Africa and The West

Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat former Kenyan Ambassador to France and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom came to speak today to the people at my office. He took a few questions from us and gave pretty lengthy and in depth answers. When asked about China, and how he saw its dealings with Africa, and the reaction of African governments to China’s involvement there, his reply was that the West’s attitudes of concern towards China’s involvement were not really valid, and that if we try to push our concerns about Chinese investment, we may drive Africa into the arms of the Chinese. The West could very well lose Africa. Africans were happy to see a country involved in their affairs that did not seem to have double standards, and would only become involved if there was a concern over resource security or a perceived political threat to the West’s interests.

Sure, the West has fucked up a lot in Africa. He is right that we have extreme double standards when it comes to dealing with countries where we have or do not have concrete interests. My concern is that instead of double standards, China has NO standards. Instead of caring and getting involved some of the time, China will NEVER get involved. This must seem like a god send for African despots, and probably even for leaders of African democracies who would rather get money with no strings attached. Who wouldn’t!

Where my concern comes in is what the situation is going to be a few decades from now when China has plundered Africa’s resources, but has imported most of the labour it required, and the only infrastructure that was built were roads and rail to take raw materials back to China, and the profits that did accrue to Africans is now in the Swiss bank accounts of their corrupt leaders. Don’t get me wrong, I would like nothing more that for China to be the new source of Africa’s resentment. The West has taken flack long enough for our colonial legacy. My concern somehow remains that when China is done, Africans will blame the West for not protecting them against the big bad Chinese. I can hear it now …”you were the only ones with the cash or political power to do anything” “our leaders were helpless in the face of massive Chinese capital flows” “you created the markets and institutions that allowed this to happen” and on and on. I thin African leaders, and especially Joe Q African should be careful what they wish for.

Ambassador Kiplagat also mentioned that there were no easy fixes for a lot of these problems. I disagree…there are plenty of easy fixes, they are simply not ones that people want to talk about. The developing world is quick to point out Western gluttony on the basis of GDP per capita. I could double Africa’s GDP per capita in a year. All that is needed is to eliminate half the African population. People would probably call that a crime against humanity, but just think about how many people could be lifted out of poverty, how many more people could have access to clean drinking water, arable land, the benefits of government spending. A person who could do all that deserves a NOBEL PEACE PRIZE not the condemnation of the world!