The gift and the curse

Ghana Pundit explains why Africa remains Africa lacks an effective strategy to exploit its natural resources:

“At the heart of the problem is transparency and inequitable distribution of the wealth derived from Africa’s vast wealth. Some have referred to Africa’s natural wealth as the gift and the curse…
The continent’s wealth has been the gift that could uplift the continent from poverty, but it has been a curse in as much it has brought wars, corruption and other ills associated with wealthy looting and exploitation. The control of Africa’s wealth has attracted untold suffering for some of its Citizens who have become victims instead of beneficiaries.
The list of countries that have been totally devastated and remain poor despite unmatched natural wealth is rather long. This conflict is normally driven by a few who have control of the wealth and do not feel the need to properly re-invest the wealth within the communities where the wealth originally resides.
In the Nigerian Delta oil centered conflict has been raging on, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) war has been going on, same in the Sudan , Angola and several other nations .Liberia and Sierra Leone went through horrible times fueled by blood diamond money.
Closer to home Zimbabwe’s Chiadzwa diamonds have now joined the infamous league of blood diamonds … Despite being home to what is reportedly the second biggest diamond reserves in Africa , Chiadzwa remains an impoverished village whose inhabitants are haunted by those with the means. This has been Africa’s tragedy. The lack of will to be accountable with natural wealth. This lack of transparency breeds poverty as a few seek to hideously exploit this wealth and nothing much is re invested in the area and country of origin.”

Our man in Cameroon contends that corruption is the sole barrier to development in Cameroon, and uses an excerpt from the book, The Undercover Economist, to explain why:

“Because of its lousy education system, Cameroon is perhaps twice as poor as it could be. Because of its terrible infrastructure, it’s roughly twice as poor again. So we would expect Cameroon to be four times poorer than the United States. But it is 50 times poorer...
The rot starts with government, but it afflicts the entire society. There’s no point investing in a business because the government will not protect you against thieves. (So you might as well become a thief yourself.) There’s no point in paying your phone bill because no court can make you pay. (So there’s no point being a phone company.) There’s no point setting up an import business because the customs officers will be the ones to benefit. (So the customs office is underfunded and looks even harder for bribes.) There’s no point getting an education because jobs are not handed out on merit. (And in any case, you can’t borrow money for school fees because the bank can’t collect on the loan.)
It is not news that corruption and perverse incentives matter. But perhaps it is news that the problem of twisted rules and institutions explains not just a little bit of the gap between Cameroon and rich countries but almost all of the gap.
Countries like Cameroon fall far below their potential even considering their poor infrastructure, low investment, and minimal education. Worse, the web of corruption foils every effort to improve the infrastructure, attract investment, and raise educational standards.”

Kwasababu argues that current water changes in Kenya cannot be blamed entirely on climate changes:
“The rains in Kenya have failed for four years in a row. As well as resulting in a shortage of water, there have also been crop failures, domestic animals dying in huge numbers and a shortage of electricity, much of which is generated by water.

Despite all this, some Kenyan politicians think it is a good idea to give subsidies to foreign multinationals which grow biofuels for people in developing countries to burn in their cars. They also lease hundreds of thousands of hectares to foreign governments so they can grow food for their populations while Kenyans are dispossessed of their land and left to starve…

The continuing hoohah over the Mau Forest is also relevant here. Land there was grabbed in large quantities by rich people, many of whom were senior politicians. They misappropriated the land, stripped it of its forest and did pretty much what they liked with it, regardless of the consequences for ordinary Kenyans. And now they have been challenged, rather than rectify the problems they have caused through pure greed, they will probably do little more than evict the poorest people in the forest, who ended up there out of desperation.

Large tracts of land in other areas relevant to the country's water security, such as Mount Kenya and the Aberdares, are owned by rich landowners, often absentee landowners. Water shortages cannot be blamed entirely on climate change.”

Mighty African analyzes the state of the Ghanaian movie industry:

“They are making the same Nollywood mistakes, average sound and video quality, concentrating on making as many movies as possible instead of improving the quality of the production, etc. Do you pay attention to the dialogue in these films? Ridiculous...
If you are making two movies a month, you are not spending enough time on each production… We should spend a little more time on the movies, re-take the scenes till they are excellent and edit them properly to get rid of times where the mic is showing on the top of the screen...
Where are all the major actors who were around before the movie industry took a nosedive around 2004? Akofa Adjeani-Asiedu, Pascaline Edwards, Brew Riverson, etc? Can someone cast Oscar Provencal in some Inspector Bediako role in a movie? No one mentions NAFTI anymore, is it dead? The idea of doing auditions at hotels for movies is not the way to go. The fact that someone can come and play the part of a lotto doctor brilliantly for 2 minutes doesn't mean he'll play different roles that well in other movies. If we can't afford to teach our actors, let's spend a little more time on our productions. I already discussed the monetizing options, putting out as many movies in a short time is not the only way to make money.”

Bombastic Elements comments on a video of an Al Jazeera panel discussion (available on the blog) about the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Congo:

“With Jeffrey Gettleman taking the issue of rape to the next level in his NYT piece last week about men raping men in the DRC, the only hint he gave about why rape is being employed as a strategic tool in the Congo is where he wrote, ‘the ... sexual violence against men is yet another way for armed groups to humiliate and demoralize Congolese communities into submission.’ ‘Submission’ for what exactly? In the AlJazeera panel discussion above, Kambale Musavuli adds, apart from other things, some much needed context to the Gettleman article:
‘Rape is a tool used in wars throughout the world. Look at Algeria with the Algerian revolution. Look at Liberia, you see the same thing as well as in Kosovo. This has been a strategy to put fear inside the communities, to intimidate the population, and for a mass displacement. Just remember, where those people live is where the minerals are located; those are areas rich in minerals. The cheapest way to displace mass populations is by instilling fear inside the community... those are just some of the effects ... of the scramble for Congo's mineral resources that has been at the root of [ongoing conflict in the Congo] for 125 years.’”

Annansi Chronicles links to an article in the Sunday Monitor (Uganda) which calls on African heads of State to become techno-savvy:

"How might African leaders react to its [technology-enabled] active and reflexive citizenry? One option is to befriend the technology and use its potential to improve lives….The choice a government makes between allowing the technology to enable, and using it to control will depend somewhat on how familiar the head of state is with the technology. In the interests of free self-expression, they should all get Blackberries."

Annansi Chronicles agrees with the Sunday Monitor with a caveat:
"While I agree with the assertion that African governments should embrace technology, there needs to also be the right checks and balances. Citizens are already finding innovative ways to use technology to supplement infrastructure gaps and get access to opportunities. By tapping into the informal processes of citizens, governments can better understand where the major gaps are, if they don’t already."

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org/