Economics: Africa: Update on Africa pre-Summit developments: World Bank's Wolfowitz says Yes, but private donors too

After completing his African tour (Nigeria, Burkina-Faso, Rwanda, South Africa) as the first exploratory-investigative mission of his new job, heading the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz asks the US to bring its donor level up to the international standard of 0.7% of the US Gross Domestic Product, asks US to cut Federal agricultural subsidies to cotton farms against which African farmers can't compete on the global market, and seeks to engage massive private donations to turn the situation around for the transatlantic neighbouring continent.

This news story influences my emerging position on Africa immensely. How about you? Many are shifting, hopefully not to a mindlessly compassionism, but to a mindful authentic compasssion which may sense, as in my case, that the moment is now to take a chance - despite armies of con artists bilking the Live Aid idea for moti8ves other than love of Africa's poor. So, I gamble by altering my general political stance, and I hope but I still refuse to join the ranks of the stupid who make a business of advancing insane demands. As to the the Live Aid events, I expect the performers to blow all the goodwill being generated by Bob Geldof's, Bono's, and Richard Curtis' project and by Wolfowitiz's neo-conservative Africa policy (compassionate neo-conservatism at work).

However: Let's actually see the free concerts take collections of love-offerings from the assembled howling music audiences to startkick a massive public drive of corporations, institutions, and the ordinary citizenry to give out of their own pockets to help Africa. Let's stop this anonymous total reliance on the state, whether its the United States or the Principality of Monaco, lets get the casinos to give and the casino-goers, let's have the lotteries give all across Europe and North America. Let's see the black community in continental Europe, Britain, the USA, and Canada mobilize themselves to give to turn Africa around. This idea that the American Federal government is everyone's cash cow is no longer acceptable.

In another development, and we're still talking about Africa, but I'm going to call this development something of a Snowbell Effect, with all the implied irony intact, a group of half-a-dozen heads of African governments (including Nigeria which has a culture of corruption up to the eyeballs), have called for a total reduction of African debt.

But here's the real news:

Meanwhile, African countries also agreed to measures to improve governance as part of the plan to boost aid flows from richer nations. ¶ ...[P]rogress on good government and corruption is seen as essential if the West is to agree to increased aid. ¶ Now some 23 African countries have agreed to a system of review to monitor their own political and economic performance.

Well, then, which African countries haven't joined to support this system of review called the African Peer Review Mechansim (APRM)? Should they also get their debts cancelled? I have to accept in good faith what this APRM system offers in good faith as a measurement of levels of corruption for public notice. But once a country shows itself again to be incapable of democratic processes and stopping the culture of corruption that swallows aid from abroad so that it never affects the infrastructure of African societies, the aid to such a specific country must stop immediately. The penalties have to be severe, or this APRM will turn out to be not a mechanism but a device for conning donor and former lender countries once again - to the hurt of their own populations. African political leadership has been the African people's worst enemy - along with drought. overpopulation, and AIDS. - Owlb


African Peer Review Mechanism