Africa's Problems Blamed on Africans

Aug 18, 2007: Faced with complex problems, there is a perverse human desire to seek simple solutions. Part of the simple solution usually involves blaming someone or something, and arguing that if only this person, political party, government, nation, whatever, would change its ways, the problem would disappear, or at least stop being so troublesome. The long slump in economic development in Africa, and its accompanying poverty and misery, is one such problem. And Robert Calderisi, a long-time World Bank official, knows who to blame. Africans. Not just any Africans, of course. Some of Calderisi's best friends are Africans. But he has a low opinion of African leaders, and reservations about some aspects of African culture, such as family and tribal loyalty, which he sees as being responsible for such negative phenomena as corruption and dictatorship.

Well-meaning foreign friends have made the situation worse by tolerating financial and political malfeasance, and in fact have encouraged it by showering dictators with aid money without demanding anything much in the way of social improvement in return. Having constructed this simple analytical framework, Calderisi offers a 10-point plan, which boils down to encouraging democracy and transparency by cutting aid to the worst offenders – in fact, halving direct aid to most African countries. In a controversial nod to neo-colonialism, he says "international personnel" should supervise the running of schools and HIV/AIDS programs to prevent the siphoning off of funds. He also recommends merging the three main international aid bodies: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Development Programme.

Before outlining his approach, Calderisi rejects, often in just a few paragraphs, some of the usual explanations for Africa's development failure. The slave trade, the legacy of colonialism, globalization and debt, the Cold War, daunting geography and climate – to Calderisi, these are just "excuses." Curiously, some factors he does not mention at all, such as the arbitrary construction of most African states and the fact that traditional African societies have been completely unhinged by the process of modernization. The past bores him. The old explanations, the old excuses, he says, are "beginning to grow stale" half a century after independence. He appears to feel that 50 years has been enough time for Africa to get over its past. Perhaps that is the banker in him speaking, thinking always in terms of 10-year loans. But a historian knows that 50 years is nothing when it comes to addressing basic social structures.

This is not to say that Calderisi is all wrong. It is true that societies can paralyze themselves by becoming mired in debates over historical slights. And Africa does have to look forward; governments do have to address the issues of corruption and repression; foreign supporters do have a responsibility to see that the funds they provide are used responsibly. But to say that a few fixes to local governance and how aid is distributed will lead to a "new day" in Africa is far-fetched. The intersection of history, culture, geography and modernization is a deadly one. China, a far more cohesive socio-political entity than sub-Saharan Africa, and the current posterboy for rapid economic development, floundered around for the better part of a century and a half before finally finding a practical way forward. Friends of Africa will require patience, good will and, yes, a degree of tough love. But spare us lectures from bankers.
Fred Edwards is a member of the Toronto Star's editorial board.
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In Search of Africa's True Leaders

August 13th. - And the winner is ... maybe no one.

There was no shortage of excitement when Sudanese telecom billionaire Mo Ibrahim announced his Prize for Achievement in African Leadership late last year. Everyone from Nelson Mandela to Bill Clinton praised the idea, suggesting that by recognizing honourable former heads of state, the lucrative lifetime award could discourage current leaders from the rampant corruption that has plagued Africa for so long.

But now that we are passed the halfway point of the year-long selection process, one important thing seems to be missing – suitable candidates. While the Mo Ibrahim Foundation remains tight-lipped about their deliberations, it's clear that finding retired African leaders who served their country with distinction is no easy task. The criteria are rigorous. To win the award, a leader will have had to deliver security, health, education, human rights and economic development, while also entering and leaving office democratically. That eliminates a good portion of former heads of state, whose corruption is well documented, leading to speculation that the award may not be given out at all. If presented in October as scheduled, the prize would be the largest award of its kind in the world. The winner receives $5 million (U.S.) over 10 years and an additional $200,000 every year after that. But Ibrahim, who is putting up the money himself, has said he will not award the prize if no one deserving can be found. So while Nelson Mandela is clearly the frontrunner, it remains to be seen how many other former African leaders are truly qualified enough for an award of achievement.

It's no secret that poor leadership has long been a reality in modern African history. The World Bank estimates that corruption costs the continent $148 billion every year, raising prices by as much as 20 per cent. Ibrahim explains that while most Western leaders can look forward to lucrative corporate directorships and speaking tours once they retire – Bill Clinton has earned upwards of $40 million from his speeches since leaving office – those in Africa have no such opportunities. To make matters worse, many former leaders were autocratic and egotistical, with spending habits as big as their flamboyant personalities. Some would cling to power for decades, often with the support of the old Cold War powers. That's led to a trickle-down culture of corruption where people working in social services are so poorly paid that they begin demanding bribes from citizens just to support themselves.

