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Foreign Aid to Africa: Waste of Money

Jan Lamprecht - 6/3/2005

South African President Thabo Mbeki has just met with President George W. Bush, demanding a huge increase in Aid to Africa. Nelson Mandela was the first one to ask for this several weeks ago. Now Mbeki is following Mandela's lead. They also want all the debt for Southern African countries written off. This is such a scam! Those of us who live in Africa, especially those, who like myself lived further north, know just what a scam this is. All this money, all this aid, is wasted to a degree that would shock anyone who truly understood finances in South Africa. Even food aid is wasted. Corrupt local officials steal food donated by the UN or the US, and then sell it for personal profit. This donated food normally has some sort of label on it which reads: "Donated by the USA" or something of that ilk. Food - and medicines - have been known to be stolen on a large scale and then sold off. It never even reaches those who need it.

Most of Africa's problems cannot be solved through foreign aid anyway. The reason for Africa's problems is the people's skill - or rather a lack thereof. That is why Colonialism was such a huge success. All Africa needed were a few million skilled Whites and then suddenly everything started working - and the minute they left, it fell apart again.

If the world wants to help Africa, then rather send in doctors or teachers. That will be much better than cash. Don't give them money on a large scale - it is wasted in ways that will stun you. Use the money in your own society - then at least it will truly help someone.

Many people over the years raised enormous sums of money for Africa. I dare anyone to show me any one of those instances which resulted in any kind of long-term benefit to Africa at all. Pop stars and movie stars have popularized the concept of aid to Africa. But more often than not, it ends up changing little - if anything.

Those of us who live here and watch the situation daily have been saying for decades that money alone cannot solve the problem. Africans just don't really know how to use the money wisely.

Africa is currently receiving $25 billion in aid - a staggering number. I wonder if Africa is not living more out of a begging bowl, than it earns through its own efforts? Africa is already getting far too much aid and not appreciating any of it. Africans need to learn to earn their own money instead of stealing and wasting money which comes from other people.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: You kind, generous people from overseas can band together and give the Black Africans a trillion dollars or more if you wish, and they will still not advance to your level or anywhere near it. It is a waste of time.

The USA and other countries now have a policy of only giving money when there are strings and various conditions attached. This is definitely a better method.

You have now seen Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki personally using their positions, power and fame to get as much foreign money as possible. But when are foreigners going to have to learn to ignore these demands for aid?

This sounds cruel, does it not? I don't care if you people don't believe me. I'm telling you this bluntly, and you can hate me for it as much as you want, but I know Africans, and one day, the world will admit the same thing I am saying.

You will see Africans pleading for money, for aid, for help - year in and year out, decade after decade. And yet, a closer examination of their problems will reveal that they are to blame for their own problems. In time, people will learn what Whites in Africa learned to do a long time ago - and that is to ignore the pleas of Blacks and to use one's own common-sense to develop proper solutions, much like when you are dealing with a naughty child. If you don't do this, they will take advantage of you. They are currently scamming the West of $25 billion a year. If you keep giving in to their demands, they will want $50 billion, then $100 billion and so on. And even if you give them more money, you will be amazed at how little, if anything positive, comes from it.

You will wonder, for example, why is it, that a peasant in ice-cold Russia, or a farmer in Arctic Canada or a farmer in the deserts of Australia; can get a higher return on investment than a Black African, in warm tropical Africa where there is no winter and it rains much of the year round. You will wonder why it is that people who live in a perfect farming climate are starving to death year after year, while others, who live in snow-fields or in deserts can provide for themselves.

There is nothing wrong with African land, climate or soil. Africa is heaven-on-earth - as long as you use common sense and logic. The problem is not Africa. The problem is the Black African people. That is the problem that you cannot solve with all the money in the world. You can give until it hurts, and you will still be amazed at how little you managed to help them.

Africa's greatest prosperity occurred during the short of colonialism. If we had been left alone for another hundred years, Africa could have been a super-power. In recent decades Africa has been moving backwards faster than ever before. Now to those of us who live here - none of this comes as a surprise. We just look at it and remark: "We told you so!"

Our enemies like to portray White Africans as a bunch of hard-headed, evil people who enjoy treading on Blacks. But they will see (to their utter shock and amazement) that as the decades go by, we actually saw through these Black African "Liberators". We knew African leaders were nothing more than liars and criminals and that they didn't even care about their own people. Let me repeat that: Black leaders don't even care about their own people. We said a long ago that these people are not fit to govern. We are being proven right, and will be proven even more right in the future.