Harare — I COME from Africa, a resource-rich continent which is depicted as poor by conventional development statistics -- so as to justify foreign aid. Aid has driven Africans to lose confidence in their abilities and opportunities. It has promoted a culture of dependence -- a culture of relying on other people's help.
African children are born into a cycle of dependency. Imagine yourself as a child, growing up in a country where your parents have been reduced to mere procreators. They cannot feed you, because their indigenous foods have been crowded out by exotic foods that came from donors. They cannot choose the type of education you ought to get, because donors have supplied all sorts of "free education systems" that orient you to the West. You become an automatic candidate for the "brain drain", for immigration to the developed world -- but your education does not prepare you to solve Africa's problems.
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You grow up in a confused political environment. Donors' direct funding of civil society cuts your government out of the picture and leaves it impotent. On the other hand if the donors give direct funding to your government, they breed political cronyism, corruption and the evils of ethnic division. A mixture of both leads to political upheavals -- as we saw in Kenya last year. Donors made Kenya into a country whose government does not pay attention to the electorate. At the same time they paid its civil society to organise citizens into agitators.
Attempts by donors to impose their organisational structures on Africa create confusion - and force people on the continent to focus on short-term goals. Although donors might brag about promoting education in Africa, they do not admit that they're simply helping their own industry, by creating a supply of labour. Donors decry the dearth of leadership in Africa, but stop short of pointing out that the majority of the so-called "bad leaders" were educated in Western schools using donor funds.
We must question foreign aid's embedded, corrupting system that takes people who reside in resource-rich countries and makes them poor. Computer experts talk about malware -- a short form for "malicious software" that infiltrates a computer without the owners' informed consent. Foreign aid -- like malware -- harms a country's operating system. The term "aid" in itself is corrupting. What is the justification for using such a term when Africans repay their debts, amounting to US$20 billion every year?
Let us take a moment to look at some examples of hostile and intrusive programs run by the aid industry, particularly in Africa. Since food aid was introduced in the '60s, African eating-habits have changed -- and agriculture has been re-oriented to produce exotic crops that demand far more input than indigenous ones. Over 120 million people on that continent are faced with starvation. The cause -- though blamed on drought -- has everything to do with this change of crops -- as opposed to what could be done if we got science to work on the indigenous crops.
The "Food-aid-malware" has disorganised Africa's food production and is currently giving wealthy nations the excuse to acquire land there, on the distorted assumption that people in Africa are incapable of producing food.
Here's another hostile intrusion into Africa's system. Imagine an office that installs security cameras - but then one-day finds it's been robbed. The owners rush to the monitoring room and discover blank screens -- because the cameras were faulty. Aid works very much like that. It's a CCTV system, deliberately put in to mislead. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo have vast amounts of geological resources; but donor countries parade this country among the poorest. Behind the scenes however, their companies are plundering minerals worth billions of dollars. Africa has been relying on a faulty CCTV system to gather data about itself. And all it gets is a frozen image in the monitoring room -- the picture that shows the continent as poor.
Is Africa with its immense resources really poor? Japan with its limited territory imports and exports tons of goods to the global market; Switzerland produces the finest chocolate yet she has no cocoa plantations. The United States of America, Europe and China produce millions of cell phones and laptops by sourcing minerals such as Coltan from the so-called poor continent. There is no free lunch for Africa. Donor countries have high levels of political organisation. The executive, the judiciary and the legislature all promote the rule of law and above all -- property rights! This has unleashed industrial ingenuity in the donor countries. Citizens in these countries pay for the upkeep of their own governments; why should Africans surrender their governments to donors?
Children growing up in Africa want to look into the eyes of their parents and draw inspiration to live. They need incentives to utilise their talents to confront their daily challenges. Foreign aid sustains the already skewed global market system and denies individuals and nations of the third world the ability to grow their economies.
It is wrong to perpetuate the notion that Africa is in a state of permanent emergency. A change of attitude and a new confidence among Africans will unchain the continent from poverty.
l James Shikwati is Director, Inter Region Economic Network. He can be reached on james@irenkenya.org. This article is reproduced from the African Executive
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IS AFRICA FOR SALE ?
1) Ive heard that one African country made a 99-year deal with an Asian country to lease a part of their land.
2) How can anyone make a deal for the next generation ?
3) What can we do about it ?
4) Organize and get those crooks out of office or any position of power.
5) Pray to God For insight and divine intervention.
6) Africa Is being targeted by many who are not respecting Africa.
7) We must stop selling ourselves and respect ourselves, our families and God.
Daniel 11:44 But NEWS OUT OF THE EAST (CHINA?) AND OUT OF THE NORTH ( RUSSIA ?) shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forward with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many
Revelations 16:12 And the 6th angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water of it was dried up, that the way of the KINGS OF THE EAST might be prepared.
[Daniel 11:14 ]]
And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south(AMERICA / BABYLON ): ALSO the ROBBERS OF OUR PEOPLE shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; BUT THEY SHALL FALL !
WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS !
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- Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ]
Daniel 11:14 ]] And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south(AMERICA / BABYLON ): ALSO the ROBBERS OF OUR PEOPLE shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; BUT THEY SHALL FALL !
* 16 European Nations . Met And Plotted On How They Would Rob Africa Of Its Riches.
* They met during two(2) Periods of time in two(2) places
* The General Act Of Berlin Conference (Nov, 1884 to February, 1885)
* Brussels Belgium to finalize SECRET agreements ( Nov, 1889 to July 1890)
* The Book King Leopolds Ghost (1998) by Adam Hochschild documents some of This information.
The following Nations (Households) - Planned how they would divide among themselves our AFRICAN Riches.
