Mr Banna,
I also believe that "international relations are governed by the interests of the governments concerned".
A couple of weeks ago, the Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik was on a state visit to Mozambique and among his delegation were 60 representatives for Norwegian exporters. None of these had any intention of buying anything from Africa, and it was only a handful of them who were investors. The major concern of most of them was to market their services and products. It kept me wondering why Norwegian importers were never invited. The delegation turned out to be just another age old tradition of the west saveguarding its interest to the detriment of African countries. Mozambique has been for many years the leading recipient of Norwegian aid than any other nation(yearly receiving 370-380 million kroners), and Norwegian firms have not imported anything worth a single krone since the end of the civil war in 1992. Contrarily, Norwegian export to Mozambique was at its peak in 1997 with 153 million kroners, and 24 million kroners last year. Isn`t this something? Organizations like the Council for Africa, and Churches` relief aid in Norway have reacted negetively to this delegation and its intentions.
Norway was quick in reaching out to the flood victims well before the international appeal was launched. Donor nations were to meet on the 15th of febrauary to determine whether Mozambique was to receive more aid. A check for kr 800,000 was already handed over by Bondevik to president Chissano as early as the 8th of february, and more was to follow.
Regards,
Omar
----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: Hamadi Banna <[log in to unmask]>
Til: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Dato: 4. mars 2000 00:10
Emne: Re: Please, Help Me!
>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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