Foreign aid 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Reports are coming that Millennium Challenge Corporation, an agency of the U.S. government, doesn't entirely "respect" the values of native peoples as much as they claim. 

MCC agreed last September to give Sierra Leone (image) $480 million so long as they comply with "rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights." All these seem consistent with the agency's mission to reduce poverty.

 

But it's "common knowledge among nongovernmental organizations" in the country that MCC is now quietly threatening to withhold the money unless Sierra Leone . . loosens its abortion policy. What does abortion have to do with economic growth?

They deny it, of course, because that would go against its mission and stated "core values." But it would be consistent with the politics of the current administration. And it would be neo-colonialism.

from Life News

Marimba

Just for fun, here is Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" performed by a student marimba band in South Africa. To remember what the original sounded like about 300 years ago when it was composed, go here.

African faith

Driving down a road in Zimbabwe with his friend, my son decided to pull over and record the story Farai had just told him in the car. This man often starts churches in Zimbabwe by showing the "Jesus Film." Watch his story of one memorable new church.

The film has been translated into 2,160 languages and has been shown globally to 11.1 billion people.

Activist Bono 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Why is activist Bono in the news again? Because he did a recent interview with the New York Times about how to help the global poor, and anti-capitalists really didn't like it. Capitalism is the economic system that brings people out of poverty.

Bono himself doesn't like the idea: "The off-ramp out of extreme poverty is, ugh, commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism." (He has plenty of company in his distaste.) But apparently he has enough integrity to tell the truth in spite of his prejudice against the answer.

"I didn’t grow up to like the idea that we’ve made heroes out of businesspeople, but if you’re bringing jobs to a community and treating people well, then you are a hero." Indeed.

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from American Enterprise Institute

Activist Bono 1

Bono's career in music and charity activism has spanned decades. 

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The poverty and suffering of Africa's people touched his heart, especially compared to the standard of living in the West. Millions of dollars were raised with his concerts (which included the famous Live Aid in 1985).

What happened to the millions? Some of it went to suffering people. But "the vast majority of the food [resulting from Live Aid] rotted on docks beside the Red Sea or [was] used as payment for loyalist army units." 

Economist Dambisa Moyo published a book back in 2010 (Dead Aid) explaining how this kind of thing happens. As an African herself, her perspective is authentic and her message compelling: decades of "aid" to African countries is not doing the good that was intended. 

A review of it on Amazon reads, "Moyo demolishes all the most cherished myths about aid being a good thing.”

(cont'd tomorrow)

Wakanda 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

We were introduced to the fantasy nation of Wakanda in the movie "Black Panther" as part of the Marvel Universe of superheroes. We discovered that it was a wonderful place of awesome technology and beauty under the leadership of their wise king.

As the sequel opens, the country is in mourning. If it looks authentic, it's because the cast is genuinely mourning the 2020 death of actor Chadwick Boseman, who played the part of their king. The producers chose not to cast a substitute in the role, an excellent choice.

Picture this vision of a good, prosperous African nation. It's similar to what Fred Swaniker and others both imagine and work for: independent nations unifying smaller tribes, distinct and unique in the world.

As the queen mother says, "Show them who we are!" 

Wakanda 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Watch Fred Swaniker's video (yesterday's post) and be inspired by his vision. He founded his organization, African Leadership Academy, to build the next generation of African leaders.

Another African leader of influence is Dambisa Moyo. She would agree that new and better leaders are desperately needed. She's written about the corruption of past African leaders who used government aid given by Western countries and non-profits for their own power and Swiss bank accounts.

Any sane, decent person today would love to see African countries really prosper at last. But billions of dollars of government aid pumped into them is not the path to strong nations. 

What they really need is wise and virtuous leaders of their own, leaders of the sort that Swaniker hopes to produce.

Leaders like, say, the Black Panther of Wakanda.

photo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Wakanda 1

Much pity is directed by people of the West toward the huge continent of Africa. 

After ten centuries of a slave trade perpetrated by Middle Eastern and European powers, as well as tribal warfare followed by colonialism -- poverty and a general failure to thrive are not entirely surprising. 

"Leaders" of poor quality have also been very much responsible.

