Africa's Curse - Educated Beggars

MY heart bleeds for Zimbabwe and Africa, my motherland. Every time I open the newspapers or listen to news on television or radio all over the world, I cannot help but mourn.

My country is full of educated people. But, alas, just like the rest of Africa to the North, we have a lot of graduates with doctorates whose main preoccupation is to be the best beggars.

Africa is full of hope, but alas, it ends there. We seem to have been particularly schooled in the art of destruction; the destruction of that which belongs to us.

I have watched with interest the way Zimbabweans tend to sit back and relax, waiting for an event, ostensibly as a panacea to the problems at home. When there is a budget to be presented by a minister, when the Reserve Bank Governor is to present a monetary policy, or when there is a music gala, I have observed that my fellow country people tend to freeze all else and expect that all our problems will be solved immediately the next day.

I want to comment particularly on the just-ended G8 summit. Many stories and opinions have been expressed in the media. Largely, these opinions are of the view that the G8 leaders were expected to confirm that they owe us a living. I say no! G8 leaders are Heads of State and governments of their own countries. They look after the interests of their own nations. That is as it should be. When is Africa planning to be a donor in its own right anyway? I believe we have the greatest natural resources in the world.

As long as Africa believes that it will claw itself out of poverty on the basis of the exploitation of the so-called natural resources, aid, grants (or whatever you may call it) from the West, forget it! I hear a lot about the Western world refusing to increase aid to Africa or to allow Africa increased access to their markets.

What products does Africa with its 10 - 60 years of independence have to offer? Africa produces no engines, no computers, no mobile phones, not even motor cycles, no aeroplanes, no electronics, no software, no ships, no medical drugs, no intellectual property.

To put it mildly, Africa spends money on the wrong investments. Africa is so connected to the soil that the only investments Africa is prepared to undertake has some connection with the soil and water. Talk of mining and agriculture! How many times do you meet an electrical engineer who tells you that he is going into farming? If electrical/electronics engineers go farming, who then will produce the computer for Africa that will compete with the latest IBM?

Will we ever reach that critical stage necessary to produce better intellectually based products that compete on a global scale; a stage where we will produce so that those with the real money will feel compelled to release it to us in purchasing our products, an act of competing in the knowledge-based industry?

I contend that if Zimbabwe were to announce today that the country was now home to a Jumbo jet factory whose jets can transport 1 000 passengers non-stop right round the world, or that Zimbabwe was now the producer of a Maglev bullet train that travels on frictionless magnetism clocking speeds at 800km/hour we would soon be inundated with orders for these products whether the West have opened their borders for trade with us or not.

In fact, the citizens of those countries would smuggle our products into their countries if their governments tried to stop them. Can you imagine the impact on our economy? But no, Africa does not think this way. Our whole way of doing things is just not in this direction.

Most of the political leadership in Africa is composed of hopeless nationalists whose only interest is raw power to control the masses. They have no ambition to turn the African countries they lead into major economic powerhouses through the local citizens. They have no initiatives regarding the economy. However, they are experts when it comes to planning wars and destruction.

Until Africa learns to plan strategically for technology-based manufacturing, until Africa starts to invest in the production of products that other nationalities will want to buy, there will be no respite. Is it by accident, if I may ask, that countries such as Japan, Germany, USA, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and now China, who pursued a technology agenda are experiencing unparalleled economic growth? What do our political leaders learn when they go to these countries? Why do African government leaders look up to the West for aid, but also demand that the aid comes with no conditions?

Can you imagine donating to a street beggar so he may send his child to school or to feed his hungry population only for the beggar to tell you that the money you gave him cannot have conditions? Can you imagine if the same beggar pitched up at the same begging place the next day, but this time wearing a six-button double-breasted leather suit, with a new fleet of Mercedes Benz vehicles and smoking a cigar? Imagine him telling you to donate more and with no conditions attached still? Can you imagine the feeling? Suppose the initial funds you had given as aid to the beggar had been part of funds pooled together by your households (tax payers), what would you tell them? Can you imagine if the government of Zimbabwe were to deduct our taxes, donate them to some struggling third world country whose political leaders are often richer than the country they run or the greater percentage of the tax payers from whom the aid is being sourced? Would you be willing to have your tax given away without conditions?

I contend that Africa is a joke. We invest our money in the ground and then look up, hoping that it will rain. In other words, we invest in projects whose probability for failure is higher than the probability for earning a return. In the case of Zimbabwe, most people who lined up to take up farming thought it was easy. They realise now that it is not as rosy as they believed and the country is poorer.

