Wer Afrika helfen will, darf kein Geld geben

James Shikwati gehört zu den wenigen Marktliberalen in Afrika. Der 36 Jahre alte Shikwati hat vor sechs Jahren in Nairobi das Institut „Inter Region Economic Network“, kurz Iren, gegründet. Mit der Denkfabrik wirbt der ehemalige Lehrer für eine freiheitliche Wirtschaftsordnung in Afrika. Ausländische Entwicklungshilfe lehnt Shikwati ab.

Herr Shikwati, was ist schlecht an ausländischer Entwicklungshilfe?

Der Begriff Entwicklungshilfe geht am Kern der Sache vorbei. Wer einem anderen hilft, will die Lage des anderen verbessern. Diejenigen, die sogenannte Entwicklungshilfe leisten, verfolgen aber ihre eigenen Interessen. Es geht um Arbeitsplätze für Entwicklungshelfer, und es geht um politischen Einfluss und um Rohstoffe. China ist ein gutes Beispiel. In Afrika stellt China Schecks aus wie kein anderes Land. Das ist der Grund, warum eine Reihe anderer Staaten afrikanische Länder nun geradezu anbetteln, Entwicklungshilfe anzunehmen. Es ist wie ein Wettbewerb zwischen den Geberstaaten, die ihren Einfluss bewahren wollen. Im Gegensatz zu den westlichen Staaten verdeckt China seine Interessen aber nicht mit schönen Worten wie Demokratie oder gute Regierungsführung. China sagt geradeheraus: Wir wollen euer Öl, hier ist das Geld. Chinas Direktheit hat geholfen, das ganze Fiasko der Entwicklungshilfe offenzulegen.

» Zum vollständigen Interview im FAZ.NET

Lamentations of an American Peace Corps In Ghana

Hier zeigt sich einmal mehr sehr gut, aus afrikanischem Mund, dass es nicht um technische Hilfe geht, sondern um "social engeneering", von mir aus auch um "political engeneering". Das trifft auch sehr gut für die gegenwärtige Energiekrise zu. Denn Mangel an Zusammenarbeit auf höchster Ebene (einschl. der Vorgängerregierung) ist auch hier der eigentliche Grund der Misere. Der Widerspruch ist allerdings, dass dieses social und/oder political engeneering von Kulturfremden geschehen soll.

» Quell-URL

Folks,

We have heard the lamentations of missionaries to Africa since the days of Mungo Park and Stevenson dying of malaria in Africa, and not much have changed if you examine life and events carefully, despite the World Bank and IMF accolades that Ghana is doing well. We all know it’s a charade as loans are piling up and the government still cannot deliver basic water, electricity and sewage services to the people. A very large percentage of our people don’t have water (more than 70%) and latrine pit toilets – the one with the big flies – are still being used in Ghana.

Kirstin Green writing you from Ghana, where 1.72 of 2.16 years in service have miraculously flown by. I have been working on getting funding to build a much-needed latrine in my community, Kumawu. Population 10,000 people, with no source of water at all. There are no flush toilets there, and worse, not too many public or private pit latrines for people to use. In the Zongo, or Muslim community, where I live, people are "freeing themselves" in the bush every day. There is a small building that has been in disrepair for years, where people are expected to defecate into buckets that have to be emptied into a large pit right behind the building. There are a lot of sanitation problems in this area: mainly parasitic worms, flies, and diseases that are transmitted by feces to mouth, like diarrhea (don't laugh, it's easier than you think to eat someone else's feces!) » Read entire article
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RESPONSE:

Dear Kirstin,

Your message has touched me, but instead of lamenting on such matters, I believe what a person like you can do most to help the poor in Kumawu, and other areas we hear and know in the impoverished parts of the world, is to teach them the concepts of working together, concepts of leadership and modern forms of democracy and accountability.

Decentralization and local empowerment is stipulated in the 1992 Ghana constitution. These people of Kumawu have a District Chief Executive, an Assemblyman, as well as a Chief of the town. These people are the leaders in the community, and they have the mandate to design a budget, assign some taxes for citizens, owners of businesses, homes, vehicle and other assets, to pay to provide services to their area towns.

It is extremely important that C hristian missionaries and Peace Corp volunteers like yourself learn that helping people to help themselves is better than the Bible-carrying and non-self sustaining help they have offered over the centuries. The world of trade now has open borders, due to the dictates of the Western donors for these poor nations to open their doors to global competition. And yet the poor have no way of competing. If you want to help them, please teach them. Please go to the DCE and the Assemblyman and show them how a simple budget can be designed and shown them the power of working together if every one of the 10,000 people and perhaps 1,000 or more homes in the town pays a small amount of money, how they can provide not only toilets with a well to supply water to drink and flush their toilets, but also decent sanitation, perhaps a small clinic, other services to allow them to live more healthy lives.

