|
COPYRIGHT 2005 Professors World Peace Academy
Vicious cycles of war, disease, and poverty currently plague much of Africa. With regard to poverty, economic development, mutual aid, and even better self-reliance, are discussed. Two positive examples are the use of micro-credits and of mobile phones. In health inequality, the author tackles AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis and suggests ways to overcome them. He also analyzes some roots of chronic conflict and violence including state failure. A comprehensive program of action is needed, but it has to be achieved in an African way. The spirit of tolerance, present in traditional African society, makes possible a peaceful coexistence within a community and between communities. The author gives reasons for optimism and success in these aims.
**********
This year's theme, "socio-economic responses to structural adjustment programmes in Zambia," within the frame of the UN International Year of the Micro-credits, is a continuation of the ethos of ICUS (International Conferences on Unity of Sciences) (1) and of Pugwash (2) Conferences on Science and World Affairs in favor of a peaceful enjoyment of life. In keeping with the Pugwash tradition, we will grapple with issues relevant to the topic by using science to offer non-partisan, yet global solutions to local problems that best our erstwhile world today.
Why have we chosen as a general title "Peace and Development"? Because, the concept of peace in Africa will have meaning only when underdevelopment is tackled effectively. One can talk of conscience, moral law, dignity of man, truth, justice, freedom, democracy, love, and free will to a well-fed and secure person and something will sink in. However, to hungry, poverty-stricken, unemployed, low income, poorly housed, illiterate, ignorant, malnourished and diseased persons these are empty words and do not make sense in their circumstances. This explains why fewer people in poor countries than in rich ones own computers and have access to the Internet: simply because they are too poor, are illiterate, or have other more pressing concerns, such as food, health care, and security. So, even if it were possible to wave a magic wand and cause a computer to appear in every household on earth, it would not achieve very much: a computer is not useful if you have no food or electricity and cannot read. The benefits of building rural computing centers, for example, are unclear. Even more, as the late Pope Paul VI asserted several decades ago, "nowadays the name of peace is development."
Besides the breathtaking beauty and diversity of Africa, with an extraordinary, energetic, and resilient people, it is also a place plagued with problems so endemic and widespread that no continent, no matter how prosperous, could tackle them on its own. Among the threat from international terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and climate change, which are problems common to all the world, Africa is particularly vulnerable to the last one. It has been estimated that the African GDP could decline by up to 10 percent because of climate change. If we agree that the problems of Africa need to be addressed, maybe we should focus on some specific problems, also shared by many other countries, such as poverty, debt, disease, conflict, corruption, and weak governance. Let us consider some possible ways of addressing or solving them.
POVERTY
It is a paradox that the continent that provides resources for the rest of the world harbors many of the poorest people in the world. Africa, far from being prosperous, is the world's poorest continent. As the British Premier Tony Blair has explicitly expressed, "Half the population of sub-Saharan Africa lives in absolute poverty. And, uniquely, whereas the economy is improving in other areas of the world, Africa is getting poorer. The average income per head is lower now than it was 30 years ago." (3) This can induce an understandable sense of hopelessness that progress can be made.
Why is poor Africa becoming even poorer? Jeffrey Sachs mentions four possible causes:
1) Historical reasons: "After 300 years of slavery (between 10 and 15 millions slaves were taken from Africa), one century of colonialism did not leave much education or basic infrastructure. Then, after the independence of the African states, the continent became a pawn in the chess of the Cold War."
2) Most of the poor countries are far from the economic centers, and they don't have an adequate infrastructure for inexpensive transport of goods. This is worse in landlocked nations like Zambia.
3) Endemic diseases like malaria are affecting health.
4) A high propensity toward natural catastrophes, such as the plague of locusts that destroyed the western part of the continent in 2004, or the famine and drought aggravated by the climate heating from the combustion of hydrocarbons.
The issue of poverty is linked with general underdevelopment. Poverty remains the single greatest cause of misery; and the surest remedy for poverty is economic growth. It is true that growth is usually associated with more environmental damage; for example, with pollution (the disposal of waste is also a growing global problem), but even if development creates such problems, it pales in comparison with the harm caused by the economic backwardness.
We know that economic growth can be helped by aid, if it is used right. More aid would probably ease Africa's poverty. Although past aid has largely been wasted, in the future it could be made to work. Aid should be lavished on the countries that use it constructively to promote wealth creation and denied to corrupt and incompetent regimes that will steal or squander it.
The overwhelming economic and environmental predicaments of the poor cannot be solved by the poor alone without substantial cooperation with the rich, and conversely, the predicament of the poor cannot be allowed to persist without bringing peril to the rich. Either we will achieve an environmentally sustainable prosperity for all, or we will all suffer from the chaos, conflict, and destruction resulting from the failure to achieve this. Even if the task cannot be accomplished without technical, economic, and industrial interventions from outside, the Africans themselves have the most important role to play in the development of Africa. A mutual cooperation has to be present.
DEVELOPMENT AND TRADITIONAL LIFE
This brings us to consider the possibility that the framework of this economic model, which is inherent behind aid giving, is not the only possible one, or compatible with traditional ways of life, even if most of the world now adheres to it. Many of the clauses in international conventions protecting the exploitation of children are becoming a new subtle way of imposing modernity on many people still living in a traditional manner.
To give an example, one of our African colleagues attending this seminar pointed out that a mother training a girl child to carry firewood on her head is often considered to be exploitation by westerners. He explained that in Africa only a few pieces of wood would be carried in the beginning, and little by little, this would be increased as strength is built up. In reality we do the same in Western countries. Do we not encounter in our supermarkets little carts for little children to push around to buy goods--all training for the big carts they will push in the future? Westerners don't see this as exploitation,...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
