Let Africa Sink

The billions upon billions of dollars we have poured into Africa over the last several decades out of a misguided (if charitable) sense of guilt have rendered not a single positive result. It's gained us nothing in terms of returns, it has fostered a sense of dependency on aid handouts, and the only people who have benefitted from such aid are thieving, dictatorial kleptocrats who build wealth in foreign banks at the expense of their people and whose human rights abuses make ol' Saddam look like a rank amateur sometimes (think death by machete times 800,000). This whole aid situation sounds familiar, because it is also playing out in several Middle Eastern countries as we speak. Kim du Toit, blogger extraordinaire and former resident of the continent says we as a nation should say "No more" to the aid, and let the continent sink (or swim, if it can) on its own, and limit the collateral damage by keeping the rot from spreading here. He is absolutely right.

"We, and by this I mean the West, have tried many ways to help Africa. All such attempts have failed.

Charity is no answer. Money simply gets appropriated by the first, or second, or third person to touch it (17 countries saw a decline in real per capita GNP between 1970 and 1999, despite receiving well over $100 billion in World Bank assistance). Food isnt distributed. This happens either because there is no transportation infrastructure (bad), or the local leader deliberately withholds the supplies to starve people into submission (worse). Materiel is broken, stolen or sold off for a fraction of its worth. The result of decades of "foreign aid" has resulted in a continental infrastructure which, if one excludes South Africa, couldnt support Pittsburgh.

Add to this, as I mentioned above, the endless cycle of Natures little bag of tricks--persistent drought followed by violent flooding, a plethora of animals, reptiles and insects so dangerous that life is already cheap before Man starts playing his little reindeer games with his fellow Man--and what you are left with is: catastrophe.

The inescapable conclusion is simply one of resignation. This goes against the grain of our humanity--we are accustomed to ridding the world of this or that problem (smallpox, polio, whatever), and accepting failure is anathema to us. But, to give a classic African scenario, a polio vaccine wont work if the kids are prevented from getting the vaccine by a venal overlord, or a frightened chieftain, or a lack of roads, or by criminals who steal the vaccine and sell it to someone else. If a cure for AIDS was found tomorrow, and offered to every African nation free of charge, the growth of the disease would scarcely be checked, let alone reversed. Basically, youd have to try to inoculate as many two-year old children as possible, and write off the two older generations.

So that is the only one response, and its a brutal one: accept that we are powerless to change Africa, and leave them to sink or swim, by themselves. It sounds dreadful to say it, but if the entire African continent dissolves into a seething maelstrom of disease, famine and brutality, thats just too damn bad. We have better things to do--sometimes, you just have to say, "Cant do anything about it.

The viciousness, the cruelty, the corruption, the duplicity, the savagery, and the incompetence is endemic to the entire continent, and is so much of an anathema to any right-thinking person that the civilized imagination simply stalls when faced with its ubiquity, and with the enormity of trying to fix it. The Western media shouldnt even bother reporting on it. All that does is arouse our feelings of horror, and the instinctive need to do something, anything--but everything has been tried before, and failed. Everything, of course, except self-reliance.

All we should do is make sure that none of Africa gets transplanted over to the U.S., because the danger to our society is dire if it does. I note that several U.S. churches are attempting to bring groups of African refugees over to the United States, European churches the same for Europe. Mistake. Mark my words, this misplaced charity will turn around and bite us, big time.

Even worse would be to think that the simplicity of Africa holds some kind of answers for Western society: remember Mrs. Clintons little book, "It Takes A Village"? Trust me on this: there is not one thing that Africa can give the West which hasnt been tried before and failed, not one thing that isnt a step backwards, and not one thing which is worse than, or that contradicts, what we have already.

The West cant help Africa. Nor should we. The record speaks for itself."