The Beating Heart Of Darkness

The list of African nightmares is seemingly endless. For fifty or so years billions of dollars of aid have been poured into Africa but it has long been recognized that, for a variety of reasons, most of the money has done little permanent good. Some has been siphoned off by unscrupulous rulers or middlemen, some was used to buy guns instead of bread, some was simply used to put small band-aids on gaping wounds, most of what actually reached its intended recipients was spent on immediate needs rather than building against these recurring nightmares, much was used to feebly fight against the onslaught of international monetary programs which financially enslave the Africans. The Africans themselves seem powerless to stop the endless cycle of bad government that many of its nations suffer at the hands of military or corporate thugs; the natural disasters they suffer seem to recur with hideous frequency --- but the largest problem appears to be the indifference of the rest of the world and the apparently deliberate actions by some to keep Africa on its knees. Africa’s woes can be blamed on five things: the first, the weather, is largely beyond anyone’s control although the results of the weather can be mitigated to some extent. Of the rest, all can be cured but the international will to make it happen is lacking: the United Nations; the G8; the international monetary community; the Africans themselves. The United Nations Reviewing only the last decade or so, we are reminded of the genocidal massacres in Rwanda which occurred while the United Nations slept. The UN leadership on the ground in Africa had pleaded with officials in New York for greater assistance because they could see clearly what was looming; they were met with indifference. It is not lost on Africans that the man in New York who turned a deaf ear to their cries was none other than Kofi Annan, current Secretary General of the UN. The UN is currently rattling its sabres at several countries in central Africa and warning them to behave even though there will be no repercussions if they do not. The UN is presently intervening in an extraordinarily weak-willed way in the Democratic Republic of Congo --- while the mandate of its international force of peacekeepers is said to be the protection of local citizens, it has tied the hands of the troops so the achievement of peace is doomed; local citizens fear the real mandate is the protection of UN employees. Another weak spot for the UN is the resolution accepted just this past week that war crimes committed by peacekeepers will not be subject to punishment. While several African nations have themselves expressed the intent to pursue and prosecute those responsible for war crimes in the fighting of the past few years, they are not comforted in knowing that the people sent to help and protect them have carte blanche to act in any way they see fit without fear of repercussion. The G8 The so-called G8 Nations gathered in the beautiful Canadian resort town of Kananaskis in June 2002 to discuss a variety of things on their minds. Canada’s Prime Minister had lobbied long and hard to put Africa on the agenda, in keeping with Canada’s admirable efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa and, perhaps, to expiate its sins in Somalia. Even though Africans themselves were allowed to attend and they presented their New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), they came as genuflecting supplicants and it is brutally ironic that NEPAD is usually pronounced ‘kneepad’. US President George Bush had only the single-minded issue of his “war on terrorism” to discuss and, in the end, the G8 Summit produced a document entitled “G8 Africa Action Plan”. Its stated goals were: • Promoting peace and security • Strengthening Institutions and Governance • Fostering Trade, Investment, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development • Implementing Debt Relief • Expanding Knowledge: Improving and Promoting Education and Expanding Digital Opportunities • Improving Health and Confronting HIV/AIDS • Increasing Agricultural Productivity • Improving Water Resource Management A year later, at Evian France, the group met again to revisit the issue and produced a report entitled “Action Against Famine, Especially in Africa: A G8 Action Plan”. Unfortunately, it appears G8 can produce yearly reports but little else. There is almost no evidence that any of the goals of the 2002 plan were reached or even initiated and most Africans would suspect that the 2003 plan will be just as successful. It is also not in the interests of Africa that economic subsidies provided to farmers in Europe and North America virtually eliminate any hope of Africans producing sufficient food. The Europeans and North Americans, particularly the United States, is guilty of dumping in Africa subsidized produce at costs far below the local production costs --- Africans simply cannot compete. This dumping, by the way, is illegal under several international trade accords but them that makes the rules apparently get to decide who has to play by those rules. The International Monetary Community Like many developing parts of the world, Africa has signed away any hope of economic recovery to groups like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On the surface, these groups represent sources of capital for developing nations but the money usually comes with prerequisites about where and how it can be spent, who the vendor companies or nations must be, and what projects are acceptable. A classic example is the loans from the IMF which allow for the building of potable water infrastructure; usually, these come with the proviso that the water must be privatized and corporations in the good graces of the IMF are the recipients of those contracts. The local people have little control over this most precious commodity and the corporations are left free to charge as and what they wish. Most of the developing nations are so far in debt to organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank that there is virtually no way they can ever hope to repay what is owed. It is for this reason that whenever assistance is discussed, debt forgiveness is usually one of the first topics raised. It is not in the interest of the lenders, however, to forgive these debts and the lenders have very deep pockets and very tight grips on the affluent nations who might otherwise be disposed to help. There are many multinational corporations and corporate cartels who extract the resources of the African nations; and across the fertile equatorial regions, those resources are immense. In many cases, the local governments skim from the top while allowing these corporations to run their businesses with what can only be described as slavery. The corporate behemoths come from a variety of countries, including many who are usually thought to be sympathetic to the poor and downtrodden — like Canada. The Africans Finally, the Africans themselves can be blamed for part of the problems they suffer. It has been said that people get the governments they deserve so it is probably fair to say that if Africans cared as much as we all might hope, they would rise up and throw off some of the appalling leadership they have known. But that presupposes that they are not starving, that they can access weapons, that they can organize; in countries that have known nothing but oppression for hundreds of years, that is a tall order. Still, it would be helpful if their leaders could grasp the concept of serving the needs of their people rather than feathering their own nests.