Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Guardian is screaming out for rich donor countries to help the suffering people of Southern Africa, who are currently experiencing a drought which they claim was caused by El-nino and climate change. But a little research demonstrates that these countries are entirely capable of helping themselves, if the politicians in charge of these drought hit nations diverted a little cashflow towards helping their suffering people.
Southern Africa cries for help as El Niño and climate change savage maize harvest
Only half of $600m promised in aid has come
Two-year-old Zeka screams as a health worker measures the circumference of her arm while another holds her legs and presses her flesh. The nurses agree: Zeka has clear signs of edema, a swelling condition caused by extreme hunger.
“She will live, but she needs to go to hospital. The situation in this area is much worse than when we were here just a few weeks ago.
“It looks like 10% of children here are now malnourished. It will certainly get worse,” said chief health assistant Ane Banda, who is leading a government assessment of rural areas near Nsanje, close to the Malawian border with Mozambique.
“We have not eaten for days,” said Zeka’s mother, who has been living off wild fruit, water lilies and the kindness of neighbours but has been told to attend a food handout in her village the next day.
Malawi is one of seven southern African countries on the brink of starvation and in a situation that the UN says needs requires immediate action.
It has been devastated by a combination of a long drought caused by a strong El Niño weather cycle and climate change. Successive maize harvests have failed, leaving communities there and in Zambia, Congo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and elsewhere, desperate for food.
…
Why do I think these countries can take care of themselves?
Zambia: Despite extensive government mismanagement, Copper is still the mainstay of Zambia’s export industry. According to Trading Economics, Zambia is earning around USD $1.5 million per month in Copper exports. It would be a lot more if Zambia didn’t keep messing up mining agreements signed with companies desperate to exploit Zambia’s mineral wealth.
Congo: Congo has extensive deposits of Diamonds, Uranium, an estimated USD $24 trillion in untapped mineral wealth, much of it readily accessible with low tech mining equipment. The problem with the Congo is political instability, something they are going to have to sort out for themselves.
Zimbabwe: Despite vigorous government attempts to loot and destroy the Zimbabwean farming system, Zimbabwe still own and operate significant income producing assets. In 2013, Zimbabwean mineral exports were estimated at USD $1.8 billion. No shortage of cash there.
Mozambique: In 2012, CityAM, a London financial publication, noted that the European economic crisis was so severe in Spain, there was a significant net flow of Spanish Portuguese economic refugees to Angola and Mozambique, begging Mozambican authorities for work visas. Mozambique has a GDP of USD $18 billion per annum. Any suggestion that Mozambique needs economic aid is complete fiction.
Obviously a few of the countries on the list are run by kleptocrats who simply don’t care if their people are starving, or who see photogenic scenes of starving peasants as a way of squeezing money out of Westerners stupid enough to believe their tales of woe. But all of the countries listed by the Guardian have the means, if not the will, to take care of their own problems.
What should we do in cases where the government simply won’t take care of its own people?
Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati has some advice for Westerners who want to help, when they see pictures of starving children.
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.
July 04, 2005 12:00 AM
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.
SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?
Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.
SPIEGEL: Even in a country like Kenya, people are starving to death each year. Someone has got to help them.
Shikwati: But it has to be the Kenyans themselves who help these people. When there’s a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program — which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated. It’s only natural that they willingly accept the plea for more help. And it’s not uncommon that they demand a little more money than the respective African government originally requested. They then forward that request to their headquarters, and before long, several thousands tons of corn are shipped to Africa …
The moral of the story is clear – let other people sort their own problems out, even if they try to play on your empathy and convince you that their suffering is your fault.
Correction (EW) – the CityAM story was about Portuguese economic refugees flooding into Africa. The Spanish economic refugees were flocking to Latin America.
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“The Guardian is screaming out for rich donor countries…”
Rich countries, i.e. those still able to borrow money.
Very excellent point.
But this was always at the root of the CAGW game. A transfer of money from the poor in the First World to the wealthy in the Third World.
And to themselves
For the sake of acquiring entire or controlling interest in the Third World nation’s resources. Money to the ruling elite? A trifle. A kickback. A cost of doing business. The greed of the rulers is a pip in the face of the greed of the “donors.” A poor person in Zambia has no way of knowing if he will have electric service that day. The mine owners do not even contemplate the problem.
Why in the world would they spend their own money when they can spend someone else’s?
The last thing these people need is more money-
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/rpt-insight-as-zimbabwes-money-runs-out-so-does-mugabes-power/ar-AAkQvsv?li=AA5249&ocid=spartandhp
Another lesson from this story: the Law of Unintended Consequences is as inexorable as Murphy’s Law. Liberal/progressive social guilt and the bleeding heart compulsion to throw money at ‘unfortunate’ people to assuage one’s own conscience does far more harm than good in the long run.
