Ethiopia's Prime Minister "Gets It"

Great news item at Yahoo/AP about the current crisis and the actions of some people to help by raising money and why this action is doomed to failure. Plus, a fantastic administering of clue-bat to fellow Africans by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Good Intentions Often Go Bad in Africa
Africa is filled with good intentions that ended badly. Half-completed hydroelectric dams covered with weeds, empty irrigation pipes decaying in the equatorial sun and roads that literally lead to nowhere dot the continent, testaments to corruption and bad judgment. Despite billions of dollars in aid, Africa has gone backward since the 1970s on every measurable level.

When the leaders of the Group of Eight wealthy nations meet this week in Scotland to discuss helping the poorest people on the planet, they will try to ensure any new pledges will not be good money following bad.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Commission for Africa say that times have changed, and the world now has a chance to reverse the continent's economic and social decline. But there is a vast range of opinions on how to avoid the mistakes of the past.

No Shit... And Prime Minister Zenawi has this to say:

"The donors should use development assistance not to prop-up all sorts of unsavory leaders simply because of their geopolitical or other interests, but to support actual development," Meles said, referring to the Cold War years when African leaders pocketed development money from either the United States or the Soviet Union with impunity.

"On the African side, I think it is time for Africans to stop blaming everyone except themselves for the dire situation we find ourselves in," he added. "We need to own up to our own shortcomings in the past and come up with alternative strategies and implement them."

The article also quotes Michael Clough:

Michael Clough, an Africa expert and author on U.S.-Africa relations, points out that the countries who received the most aid during the Cold War now have the biggest problems, with Liberia, Sudan and what is now called Congo, topping the list.

"The countries that are emerging are those that did not receive a lot of assistance," he said. "So the whole premise that providing more assistance is going to be the key to development doesn't prove to be true."

Too often, Clough said, aid is granted based on the relationship between a country's leader and the international donors, not on the ability of the nation to use the aid properly. Fortified with international support and aid, these leaders too often become more authoritarian because they control the nation's financial and natural resources.

In nations that have not received a great deal of aid, African leaders have been forced to compromise with their opposition and to use resources wisely to remain in power, he added.

"The governments have to be responsive, representative and serve the interests of their people," Clough said. "As simplistic as that seems in a way, that is the ultimate precondition for development, unfortunately that is not and has not been the case for a lot of African governments."

There are people out there who can see the big picture -- let's hope that this time, they can affect the outcome and not just be standing by helplessly while the whole fustercluck of aid money and corruption begins again... There are people dying horribly while their "leaders" are living in mansions.