A Truly Frightening Concept

Recently I came across this article published by the New York Times on 05 May 2005 (quite a while ago, admittedly, but still relevant). Its pious message of hope very subtly belies a subtle arrogance, supported by a combination of naivety and stupidity, which is truly frightening.

Here is the article:

A Better Way to Fight Poverty

Kenya has never seemed to be able to live up to the potential of its rich farmland and staggeringly beautiful valleys. Its government is corrupt. Its capital, Nairobi, has become a haven for street thieves and muggers. Some 56 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Malaria, which could be as treatable as strep throat, kills one in five children every year because the government grossly shortchanges its public health system. All in all, it is a classic case of how African governments can squander foreign aid.
But far from the noise, pollution and public and private crooks of Nairobi, the village of Sauri, practically smack on the equator, is an example of a better way to do things. It is one of two test cases for the United Nations' ambitious program to cut poverty in half by 2015. Sauri's story shows how direct aid can largely bypass governments, getting money and help straight into the hands of the people who not only need it the most, but also know what to do with it.
Anne Omolo, the head teacher of Sauri's sole primary school, arrived six years ago to find a student population that was listless, miserable and performing poorly in national exams. Some 500 children were enrolled, but attendance was low. She soon realized the problem. "They were hungry," she said.
So on her own, she started a food program. She went to the village parents who could afford it and asked them to bring in corn and beans. But almost half of the school's students were orphans whose parents had died of AIDS, and they couldn't afford to contribute food. So Mrs. Omolo and the 10 other teachers dug into their own pockets.
Eventually, they scraped together enough to feed about 100 students. It was a terrible choice. "Not everybody could eat," Mrs. Omolo said. So she fed the top two grades - seventh and eighth graders - because they would soon be taking national exams to move on to high school. Students from the younger classes went to the windows to watch their older schoolmates eat.
The result was instantaneous. Attendance among the older children shot up to 100 percent, and their test scores followed suit. Sauri went from 68th out of 353 schools in the district in 2000 to 7th in 2004.
"This year," Mrs. Omolo says, "we will be No. 1."
Part of the reason for her confidence is that this year, every schoolchild will eat. Sauri was chosen last year to be one of the United Nations' test villages - Koraro, Ethiopia, is the other - to show how poverty in Africa can be ended through programs that help villages directly. For the next five years, Sauri will receive $250,000 a year for agricultural, educational and health programs.
Much of the money will go to help farmers improve their crop yields. Farms are already looking better, thanks to people like Patrick Mutuo, a Kenyan soil expert who travels there from Kisumu four days a week to teach the farmers how to get the most out of their land.
Because of Mr. Mutuo and his band of agricultural extension workers, Monica Okech's six acres of corn, ground nuts and beans are lush and green. Mrs. Okech, a fiercely independent 50-year-old whose husband left her in Sauri years ago, has planted leguminous trees and plants throughout her farm. These plants provide natural fertilizer for what was once depleted soil. Mrs. Okech now feeds 10 villagers, and is building a chicken coop.
The United Nations plan, spearheaded by the economist Jeffrey Sachs, seeks to expand the program to the entire district, and then all over Africa. But that will happen only if rich countries make good on their promise to ratchet up foreign aid to 0.7 percent of G.D.P. by 2015. Britain, France and Germany have all put out timetables for meeting the goal. The United States, the world's richest country, has yet to do so.
In the meantime, the people in Sauri work on their farms while trying to ward off killers like malaria, hunger and AIDS - some 25 percent of them are infected with H.I.V. But all it takes is for the villagers to look across the valley at the anemic farms and dismal test scores of their neighbors to know that they are still the lucky ones.”

Carefully hidden within an essentially constructive story of hope and a positive example of a community working themselves out of a difficult situation - with some outside help – are a few remarks indicative of the “Millennium Development Jokes” (MDG’s) mentality gone completely mad. The MDG’s is the anti-poverty plan that the article alludes to (and hidden amongst the propaganda regarding this plan there are a few sensible articles pointing out what rubbish it really is).

There are countless cases of African governments squandering foreign aid.
If both the givers of that aid and the ultimate intended recipients of that aid want aid to really make a difference in Africa, it is essential that something be done about this unacceptable state of affairs.

It would help if Africans can have more democratic and accountable governments. Recent events in Kenya has shown that Kenyans (and it is true for the bulk of all Africans) do take democracy seriously. They are even prepared to fight for it.
The events in Kenya demonstrate that the process is not easy - the process can be violent and the tactics used can be unacceptable – but there is a process. Optimists believe that this process will ultimately be successful, and that democracy will emerge triumphant.
The international community can play an important role. There are many, including myself, who firmly believe that they have a moral duty to play a strong and meaningful role. And that is exactly the role they should play: work with Africans and their governments to achieve responsible governance. No more, no less.

The one thing that Africa does not need is charity. It especially does not need the type of charity, described in the NYT article above, continent-wide and specifically designed to bypass African governments.
“The United Nations plan, spearheaded by the economist Jeffrey Sachs, seeks to expand the program to the entire district, and then all over Africa,” ostensibly “an example of a better way to do things” that “shows how direct aid can largely bypass governments.”
Jeffrey Sachs is an economist with whom I do not entirely agree, but whom I still expect should know better – much, much better.

One wonders if Mr. Sachs has given adequate thought as to exactly who would keep the tens of thousands of unelected and unaccountable UN officials required for a continent-wide act of charity in check.
This is an organisation famous, not for the quality of its work, but for the quantity and quality of the charlatans, criminals and freeloaders in its midst.

A strong and decisive African leadership is necessary at a time when the continent is facing tough tests, so that Africa does not become a charity case supported entirely by the fickle goodwill of powerful countries, or worse still, become a silent and submissive UN protectorate.

Mike Sidwell of Transparency International has the following to say:

“As part of the United Nation’s (UN) budget discussions at the end of 2007, the General Assembly agreed to extend the mandate of the UN Procurement Task Force (PTF) for a further twelve months.
The PTF hit the headlines in December when the WP published an article detailing a report by the task force, which identified “multiple instances of fraud, corruption, waste and mismanagement at U.N. headquarters and peacekeeping missions, including ten significant instances of fraud and corruption with aggregate value in excess of [US] $610 million.” In addition, the report notes a “collapse of ethical culture and extensive corruption in procurement in the [Congo] Mission which has existed for years,” according to Reuters. Inga-Britt Ahlenius, who, as head of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, is responsible for the PTF, told Reuters, “We can say that we found mismanagement and fraud and corruption to an extent we didn’t really expect.”
UN spokesperson Michele Montas is quoted in AFP acknowledging that: “We are well aware that there have been problems in procurement…This is why we are moving full steam ahead with procurement reform in order to have a system that is much tighter and transparent, leaving less room for abuse.” According to Reuters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has told reporters that he wants the UN “to be as transparent as possible in its management and procurement activities.”

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been saying things such as these ever since he came into office in January 2007.
His confident promise of a “worldwide audit of all Programmes and Funds” quickly dissipated into nothing, apparently because he was told exactly how much muck such a thing would dredge up.
He has allowed the scandal driven agency responsible for the MDG’s, UNDP’s Administrator and deputy-Administrator - respectively Kemal Dervis and Ad Melkert - to lead him up the garden path, and subvert the scope and mandate of the Ethics Office created in 2005, presumably so that these two gentlemen can continue running their crime syndicate without undue outside interference.
Very little, if any, of what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon promises should be believed, and his organization, under no circumstances whatsoever, should be allowed to subvert and by-pass African governments, for any reason whatsoever.