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African examples for Jamaica
Geof Brown
Friday, October 26, 2007
JAMAICANS, by and large, do not look to Africa for examples to follow. Indeed, Jamaicans hardly look to Africa for anything at all, except to blindly accept the uninformed stereotypes presented by Western (especially American) media. So, it will come as a surprise to many that in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, no passenger is allowed to stand in a bus, and that a passenger can prosecute a bus driver for reckless driving. And most Jamaicans will be surprised that in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with its high-rise buildings competing with Chicago for a spectacular city commercial skyline, there are no traffic lights at busy intersections.
Instead, as in Barbados, roundabouts are respected; and with heavier human and vehicular traffic than our capital Kingston, Nairobi manages to handle its massive traffic load with hardly a tie-up typical of large cities.
But although such images as these help to correct the safari-and-wild-animal stereotypes so widely held by Jamaicans, it is to other examples of much deeper import that the title of this piece refers. And since, except for those who make African studies their business, we do not as a rule have access to African media, this column brings African media voices to speak directly to my readers. The example of uppermost focus is the current growing movement to rid Africa of foreign aid. Writing in the Daily Nation on Monday of this week, columnist Rasna Warah, under title "Kenya should lead the 'No Aid to Africa' campaign", observes: "Unlike our neighbours Tanzania and Uganda, which received and continue to receive high levels of donor aid, or rather loans, to finance their budgets, Kenya was considered the rogue state that did not deserve any funding because the Government was behaving badly."
Warah continues, "But once the leader of the rogue state was removed, it was expected that donors would rush in to fund the new democratically elected government's priorities. And indeed they did. .But someone in the new administration made a wise decision not to rush out and accept every dollar, pound or kroner handed out to it, but to improve domestic tax collection so that the country could become self-reliant. This decision, supported by an economic growth rate of more than six per cent, has seen the country become the most financially autonomous in the region." The columnist then asks, "Why is this a good thing?" And gives this answer, "No country can claim to be sovereign if decisions about where and how it should spend its money are made in foreign capitals, and if the debt accumulated as a result of the aid (which often comes with punitive conditions attached and is largely in the form of loans) impoverishes the country further."
The columnist continues, "Loss of sovereignty is a high price to pay, considering that official development assistance - money that rich governments allocate to foreign aid programmes - comprises less than one per cent of rich countries' gross national product."
"Taxpayers in the UK, Japan or Sweden," the columnist adds, "hardly feel the pinch, but recipients of the aid not only feel the pinch, but ache from it years afterwards." The column advises that recently William Easterly, a former World Bank economist and author of the much-acclaimed The Elusive Quest for Growth, wrote a scathing opinion on the media blitz Africa is currently enjoying and the calls for more aid to the continent by celebrities such as Bob Geldof, Bono and Jeffrey Sachs. "Easterly," the columnist writes, "echoed the sentiments of many African economists by claiming these calls were doing more for celebrity careers than they were for the people of Africa." Further, "Although the push in the international community is to increase the aid given to African countries, a consensus seems to be emerging among a younger generation of Africans that aid is in the long run a bad idea."
However, it is not apparently emerging only among a younger generation that foreign aid is not a good idea. In the Uganda daily newspaper, the New Vision, a news item appearing on October 9th carried the headline "Musevini castigates aid". Musevini is the president of Uganda. Quoting him, the news item reported, "Deuteronomy says that countries which borrow and don't lend are cursed. When you see countries which borrow and don't lend, which keep begging but don't give, (they) are outside the fence of God.
Why is it that Africans are not wise?" For all the biblical ascription, the Ugandan president became practical, observing, "Why is it that African leaders don't know how to multiply their produce and make their people see that exporting raw materials is the curse of Africa?"
Expanding on his point, the Ugandan president is reported as saying that by exporting unprocessed cotton to Europe and selling it at one dollar per kilogram, Africa "donated" $14 per kilogram to the West. Interestingly, the Kenya newspaper, The Daily Nation, reported a similar observation by Philip Emeagwali, a scientist, in a keynote speech to an African Diaspora conference on September 29th. "Nigeria," he said, "pays a 40% 'royalty' tax on its petroleum revenues to foreign oil companies that are ripping out its family jewels - the huge store of wealth in its oil fields."
The bottom line of the emerging African push to shake off the shackles of foreign aid is the observation of Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda: "What man ever became rich by holding out a begging bowl?" Any lesson or example here for Jamaica?
