Africa at the moment is suffering poverty and retarded economic not because its case is insurmountable but because of deliberate interference by our former colonialists through a labyrinth of networks such as the World Bank, IMF, foreign embassies, churches and international NGOs which have ensured that Africa remains under their firm grip so that they can continue with subjugation so as to exploit our resources. This means that were Africa to be left alone, or even better, break the imperialist shackles and free herself, we could readjust and reinvent ourselves and become self-reliant. Look, not that the world has never known of worse suffering than the present case of Africa but through mutual respect and assistance, the problems have been overcome.
The Great Depression of the 1930s affected industries, farms, mining and other economic activities leading to massive losses and widespread poverty but through cooperation within nations this was overcome within a relatively short period of about ten years and normalcy returned. Closely following this, the second World War started and Europe being the main theater witnessed a lot of destruction and interference in normal activities. The US arranged massive financial aid to rebuild Europe after the war and within a period of three years growth had returned to pre-war years in nearly all the countries. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 resulted in much damage to the economies of these fast developing countries threatening them with total ruin. However, a financial bail out was arranged through IMF and eventually the problem was overcome. The only exception here was the decision of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who disregarded popular opinion, to go it alone by kicking out IMF out of his country and arguing that they could arrange a more suitable homegrown package than the one offered by IMF. Interestingly what he advocated worked and Malaysia became the first country to wriggle out of the country even before the mighty Japan. This prompted many economists to use the Malaysian model as a case study and countries such as Japan wanting to copy it for use. Eventually, the humbled IMF acknowledged that Dr Mohamad's model was a better one than what they had offered! Finally, the current global financial crisis has rattled giants like the US where industries, banks, financial institutions and insurance companies have collapsed resulting in foreclosures, loss of savings and jobs. However, due to the international cooperation based on mutual respect, countries have been able to contain it and mitigate its effects on their citizens and economies.
The question now, how come that Africa with the multiplicity of assistance arranged through IMF, World Bank, foreign governments, churches and NGOs has not been able to sort out even the mundane issue of food deficit? There can only be one answer to this question. The former colonialists don't want us out of the problems so that they continue the exploitation of the continent. Can Africa learn from Dr Mohamad of Malaysia?
When we look at the amount of money siphoned out of Africa every year through corrupt tenders, outright theft, inflated import bills, under-invoiced exports, inflated loans, etc, I think that there is scope for Africa to emerge out of poverty and eventually build up a financial resource base for growth. But with the current number of despotic leaders and labyrinth of imperialist organizations such as NGOs and churches, it is going to take close to a miracle unless we come up with homegrown solutions by creating awareness and building a social revolution through the masses. Is Africa listening?
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