1) Austria-Hungary - Francis Joseph I Charles - August 18, 1830 -
2) Belgium - King Leopold II April 9, 1835
3) Denmark - Frederik VIII -June 3, 1843
4) France - Marie François Sadi Carnot August 11, 1837 -
5) Germany - Wilhelm II - January 27, 1859
6) Great Britain - Queen Victoria (Hanover) May 24, 1819 British Ruler 2nd
7) Holland William III February 19, 1817
8) Italy - Umberto I - March 14, 1844 -
9) Norway - Oscar II [Oscar Frederik] January 21, 1829 (Also Sweden)
10) Portugal - Carlos I September 28, 1863
11) Russia - Alexander III Alexandrovich March 10, 1845
12) Spain - Alfonso XIII May 17, 1886
13) Sweden - Oscar II January 21, 1829 (Also Norway)
14) Turkey - Abdülhamid II, - September 2 or September 22 - 1842 -
15) United States - Benjamin Harrison August 20, 1833 -
16) Persia (Iran) - Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar July 16, 1831
For centuries Black Africans have been exploited and exploited in the name of Islam. Then with the coming of the Portueses (so-called Christians) to Ghana around the 1440s , the so-called Christians started their exploitation.
We Black Africans are puzzling. We have a bounty of riches around us, yet we persist in allowing outsiders to steal them; while we fight each other over trivial matters.
Just in case you're wondering, here's some Black Africans who have done wondrous things to change the way we live in the world.
For example : Garrett-Augustus Morgan invented the Traffic Signal to CURB (no pun intended) TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS !!!
* Buridge & Marshman - TYPEWRITER
* George Carruthers - X-RAY MACHINE
* George Washington Carver - PEANUT BUTTER - PAINTS PAINT STAINS ETC
* W.A. Dietz - SHOE
* Charles R. Drew - BLOOD PLASMA STORAGE SYSTEM
* Michael Harney - LANTERN
* Augustus Jackson - ICE CREAM
* H.A. Jackson - KITCHEN TABLE
* Isaac R. Johnson - BICYCLE FRAME
* John A. Johnson - WRENCH
* Frederick M. Jones - DEFROSTER - REFRIGERATION CONTROLS AIR CONDITIONER
* Jones & Long - BOTTLE CAPS
* Lewis Latimer & Nichols - ELECTIC LAMP
* John L. Love - PENCIL SHARPENER
* Tony J. Marshall - FIRE EXTINGUISHER
* Alexander Miles - ELEVATOR
* W.A. Martin - LOCK
* Garrett A. Morgan - GAS MASK - Traffic Signal
* Lydia Newman - HAIR BRUSH - Nov 15, 1898
* W.B. Purvis - FOUNTAIN PEN
* L.P. Ray - DUST PAN
* W.H. Richardson - BABY BUGGY
* G.T. Sampson - CLOTHES DRYER
* .W. Smith - LAWN SPRINKLER
* J. Standard - REFRIGERATOR
* T.W. Stewart - MOP
* Maxine Snowden - RAIN HAT - 1983
* Paul E. Williams - HELICOPTER
* Granville T. Woods - Roller Coaster
* Granville T. Woods - Telegraph Transmission Devices - Dec 2, 1884 Patents # - 308, 816 (7)
Thanks to The Black Inventors Museum P.O. Box 76128 Los Angeles , Calif. (90076) Phone (310) 859-4602)
Director : Ghanaian Mr. Hamza Salifa
Contributor of Information : SEESTAH Imahkus Nzinga Okofo [http://www.oneafricaghana.com/first_and_foremost.htm ]
[Check Out :
WHO BROUGHT THE SLAVES TO AMERICA ? [ http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/42787621/Who+brought+the+slaves+to+ameri ca?tab=summary] for full length video
FRITZ SPRINGMEIER A Bold Christian Truthseeker The Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k73Q2_f4vKU ]
WAKE UP !!! STAY UP !!!
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[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx]
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Life Is A Game. Have Fun . Luke 18:17 - Isaiah 11:6
Building Our Own Global Communications Infrastructure - GTUC FM Internet Broadcast
Black Star Media spurred by the initiative of people like Brother Keidi Obi Awadu are building Radio Stations . One Of Their Grand Projects Is In Accra , Ghana.
What can you do ? - Donate to the projects. - Become a member of [ livinginblack.com] - Use your own God-given initiative to guide your will to help. - [ http://livinginblack.ning.com/forum/topics/building-our-own-global ]
Their will be an exodus of nations leaving America ; returning to their ancestral homes e.g. Black Africans to nations like Ghana, Sierra Leone, etc ] [ .Get out of New Babylon America !!! ]
[Jeremiah, chapter 50 : 16 16: Cut off the sower from Babylon ;and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest .For fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.
[Check Out :
WHO BROUGHT THE SLAVES TO AMERICA ? [ http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/42787621/Who+brought+the+slaves+to+ameri ca?tab=summary] for full length video
FRITZ SPRINGMEIER A Bold Christian Truthseeker The Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k73Q2_f4vKU ]
WAKE UP !!! STAY UP !!!
[ libradio.net ]
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx]
[gcnlive.com]
Life Is A Game. Have Fun . Luke 18:17 - Isaiah 11:6
A most insightful article. The real resources needed to solve Africa's problems are indeed at hand: African labor.
Attitude is critical to your success in ending poverty. While it isn't ever really true that "They can because they think they can" it is Very often true that the only reason that people can't do something is that they don't think they can.
And property rights are indeed critical. A reasonable person cannot invest their time and effort on improving property to which they have no claim.
This is a well timed declaration for independence.