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The Elimination of Poverty
This week the UN celebrated its annual 'Day for the Eradication of
Poverty'.
No doubt they held a lavish reception in New York and that Diplomats
and
others, whose business is poverty, attended. I can recall attending a
UN
meeting in Geneva in the late 80's and watching the arrival of country
representatives for the meeting. What struck me then was that the
Chinese
delegation arrived by public bus - including the Ambassador.
This week the Norwegians honored Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank for
his
work in the micro lending industry. I was pleased about this, as the
alternative nominations were pretty desperate! This week also saw two
new
reports out - one from the Nigerian Commission dealing with corruption
and
the other dealing with the fact that some 10 million people have died
in the
Congo since 1996.
The Nigerian report was astonishing - they claimed that previous
Presidents
had stolen over US$500 billion during their tenure. That is many times
the
total value of the Marshal Plan for the recovery of Europe and probably
exceeds the total foreign aid to Africa over this period. In 40 years
of
Independence the income per capita of the average Nigerian has remained
the
same - about US$250 per annum.
Here in Zimbabwe over the past decade we have seen incomes slashed by
two
thirds, the buying power of our currency knocked down to 1,6 million to
one
US dollar from the level of over US$1 to Z$1,70 at Independence in
1980. We
have seen the savings of 100 years of hard work and enterprise simply
swept
away by a flood tide of mismanagement and corruption. Zimbabweans are
now
poorer than at any time in the past half-century.
How does the President of Nigeria steal more than a billion US dollars
a
month? What happens to all that money? What was the role of major
companies
and international Banks - these are the supplementary questions that
should
be asked. Mabuto of Congo fame was reputed to have accumulated a
personal
fortune greater than the national debt of his country. When he died, a
paltry US$350 million was found and the family claimed they needed that
to
live on! Where is the rest of his fortune - in banks in tax havens
across
the world?
In Angola, now supplying a significant part of the oil needs of the
United
States, the leadership simply siphons off into overseas bank accounts a
percentage of all sales. Even on what is left, the Angolan economy will
expand this year by nearly 30 per cent and this shows the inherent
wealth of
many African countries - Nigeria as perhaps the most extreme example.
Its fabled riches have always fueled the conflict in the Congo. You
name a
resource - they have it. When finally regional leaders decided to take
action against Mabuto they found the regime so rotten it simply
collapsed.
Behind the invaders came all the vultures and the presence of some 12
to 15
thousand Zimbabwean troops plus air and ground support to create the
conditions under which the Congolese could again be looted and raped.
Since
that conflict began an estimated 10 million people have lost their
lives.
The number of deaths gives one cause to pause, but those that remained
alive
are condemned to lives of abject poverty. They cannot afford a balanced
diet, adequate shelter and certainly not health care or education. They
must
scramble not only to stay alive but also to earn a pittance without
dignity - often at the mercy of greedy leaders and army officers or
rapine
businesspersons.
This state of affairs is by no means Africa wide - countries like
Botswana
have increased the average incomes of their people 10 fold in the past
quarter century. Ghana, which in 1983 was a complete basket case after
decades of misrule, is now seeing incomes rising on an annual basis.
Take
Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa out of the SADC region and the
countries that are left will grow this year at an average rate that
will
rival the growth rates being achieved in the Far East.
What concerns me is of course, the situation in Zimbabwe. We are a rich
country from a resource point of view - unlike many other African
countries;
we also had a highly diversified economy. 90 per cent of what you could
buy
in a supermarket was produced locally. We were food self sufficient and
major exporters of a variety of products. Some of our manufacturers
were
world class and able to export into developed countries like the USA
and
Europe.
The collapse of the economy here is not due to conflict - we have not
seen a
shot fired by a man in uniform since Independence except during
Gukurahundi
and in the food riots in the late 90's. It is not due to sanctions -
Rhodesia operated under the toughest mandatory sanctions regime ever
imposed
by the United Nations for 15 years and still came out of that
experience
with a stronger currency than the US dollar or the pound sterling.
It is a self-imposed crisis and finds it roots in bad policies, corrupt
management and government and politically driven patronage. Mugabe is
not a
Mabuto - but still has had a disastrous impact on the country he has
governed for 26 years. Because of systematic and recorded violations of
human rights, he and his senior cohorts feel they are unable to
relinquish
power at any price because they might thereafter be exposed to
international
legal action like Charles Taylor from West Africa. So in addition to
systematically looting and destroying a once vibrant economy, they have
now
totally subverted the democratic system to the point where they can
decide
who wins what seats and by how much.
Denied the right to change the countries management through elections
and
unwilling to take up arms again after the terrible experiences of the
past,
Zimbabweans of all walks of life, live lives of quiet despair. The only
option open to them is flight - legal or otherwise to another country.
When other African leaders simply refuse to face the reality of the
character and delinquency of leadership in countries like Zimbabwe and
in
fact go out of their way to defend and protect them, they are doing a
grave
disservice to the people of Africa as a whole and to the people of the
affected countries. Until we learn to respect fundamental rights and
principles and to insist that others do the same - Africa will continue
to
be the global caricature of failure that it is and its people will
continue
to slide into deeper poverty and depravation. No amount of aid is going
to
change that - only deliberate and specific action by African leaders
against
those of their compatriots whose actions do such disservice to the rest
of
us.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 21st October 2006
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