Africa in NYT Op-ed

Will be going to Botswana with Habitat for Humanity. As such, my ears perk up when I hear news about Africa. Hugh Hewitt linked to an article recently by Nicholas Kristof. Certainly brings some perspective to our comparative lives of luxury here in the USA. NYT does require registration so here are some excerpts below:

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While our attention is diverted by Iraq, famine is looming over 40 million people on the continent, West Africa seems caught in an expanding series of civil wars, and much of Central Africa has been a catastrophe for up to a decade.

In Congo, in which I've had a special interest ever since Tutsi rebels chased me through the jungle there for several days in 1997, 3.3 million people have died because of warfare there in the last five years, according to a study by the International Rescue Committee. That's half a Holocaust in a single country.

Our children and grandchildren may fairly ask, "So, what did you do during the African holocaust?"

Some African nations, like Uganda, Mauritius, Ghana and Mozambique, are booming; they show that African countries can thrive. But the failures outnumber the successes: child mortality rose in the 1990's in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia; primary school enrollments dropped in Cameroon, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania; the number of malnourished children is growing across the continent.
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There are no simple solutions to Africa's problems, but there are some good ideas around:

*** Western powers could guarantee the security of African governments that commit themselves to democracy. This idea, which would attract more investment for democracies, is detailed in a fine new book, "Africa's Stalled Development."

*** Liberals and conservatives feud over plenty, but they generally agree on the need for widespread debt forgiveness. Africa is asphyxiated by its $217 billion foreign debt.

*** Think trade, more than aid. Incentives to build cheap factories in Senegal or Ethiopia could perhaps replicate Bangladesh's success with clothing exports.

*** We should phase out socialist agricultural policies in Europe and America. Western farm subsidies cost poor countries some $50 billion in lost agricultural exports. The best way for the U.S. to help a struggling democratic country like Mali would be to stop lavishing $2 billion a year in tax dollars on U.S. cotton farmers (whose average net worth is $800,000) so Malian peasants can produce for the world's markets.

Would any of this work? I don't know. But Africa is broken, and it needs high-level attention to help it fix itself. President Bush's $15 billion AIDS initiative was an important step, and it proved surprisingly popular around the United States.

So perhaps there is even a political payoff in compassion for Africa, and this is also an area where we can work with Europe and rebuild trust, beginning at next week's G-8 summit. Mr. Bush's planned trip to Africa this year would be the perfect start for a major U.S.-led effort to help Africa find its footing - and nothing we could do in coming years would save so many millions of lives.  

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I hope the $15 billion AIDS package is just the beginning of American involvement with Africa. People here in the US may complain, how much good can we do here in the USA with that $15 billion? True enough. But we need a sense of perspective. Even the poorest in the USA has much more than the typical person in Africa.

I know numbers never tell the true story but consider these numbers. Per capita GDP isn't the end all and be all of statistics about economies but they tell you something. In the USA, it is around $30,000. In Botswana where I'll be going it is $3200. In Benin (in East Africa), it is $380.

Dollars and sense aren't enough. We need to see a transformation of leadership: leaders who see that civil wars results in everybody losing and leaders who root out corruption in their governments.