Sunday, June 10, 2007

We Must Stop Our "Overwhelming Helpfulness" and "Our Devastating Urge to Do Good"

This interview by SPIEGAL ONLINE with African economics expert James Shikwati should make us all think twice about aid to Africa. Mr. Shikwati points out, for example, that African farmers cannot compete with highly subsidized American and European corn shipments. Same with donated clothes.

What does he advocate? Africans must solve African problems! In a continent rich in valuable resources such as oil, diamonds, and gold, Africans should become independent entreprenuers and producers. Stop the "overwhelming helpfulness". Instead of a "development" economy, Africans need to have a market economy, initiating trade amongst their own nations first. We and the Europeans must stop our "devastating urge to do good"!

Read more here about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.
Via Protein Wisdom

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