Posted on 07/14/2006 4:18:48 PM PDT by blam
Chirac warns of 'African flood'
Thousands of Africans are risking their lives to reach Europe
French President Jacques Chirac has warned that Africans "will flood the world" unless more is done to develop the continent's economy. In a TV interview, Mr Chirac said nearly 50% of Africa's 950m population was under 17 and that by 2050 there would be two billion Africans.
He said the necessary resources had to be made available to help Africa.
"We have an immense problem [in Africa] ... which is that of development," he said in the Bastille Day interview.
'Back to basics'
"If we do not develop... Africa... if we do not make available the necessary resources to bring about this development, these people will flood the world," he said.
Mr Chirac stressed the need to go back "go back to the basic issues with regard to immigration".
"One cannot solve a problem entirely outside its context, and the context here is north-south [divide]," he said.
Earlier this week, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Europe had to be careful not to turn itself into a fortress just to keep out immigrants.
Addressing a European-African migration conference in Morocco, Mr Sarkozy said the so-called zero immigration concept was a dangerous myth.
Search for solutions
Delegates at the conference were trying to develop a common approach between Europe and Africa.
Proposals included tougher policing and action against human trafficking but also measures to deal with the poverty and conflict which drive would-be migrants to seek a better life elsewhere.
Last month, Spain announced a three-year diplomatic drive in West Africa to try to halt the flow of African migrants to Europe.
Nearly 8,000 Africans aiming to enter the EU have arrived in Spain's Canary Islands alone in 2006.
About 1,000 more are believed to have died attempting dangerous voyages in the Atlantic to reach the Canary Islands.
Jacques,everyone's a bit busy with other things right now.
He may not know it but he's calling for an enlightened colonialism.
More aid is not the answer.
The problem is socialist regimes, along with the multiculturalism.
As I've written before, Levi-Strauss wrote an important paper for UNESCO in 1951 about how we should not put human society on a scale of values. He saw the idea of civilization as tyrannical, and ethnocentrism as the cause of past evils-- the not-me is not-as-good-as-me. A barbarian became someone who believes in barbarism in the first place. Structuralists saw the same form in different contexts, so if we privileged one text over another, it was proof one group was using it to subjugate others. We shouldn't open others to reason, but open ourselves to the reason of others.
In the third world these ideas had disasterous results. Third world leaders didn't want to mimic Europe, but to affirm their difference. Denouncing universal values as European, new states affirmed their authenticity. Mixing Marx and de Maistre, they believed that man didn't exist, but perhaps they could make him happen. While Marx retained an international viewpoint, a critical part of his doctrine was the idea that "it is not consciousness which determines life; but life which determines consciousness." Stalin stated in 1913 that "the nation is a human community, stable, historically constituted, born out of a commonality of language, territory, economic life and psychological conditioning, all of which translates into a cultural community." These ideas were implemented, we saw the beloved cultures of the anthropologists and sociologists getting bogged down in conformity, bureaucracy, and single-party systems. But they had their own unified "voices," so any tyranny and misery induced was dismissed, even as peoples plunged into the most barbaric of ethnic struggles against each other.
If you like, read the link that I posted in #6. Amazing how bad liberal fiscal policies can screw people up.
Too bad he doesn't view Africa the same way some American leaders see Mexico. /sarc
I've been to Africa and we have been trying to develop it for the last 50 years.
I will at least give him credit for actually recognizing a problem (unlike many of our own "Leaders")!
If Africa just follows Zimbabwe's example, there won't be many Africans left to cause problems.
Building their economy is not the solution. Birth control is the solution.
USA-wise....let's get on with the FENCE!
You mean there may be problem with the "religion of peace"? Really? Someone send a telegram to the White House, I'm sure they'll be shocked.
Of course it does. When it doesn't, then you obviously haven't spent enough money. You just need to spend more money and then the problem will be fixed.
*sigh* there's always more money to be spent, more ransom to be paid, more prisoners to be released...where does it end? Oh yeah, when bombs are dropped, buildings are razed and "weddings" are disrupted.
So sad, I'm turning into such a cynic in my "old" age.
"the necessary resources had to be made available to help Africa."
Jacque, just take some of the billions you milked from the Food for Oil scam, that will do!
I was gonna say the same thing. Why not annex African countries into France, then at least Chirac will be getting something for his money.
As an alternative, Chirac could swap France for 1 or more African countries. Just pack up all the native French & move them south, while leaving France to the immigrants. It might actually be a good deal, as France is old, dirty, & polluted, whereas Africa is relatively free of industrial decay.
Good article, thanks.
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