From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu Jul 24 2008 - 15:59:16 EDT
Time to starve corrupt regimes of aid
By Dun Laoghaire
Thursday July 24 2008
With his latest article (Irish Independent, July 22), Kevin Myers has
softened some of his stronger positions from last week and started to
make some very good points.
While it's true that Mr Myers still doesn't grasp the humanitarian
imperative that obliges us to feed a starving baby if we have the power
to do so, regardless of its broader social conditions, Mr Myers has it
right on several scores.
He has shifted the emphasis from the people of Africa to their corrupt
leaders. There is, as he states, a "Lynch Mob Central on PC issues" in
this country that is trigger happy when it comes to levelling
accusations of racism and neo-colonialism. This bunch directly aids
dictators in the developing world by deflecting criticism from them.
Mr Myers has also frankly confessed his own part in covering up the true
story of the Ethiopian famine of the mid-80s, a guilt he shares with the
vast majority of the NGOs and media operating in the country at the
time.
That was a story of corruption and neglect, of a government that cared
so little for its own people that it would let them die in their
hundreds of thousands, and could wage war in Eritrea and Tigrai but not
feed its people.
I was one of the few people pointing the finger at the Mengistu regime
at the time, but nobody was listening.
The Irish Government, in particular, was much more concerned with being
seen to pump money into famine relief, regardless of where that money
might end up, or whether it might in fact make the situation worse.
I feel very little has changed. The Irish Government continues to pump
money into corrupt regimes, in Ethiopia and elsewhere, who have little
or no interest in the lives and well being of the ordinary people they
purport to represent.
As before, the truth is being ignored while we sign cheques that assuage
our guilt but might actually sustain the system that has allowed crisis
to occur.
Last week, Mr Myers wrote an incendiary piece which stimulated much
debate. This week, he has rightly shifted the emphasis of blame from the
people of Africa to the corrupt leaders who are happy to watch their
people die.
John O'Shea
Goal
PO Box 19
Dun Laoghaire
- Dun Laoghaire
<http://www.independent.ie/multimedia/archive/00193/africa_193353t.jpg>
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