Posted on 04/26/2006 6:46:30 AM PDT by libertarianPA
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Billions of dollars in aid will achieve "zero" in Africa unless governments on the continent are serious about fighting corruption and poverty, Irish rocker and humanitarian Bob Geldof said.
The 54-year-old political activist, who will be performing in Johannesburg and Cape Town this week, said he saw "many, many optimistic signs and just as many crap signs" that African governments were cleaning up their act.
"The rich world can pour endless billions into the continent of Africa but none of this will work unless African governments are serious," Geldof told a news conference in Johannesburg.
"Corruption is a byproduct of poverty. We have corruption in France, Germany and Ireland. ... We are rich enough so that it doesn't kill us.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, it kills people. And it must stop," he said.
Nominated five times for a Nobel peace prize, Geldof singled out Benin, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa as countries that have earned "plus points" for their good governments.
A member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, Geldof singled out as progress the Group of Eight's decision to cancel the debt owed by some of the poorest countries and double assistance by 2010.
But he added: "None of this works, none, zero, unless the governments of Africa are equally serious about trying to pull their people out of poverty."
The creator of Live 8, a series of concerts held worldwide last year that raised awareness about Africa's plight, will be performing for the first time in South Africa.
maybe he's seeing how all the money from the recent Live 8 concert has disappeared as usual once it arrives in Africa.
Sirprize, sirprize! Sir Geldof finally gets it!
Tread lightly, Mr. Geldof, lest you be accused of speaking ill of people of colour. And that is "racism", regardless of the validity of the comments.
The least corrupt governments are free, democratic, have western values and Christian - wonder when he will push for that?
He just realized this? Hey Geldof, can we get refunds from all the previous concerts that you held?
lotsa luck
It sounds like he is becoming a bit less likely to continue funding corrupt dictators.
Fortunately, there are still enough liberals left to keep the murderous thugs going.
Geldof has to GO and speak publicly in Africa...see how long it is before he's wearing a burning tire around his neck
Doogle
He needs to credit Bush with that position. Bush is the one who first stepped forward and said African governments need to be held accountable to the money given them.
But of course, the LEFT SCREAMED over that when Bush said it!
Why can't the Africans fix their own POS continent?
Get rid of the leftist/socialist/communist criminal dictator thugs and maybe they will start to make real progress.
I almost hate the word "progress" because it morphs into "progressive" which is a code word for commie thief.
Strange that the headline calls him Irish. You can't be a knight of the realm and use the title Sir unless you are a UK citizen, which is of course what Geldof became many years ago.
I wonder if Mr Geldof can take the next step and admit that Marxism has ruined Africa by taking from the poor and giving to the rich, the opposite of what free markets would do.
He will really upset his light-thinking entertainment industry buddies if he ever dares to admit that truth. We'll see if they are really more important to him than the millions of starving and disease afflicted Africans.
Robert Mugabe, butcher of Zimbabwe, is a Knight Commander of Bath.
He sounds like a freeper.
I don't know about other people here, but I really feel that African poverty is a terrible blight on the world, and it would do us great credit if we could help improve the situation. But the solutions won't come from old strategies like foreign aid and self-flaggelation over "colonialism."
There's not a lot we can do, but we should do what we can. Focusing on corruption is a wonderful start -- we could direct some aid to countries that are serious about this problem, and take it away from countries that aren't.
Robert Mugabe, butcher and marxist-kleptocrat of Zimbabwe, is a Knight Commander of "the Order of the Bath", not of Bath.
I can see the confusion: "Prince of Wales", "Duke of Edinburgh", etc, but not "Knight of Bath". The Order of the Bath is a specialist honour with an entertaining royal provenance - I'm sure Google will have the details.
Hello? He can start right there in Johannesburg with his old buddies the ANC.
Mozambique?
Not dissapeared, just transformed. From cash into Mercedes.
Who in his right mind ever went there?
Worry, was confusing Mozambique with that other african hell-hole, Zimbabwe.
I once worked with a former Peace Corp. volunteer who spent several years in Africa. He quit when he realized that it was, in his words, "hopeless". He said that food and supplies never made it to those in need due to hoarding by corrupt government groups. He also said that there was a thriving under ground market for stolen U.N. supplies and goods. This was in 1983.
You can't seriously believe it was President Bush who first stated this.
Welcome to Free Republic, now don't go being an echo chamber.
I recall my younger sister attended one of those... but she's older and wiser now.
During the last rounds of donations to Africa it was indeed Bush who proposed a high level of accountability from African governments for donated money. He caught hell for it but got the accountability measures agreed upon by the other G8 nations.
