[governance] Re: Does Africa Need Help?

[Nyangkwe Agien Aaron]

David

I agree with you on the currupt nature of our African leaders. But
mark you, it takes two to tango. Th West do not like un corrupt
African leaders, except the immunized ones like the venerable Nelson
Mandela.
African leaders that hav their peopl at hart ar done away by th West
(Patric Lumumba,  Thomasq Sankara) while kleptocrats and election
riggers are given rd carpet treatrment by th West (Paul Biya, Omar
Bongo et all. Th hoollibaloo on Mugabe is all against his nationalist
instinct. Although the Zimbwabwe laeder stands faultd for lack of
clarvoyance.
Thomas asked this memorable question in his book, Common Sense:"are
you defending us against our enemies for our behalf or you are
dfending us against our enemies on your behalve"
Why is the West so vocal on Mugabe and not on Paul Biya of Cameroon,
whose country is going through the worst conomic-cum social crisis but
he continus to rig himselv to power. The Amricans    have acquired
land near the Cameroon  Presidential palace (for free? I do not know)
where they have a sumptious building and are all contended with that.
They were not even moved when Cameroon Police men stormed their
Embassy and arrested  a human rights activist (Joe La Conscince) and
incarcerated him for 4 months.
On another point David, what is this organization called UNDP doing if
Africa, if not to enshrine a refine corruption practise mapped out by
the West.
I humbly believe that the hardened position within Islamist
fundamentalism is caused by certain frustration that the West has
faild to look into. And the hardened positions have grown up to
outcast terrorism.
I am afraid that in the next 30 years, de--westernization in Africa
may suffer the same fete. These are trying times, wrote Thomas Paine
in Common Sense.
There is a saying in my village (kugwe in North West Cameroon that say
"Zorn azor chiri bongkirie mberng'nooh" . Translated, buy your
umbrella before it starts to rain.


On 6/20/08, David Goldstein <goldstein_david at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> I don't disagree with these comments about the failings of western policies. It still doesn't take away from the fact that many African countries are corrupt and incompetent and nobody here seems to want to address this issue and instead want to blame African government's failings only on western policies.
>
> David
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Nyangkwe Agien Aaron <nyangkweagien at gmail.com>
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Daniel Oppermann <dan.oppermann at gmail.com>
> Sent: Friday, 20 June, 2008 8:05:17 PM
> Subject: Re: [governance] Re: Does Africa Need Help?
>
> Daniel
>
> You hit the nail at th right point.
>
> Aaron
>
> On 6/19/08, Daniel Oppermann <dan.oppermann at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I understood Stephane's comment in a different way. To me it seems that
> > he put the finger on the fact that Northern (or Western or
> > industrialized) countries do not spend money on development politics
> > just because they are "nice" but because it serves their own interests.
> >
> > Development politics started during the Cold War to make sure who is on
> > your side. For the reason of national interests today the financial
> > flows go mainly to Asian and African countries almost ignoring poverty,
> > civil war and the question of failing states in Latin America. Looking
> > on the positive aspect: Latin American governments have to resolve their
> > problems on their own or with regional support which is definitely
> > better than waiting for someone to fix the problem.
> >
> > Here is an interesting paper about the effectiveness of aid politics:
> >
> > http://www.iadb.org/IDBDocs.cfm?docnum=1158725
> >
> >
> >
> > David Goldstein schrieb:
> > > Stephane's comment is just like saying all African governments are
> > incompetent and corrupt. It's partly true, it's changing, but definitely not
> > always the case.
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message ----
> > > From: Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer at internatif.org>
> > > To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Nyangkwe Agien Aaron
> > <nyangkweagien at gmail.com>
> > > Sent: Thursday, 19 June, 2008 7:53:05 PM
> > > Subject: [governance] Re: Does Africa Needs Help?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Some recipient governments grasp exactly what donors want to hear,
> > > > readily agreeing to 'capacity building' programmes emphasising
> > > > increased accountability. They dutifully echo the donor's jargon,
> > > > while laughing behind our backs, and flicking through the latest
> > > > Mercedes catalogue for their new ministerial limousine.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > A long paper to avoid the obvious conclusion: aid is not intended to
> > > help the local people but to subsidize northern industries such as
> > > Mercedes (as in the above example) or Cisco (to take a example closer
> > > from our field). That way, most aid will come back to the North.
> > >
> > >
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>
> --
> Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
> Journalist/Outcome Mapper
> Special Assistant To The President
> Coach of ASAFE Camaroes Street Football Team.
> ASAFE
> P.O.Box 5213
> Douala-Cameroon
> Tel. 237 3337 50 22
> Cell Phone: 237 79 95 71 97
> Fax. 237 3342 29 70
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-- 
Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
Journalist/Outcome Mapper
Special Assistant To The President
Coach of ASAFE Camaroes Street Football Team.
ASAFE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
Tel. 237 3337 50 22
Cell Phone: 237 79 95 71 97
Fax. 237 3342 29 70
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