Live 8: Brain Dead

The past "solutions" to the abject poverty of Africa have been: foreign aid given to African governments, loans to  those same governments, then debt forgiveness when those loans change from "sound investment in Africa" to "crushing debt burden foisted on hapless Africa."  The result of this assistance has been continued abject poverty.

So, if you were to make a suggestion for the next round of solutions, would you suggest more aid and debt forgiveness?  Well, yes, you would, if you were Bob Geldof and the long list of rock stars involved in Live 8.

I think a quote from Ayn Rand is relevant here: "freedom is what the have-nots have not."  In other words, what African nations lack is a respect for individual rights.  And in this Washington Post article, you see that some in Africa have an inkling of this, when they talk about the uselessness of giving aid to "corrupt" governments.  Rising out of poverty requires that people build factories, expand farms, and pave roads--i.e., invest in the future.  But few if any people, will make that effort if it can be taken away on a whim by any petty bureaucrat.  Africa is a whole continent full of examples of the truth of this.

The problem with the 'solutions' demanded by Geldof et al. is that they do not fix what causes the problems in Africa.  What the continent needs are rights-respecting governments.  This is not something that can be handed to them, like food or a check.  It requires an intellectual movement demanding that rights be upheld, and would also probably require armed revolutions in many of the nations--Zimbabwe, for example.

To insist that a few more boxes of food and the tearing up of a loan statement will be helpful is to engage in fantasy.