In Kenya, this became known as kitu kidogo, "something small" in Swahili. The 2001 Kenyan Urban Bribery Index found that bribes made up a third of the average household budget, and that ordinary citizens paid as many as 16 bribes per month to everyone from doctors, teachers and the police. Since then, the heavily corrupt presidency of Daniel arap Moi has come to an end. His successor Mwai Kibaki has vowed to clean the country up. Throughout the continent, a new generation of leaders is slowly taking over, promising transparency and good governance. In places from Rwanda to Liberia, leaders are trying to turn over a new leaf. And perhaps even putting themselves in line for future Mo Ibrahim awards. (Craig and Marc Kielburger)
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Iraq - New Power Bloc without Sunnis

BAGHDAD August 17, 2007 -- Iraq's political leaders emerged yesterday from three days of crisis talks with a new alliance that seeks to save the crumbling US-backed government. But the reshaped power bloc included no Sunnis and immediately raised questions about its legitimacy as a unifying force. The political gambit came as teams in northern Iraq tallied the grim figures from the deadliest wave of suicide attacks of the war and -- in a rare moment of joy since Tuesday's devastation -- pulled four children alive from the rubble. "We didn't hear them calling out for help until moments before a bulldozer would have killed them as it cleared the rubble," said Saad Muhanad, a municipal council member in the Qahtaniya region, where four bomb-laden trucks turned clay and stone homes into tombs for hundreds belonging to a small religious group considered as infidels by hard-line Muslims. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said yesterday that at least 400 were dead, apparently all members of the ancient Yazidi sect that mixes elements of Islam, Christianity, and other faiths. Some authorities outside the central government had said at least 500 people died and have not revised that figure downward. The four young survivors were related, Muhanad said, but he did not know if they were siblings. No other details about the children were known. The freed youngsters began running through the streets begging for food and water. "In a while, some of their families came and took them away," said Muhanad.

The mayor of the region pleaded for help, saying an even larger tragedy loomed if the shattered communities did not get food, water, and medicine soon. "People are in shock. Hospitals here are running out of medicine. The pharmacies are empty. We need food, medicine, and water otherwise there will be an even greater catastrophe," said Abdul-Rahim al-Shimari, mayor of the Baaj district, which includes the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi villages hit by the suicide blasts blamed on Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The region is in northwest Iraq, near the Syrian border, suggesting that the extremist group could be pushing into new areas in northern Iraq after being driven from strongholds by US-led offensives. Qassim Khalaf, a 40-year-old government worker, was crying while he spoke by telephone from Qahtaniya. "We call upon the United Nations to protect the Yazidis because the Iraqi government is in hibernation. Right now, I can see some bodies still partially buried under the rubble. Hundreds of local volunteers are still working in the rescue operations," he sobbed. "Eighty percent of the village was destroyed or damaged." Barham Saleh, a Kurd and deputy prime minister, toured the area and ordered the Health and Defense ministries to immediately send tents, medicine and other aid. He also allocated $800,000 to provincial officials to distribute to the victims and relatives. The UN Security Council condemned the bombings "in the strongest terms," saying they were aimed at widening the sectarian and ethnic divide in Iraq. Council members called for an end to sectarian violence.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

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Nigeria - Prison Conditions Appaling

NEW YORK, August 17, 2007 (CISA) - Amnesty International researchers, recently returned from Nigeria, have expressed shock at the prison conditions they witnessed and the protracted delays in the justice system. "The circumstances under which the Nigerian government locks up its inmates are appalling. Many inmates are left for years awaiting trial in filthy overcrowded cells with children and adults often held together," said Aster van Kregten, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International. "Some prisoners are called 'forgotten inmates' as they never go to court and nobody knows how much longer their detention will last, simply because their case files are lost." Of Nigeria’s 40,000 or so prisoners, 25,000 have never been convicted of a crime, and remain in prison up to 14 years without going to court, according to the United Nations humanitarian news agency IRIN.

The Amnesty International delegation spent two weeks in Nigeria, visiting 10 prisons in the states of Enugu, Kano and Lagos, and in the Federal Capital Territory. In the wake of its findings, the organisation called on the Nigerian government to properly fund urgent prison improvements and ensure all inmates are tried within reasonable time. Inmates in many prisons routinely sleep two to a bed or on the floor in squalid cells. Toilets, often little more than holes in the floor, are generally overflowing by the end of each day. Disease is rampant in the filth and close quarters. Three out of every five people in Nigeria’s prisons are awaiting trial, often for years. Amnesty International researchers spoke to several detainees who reported that they had each spent eight years or more waiting for their cases to conclude. Protracted pre-trial detention is so commonplace in Nigeria that periodic presidential and gubernatorial amnesties are routinely extended to those who have spent more time in prison awaiting trial than the maximum sentence they could receive if eventually convicted.

