Cant be too thin or too rich... unless you are African.

[Jon_in_london]

Thabo Mebki is saying that Africa has all the aid money it can handle:

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=15199

The problem being that when given all this gravy, the givers might expect the givee to do something usefull with it.

Mbeki said having obtained aid from rich countries put a burden on Africa to produce results.

Which kind of leaves me speachless..............

 

[BobK]

If they want to lighten their burden, they can send some of it to me.

 

[Aquila_ka_Hecate]

I dunno Jon. I'm not a Thabo fan myself, but I understood this as an attempt to take some of the 'handout' mentality out of Africa.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a good deal more time to acheive this.

 

[Jon_in_london]

I dunno Jon. I'm not a Thabo fan myself, but I understood this as an attempt to take some of the 'handout' mentality out of Africa.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a good deal more time to acheive this.

I dont think it is. I think this is Mbeki's pan-africanist way of saying "we dont need money from white people (when there are strings attached)"

Its absolute rubbish that he cant find a way to spend the money in a usefull manner.

 

[Aquila_ka_Hecate]

Possibly you're right.
But we shouldn't forget Mebki's denialist stance, which his horrendous (our horrendous) health-minister advocates wrt AIDS.
It's possibly going to be a tad embarrasing to take US Dollars for a disease he basically doesn't believe in, and has done precious little to alleviate.

Don't forget also that Mrs. Mbeki's favourite son has an amour propre which makes it tough for him to admit to being wrong.

 

[Skeptic]

I think you are missing the man's main point. His point is that Africa gets enough aid--but that it is in such a bad situation because most of it is stolen and never reaches those who need it.

The point is not that aid should be stopped, but that merely increasing the aid is not likely to actually help those who need it. Instead, DISTRIBUTING the aid fairly should be the priority.

He might very well be right. After all, if the source of the African poverty is greatly due to its leadership from hell, pointing fingers at the "racist" west that "doesn't care" by those same leaders, demanding yet more aid to be stolen, should not be heeded.

Instead, paradoxically,the demand to clean up their act before they get anything will HELP the poor in their country.

 

[corplinx]

I guess pulling out of Somalia after a few casualties showed Africa that the west wasn't committed to actually guaranteeing delivery of aid.

 

[Malachi151]

I dont think it is. I think this is Mbeki's pan-africanist way of saying "we dont need money from white people (when there are strings attached)"

This is the issue. "Foreign Aid", is not AID, its foreign bribery.

It always comes with strigns attached, and it often goes to oppressive people. Africa would be better off with no aid then giving aid to people like the tyrants of Nigeria.

Foreign aid is one of the biggest scams in history. Its just payment by western powers to maintian militant dictators that abuse their population in the intersts of foreign big business.