Kirstin, these people are not stupid, and many of them have some basic education. They just have no concept of how to work together, how to do some basic things. The best we can, as missionaries, is to help them see the right way to do things and work collectively together to solve their problems. If you have access to a Computer, show them how to do a budget using Excel™ Spreadsheet for example, and they will thank you and be grateful to you forever.

For your information a group of us have transformed a missionary NGO organization into a certified political party originating from the Diaspora. We have received our certificate as a political party now as of February 20, 2007. We are doing this in a similar way as the missionaries did, except that instead of the Bible, we are using a Business calculator and asking people to select leaders who will serve them and retire the old greedy selfish politicians who do not care for the peoples’ welfare. After a man reads the Bible, he has to provide food to the table and that is what we are trying to help our people to do, to select the right leaders in their communities, create jobs and compete in the world and build a better nation. We are simply acting as political missionaries to teach our people the concepts of democracy and self empowerment.

You may contact us through our office at 021-411-973 (Ofori Ampofo - Chairman) or email me at k.danso@comcast.net

Keep in touch and we wish you all the best as you attempt to teach the people in Kumawu.

Kwaku A. Danso, M. Eng, PhD (Organization & Management)
Political Missionary, Ghana National Party
www.natlparty.com
Fremont, California and East Legon/Accra, Ghana

Reverse foreign aid, it benefits rich over poor

by Tina Rosenberg*

For the last 10 years, people in China have been sending me money. I also get money from countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, really, from every poor country. I'm not the only one who's so lucky. Everyone in a wealthy nation has become the beneficiary of the generous subsidies that poorer countries bestow upon rich ones. Here in the US, this welfare program in reverse allows our government to spend wildly without runaway inflation, keeps many American businesses afloat and even provides medical care in parts of the country where doctors are scarce.

Economic theory holds that money should flow downhill. The North should want to sink its capital into the South, the developing world, which some define as all countries but the 29 wealthiest. According to this model, money both does well and does good : investors get a higher return than they could get in their own mature economies, and poor countries get the capital they need to get richer. Increasing the transfer of capital from rich nations to poorer ones is often listed as one justification for economic globalization.

Historically, the global balance sheet has favored poor countries. But with the advent of globalized markets, capital began to move in the other direction, and the South now exports capital to the North, at a skyrocketing rate. According to the United Nations, in 2006 the net transfer of capital from poorer countries to rich ones was $784 billion, up from $229 billion in 2002. (In 1997, the balance was even.) Even the poorest countries, like those in sub-Saharan Africa, are now money exporters.

» the full article

Put Pressure On Gov'ts to Stop EPA Negotiations - ACP Countries Told

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
NEWS, March 27, 2007, Posted to the web March 27, 2007

Quell URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200703270692.html

By Michael Boateng Sunyani

THE GHANA Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC), has called for mass mobilization of people in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to put pressure on their governments to stop the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations while urging various Parliaments not to ratify the agreement if it is signed.

An Executive Member of the Coalition and Programme Officer of ISODEC, Mr. Sylvester Bagooro, made the call at the first ever International workshop for alliance building in the West African Sub-region in Sunyani, organized by the GTLC.

GTLC is a nationwide advocacy organization comprising over sixty farmer and producer organizations that are striving for trade justice.

Over 30 participants attended the workshop from Ghana and Burkina Faso.

The participants discussed among other things the effects of the Economic Partnership Agreement and its social consequences on African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

According to Mr. Bagooro, free trade agreements are not necessarily the best options for developing countries like Ghana and Burkina Faso.

He said that EPA was a free trade agreement that would deprive small-scale producers of their livelihoods and worsen the poverty situation in the sub-region.

The Programme Officer of ISODEC explained that the EPA would require ACP countries to open their economics to competition from highly subsidized imports from the European Union.

Mr. Bagooro revealed that, in the case of Ghana, revenue that government derives from duties imposed on goods would be lost.

According to him, an impact study conducted has shown that government would lose about 5.3% of revenue.

The loss in revenue, he said would put pressure on government to focus on indirect taxation or borrow from external donors.

Mr. Bagooro urged MPs to consider the poor in their countries in policy making.

The National Coordinator of GTLC, Ibrahim Akalbila, said with an import tariff of 25% on imported poultry parts, the production of poultry in the country was at its lowest.

Mr. Akalbila revealed that importation of poultry parts from EU has increased from over 6,000 tonnes in 1993 to 14, 634 tonnes in 2003.

He further said between the same periods, EU exports of prepared and preserved tomatoes increased from 3,713 tonnes to over 27,000 tonnes, ranking Ghana the number one importer of tomato paste in Africa.

