July 4, 2005
Two views on Africa
You can't open a British newspaper (or in my case website) at the moment without reading someone's views on Africa. The combined impact of Live 8 this weekend and G8 next weekend has sparked a flood of copy. Two of the best pieces are hidden behind subscription barriers. But here are two chunky quotes, one a blast of angry cynicism from Matthew Parris of The Times, the other a refreshing attack on angry cynicism from The Economist.
We must all sneer and scoff at the corrupt, cruel jackasses of Africa (The Times Jul 3)
GOD SPARE AFRICA from mercy. God deliver Africa from The Guardian. God protect Africa from the Synod of the Church of England. God send Africa a little less of our charity and understanding, and a little more of our anger and disdain.Helping Africa help itself (The Economist June 30)Pity poisons the continent when it stifles criticism. As leaders of the G8 gather to discuss aid, they should be pitiless in their resolve to make pariahs of black Africa's cruel and rotten governments. A ruling class of greedy men, sheltered by a popular culture of gawping passivity in the face of political swagger, is suffocating the people of Africa and neither tears nor money nor rock music should be our first response. Rage, not rock, is called for.
The aid sceptics-some of them veterans of the industry, their palms calloused from many previous bouts of hand-wringing over Africa-have all the best lines in the debate. Everything has been seen before, they say, nothing has worked. But what do they mean precisely? Do they mean that the World Health Organisation should abandon its efforts to put 3m HIV-carriers on anti-retroviral therapies? Perhaps those already on the drugs should hand them back, lest they succumb to "dependency". Should Merck stop donating its drug, ivermectin, to potential victims of riverblindness? Let Togo reinvent the drug itself! Perhaps, in the name of self-reliance, Tanzania's government should stop giving pregnant women vouchers to buy mosquito nets. Get sewing, ladies!I can't find a reliable direct link to The Times article, because of its highly annoying subscription barrier for international readers. But you can get there by going to the front page and searching for the headline or 'Matthew Parris'.No one should be naive about aid. It cannot make poverty history, and it can do harm. But to say that nothing works is wrong. Cynicism is only the most common form of naivety.
Posted by aheavens at July 4, 2005 5:15 AM