The Road to Hell
Outside my office there are young people collecting for charity. Every day its different people and a different charity but their techniques to get my attention are pretty much the same as I try and slip past them on the way to my lunch. This week they are collecting for aid in Africa so there are the prerequisite photos of malnourished and diseased infants lining the street. Occasionally I do get cornered by one of these well-meaning people but resist the temptation to lecture them on their naive folly.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions they say and without a doubt large swathes of that continent are starting to do a very good impression but little do the well-meaning and generous natured here understand how much they are contributing to the continuation or indeed deepening of that hell. On the one hand you have the multinationals plundering natural resources whilst lining the pockets of corrupt and cruel governments but on the other you have the toxic results of generations of multinational aid that has laid waste to the fabric of several African nations.
Controversial Irish Independent columnist Kevin Myers has put it better than I could, its worth repeating in full.
Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS
No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia’s (and Bob Geldof’s) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million today.
So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count.
One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .
Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.
There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this.
It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O’Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.
But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia’s has more than doubled.
Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.
Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.
This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense. Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.
Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa.
They are now — one way or another — virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.
Meanwhile, Africa’s peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.
So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country?
How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.
For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.
It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates’ programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating.
If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts. Oh good: then what?I know. Let them all come here. Yes, that’s an idea.
Update : (21/07/2008)
Thanks to the ping-back on this post which I received from an Irish blog which has been monitoring the reaction to the Myers piece I thought it may be worthy to also note 2005 Spiegel interview with Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati.
“For God’s Sake, Please Stop the Aid!”
The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…
Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.
SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.
Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.
You’ve made the file: http://politeia-dbase.blogspot.com/2007/11/perversion-of-development-aid.html
I see the logic, but golly. Makes my hanging ‘n’ gibbeting seem pretty soft. Heart or head?
Truth hurts - true nonetheless.
So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country?
We have the clandestini here, Wolfie and they are lined up at the police stations trying to be registered. Hundreds dies on boats. Meanwhile, the leaders from the source nations live in their opulence and entertain foreign dignitaries.
My heart is not made of stone Sackerson, I do feel pity for the African plight but my head rules my heart, unfashionable as it may be in our lobotomised modern society. By taking the simplistic and unthinking route we only deepen the agony by pushing the existing populations closer together and closer to war with never-ending famine. A lot of column-inches are dedicated to worries over climate change but I can see it may only be ten years before they will be equally worried about demographic change.
I think I’ll start buying the Irish Independent.
So all in all the best African leader of all is good ol’ Robert Mugabe who is ensuring negative population growth in Southern Rhodesia by means of starvation, disease and murder.
If you live in the UK you are already giving a great deal to charity through your tax. Foreign aid is given without our permission in staggering amounts - much of it going to countries with nuclear weapons. If they can afford Nuclear weapons, then they should not need our money.
Giving money is never the answer…
it’s a very difficult one and I quite understand “compassion fatigue” as, with the best will in the world, few of us can afford to give to all deserving causes. Also the attitude hardens when you are made to feel compulsion about this - there has to be a choice and what worries me is that there are people too vulnerable to say “No” when pressurised to give, even when they can’t really manage it. Yet those pictures haunt us, all the time.
Good point Steve, although slightly cryptic… so take your pick ladies and gentlemen.
Mugabe blames the west for Zimbabwe’s problems Baht, is he the solution?
Welshcakes/Cherry, well money is known to corrupt so why do we assume that just because its been given with good intentions that it will be exempt from the pitfalls?
Not so much like its English cousin is it Steve?
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I personally give precisely biff all to African Aid charities so I would be a hypocrite if I were to criticise any of the comments made here
but
I would suggest that the f**ked up governance of many African countries has historically suited western business interests rather well and much of the aid given to those countries was never lent on the expectation that it could ever be paid back
I’m also a bit wary of criticising other countries for not being able to feed, cloth and keep themselves warm as we in the UK arguably passed that particular milestone a little while back. Not many people have noticed that yet but they will
It’s a breath of fresh air to hear these sentiments. I rarely express such views because the truth is so unpleasant to contemplate, but foreign aid only produces two things - babies for the aid recipients and Swiss bank accounts for the aid administrators.
These views are perceived as rascist, but why? Domestic aid for whites, welfare, is not much different in it’s effect, producing babies for the underclass recipients and a monthly pay cheque for the welfare managers.
I work and travel across Africa, the starving kids in the photographs are usually in an area where war or political instability have caused dislocation of the food supply. Otherwise the kids are poor but happy and healthy, and a damn sight better looked after by their parents than a lot of kids in the UK.
Food aid is largely wasted unless protected by external military forces as it never arrives, it is creamed off by the local politicos and warlords.
If we have to give aid, it is better to build schools and technical colleges, but this is long term stuff and not as eye catching for the charity industry as truck loads of food arriving, which is eaten in a few days and creates a dependency culture.
The sheer effort of collecting water takes hours out of a day, that can be devoted to growing food.The cost of 100 AK47’s will drill a well, Africa is awash with AK47’s but not wells of clean water.
I feel so sorry for the African people and how they are forced to live, but with the present day situation in this Country I fear that charity begins at home.
I agree with devonshire dumpling… Charity begins at home
Africa has to start helping itself. Today we had the choice to put some old clothes in a container in the supermarket car park for either Southern Africa or the Salvation Army. Our decision was easy. As other commentators have said; charity begins at home. There are enough people who require our help in the UK. I don’t say this in a heartless way, as I have sponsored a little girl in Columbia for 7 years. The difference there though is that my money is helping her go to school and help her grandmother look after her, as her mother is forced to work many miles away from where they live. They are helping themselves and I am very happy to do my bit to help them help themselves.
Guthrum,
Thank you for providing us with your perspective, reminds me of work my Father did for Oxfam years ago. Rather than give food or money he designed a latrine that prevented contamination of ground water that could be built with local materials.
Stef,
First item, I agree with the statement but don’t buy the ethnic guilt angle. Not in my name.
It’s a polemic piece which isn’t supposed to be taken quite so literally, its about what we cause by just giving without thinking of all the consequences. I hope so anyway.
Dumpling/Sally/Andrew,
Agreed. It might be a good idea if we spent more time and resources sorting out the problems in Europe which we are much more qualified to handle correctly. The episode last year where Gordon Brown was visiting Africa during our floods was truly an embarrassment and should be a lesson to the voters as to the contempt he has for the British people.
No attempts at playing the ethnic guilt game intended
The real guilt mongers are the ones who pretend that a modest, tax allowable deduction from people\’s monthly salaries to aid charities is going to make any real difference to the world
Aid is very often part of the problem not the solution
let’s try that link again…
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00090.htm
Let’s ban human reproduction immediately and get population growth rates to a more sustainable level within 20 years.
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