OA,
Good points. I have come to the conclusion that there are lingering effects of the past, including colonialism, and that in so many ways they continue to define and impact some of our policies. Added to this position, the worse of the problems facing us comes from our leaders, mostly the educated and political elites. I call them pen-armed robbers and local imperialists. I am moving away from slavery and colonialism that have been the subjects of my research and publications. Now, I am going to train my intellectual weapons on the pen-armed robbers and local imperialists.
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 11:07 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series -
Well said Kwabena.
There will always be foreign predators waiting to pounce on dysfunctional and weak countries. It is for each country to take responsibility for redressing their dysfunctionality and weakness which inevitably make them easy prey. It is convenient to continue to blame foreign countries and their governments for Africa's failures. What is more true is that Africa's leaders by their free choice and practice of poor governance, continue to ensure that the proper and urgent business of uplifting their countries and people does not happen as it should. It is 2013 is it not? We have sang the same song of frustration and despair for years now. Why for example should there be an hospital be open without a reliable power supply? Why should any school not have a library? Why does the public water supply system not work? The reason seems to be that Africa's leaders and their immediate families are not served by the schools and hospitals, and do not rely on the public water supply system for portable water. They are vested elsewhere. Why is government expenditure not be properly audited? Because government officials profit (benefit financially) from this failure. I could go on and on.
How does it make sense for anyone to continue to blame foreigners and foreign governments for any of the above? Mali has an army with an officer corp. Why does it not have soldiers that could take on and defeat a few bands of slightly armed marauding religious extremists? Why should it take France to stop the marauders and therefore secure a near perpetual mortgage on Mali's natural resources? Whose loss is it at the end of the day? Mali's of course.
Development is a choice that requires a clear articulate vision, and a firm purposeful resolve. It takes energy, sacrifice, and time. It pays dividends to a majority of citizens over time. It dignifies a country. Money or the lack of it, is no longer an acceptable excuse for African countries' development failures. They have the benefit of both internally generated funds and external grants and credit. They have all borrowed heavily. They seem to have a different " fire in their bellies" than the more successful emerging countries have. We now know that Mali, and the Niger Republic should never have been poor countries.
One might even argue that corruption is unduly blamed for the failures. There is corruption in all countries. Political leaders in every country become rich people . It is possible to steal from an employer and still get the work done. Countries do developed and continue to do so while living with corruption. Could it simply be the case that African leaders have freely chosen not to do for their countries and people, what they should do and continue to claim they want to do? I have argued that development is a choice. I should add that it must be in the mind first.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kwabena Akurang-Parry
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 7:43 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series -
The story below is not only about Nigeria. In Ghana thousands of women die every year during childbirth due to the lack of facilities and supplies. Recently, doctors in one major regional hospital threatened to close it down because of the unavailability of water and electricity, the latter is called dumso dumso (you switch on your light and government people switch it off). Meanwhile the clueless political elites, better still, pen-armed robbers, are putting up palaces and buying 100-dollar cars! These political predators steal from the state, are paradoxically worshipped by the masses, and state burials are one of their entitlements. One day, the voiceless and benighted masses of Ghana, Nigeria, etc. will rise up against the local African imperialists who have colonised their own people. Untill then the educated predators, worse than the erstwhileEuropean imperialists, will continue to kill the dream and reality of indepence.
Kwabena.
Berkeley, California (CNN) -- On a research trip in Nigeria, Dr. Laura Stachel watched as physicians performed an emergency cesarean section.
What happened next stunned her.
"The lights went out," Stachel recalled, "and I said, 'How are they going to finish?' "
She was even more surprised by the nonchalant response.
"You didn't even see people reacting because it was something they were so used to," she said.
Fortunately, Stachel had a flashlight with her, and the doctors were able to use it to complete the surgery. But during that two-week trip in 2008, she witnessed countless other times when the lives of mothers and babies were at risk simply because of a lack of reliable electricity. Pregnant women would arrive at the hospital with severe complications, but without adequate light to treat them, procedures had to be compromised or delayed until daylight. Some women were even turned away.
"I realized that my skills as an obstetrician-gynecologist were utterly useless (without) something as basic as light and electricity," Stachel said.
(PLEASE, READ ON THE RESY): http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/28/health/cnnheroes-stachel-solar-power/index.html
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