Medical crisis (esp. AIDS), food crisis - part of this G8 summit has been to aid Africa, and Blair was committed to taking a hardline on getting them the aid they need. With Blair out of the picture, and with certain government's fearing for their own economies after this morning's events, I suspect the decision reached will be very different than it would have been a week ago, or if the London explosions hadn't happened.
I was being a bit dramatic, but at the same time, if things progress or worsen in Africa, there's an absurd number of people dying every year already without the added help of genocides and civil wars. 2.3 million people died of AIDS in Africa in 2004.
Shikwati's second bullet point is very interesting ...
I would argue that the Zimbabwe government is culling the spirit of entrepreneurship with its recent demolition of shanty towns/homes/businesses. Maybe street shoe repairmen aren't the Zimbabwe administration's idea of proper business practices, but I'd certainly call it entrepreneurship.
Of course, would the Zimbabwe administration judge this kind of work as unacceptable if not for western influence?
I very much like Shikwati's thoughts on incubating better internal African trade. I know my philosophical preferences lean in Shikwati's direction - I'll take "teach a man to fish" any day, but I don't know enough about the situation to gauge whether or not some of his notions are naive or workable at this time.
Actually, from what I heard on NPR, this may help matters somewhat -- a small silver lining. Nobody's going to want to be in the position of telling Blair to sod off, at the moment, and the summit is continuing. Plus, this just heightens the awareness that poverty is one of the biggest long-term sources of terrorists, and that if we truly want to eliminate terrorism then we need to resolve some of the wealth distribution issues.
Africa is a problem that will be difficult to solve. I remember listening to "we are the world" with school friends long ago when it came out on the radio. It was a nice feely moment but years later I finaly learned that food aid sent to africa rotted on the docks because warlords didn't want it distributed to the people they wanted starved.
Solving africa's problems seems less an issue of money and food, and more of a need to reformat the ideals of an entire set of cultures. No idea how to accomplish that really. Then of course once that is advocated someone will stand up to say who is anyone to dictate to them their culture.
You might be interested to check a fellow I read from time to time, a native South African who has become a naturalized US citizen.
What do you mean?
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I was being a bit dramatic, but at the same time, if things progress or worsen in Africa, there's an absurd number of people dying every year already without the added help of genocides and civil wars. 2.3 million people died of AIDS in Africa in 2004.
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http://www.livejournal.com/users/liberpolly/463672.html#cutid1
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I would argue that the Zimbabwe government is culling the spirit of entrepreneurship with its recent demolition of shanty towns/homes/businesses. Maybe street shoe repairmen aren't the Zimbabwe administration's idea of proper business practices, but I'd certainly call it entrepreneurship.
Of course, would the Zimbabwe administration judge this kind of work as unacceptable if not for western influence?
I very much like Shikwati's thoughts on incubating better internal African trade. I know my philosophical preferences lean in Shikwati's direction - I'll take "teach a man to fish" any day, but I don't know enough about the situation to gauge whether or not some of his notions are naive or workable at this time.
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Solving africa's problems seems less an issue of money and food, and more of a need to reformat the ideals of an entire set of cultures. No idea how to accomplish that really. Then of course once that is advocated someone will stand up to say who is anyone to dictate to them their culture.
You might be interested to check a fellow I read from time to time, a native South African who has become a naturalized US citizen.
I disagree with the conclusion of his essay here, but his perspective is thought provoking none the less.
http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/index.php/essays/let_africa_sink/
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