But Africa is changing. From different nations, new leaders want a new standard and are working to grow a different story. Fred Swaniker is one of them. His TED Talk from 2014 is below. The organization he started is still running in 2022.

Yabacon 1

A financial technology (fintech) business, Flutterwave, started up in 2016 and was valued at a billion dollars by 2021. Among its customers are a couple of global giants, Uber and Microsoft. Sounds like a story from America's legendary Silicon Valley, but it is not.

Flutterwave was founded by Nigerians on the African continent, in a suburb (Yaba) of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos. 

image

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is home to five of the continent's seven "unicorns." Lagos itself, with 27 million people, is Africa's largest city and quickly becoming a major technology center.

from Mercatornet

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not enough 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Falling birth rates in countries all over the world is well-established information that I've been posting for you since 2013. Elon Musk and Jack Ma have both talked about it.

Virtually all countries in the West have birth rates which are below replacement rate, and have been so for many years. A steady population requires an average of 2.1 babies per woman. Germany's rate of 1.6 births/woman is typical in the European Union. It's been said that 1.5 is the point of no return.

Unless this changes drastically and soon, society itself will change. There will be fewer children and then fewer young adults in the prime of life. There will be fewer working adults to support a larger number of retired folks who are no longer financially productive.

image

Global population will keep climbing for a while, though, because of African and Middle Eastern countries. Many of them still experience birth rates/woman of 3-6 babies.

from AEI

Chinese racism

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

African citizens living in China have told their stories of discrimination on social media. They say the Chinese government imposes covid-related hardships on Africans which are more severe than those placed on other non-Chinese. 

Maybe the most blatant discrimination was a public order in Guangzhou to refuse business to anyone who looks African. An order so general and vague inevitably affected black Americans there as well. So the United States Embassy published a security alert warning.

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Chinese racism?

 African countries have received infrastructure projects, loans and treaties from the government of China for years, so they've been growing closer.

But during the pandemic, there has been stress due to reports of China discriminating against Africans who live in China, especially the southern province of Guangdong. Some have been evicted from their homes. Some public places, like supermarkets and public transport, are denied to Africans according to the reports.

TFR & faith 1

Seven years ago I read What to Expect When No One's Expecting and wrote about it in this blog ("Less People" series, May 2013). Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is declining in many countries of the world, which results in aging societies and declining population. (Get some background here.)

image

It's a stunning reversal for the many people who thought global population growth was dangerously out of control.

A professor says, "This is jaw-dropping . . . It will create enormous social change. It makes me worried because I have an eight-year-old daughter and I wonder what the world will be like." 

By 2100, a study says that there will be twice as many people over 80 years old as children under five years old. Society and politics will definitely change.

Standing far apart from this global trend are African countries. 

from BBC
(cont'd tomorrow)

Warlord 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Joseph Kony may be the most well-known African warlord, at least in the rest of the world. He is still free after a six-year hunt for him by the Ugandan government, aided by the American government. The hunt was officially ended in 2017.

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The International Criminal Court (ICC), which tried Ntaganda (yesterday's post), has charged Kony with 33 crimes against humanity and war crimes. His "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) became famous for brutality in the 1990's, murdering and mutilating civilians.

"Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, tens of thousands were killed and thousands of others were abducted for fighting and sexual slavery." He claims to be led by spirit voices who tell him the future. He controls his followers with a mixture of religious mysticism and fear.

The hunt for Kony was called off because, having lost most of his following, he was not an immediate threat anymore. Somehow he's evaded the hunt and is living free somewhere.

(taken from July 2018 article)

Warlord

Rebels, revolutionaries, and warlords have been vying for power on the African continent for years. You may have heard about the children they steal and train to be child soldiers for their armies, children who learn violence and murder.

Bosco Ntaganda is one of those warlords.  For some reason unknown, he turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, asking that he be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. That was in 2013. 

The ICC handed down a verdict just days ago:  guilty on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial took almost four years, with over two thousand victims represented by legal counsel. Ntaganda is detained while he waits for sentencing.

photo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Free trade 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Back in 2002, fifty-five nations on the continent of Africa joined together in the African Union (AU) to advance their vision of an "Integrated, Prosperous and Peaceful Africa."