That's a fact my friend. And keep the insults to yourself.
Oh yes, anyone can get a KBO, a proper knighthood requires you to be British. Even your Colin Powell is a KBO! :)
Whatever. The point is that you don't need to be a Brit to hold a British Knighthood.
"The Order is the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry, after The Most Noble Order of the Garter, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, and The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick."
"Corruption is a byproduct of poverty. We have corruption in France, Germany and Ireland. ... We are rich enough so that it doesn't kill us."
I thought corruption was a by product of immorality....
Snowball fight in hell everybody!
Wow, never thought I would hear common sense like that coming from the likes of him.
Yes, that's the one that Mugabe and Powell both have, in the former case given when Mugabe was still the friend of the UK and US!
And good news, too. It's about time that one of these celebs that urge us to give, finally recognize that we are, we do care and the real problem is and has been the corruption.
Holy cr@p! Who woke him up? More liberals like him need to drink from the Fountain of Logic.
LOL! Too true! Now if we could just get Bono and a few others to drink from the Fountain. ;-)
French, British, Belgian, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spaniard, and Arab governments have been saying the same thing about Africa for hundreds of years.
If we take even the most short term view, Bill Gates preceded the White House and Bush on demanding an end of corruption as terms for foreign aid.
Mugabe was given his in 1994.
There are some of those entertainment types who actually do that stuff more to help people than for publicity, or because its trendy. Bono and Geldof are two of those types who really care about what is going on, and are open-minded enough to look at things honestly.
And in 1994 he was still friends with both our nations.
Saying and doing are two different things.
"We have a moral obligation to help others -- and a moral duty to make sure our actions are effective. At Monterrey in 2002, we agreed to a new vision for the way we fight poverty, and curb corruption, and provide aid in this new millennium. Developing countries agreed to take responsibility for their own economic progress through good governance and sound policies and the rule of law. Developed countries agreed to support those efforts, including increased aid to nations that undertake necessary reforms. My own country has sought to implement the Monterrey Consensus by establishing the new Millennium Challenge Account. This account is increasing U.S. aid for countries that govern justly, invest in their people, and promote economic freedom.
More needs to be done. I call on all the world's nations to implement the Monterrey Consensus. Implementing the Monterrey Consensus means continuing on the long, hard road to reform. Implementing the Monterrey Consensus means creating a genuine partnership between developed and developing countries to replace the donor-client relationship of the past. And implementing the Monterrey Consensus means welcoming all developing countries as full participants to the global economy, with all the requisite benefits and responsibilities. "
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050914.html
Bush is the first to go from donor nation to requiring real accountability. And that was my original point.
Apparently this crusader realizes his limitations, ERGO: Learn by solving the simpler problems on the entire continent of Africa, before tackling the impossible problems in Ireland.
LOL! Knighthood seems to have achieved the same level of respectability and honor as the present day Nobel prize.
I guess that depends on what you mean by "friend". He wasn't a rejected leader, ala Castro or Saddam. GB was still propping up the thinly veiled land grab of white farmers until 1997.
However, I wouldn't have been handing out a knighthood, honorary or not, to a terrorist proto-dictator with blatantly racist policies, had I been Sovereign, regardless of what my Kingdom's official stance was with his country. But, then again it took until 1940 to revoke Mussolini's KCB, so I guess Mugabe has a fair chance of dying before the Queen gets around to kicking the murderous thug out of the club. Maybe Sir Bob could use his high profile to point that out, as long as he is campaigning to end corruption in Africa.
Good day,
maybe he was wondering why we don't send troops to help them out like we do actually with Irak?? or maybe he doesn't think about that, but i do!
If the African dictators took just 1 or 2 percent of the money they waste on military spending alone and put it towards improving the agriculture in their countries, they could have a serious impact on the poverty afflicting their people.
"Good for you. Which country would you like to invade first? What do you hope to accomplish by this? The African nations received their independence from colonialism in the mid 20th century. They then chose socialism as an economic system because capitalism was a "product of the oppressive European regimes." So now you want us to go in and re-colonize Africa so that we can go through all this again?"
Thanks for clarifying! So i understand by that, we never tried to colonize iraq before so that is why it is worth the try (don't forget i specified iraq in my previous post)...Don't get me wrong, i don't favor invading at all but i was wondering why we were doing it in iraq and not in africa...But i think you answered well! Plus, i forgot that iraq was an actual threat, as africa is only "stealing" the money...
Sorry for my bad grammar, english is not my first language...I know it is not common on this site!
"Holy cr@p! Who woke him up?"
Who knows but this will keep him busy for the rest of his life.
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