We Should Help Ourselves First, Before Looking to Others


The Daily News (Harare)

EDITORIAL
March 13, 2002
Posted to the web March 13, 2002


LET'S stop crying for others to help us

They won't

For an excerpt from the Africa 2002 guidebook, click here.
(Adobe Acrobat).



To buy the book, click here.



The Commonwealth and Southern African Development Community won't help us
hold free elections, or do much if the elections are violent and rigged.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Britain and America won't help us hold free elections; we aren't that
important to them. For that matter, how fair was the last American
presidential election? Maybe they won't want to throw stones either. They
might throw a couple of snowballs just to save face, but that is all.

I am reminded of meeting a group of students in Prague in 1967.

They complained about their government which was propped up by Russian
force. "But we trusted Britain in 1938 and they sold us out to Hitler," they
said, and continued, "then we trusted them in 1948 and they sold us out to
Stalin. Next time, we know we will be on our own."

The next time they tried for freedom was the following year.

They were defeated, but they knew they were on their own, so were not too
surprised.

They didn't lose heart and the struggle continued until they did win Ð 21
years later.

We know that no government here will last 21 years more. Change will come.

But changing the faces at the top doesn't mean much by itself.

How free will any eventual new government be to make changes that really
address the people's problems?

A wise Ancient Roman once said: "I fear the Greeks when they bring gifts."

That was at a time before the Roman Empire grew strong, when the Greeks were
still a force to be reckoned with in that part of the world.

Shouldn't we fear all these people who offer us gifts (aid)?

We should certainly examine their gifts carefully and check what strings are
attached to them.

Very few people really act out of Christian charity, Muslim compassion or
revolutionary solidarity.

There is usually something else in it for them.

Look at the "friends" who are helping us to ensure that "Zimbabwe will never
be a colony again".

They supply oil, electricity and investment although we can't pay in cash,
certainly not in foreign currency. But they aren't giving us free gifts.

They are paid off with shares in our companies and we hear some of them are
being given land that the hard-fought Third Chimurenga has at last
liberated.

We could easily end up with more foreigners owning more of our land and
economy than ever before. Wouldn't that make us a colony again?

Look at the "friends" who talk about "democracy and economic recovery".

Their idea of economic recovery hasn't changed very much since they forced
the

Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap) on us in the name of
development and recovery. We all know where that led: collapse of our
industry, constant devaluation of our currency and inflation, the collapse
of our social services and eventually to bottom place in the United Nations'
table of national health services. But the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and their biggest shareholders grew richer out of our
misery. If we accepted any more of this prescription, wouldn't that make us
a colony again?

Anyone who wants to govern this country needs to have clear plans on how

Zimbabwe will find its own way to help its own people to live in peace, and
work towards development and, we hope, eventual prosperity. That applies to
Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Shakespeare Maya and others whose posters
haven't appeared in Harare yet.

And they all need to understand clearly that the way will not be easy.

When we vote for one of them, we need to be clear that the way to true
freedom will not be easy. But we do need to examine their policies and their
records to see whether they are offering us a way towards a better life or
back into deeper misery.

Getting a new government, even if it is only the old party reshuffled, will
only be the first round of a long fight.

As we launch into the next round of the fight (and boxing matches usually
last 15 rounds) policies that divide us against each other by party, tribe,
language or colour, even by what we own, will not help.

Policies that depend on foreign aid will not help. Remember those Greeks
bringing gifts.

Whether the modern equivalent of those Greeks is Muammar Gaddafi, Mahathir

Mohamed of Malaysia, Ari Ben-Menashe, Tony Blair, George W Bush or the
chairman of the IMF, we need to examine their gifts carefully and see what
strings are attached to them.

First of all, very little aid comes as a gift. Usually it is a loan. The
strings attached to loans are fairly obvious, but they can become tighter
when we expect them to get looser, which makes them even more dangerous.

That is how so many countries got deep into debt. Even if aid comes in the
form of a gift, what advantage does the giver get out of us by giving it?

Occasionally he really wants to help as a friend, but that is rare and when
governments are giving, it is almost unknown.

Some of the people's organisations that offered us help after independence,
like the Danish Development Aid from People to People (DAPP), were really
trying to help us, but the total we got from them, whether in money or
knowledge and other forms of development, was small because they were small
groups without much money or power.

So, whatever happens in the presidential election, it won't solve all our
problems instantly.

They way ahead will still be tough, but it was important to vote for the
candidate who is most likely to lead us in the right direction.

Through difficulties, yes, but in the right direction.




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