Africans also hate those of our nationals who exhibit independent thought and business acumen. Can you imagine that Zimbabwe is trying to turn around the economy without most of its best business brains in the country? Where is Strive Masiyiwa? Where is Nigel Chanakira? Where is Julius Makoni? Where are all those business leaders who have made huge strides in bettering the economy of our country? Where are our motivators? Who then shows the up-coming youngsters how it's done? Why is it that the richest people in our country derived their wealth from non-productive based activities? Why then are they displayed daily as role models?

We know that Bill Gates got his wealth from producing computer software. Can we say the same for our local elite? Day in day out we see politicians politicking on television. Where are the producers? Can we really base our future on the Chinese traders, whose main interest (and rightly so) is to find a market for cheap imitations?

Local leading business people have been refused licences to invest in productive manufacturing in Africa. If Zimbabwe had its way, there would be no Econet Wireless today. Applicants for Satellite Broadcasting and manufacturing way back in 2001 were denied licences for no reason yet the government itself publicised an invitation for those interested to apply? Foreign stations continue to broadcast to the country and sucking the little forex available. Who is benefiting? Is Zimbabwe better off without those investments from its locals?

I have watched with interest the showers of praises given to governors and politicians in Africa. Those who stand in front of us daily, tell us what percentage they are allocating resources to this sector or that. But do we also pause to think that these people are really not productive after all. They rely on the productive sector to produce and all they do is to try and share the available cake. Yet they get the entire acknowledgement as being in the forefront of turning around the economy. Regrettably too many African politicians tend to tamper with capital and the result is capital flight to more enabling environments. We spend more time pushing papers and we call that turning around the economy!

Well, I applaud the impulse to self-reliance. I think the notion of starting out with high-tech production is un- realistic. What African countries need is to set up the rule of law and market economies. If they had those things, foreign investors would start to build factories there, though probably not high-tech at first. However, so far nobody has figured out how to bring rule of law to most of Africa.

I heard a proposal that the European powers were thinking about taking over the mines and oil wells of Africa by force. The idea would be that they would administer them and provide the profits to the people and some meaningful way. The further notion being that this would take away the motivation for outside countries to provide the weapons for demagogues to take over the country---by eliminating the short-term profit.

Naturally, many would decry this is racism. However, at least is a suggestion that might have some chance of working.

The average GNI for Africa is less than $1,000. Compare that to the Middle East and, without oil, one finds the same. Moreover, with oil hovering well over $50 per barrel, one would think the Middle East would use its cash wisely. One would be wrong. Things WILL get far worse in Africa and the Middle East before they get better.

The Republican response would be to change the system, for the betterment of humanity.

The Democratic response would be to give money to the current system, without change, and feel good doing so.

Maybe 500 more years of suffering and Africa and the Middle East will be prepared for the Republican response.

If they had those things, foreign investors would start to build factories there, though probably not high-tech at first. However, so far nobody has figured out how to bring rule of law to most of Africa.

Private property rights and the rule of law are certainly necessary.
However, I disagree with the emphasis on foreign investors.
African nations would be better-off encouraging their own entrepreneurial industrial development, building "sweat equity" in their own businesses. Inviting investment by the transnational giants would only erect barriers to market entry through economies of scale. Individual African nations are too small to be economicly self-sufficient. But perhaps they can trade amongst each other to develop and strengthen their industries prior to entering into the international markets.

Democrats realize that they have reached the limits in domestic welfare/serf state production. In order to grow the party and provide more employment for new socialist Democrat poverty pimps they must offshore. Africa holds millions of NGO, Welfare, Do-Gooder jobs opportunities. They, the Democrats/Leftist, just need to get a constant hundred billion dollars/year funding scheme going so that they can start raking it in. Naturally they will have to partner with local national thieves. I don't think that these two organized crime types have yet been able to put aside their distrust of each other for their own common profit. So sad.

I don't think that these two organized crime types have yet been able to put aside their distrust of each other for their own common profit. So sad.

Very sad. In its glory years, organized crime in the US worked together better than these two individually and mutually. It's good for the US but sad for the billions who are hopeless and who WILL suffer because there is no alternative.....until generations to come.

"Africans also hate those of our nationals who exhibit independent thought and business acumen."

There you have the biggest problem of all. And this extends to parents and elders being cruel to children who exhibit vivid imaginations and individuality as opposed to mindless conformity.

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