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Copyright © 2007 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Sklaven in Altona

© DIE ZEIT, 08.03.2007 Nr. 11
Edwin Asamoah schuftet illegal in Hamburg – in Ghana wartet seine Frau auf das Geld aus Deutschland. Von Anita und Marian Blasberg

Es ist kurz vor 14 Uhr an diesem Hamburger Wintertag, als Edwin Asamoah* aus der S-Bahn steigt und zielstrebig das unterirdische Labyrinth am Jungfernstieg durchmisst. Asamoah, 42 Jahre alt, eilt die Rolltreppen hinauf, er hält sich aufrecht, schaut die Leute an, nicht ducken, denkt er, denn wer sich duckt, der ist verdächtig. Er glaubt, er falle dann in dieser feinen Gegend noch mehr auf als ohnehin, mit seiner dunklen Haut, den Turnschuhen vom Flohmarkt, dem abgewetzten Fleece-Pulli, den er als Jacke trägt. An einer roten Ampel bleibt er stehen, obwohl die Straße frei ist. Die Polizisten haben ihre Augen überall.

Das Restaurant liegt kaum fünf Gehminuten vom Jungfernstieg entfernt. Nebenan ist ein Theater. Unter Kronleuchtern sitzen die Gäste in stilvollem Ambiente und studieren die kleine, ausgesuchte Karte. Asamoah huscht durch einen Seiteneingang in die Küche und weiter in den Keller, wo er sich seine weiße Küchenjacke überstreift. Seit drei Monaten spült er jetzt das edle Porzellan. Jedes Wochenende kratzt er die Reste der Gänseleberparfaits von den Tellern und kippt abgenagte Wachtelknochen in die Tonne. Er ist einer dieser ungezählten Afrikaner, deren Köpfe manchmal flüchtig in den Bullaugen der Küchentüren auftauchen. Er gehört zu jenen Glücksrittern, die in Scharen nach Europa strömen, um hier als Tellerwäscher, Zimmermädchen oder Altenpfleger anzuheuern. 10000 Menschen ohne Papiere lebten allein in Hamburg, schätzt die Stadt; die Nordelbische Kirche vermutet, es seien zehnmal so viele. Eine Statistik gibt es nicht. Und vielleicht darf es sie nicht geben, denn diese Migranten sind ein Heer von Billiglöhnern, über das man lieber schweigt.

Es ist, als kehre sich die Globalisierung plötzlich um. Nachdem sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten das Kapital globalisierte, globalisieren sich nun die Armen. Sie wollen das Versprechen auf Wohlstand einlösen, das mit den Computern und den Satellitenschüsseln auf ihren Kontinent kam. Etwa 50000 Afrikaner landeten im vergangenen Sommer an den Küsten Südeuropas, und niemand weiß, wie viele mit dem Flugzeug kommen, ganz legal mit einem Visum für Besucher. Läuft es aus, tauchen sie unter. * Namen von der Redaktion geändert

» mehr

Dumped imported chicken harms West African economies

Trade Africa, Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Europeans love chicken breast. What do they do with the chicken legs? The current answer: Freeze them and ship them to Africa where they sell at a price far cheaper than fresh local chicken.

Television journalist Marcello Faraggi has put this chicken-and-Africa story in a documentary shown at the European Parliament in Brussels in February (2007). Green Member of European Parliament, Carl Schlyter, who wants to support him in drawing attention to this dubious export, invited him. Faraggi took Cameroon as a case study, but said, "The same dumping of frozen chicken happened in other countries with weak governments on the west coast of Africa."

» the full article

Independence? Try 'aid-dependence'

Colonialism didn't cause Africa's problems, and aid alone won't fix them.

March 11, 2007 by Niall Ferguson, Los Angeles Times

EVER BEEN HAD? Last year, the United States Agency for International Development gave Ghana $22.5 million in food aid

Last Monday, that same country began a 12-month celebration of its independence from British rule, which was granted 50 years ago, on March 5, 1957. The total budget for these festivities, which commenced with an all-night party in Accra, is said to be $20 million.

You might reasonably ask if this is a sensible way of spending $20 million at a time when the typical citizen of Ghana has a daily income of $1.33. You might also ask what exactly Ghana has to celebrate after 50 years of "freedom."

Let us not pretend that Gold Coast, as the country was known before independence, was a flourishing economy. The average Briton was 39 times richer than the colony's average inhabitant. But Gold Coast was seen as one of the most advanced of Britain's African possessions, which was one reason it was the first to be granted independence.

Yet the economic consequences of independence gave the lie to the old leftist claim that Britain was exploiting its colonies.* Between 1960 and today, the gap between Britain and Ghana has more than doubled, so that the average Briton is now 92 times richer than the average Ghanaian.* Today, according to the World Bank, aid accounts for 16% of Ghana's national income and covers fully 73% of government expenditures.

» the full article

* Das ist natürlich eine äußerst verkürzte Betrachtungsweise, mit der ich mich nicht identifizieren möchte! Denn die Frage, warum das so ist, wird nicht näher analysiert, sondern nur impliziert, dass bad Governance daran Schuld ist. Wirtschaftspolitische Fragen wie (Verfall der) Terms of Trade etc. werden erst gar nicht, nicht einmal ansatzweise, angerissen. Ich habe den Artikel nur gepostet, da ich mit dem Thema "Aid Dependency" voll übereinstimme. So kommt Afrika nicht vom Fleck, im Gegenteil!