From: Jon
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 12:24 AM
To: Aaron
Subject: Africa

Hey, I thought you might be interested in my response to a friend who sent me a FOX news article about the ills of Africa (» original article).

Interesting article. I have to say that in my experience and understanding of the politics and the difficulties facing Africa, this article ignores some really critical points to a real understanding of the African situation.

I guess I would like to address each point:

Foreign policy -

The author thinks that there are deep feelings of dislike toward the United States, and that this has been expressed not so much in explicit disapproval, but in failure to laud the United States for attacking Iraq. I share their view to the extent that I do not believe a presidential administration deserves compliments, even for beneficial effects, for military actions which are premised on deliberate misleading both domestically and internationally. I know we disagree on this point, but I think its rather arrogant of the author of this article to chastise another country for their decision not to laud the (admittedly beneficial) effects of such an action. (With that said, I promise I won't talk about G.W.'s policy anymore).

Secondly, this author makes the point that S. Africa should not be investing in its armed services, which, at least according to the article, it is doing so it can stabilize the security situation in other African countries. The rationale is that S. Africans are too poor, and in general that may be so. But to the extent that there are serious problems throughout the African continent, the political stabilization of one's neighbors and local trading partners can hardly be said to be a wasteful expense. The author goes so far as to say that if its not worth it to Americans, why should it be worth it to S. Africans? That, to me, is as callous a statement as it is morally indefensible. It seems that the author has permanently cast aside the entire African continent as an area riddled with strife, an area that is not worth the time and effort to reconcile and bring to peace. It strikes me as ironic that the very same people who will say that Africa must solve its own problems will in the same breath criticize an African country for trying to do so.

Corruption -

I will not debate the point on corruption. This author is correct - corruption runs rampant in African governments, and aid money disappears all of the time, ending up in the pockets of the very few African elite. What interests me more about this section of the article is its insinuation; it seems one the one hand to point to the benevolence of the American leadership (by the way, I think that Bush's decision to send AIDS aid to Africa IS laudable), and on the other hand to point to the intrisically corrupt nature of African leaders, such as Joseph Mobutu. As a student of history, it is no mystery to you that American governments, and the American people in general, have a short-term memory problem. Well, this short-term memory problem is not limited to the Middle East; guess who helped get Mobutu into power? Yep, you guessed it - the CIA. By destabilizing a fragile and newly created Congolese government headed by Patrice Lumumba, they delivered the country into the hands of a ruthless, and ruthlessly corrupt, African dictator. In many ways, he set the precedent to be followed bythe current generation of corrupt African officials. And the US government (under Kennedy or Johnson) put him there. So, corruption is rampant, it can be seen to be endemic, but that is not true: It is the modern African dictator, following the example of the CIA-installed Mobutu, who creates the impression of the inevitable corruptability of African politicians and lower level government employees. But, of course, none of that is mentioned in the article, and it is simply portrayed as an inherent and intractable problem that is unique to Africa.

Human rights -

Africa is known for a history of people in power who commit human rights abuses. But the article fails to distinguish between those who commit crimes, and those who deplore them. The article mentions Idi Amin's escape from justice. It implies that Africans let him get away. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Amin was living in exile with our good friends the Saudis. As he was dying, he asked the Ugandan government to let him return home to die. The government told him that the minute he stepped on Ugandan soil, he would be thrown in prison. Given the horrors of his regime, it was the only logical response, but it certainly WAS NOT letting him get away with it. Mwai Kibaki's move is more political than anything else. Prosecuting Moi would only serve to destabilize a country which is attempting to redefine itself. It is thus in the current best interest of Kenya to leave Moi alone. One of my best friends is Kenyan, and his friend's mother is a high ranking official in the Kenyan government. From what he has told me, Kibaki is a true reformer, and he has only the best interest of his people in mind. The government of Tanzania has set up an international war crimes tribunal dealing with Rwandan atrocities. The governments of the present are currently seeking to remedy the ills of the governments of the past, and progress is being made. To emphasize the abuses while not even mentioning the remedies is at best one-sided covering, a charge FOX news always denies in its reports.

I think all in all that this article really falls short of the mark in assessing African difficulties. To be sure, it make some general points as to the ills which do plague the continent, but it makes no attempt to delve into these issues in any meaningful way, by providing fair and balanced accounting. There is much work to do on that continent, but to insist that it is hopeless is not only inaccurate, but destructive because of its potential influence. Furthermore, to insist that African problems are and always have been only African problems is missing the mark. Not only does it fail to recognize the global interdependence that all nations are coming to understand, but it fails to recognize and understand how the influence of the West (both during and post-colonization) have created or at the very least encouraged many of the problems which we see Africa facing today.

Jon