This afternoon I watched the Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo, on the CNN show, "GPS with Fareed Zakaria". All I can say is that I'm overwhelmed with joy, and I agree with everything that she said 100%. Apropos of that, there are some tips I need to give Dr. Moyo about the intellectual and economical environment in which we live in.
In some African countries like Chad, the Aid Industry is the only industry to speak off. In most African countries, aid workers live like Maharajahs, living in the poshest suburbs, driving Land Rovers, and with a retinue of servants in tow. Now: do we honestly think that that they are prepared to give up that lifestyle, just because Dr. Moyo announced that "there should be no more aid to Africa"? I don't think so. In fact they (the aid workers & the aid industry) will fight tooth-and-nail to preserve their privileges in Africa.
Intellectual bullying knows no boundaries, and if I was Dambisa Moyo I would invest in a suit of body-armour, the type that European knights wore in the Middle Ages! The attacks against her will get vicious. She will be accused of all kinds of transgressions. The wilder the accusation, the harder it will be to refute. Whispering campaigns will be launched against her private life; all kinds of lies and insinuations will be put out in public.
Woe betide her if she ever tries to get employed in American academia. She just won't be hired; not even by Appalachian State University! Keeping her away from Academia will stop her from poisoning 18 and 19 year old minds with the silly notion of, "stopping all aid to Africa".
So there it is Dr. Moyo. I hope that you keep doing what you're doing, but it goes without saying, that what you're saying amounts to heresy in some quarters. How can aid to Africa be stopped? The whole global media edifice has been acculturated to the "fact" of a helpless and hopeless Africa that must rely on aid. You just can't come out - from left field - and state otherwise.
If the powers-that-be state that the Earth is flat, then you can't turn around and state that, No! It's actually round. That would be heresy. I'll close by saying that: be warned! The knives will come out for you in due course. In fact "they" are probably sharpening their butcher knives as I post this blog.
