Karanga Ngugi seethed as he scanned a vast horizon of fallow, unoccupied land — most of it owned by two of Kenya’s most prominent political families.

“Why do they have so much and I have nothing?” he asked.

His grandfather once prospered here, before he was displaced by British colonialists. After independence, villagers regained control, but were soon forced out again, this time by a rich Kenyan businessman with ties to the president.

As compensation, Ngugi received 10 acres of land about 100 miles away, but residents there, from a different tribe, always resented his presence. During the election turmoil late last year and early this year that grabbed headlines worldwide, his house and business were burned down.

“Now I have to restart with nothing,” he said.

As this East African nation struggles with food shortages, a sluggish economy and wounds from post-election violence, there’s a growing consensus that one issue rests at the heart of Kenya’s woes.

It’s the land, stupid.

All across Africa, battles over land continue to simmer, largely a fallout of European colonialism. During most of Africa’s history, sparse population and tribal traditions meant land was plentiful and disputes were rare. Colonialists introduced alien concepts such as borders and private ownership. Since independence began to sweep the continent 50 years ago, fledgling African governments have struggled to unwind injustices, sometimes with disastrous results. The Zimbabwean economy was devastated by President Robert Mugabe’s campaign to seize and redistribute land owned by white farmers.

Kenya suffered a similar colonial legacy, but has taken a different route. As is the case in many African nations, more than half of Kenya’s land is owned by a minority of its richest families, including some white foreigners. But unlike Zimbabwe and South Africa, where the struggle has pitted whites against blacks, the land here is owned mostly by Kenyan politicians who have grabbed millions of prime agricultural acres in questionable real estate deals over the last 45 years.

“This is really an issue between us as Kenyans,” said Paul Ndungu, head of a landmark 2004 report that investigated more than 40 years of land fraud. “It’s Kenyan versus Kenyan.”

Tribal clashes that killed more than 1,000 people after the disputed presidential election last December, were rooted largely in historic disputes over land. As Kenya struggles to feed its people, vast swaths of its most productive terrain sit idle and underutilized — and the land grievances remain unresolved.

“Peace, tranquillity and stability in Kenya is predicated on sorting out this land issue,” said Odenda Lumumba, head of the Kenya Land Alliance, a land-reform advocacy group.

Newly installed Lands Minister James Orengo, a former student activist who was once jailed for aiding a 1982 coup attempt, has vowed to take on Kenya’s rich and powerful with a progressive new land policy.

Among other things, he wants to reclaim stolen public lands, bar foreigners from owning property, introduce taxation on idle land and increase squatters’ rights.

Orengo also is pushing to computerize Kenya’s aging system of land records, which hasn’t changed since colonial times. Paper records have made forgery and corruption easier. When one shady developer was investigated recently, police believe he covered his tracks by burning down the local survey office where records were stored.

Opposition is quickly building. Critics have dubbed Orengo the “doyen of radicalism.” One group of landowners said his “Marxist ideologies” would lead to a “Zimbabwe-style economic meltdown.”

But Orengo’s biggest obstacle probably will come from within the government. Members of the political elite have been the nation’s biggest land grabbers over the decades, which is why Kenya never pursued land reform and redistribution, as other African nations did, experts say. Many of those leaders remain in power.

“The people responsible for this mess still find themselves in government and they’ve used their influence to delay [reform],” Ndungu said.

His report named some of the nation’s most powerful leaders as benefiting from illegal deals, including members of parliament, ministers, judges, military commanders and local councilors. Opposition leaders also were singled out, including Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whose family reportedly benefited from a suspect deal involving a molasses plant.

The study identified more than 300,000 titles as illegal and called for government seizure of as much as half a million acres. But the recommendations were never implemented. In fact, the previous lands minister initially tried to black out politicians’ names before releasing the report.

Glaring disparities in Kenya’s land wealth began with British colonialists, who forcibly removed thousands of families from lush highlands so white farmers could grow coffee and tea.

