Journalist June Arunga grew up in Kenya, and she wonders why Americans waste money on foreign aid to Africa … when many politicians just steal it. "Africa is full of governments that steal money," she said.
Billions of dollars are hidden by African politicians in Swiss banks or spent on mansions, lavish trips and luxury cars.
Even food aid gets stolen. "You find most of it is getting lost on the way," farmer Joseph Nthome said. Lost, but then found ... for sale in street markets.
So much is stolen because we rely primarily on governments to administer foreign aid, and many African governments are kleptocracies.
"No amount of foreign aid is going to make any difference" .
In the past 40 years, Western governments have given Africa more than half a trillion dollars. Yet Africa is even poorer than it was before the foreign aid began.
Two studies by World Bank economists say foreign aid is one of the problems because "higher aid levels erode the quality of governance."
Former World Bank economist William Easterly agrees. His new book, "The White Man's Burden," argues that Western efforts to cure poverty in the rest of the world have done more harm than good.
"Aid has the perverse effect that it makes [African] politicians much more oriented toward what will get them more money from the West than it does to making them meet the needs of their own people, which is really a scandal,"
Most of Africa's problems cannot be solved through foreign aid. The reason for Africa's problems is the people's skill - or rather a lack thereof. That is why Colonialism was such a huge success. All Africa needed were a few million skilled Whites and then suddenly everything started working - and the minute they left, it fell apart again. If the world wants to help Africa, then rather send in doctors or teachers.
Many people over the years raised enormous sums of money for Africa. Africa is currently receiving more than $25 billion in aid - a staggering number. I wonder if Africa is not living more out of a begging bowl, than it earns through its own efforts?
The USA and other countries now have a policy of only giving money when there are strings and various conditions attached. This is definitely a better method.
You have now seen Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki personally using their positions, power and fame to get as much foreign money as possible. But when are foreigners going to have to learn to ignore these demands for aid?
You will see Africans pleading for money, for aid, for help - year in and year out, decade after decade. And yet, a closer examination of their problems will reveal that they are to blame for their own problems. They are currently scamming the West of billions a year.
Why is it, that a peasant in ice-cold Russia, or a farmer in Arctic Canada or a farmer in the deserts of Australia; can get a higher return on investment than a Black African, in warm tropical Africa where there is no winter and it rains much of the year round. You will wonder why it is that people who live in a perfect farming climate are starving to death year after year, while others, who live in snow-fields or in deserts can provide for themselves.
There is nothing wrong with African land, climate or soil. Africa is heaven-on-earth. The problem is not Africa. The problem is the Black African people.
Africa's greatest prosperity occurred during the short of colonialism. If we had been left alone for another hundred years, Africa could have been a super-power. In recent decades Africa has been moving backwards. Now to those of us who live here - none of this comes as a surprise. We just look at it and remark: "We told you so!"
Our enemies like to portray White Africans as a bunch of hard-headed, evil people who enjoy treading on Blacks. But they will see (to their utter shock and amazement) that as the decades go by, we actually saw through these Black African "Liberators". We knew African leaders were nothing more than liars and criminals and that they didn't even care about their own people. We said a long ago that these people are not fit to govern. We are being proven right, and will be proven even more right in the future.
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