Africa: A Better Solution

Fire of Liberty

Thomas Sowell has a wonderful column on how the call for pumping more money a food aid into the African continent that is trumpeted by the performers at Live 8 and by the intellectuals of the Left is actually an ineffective way of fighting poverty and famine. Sowell notes that if the people really want to solve the problems ravaging Africa then they should promote a sense of independence by allowing them to develop their own food crops thus promoting a Booker T. Washington "Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps," mentality. You'll be surprized to see what nations can do when they have to grow their own corn, rice, or wheat instead or sitting idly by waiting for a government handout or a massive inflow of food from the West.

Now people will say that by shutting down such massive food shipments to Africa is cruel or greedy on the West's behalf but they fail to realize that this tough-love is Africa's solution to its continued decline. One only has to look throughout Asia, South America to discover how well off nations can be once they're released from the burdens of foreign food aid and have to grow their own crops. What's even better about producing your own food crops is that you are forced to adhere to the forces of free market capitalism and competition which generally results in an ample supply of commodities to sell nationally and to other nations thus causing all ships of these nations to rise with the tides. Along with freeing the people of Africa from massive shipments of cash and food, the leaders of the West also need to advocate that the governments of the respected nations in Africa have got to rid themselves of the corruption as well as the incompetent leaders who continue to take them down this "Highway To Hell." I think Sowell put it best about the ills of Africa in the following paragraphs:

With all its handicaps, Africa used to feed itself and even export agricultural produce to Europe. In some of the more geographically favored parts of sub-Saharan Africa, iron was smelted thousands of years ago.

During the first two decades after African nations gained their independence in the 1960s, one sub-Saharan nation that stood out with its economic prosperity and political stability amid economic disasters and social catastrophes among its neighbors was the Ivory Coast under President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

Yet neither the Ivory Coast nor its leader attracted nearly as much attention, much less adulation, as was showered on Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, or other big-name African leaders who led their countries into ruin.

The Ivory Coast in those days relied on markets instead of the kind of policies and rhetoric that the intelligentsia favored. When its policies changed, it became just another African basket case.

Unless the West begins to promote policies of self-dependence and oversight and shy away from policies that are just altruistic handouts, they will further chain the souls of the African people into even greater poverty and hunger. Lets pray someone is taking a look at wiser voices like Thomas Sowell when it comes to Africa.