Hi Hamadi,

You are spot on. How many African countries can cope with a natural
disaster of such magnitude. With all the armies we have in africa
doing nothing but oppressing their people, maybe a new challenge has
been posed for them to help in search and rescue mission and to be
productive. Why do we always have to wait for help from the west.

If all African countries pull their resources together, there are
enough helicopters in the continent to carry out search are rescue
missions in the cases of such tradegy. I salute the South African
government, they have shown the rest of rest of Africa what it takes to
be a leader. Maybe in the next OAU-LOU meeting our leaders will
will have on the agenda disaster prepardness on the continent rather
than just issue communiques that mean nothing.

basil

On Fri, 3 Mar 2000 14:55:51 PST Hamadi
Banna <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I think it should be obvious by now that international relations are
> governed by the interests of the governments concerned.
>
> While the OAU has been appropriately described as a paper tiger, it has
> already sent $100,000; a paltry sum compared to the current situation in
> Mozambique. The fundamental problem is that most OAU member states are
> seriously delinquent in their contributions.  Then to make matters worse the
> OAU spends a lot of their budget on incessant and often useless conferences
> in order to pocket per diem.
>
> I understand from PANA that Ghana has sent relief items worth of $100,000
> and Mauritius has topped this with another $100,000.
>
> Those heads-of-state whose countries are not grappled by civil wars can dip
> into their Swiss Bank accounts and set an example.
>
> As regards Africa's relationship with the West, I would rather go by the
> principle, "respect yourself first before somebody respects you".  The West
> cannot do our own homework for us whenever such situations arise.  We have
> at least to lay the first block.
>
> In Africa, a few government functionaries would often misappropriate funds
> and loans from international donor agencies and divert them to Western
> financial institutions. If this 1-2-1 mirror effect is not broken, the donor
> community will never take us seriously.
>
> Hamadi.
>
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