Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS
‘Africa’s peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation,’ writes Kevin Myers. A sick child waits in line to be screened at Giara Clinic, Southern Ethiopia
Thursday July 10 2008
No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia’s (and Bob Geldof’s) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million today.
So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count.
One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .
Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.
There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this.
It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O’Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.
But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia’s has more than doubled.
Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.
Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually
hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.
This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense. Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.
Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa.
They are now — one way or another — virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.
Meanwhile, Africa’s peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.
So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country?
How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.
For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.
It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates‘ programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating.
If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts. Oh good: then what?I know. Let them all come here. Yes, that’s an idea.
kmyers@independent.ie
Mr. Myers,
You wrote one of the most immature and dare I say ignorant articles filled with hate and contempt about Africa. No one is denying that there is famine in some parts of Africa due to chronic mismanagement of countries whose governments have always worked for the benefit of their former colonial masters instead of their people.
For your information any political leadership in Africa that dares to work for the betterment of its people will not see peace thanks to the imperial policies of former colonial powers and the US. A good example is Eritrea, you don’t hear about famine in Eritrea because the government there decided not to be the sick child of west yet ever since it decided to do so the western powers have unleashed every puppet government around Eritrea with the help of western powers to destroy the visionary leadership of Eritrea, so far they haven’t succeeded and never will because the Eritrean political leadership is not for sale.
As for the indignation about Zimbabwe it is nothing but crocodile tears, the only reason Mugabe is dictator is because he is not playing the colonial game anymore, the British and their friends are fighting to make sure the white settlers in Zimbabwe to keep controlling the economy and own the most fertile land, if he let them control everything he would be lauded as a “democrat” like the butcher in Ethiopia but you won’t hear a peep from the west about him, why? because he is their puppet doing their bidding starting war against Eritrea and keeping it going and invading Somalia on their behalf.
I implore you to learn more or stop making a fool of yourself by writing condescedingly about Africa which you seem to have little or no knowledge about.
very racist shit…
This is one of the most asinine articles this writer has ever read. Mr. Myers pretends to know all that ails Africa, but
his analysis betrays the one-track mind of a typical, racist Westerner. Shallow-minded people like him always rush to damp all the blame for Africa’s complex problems
on Africans themselves. If he had a modicum of good sense and judgment, he would have been able to see, and perhaps touch on, the most important reason for Africa’s unenviable situation. The truth is, unlike in the past when most Africans were naive about Western intentions,we are now able to see the invisible, evil hand of the West ceaselessly working to keep Africans forever poor and hungry. We now know the real reason behind Africa’s backward existence: It is the West’s entrenched policy of keeping Africa a perpetual basket case, using the weapon of ‘foreign aid’. The West hopes that, in this way, Africa and its immense resources will forever remain in its control. Presently, Eritrea is the only Sub-Sahara African country that has wised up to this age-old, unholy Western agenda, and has shown the good sense and courage to reject Western ‘aid’ and strike out on its own. Despite the huge obstacles that have been placed on it path by the West, Eritrea has made spectacular social and economic strides, under a fundamentally independent national development program that relies primarily on its unwavering principle of self-reliance. The price Eritrea is continuing to pay for its courageous stance, in terms of an intense and sustained Western campaign to undermine and sabotage its efforts, is clear to anyone who has followed its recent history. Western nations, despite their pretentious make-believe concerns for Africa’s welfare, are in fact determined to keep this continent in the throes of perpetual poverty and famine. This is not to say that Africa is not plagued by too many corrupt and incompetent leaders. However, the West itself is the one that is laying a fertile ground for the existence of those leaders, in the first place. It facilitates their climb to power and then sustains them once they are there. Then, to add insult to injury, this very perpetrator of Africa’s woes (along with some insensitive bigots such as Mr. Myers), turns around and trashes Africans for the misfortunes they have been caused to suffer. Mr. myers, your analysis is bereft of any objectivity, or balance. Blaming Africans for the vicious cycle of dependence that your own governments are constantly working to perpetuate in Africa makes no sense at all!
well mr. myers,
I think u have wrote an article in which 70% or more westerners think, eventough am not a westerner I somehow too agree with some of ur comments, am african, but a self disciplined one, in which 70% of africans are not, the percentages are my interpretation, in which I have worked in this subject for many years in africa, the mentality of africans is totaly different than westernerns, in this self disciplining and other very important moralities, may be the one who was saved by the world community 20 years ago have 5 to 6 children, in which they multiply or die, but it is very sad to see or experience those tragedies because the families could not self diciplin themselves but let the world experience still one of the tragedies of being living in this planet earth, add to that of their hitler, slavery, trying to extinict some of worlds races the indians in america and the aborgeinies in australia, well westerners u have learned ur lessens good, but africans and some asians and the forgotten latin americans we have to learn fast or we will see or experiece other catastrophies again, at least learn from eritrea whom are stubborn, self respecting, hard working, never bending, die with honour attitude people
thankx