- browngeof@hotmail.com
Geof Brown
Friday, October 26, 2007
JAMAICANS, by and large, do not look to Africa for examples to follow. Indeed, Jamaicans hardly look to Africa for anything at all, except to blindly accept the uninformed stereotypes presented by Western (especially American) media. So, it will come as a surprise to many that in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, no passenger is allowed to stand in a bus, and that a passenger can prosecute a bus driver for reckless driving. And most Jamaicans will be surprised that in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with its high-rise buildings competing with Chicago for a spectacular city commercial skyline, there are no traffic lights at busy intersections.
Instead, as in Barbados, roundabouts are respected; and with heavier human and vehicular traffic than our capital Kingston, Nairobi manages to handle its massive traffic load with hardly a tie-up typical of large cities.
But although such images as these help to correct the safari-and-wild-animal stereotypes so widely held by Jamaicans, it is to other examples of much deeper import that the title of this piece refers. And since, except for those who make African studies their business, we do not as a rule have access to African media, this column brings African media voices to speak directly to my readers. The example of uppermost focus is the current growing movement to rid Africa of foreign aid. Writing in the Daily Nation on Monday of this week, columnist Rasna Warah, under title "Kenya should lead the 'No Aid to Africa' campaign", observes: "Unlike our neighbours Tanzania and Uganda, which received and continue to receive high levels of donor aid, or rather loans, to finance their budgets, Kenya was considered the rogue state that did not deserve any funding because the Government was behaving badly."
Warah continues, "But once the leader of the rogue state was removed, it was expected that donors would rush in to fund the new democratically elected government's priorities. And indeed they did. .But someone in the new administration made a wise decision not to rush out and accept every dollar, pound or kroner handed out to it, but to improve domestic tax collection so that the country could become self-reliant. This decision, supported by an economic growth rate of more than six per cent, has seen the country become the most financially autonomous in the region." The columnist then asks, "Why is this a good thing?" And gives this answer, "No country can claim to be sovereign if decisions about where and how it should spend its money are made in foreign capitals, and if the debt accumulated as a result of the aid (which often comes with punitive conditions attached and is largely in the form of loans) impoverishes the country further."
The columnist continues, "Loss of sovereignty is a high price to pay, considering that official development assistance - money that rich governments allocate to foreign aid programmes - comprises less than one per cent of rich countries' gross national product."
"Taxpayers in the UK, Japan or Sweden," the columnist adds, "hardly feel the pinch, but recipients of the aid not only feel the pinch, but ache from it years afterwards." The column advises that recently William Easterly, a former World Bank economist and author of the much-acclaimed The Elusive Quest for Growth, wrote a scathing opinion on the media blitz Africa is currently enjoying and the calls for more aid to the continent by celebrities such as Bob Geldof, Bono and Jeffrey Sachs. "Easterly," the columnist writes, "echoed the sentiments of many African economists by claiming these calls were doing more for celebrity careers than they were for the people of Africa." Further, "Although the push in the international community is to increase the aid given to African countries, a consensus seems to be emerging among a younger generation of Africans that aid is in the long run a bad idea."
However, it is not apparently emerging only among a younger generation that foreign aid is not a good idea. In the Uganda daily newspaper, the New Vision, a news item appearing on October 9th carried the headline "Musevini castigates aid". Musevini is the president of Uganda. Quoting him, the news item reported, "Deuteronomy says that countries which borrow and don't lend are cursed. When you see countries which borrow and don't lend, which keep begging but don't give, (they) are outside the fence of God.
Why is it that Africans are not wise?" For all the biblical ascription, the Ugandan president became practical, observing, "Why is it that African leaders don't know how to multiply their produce and make their people see that exporting raw materials is the curse of Africa?"
Expanding on his point, the Ugandan president is reported as saying that by exporting unprocessed cotton to Europe and selling it at one dollar per kilogram, Africa "donated" $14 per kilogram to the West. Interestingly, the Kenya newspaper, The Daily Nation, reported a similar observation by Philip Emeagwali, a scientist, in a keynote speech to an African Diaspora conference on September 29th. "Nigeria," he said, "pays a 40% 'royalty' tax on its petroleum revenues to foreign oil companies that are ripping out its family jewels - the huge store of wealth in its oil fields."
The bottom line of the emerging African push to shake off the shackles of foreign aid is the observation of Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda: "What man ever became rich by holding out a begging bowl?" Any lesson or example here for Jamaica?
- browngeof@hotmail.com
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