AFRICA LACKS IMAGINATION AND WILLPOWER
By:
Shreya Shah
A paragraph of the American Constitution reads “We should always work hard in order to be free and so that this liberty can be passed on to our children…” This document was written almost 3 centuries ago by American patriots and not one of them probably imagined that the United States Of America would one day occupy such a prominent place in the our World. But they well understood that just the will to work hard is sufficient to create prosperity and freedom and to be able to choose their future.
Today, too many nations still struggle to alleviate poverty. With a lack of resources and imagination, they seek help from all sorts of international institutions. After the 2nd World War, the Marshall Plan made possible the reconstruction of Europe. But we Africans have witnessed that financial assistance from the West has further worsened our economies and plunged the continent into an evil spiral of dependency and poverty. We ought to wake up and stop being so naïve: these institutions work on capitalist imperatives and are after nothing but profit. It is now up to us Africans to defend out interests.
There is something terribly amiss when in parts of Africa, it rains day and night and yet there is widespread famine whereas Australia, despite experiencing a drought for 7 years, manages to dish out relief food to the very same starving Africans and even export the surplus!
African governments must learn from their mistakes. Countries that were worse off than us at the time of independence have overtaken us economically and socially. They have successfully managed to confine poverty to reasonable limits. This is the case in South Korea, a country that has managed to wisely and successfully to become prosperous economically, all because of sound socio-economic policies. Unfortunately, in Africa certain dogmatic attitudes hinder this kind of prosperity.
In fact, it is often treated as a guinea pig by outsiders who coin our conceptions and encourage a sense of pessimism. And what do our African economist do? They sit back and help spread this Afro pessimism across the Western media.
A big mistake made by most African countries is to give too much attention to the Industrialised world for the simple reason of hoping to secure some “aid” without realising that we are poor because of these of these very same handouts. Yes. Developed countries can lend us all the money they want but they cannot help us develop. If that were the case, how can one explain the fact that almost 40 years after independence and a lot of co-operation, not a single country is developed enough to be qualify as a developed country?
When looking for employment, during an interview, an American will ask you what skills do you possess, a French will ask you What qualifications you have? and an African? The latter will ask you Who sent you? or who recommended you for this job? This attitude explains among other things, the gross inefficiency in our public services- an evil that bridles our progress.
By:
Shreya Shah
A paragraph of the American Constitution reads “We should always work hard in order to be free and so that this liberty can be passed on to our children…” This document was written almost 3 centuries ago by American patriots and not one of them probably imagined that the United States Of America would one day occupy such a prominent place in the our World. But they well understood that just the will to work hard is sufficient to create prosperity and freedom and to be able to choose their future.
Today, too many nations still struggle to alleviate poverty. With a lack of resources and imagination, they seek help from all sorts of international institutions. After the 2nd World War, the Marshall Plan made possible the reconstruction of Europe. But we Africans have witnessed that financial assistance from the West has further worsened our economies and plunged the continent into an evil spiral of dependency and poverty. We ought to wake up and stop being so naïve: these institutions work on capitalist imperatives and are after nothing but profit. It is now up to us Africans to defend out interests.
There is something terribly amiss when in parts of Africa, it rains day and night and yet there is widespread famine whereas Australia, despite experiencing a drought for 7 years, manages to dish out relief food to the very same starving Africans and even export the surplus!
African governments must learn from their mistakes. Countries that were worse off than us at the time of independence have overtaken us economically and socially. They have successfully managed to confine poverty to reasonable limits. This is the case in South Korea, a country that has managed to wisely and successfully to become prosperous economically, all because of sound socio-economic policies. Unfortunately, in Africa certain dogmatic attitudes hinder this kind of prosperity.
In fact, it is often treated as a guinea pig by outsiders who coin our conceptions and encourage a sense of pessimism. And what do our African economist do? They sit back and help spread this Afro pessimism across the Western media.
A big mistake made by most African countries is to give too much attention to the Industrialised world for the simple reason of hoping to secure some “aid” without realising that we are poor because of these of these very same handouts. Yes. Developed countries can lend us all the money they want but they cannot help us develop. If that were the case, how can one explain the fact that almost 40 years after independence and a lot of co-operation, not a single country is developed enough to be qualify as a developed country?
When looking for employment, during an interview, an American will ask you what skills do you possess, a French will ask you What qualifications you have? and an African? The latter will ask you Who sent you? or who recommended you for this job? This attitude explains among other things, the gross inefficiency in our public services- an evil that bridles our progress.
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