Rather than unwind the disputes after winning independence, Kenya’s founding fathers compounded the injustices, helping themselves to the departing colonialists’ spoils and even continuing forced resettlement schemes. Every Kenyan president has been accused of accumulating massive land holdings, diverting public properties to his tribe members and doling out real estate titles like candy to win votes.

The family of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s George Washington, sits on half a million acres, while his successor, Daniel Arap Moi, holds more than 100,000 acres, a government commission found. Current President Mwai Kibaki owns about 30,000 acres, according to local reports.

As long as the current crop of Kenyan leaders stays in power, Ndungu is pessimistic about reform’s chances. “I don’t see the political will,” he said.

Orengo acknowledged that he faces an uphill battle, particularly in pushing his plan through the Cabinet. But he vowed to start reclaiming public lands, beginning with buyers and lessees of government land who have not developed the properties in accordance with their contracts.

He is threatening to not renew 99-year leases with foreigners and descendants of white settlers, particularly if they are not maximizing use of the land or living up to lease commitments. He also wants to cancel all 999-year leases, which were negotiated by the British with unwitting tribal chiefs a century ago.

Orengo said he planned to redistribute seized property to the landless or displaced, and said he wouldn’t hesitate to shame or embarrass politicians who refuse to return ill-gotten land.

“It’s a political hot potato,” he said. “But some critics will find it difficult to talk too loudly. There are people in the government who benefited immensely. It’s obscene.”

edmund.sanders LA times

Obama becomes first black president in landslide

Obama captures historic White House win

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent – Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat Barack Obama captured the White House on Tuesday after an extraordinary two-year campaign, defeating Republican John McCain to make history as the first black to be elected U.S. president.

Obama will be sworn in as the 44th U.S. president on January 20, 2009, television networks said. He will face a crush of immediate challenges, from tackling an economic crisis to ending the war in Iraq and striking a compromise on overhauling the health care system.

McCain saw his hopes for victory evaporate with losses in a string of key battleground states led by Ohio, the state that narrowly clinched President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, and Virginia, a state that had not backed a Democrat since 1964.

Obama led a Democratic electoral landslide that also expanded the party’s majorities in both chambers of Congress and firmly repudiated eight years of Republican President George W. Bush’s leadership.

The win by Obama, son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, marked a milestone in U.S. history. It came 45 years after the height of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King.

In a campaign dominated at the end by a flood of bad news on the economy, Obama’s leadership and proposals on how to handle the crisis tipped the race in his favour. Exit polls showed six of every 10 voters listed the economy as the top issue.

Tens of thousands of Obama supporters gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park for an election night rally that had the air of a celebratory concert, cheering results that showed his victories in key states.

McCain, a 72-year-old Arizona senator and former Vietnam War prisoner, had hoped to become the oldest president to begin a first term in the White House and see his running mate Sarah Palin become the first female U.S. vice president.

Obama to leave trail to visit ailing grandmother

With just two weeks to go before the election, Barack Obama is leaving the campaign trail later this week to visit his ill grandmother in Hawaii.

Obama, now leading John McCain by eights points according to a new Reuters Poll, will attend a campaign event in Indianapolis Thursday morning before flying to the island state.

Discussing the decision to step off the campaign trail, Obama strategist Robert Gibbs told reporters his close relationship with his grandmother warranted the decision.

“Senator Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life, along with his mother and his grandfather,” Gibbs said. “Recently his grandmother has become ill, and in the last few weeks her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. It is for that reason that Sen. Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her.”

Back in March when Obama gave a speech on race and politics, he described her as “a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world.” Obama was scheduled to be in Iowa and Wisconsin during this period. Michelle Obama will hold two events on Friday in Ohio, the campaign announced yesterday.

Powell attacks McCain campaign

Mr Powell was referring to Republican claims about Barack Obama’s association with Bill Ayers who was a member of a militant group which carried out a series of non-fatal explosions in the 1960s in protest against the Vietnam war.

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Kenya deports Obama Nation author

Immigration authorities in Kenya have deported the American author of a highly critical book about US presidential candidate Barack Obama.

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