Hunger and Stupidity

I am against any form of aid for Africa because any continent that receives aid for 50+ years and does not change can do without aid. Even humanitarian aid is of no use.  Yet troubling images from East Africa and Somalia are bound to haunt us. These images weigh on the mind of those who are emotionally inclined to think that Africa may survive only through financial aid. These images serve as justifications for mass emotion. No good ever came from mass emotion. A crowd does not think – individuals do.

The African relief fad serves to distract attention from real issues which are accountable government and democracy. There is famine in parts Chad, Darfur and Kordofan (Sudan), Somalia, parts of Uganda and D.R. Congo, Central African Republic etc. These countries are not victims of fate. These countries are victims of centralized autocratic regimes, idiotic agricultural policies and politically engineered civil strife. The dying child in Darfur or the fly-infested mouth in Somalia is man-made by Africans. Starvation is not a problem; it’s a symptom of bad governance.

Since western donors are inclined to give aid to an extremely poor population by procedure (say 0.2% of GDP); when a potentate in Cameroon, Burkina-Faso, Congo, Mauritania, Uganda DRC, Burundi etc. designs an economy based on foreign financial input, the extremely poor population becomes an asset. If he alleviates poverty, he disqualifies himself from western financial dregs. Overnight, the extremely poor become a tool for survival. Crusading against misery is not a priority in dictatorships. Glaring example; while citizens die of cholera in Bafut (NW Region - Cameroon), CPDM party militants of the same region donate 400 million FCFA for the re-election campaign of a president who is in power since 1983 and may not even be a candidate for the upcoming elections. Read my lips.

Image bias is accompanied by ignorant logic of pop stars (Bono, USA for Africa, Live AID) who’ll say “if we take one day off nuclear spending and put it on food, it will make a huge difference”. I’ll prefer the nuclear spending to go on while we forget not to put a juvenile nuke under Sassou, Bongo, Biya, Compaore, Deby, or Bozize. One bang will be more efficient than a whole US Defense budget worth of canned fish.

There is of course a shortage of food among Africans as there is among Indians, Chinese and Bangladeshi. But that does not mean there is a shortage of food in Africa. Even if you make food available for Somalia, there remains the insurmountable problem of distribution logistics. Such logistics are borne of delivered electoral promises, accountability and representative government. There is no African state which respects the above and faces famine, starvation or both. Vices go together: Cholera in Cameroon, Meningitis in Chad, Famine in Somalia and the endless list goes on while Ghana, South Africa, and Botswana have a groove on.

Drought may be a calamity but consequent death from starvation is the result of bad governance.