Data from the UN projects a possible outcome in the next 85 years that indicates that Africa will be the focus of a major demographic disaster. I have never tried to post a table so this may turn out to also be a disaster. Hopefully it will be readable (if not at least I tried).
UN Global Population Mean Numbers for 2020/2050/2100
Region Expected Pop. 2020 Projected Pop. 2050 Proj. Pop. 2100 ∆ to 2050 ∆ to 2100
Africa 1,400,000,000 2,000,000,000 4,400,000,000 600 mil 3 billion
Asia 4,800,000,000 5,000,000,000 4,900,000,000 200 mil 100 mil
Europe 750,000,000 750,000,000 649,000,000 No change -101 mil
N. America 380,000,000 490,000,000 500,000,000 110 mil 120 mil
Latin Amer 600,000,000 850,000,000 730,000,000 250 mill 130 mil
Oceania 45,000,000 50,000,000 71,000,000 5 million 26 mil
Total 7,975,000,000 9,140,000,000 11,250,000,000 1.165 bil 3.275 bil
The African population will possibly increase from 2020 to 2050 by 600,000,000 while all the rest of the world’s population will increase by only 565,000,000 in that same time period. Africa makes up over 90% of the population gain from now until 2100. The African population increase will likely be predominantly in Central-West-East Africa. Regions of North and South Africa are already showing signs of a sort of leveling off trend in population because of a clear increase in economic development. With any population growth predictions, the nature of a broad spectrum of initial conditions are of extreme importance in determining outcomes. Also any major changes in any of these conditions during the period predicted, of course, can make nonsense out of the numbers. If the nations in the central belt of Africa can change by shaking off their poor leadership and begin to develop on their own, the picture could change drastically.
Bernie
First off, the population growth projections are absurd. Way, way too high.
Second, Africa’s problem is not and never has been too many people, it’s that corrupt governments make it impossible for farmers to feed the people they do have.
Kinda knew that would happen.
Bernie
A good read that touches on many of these subjects is “Out of America” by the then WAPO African bureau chief Keith Richburg.
60+ years helping starving africa.
I am done
Wonderfully “Liberal” piece here from the Guardian.
Some of the comments are very interesting, and not what you would expect.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/nov/26/western-populism-is-a-fundamental-threat-to-the-humanitarian-system
Another really good example of a country destroyed by foreign aid (mostly US) is Haiti. Compare that country with the Dominican Republic which shares the island with Haiti. All these countries need to be weaned off of foreign aid and forced to fend for themselves, much like that 40 year old that still lives with his parents. Tough love is not easy, but dependence is always destructive.
Try telling that to the Democrats. For them dependence is very profitable. Especially if they can convince the dependents that if the other side wins, they are going to be cut off.
@ur momisugly Hugs
November 28, 2016 at 7:51 am: Too easy to say that Hugs, at this distance; when everywhere the ‘nDbele came, they came to conquer..
“Rich Africans Scrounging for “Climate Famine” Funds” Let me fix that.
Rich Africans dictators Scrounging for “Climate Famine” Funds. There fixed
Good one old construction worker
Here’s another
“West applies “Trickle-down” economic aid to 3rd world. Expecting as much success as in the West”
El Nino/La Nina cycles are weather phenomenon related to Pacific Ocean currents and have no effect on South Africa. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is a 5-8 year weather cycle that effects southern and eastern Africa, as well as Australia and India. Australia has experienced a wetter than average winter this year (2016) while South Africa is in drought. About three years ago Australia was in drought and Zambia for instance recorded a record grain harvest due to extraordinary rains. This weather cycle was only discovered in the early to mid 00s and has now been identified as the main influence on seasonal weather in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. These are weather cycles and have nothing to do with climate change.
Generally when the Guardian leads walk the other way . Preachy, preachy and arrogant are a bad mix . . African leaders have a RICH tradition of screwing their own people and outside investors . Tribal traditions and infighting are worse than Chicago and unfortunately the poorest and least connected are trapped . Direct donations to individuals and families at least minimizes the crooked politicians and bureaucrat take .
Shoving the global warming con-game at African countries instead of ensuring people have access to electricity , clean water and proper food is arrogant western genocide . A politically correct global warming
con-game . The real deniers are CNN talking heads types who would rather promote a massive scam than solve real problems .
Trouble with the world today is whiteys are a racist, uncaring lot-
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/trump-calls-for-mass-deportations-this-indian-state-is-already-weeding-out-undocumented-muslims/ar-AAkPirt?li=AA5249&ocid=spartandhp
It’s all Trump’s fault.
A lot of Africa’s ecological problems are caused by Mankind’s out of control population. The country where I live, the USA, has weather problems of our own. We are a very poor nation with a huge National Debt, huge annual deficits, and huge annual trade deficits. We need rich nations to come and help us.