Children under the age of eighteen were held together with adults in four of the largest prisons Amnesty International visited. In Kuje Prison, located in the Federal Capital Territory, 30 boys­some as young as 11 and 12­shared a dormitory with over 175 adult men. By law, Nigeria’s prisons are tasked with inmate’s rehabilitation. Some facilities visited by Amnesty International offered schooling or work opportunities to a limited number of prisoners, but even these centers lacked sufficient books, instructional supplies and vocational training materials. All facilities had medical staff and welfare officers, personnel charged with safeguarding the well-being of inmates, but prisoners commonly reported that access to staff or medication was available only to those who could afford bribes.
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KOUDJIWAI, Chad — The small plane flew in low over a scorched, peppercorn scrubland, following a broad, muddy river that was all elbows on its run to the southeast. A young man selling expensive imported gasoline in Ndjamena, Chad’s capital, where little oil revenue has reached the people. The first hint of humanity came with the appearance of an immense grid for seismic testing, laboriously traced through the brush. Finally, a lonely, hulking steel drilling platform popped into view. Chad is as geographically isolated as places come in Africa. It is also among the continent’s poorest and least stable countries, the scene of recurrent civil wars and foreign invasions since it gained independence from France in 1960. None of that has put off the Chinese, though. In January, they bought the rights to a vast exploration zone that surrounds this rural village, making the baked wilderness here, without roads, electricity or telephones, the latest frontier for their thirsty oil industry and increasingly global ambitions. The same is happening in one African country after another. In large oil-exporting countries like Angola and Nigeria, China is building or fixing railroads, and landing giant exploration contracts in Congo and Guinea.

In mineral-rich countries that had been all but abandoned by foreign investors because of unrest and corruption, Chinese companies are reviving output of cobalt and bauxite. China has even become the new mover and shaker in agricultural countries like Ivory Coast, once the crown jewel in France’s postcolonial African empire, where Chinese companies are building a new capital, in Yamoussoukro, paid for by Chinese loans. Surging Chinese interest in this continent has helped bring about what many Africans believe is the most important moment since the end of the cold war, when democracy was spreading in Africa and Western nations spoke of a “peace dividend” that might ease African poverty. That blush of interest in Africa quickly faded, though, as did several of the new democracies, and Africans and Westerners have regarded each other warily ever since. Westerners complain about chronic corruption and ineffective government, while Africans lament broken promises on aid and a hostile international economic system. The Chinese have stepped into this picture, coming to struggling countries like Chad with deep pockets, fewer demands on how African governments should behave and an avowed faith in everyone’s ability to prosper. As Beijing’s ambassador to this country, Wang Yingwu, said at his residence in Ndjamena, Chad’s capital, where the electricity repeatedly failed, “We are exempting Chadian goods from import duties.” When the interviewer noted that Chad produced almost nothing besides oil, Mr. Wang was undaunted, saying, “If they don’t produce things today, they will tomorrow.”

To help make that happen, China plans to build the country’s first oil refinery, lay new roads, provide irrigation and erect a mobile telephone network, for starters. With such intensive efforts across the continent, China’s trade with Africa topped $55 billion in 2006, up from less than $10 million in the 1980s. To achieve this growth, it has bypassed multinational institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and flouted many of their lending criteria, including minimum standards of transparency, open bidding for contracts, environmental impact studies and assessments of overall debt and fiscal policies. In some ways, the new Chinese model of doing business in Africa is a throwback to an earlier era of Western involvement that is now widely seen as disastrous. In that era, borrowing countries typically had to work with companies from the lending nation, limiting competition and giving priority to business over development. Today, China takes things even further, signing long-term deals for rights to natural resources that allow countries otherwise unworthy of credit to repay their debt in oil or mineral output. “In what manner has Africa progressed, in what sector?” said the Chadian president, Idriss Déby, referring to decades of close ties to the West. “Whatever the good will of Africa’s old friends and the old partners in its development, it has not progressed at all.” Still, major doubts hang heavily in the air. Will China’s hunger for raw materials enable this continent to take off? Or will Beijing’s willingness to spend whatever it needs in Africa, without regard to fiscal prudence, democracy, honest business practices and human rights, produce a replay of booms past, enriching local elites but leaving the continent poorer, its environment despoiled and its natural resources depleted?

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Peru Earthquake Disaster – Rapid Response Initiative

Irish Aid Press Release - Dublin August 17th.
Ministers order dispatch of emergency supplies of tents, blankets & cooking equipment. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dermot Ahern, T.D. and the Minister of State for Overseas Development, Mr. Michael Kitt T.D., this morning (Friday) ordered the dispatch of emergency supplies from the Irish Aid relief stocks held at the UN humanitarian base in Brindisi, Italy.

In a joint operation with the Italian Government, a special aircraft has been chartered to airlift emergency supplies overnight to Lima, Peru. The shipment will include emergency supplies from both the Italian and Irish stocks being held in Brindisi. The Irish supplies will consist of 60 All Weather tents; 500 kitchen sets; and 1,000 blankets. Authorising the dispatch of this material Minister Ahern said, “Once again the Rapid Response Initiative has proved its worth and I am pleased that Ireland has been able to respond so quickly to this tragedy in Peru. It is particularly gratifying that we were able to do so in conjunction with one of our EU partners.” Minister Kitt added, “Along with this material, the members of our Rapid Response Corps are on stand-by to respond if their particular skills are called for by any of our UN partner agencies. I am delighted to see this new Irish Aid response mechanism to natural disasters working so effectively”.

Note for Editors: Under the first element of the Rapid Response Initiative, Ireland has pre-positioned humanitarian supplies at the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Brindisi and at the Defence Forces Curragh Camp, Co. Kildare. Further information on Irish Aid’s Rapid Response Initiative is available at: www.irishaid.gov.ie

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