One of the things said about aid is that sure, we used to spray money at corrupt dictators back in the bad old days but we don’t any more. No siree, all cleaned up and properly accountable now.
Sure.
Try reading John Githongo’s stuff about Kenya. There was a large report in The Economist (he used to be their correspondent) which, unfortunately, isn’t online. Or Michela Wrong’s piece in The Guardian today.
What I don’t like in Wrong’s piece is this whole “heart of darkness” feel that pervades it. The Kenyan government has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment in terms of financial corruption (although it’s not mentioned that it’s been pretty good in terms of human rights), true. But on the other hand, “national security” projects have been a bit of a boondoggle over here too. When white people steal money, it’s cause they’re bad lots who have turned away from the path of righteousness, but when black people steal money, it’s an indictment of the entire political culture which shows that there is nothing that can be done for this lousy continent and we might as well give up. That might not be Wrong’s own view, but she seems completely bereft of any proposed solution to the problem, or indeed of anything else except nasty things to say about Africans (it should also be noted that most African regimes start out as idealistic democrats; I wonder if the fact that an economic collapse in year two is more or less written into the numbers by the interest on the debt is part of what turns them cynical?). The idea that “Kenyans keep telling me, why are you supporting these crooks” is the most actively fucking ludicrous thing I have ever seen; I can picture these wide-eyed little black children clutching the hem of her skirt and saying “please great white miss, stop giving us these vaccines and water purification tablets because it only encourages us”. Aid gets stolen, but aid works and both these things can be true at the same time, or the US defence industry would be a lot different from how it is.
Easterly is a different case; he actually talks quite a lot of sense, albeit that he is for the most part railing against the system of ten years ago. It’s also not obvious to me how you get roads and bridges built as a series of small projects, or for that matter run an immunisation program that way. He is very good on the horrendous waste of money which is education aid though.
It’s tied aid and budgetary support that is the monster. We should cut budgetary support to the minimum, going in as investors and employers instead, preferably at the microcredit/SME level, providing salaried employment in all sectors, encouraging kids to stick in basic education to reach that employment, bolstering the economic clout of the electorate.
Immunisation you do through NGOs or the WHO, and some of the best early healthcare and education to be had in Africa is from the Catholic church. If they can do it, and they do it on a shoestring, why can’t Coca-cola sponsor a school or health post or two? Be brilliant for their ethical credentials, they could milk it in advertising.
Perhaps Exxon would like to do something useful with all those profits.
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