Last year, AU leader and president of Rwanda Paul Kagame introduced a new free trade agreement:  the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Twenty-two of the AU member countries have ratified the agreement, and it should go into effect soon.

Kagame addressing AU

It's a "a continental geographic zone where goods and services move among member states of the AU with no restrictions."

"The AfCFTA is expected to boost consumer spending to about US$1.4 trillion in 2020 and increase intra-African trade by as much as US$35 billion per year, or 52 percent above the baseline by 2022."

Many decades of socialism, corruption, and governmental "aid" have left African nations in worse economic shape than they were back in the mid-20th century. There is fervent hope that this new free trade agreement can expand African economies while lifting millions out of poverty and into prosperity.

Free trade 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The African continent was colonized by European countries in the 1800's. African nations became free to govern themselves in the 1900's, but residual bad memories of colonial days remained. 

According to President of the Free Africa Foundation, George Ayittey, “capitalism was identified with colonialism, and since the latter was evil and exploitative, so too was the former.” Sadly, as African nations were released from colonialism in the 1957 - 1960's, they embraced socialism.

"Ghana’s first leader Kwame Nkrumah was a self-proclaimed “Marxian Socialist,” and encouraged other African states to seek independence and pursue the “complete ownership of the economy by the state.”

photo of George Ayittey

The result, according to Professor Ayittey, was "economic ruin, dictatorship and oppression." Socialism is not economic freedom, as Nkrumah stated. Production of goods and services is managed and owned by the central planning arm of the government, not by people who make and grow things in neighborhoods and cities.

Socialism is not the free trade of free citizens, and it does not make them wealthier.

Mercy Ships 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

These stories are taken from the Mercy Ships website, where you can see more stories and pictures of patients.

When the ship "Mercy Africa" comes in to an African port, people are waiting. Many have made a tremendous effort to come, because it's often their only chance for a cure. Patients are chosen for a procedure if the doctors believe it can help.

This is Edith. She was twelve when she had this surgery, wholly successful. Her mother Valerie also had successful surgery to remove an 8-lb. tumor on her face.

Baby Elizabeth was born with a cleft palate. Because she had trouble nursing, she was close to starvation. A routine surgery changed the child's life (below).

(cont'd tomorrow)

Thirst 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"At 28 years old, Scott Harrison had it all. A top nightclub promoter in New York City, his life was an endless cycle of drugs, booze, models—repeat. But 10 years in, desperately unhappy and morally bankrupt, he asked himself, "What would the exact opposite of my life look like?" 

Working for a medical charity ship in Africa gave him the opposite of his NYC life.

He saw African women walking for hours every day to carry water home to their families. He saw children get sick from it. He got their water analyzed, and sometimes it was alive with disease-causing bacteria. 

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He found out what it would take to get clean water to these villages and became obsessed with making it available to millions who don't have it. A new charity was born - it's called "charity:water" and he's still CEO/founder today.

A natural promoter, he put his talents to work on a global project to accomplish something good.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Neocolonial 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Obianuju Ekeocha wrote an open letter to Melinda Gates when the Gates Foundation started their $4.7 billion drive to promote population control in Africa back in 2012. She claims that their project is an affront to the the values of African women.

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Here is her view:

"[Melinda Gates wants] to collect pledges for almost $5 billion in order to ensure that the African woman is less fertile, less encumbered and, yes, she says, more "liberated." With her incredible wealth she wants to replace the legacy of an African woman (which is her child) with the legacy of "child-free sex." 

Without the health care or sanitation systems of Europe or the U.S., she expects more health risks to result from the Gates project.

She doesn't want sex turned into a "casual pleasure sport." "With most African women faithfully practicing and adhering to a faith (mainly Christian or in some cases Muslim), there is a high regard for sex in society, especially among the women. Sex is sacred and private."

From a more recent interview: "When I came to the United Kingdom 13 years ago, what shocked me the most was the loss of the value of human life,"

"We’ll keep struggling and fighting so one day the African people rise up. With a unified voice, we will have the confidence to say: We don’t want your neocolonialism on our continent."