The worst blindness is only using the eye to see!!!! >From: MOMODOU BUHARRY GASSAMA <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Hopeless Africa? >Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 14:15:22 +0200 > >Hi Madiba! > Thanks for your post. While I found some of the >author's >arguments bordering on racism, I was quite amused by some statements. They >are reproduced below together with some rather true statements. > >1. Much of Africa is ruled more by rainfall than politics. >2. Liberia is, in fact, Charles Taylor Inc. >3. Besides, the money accumulated by the politicians and crooks > in Africa is rarely reinvested there. >4. Abolishing debt would help to create a fresh balance- sheet, but for >many countries debt-relief would only benefit Ukrainian arms- dealers. >5. Today, still, Africans' strongest qualities are fortitude to the point >of >fatalism, close family and communal ties, tolerance and an ability to >enjoy life. >6. Most African businesses are one-man-bands that rarely survive the >death of their founder. >7. The most damaging impact of imperial rule on Africa was neither >economic nor even political. It was psychological. >8. One example: the East African reported recently that a white >foreigner had been appointed to head the Kenya Commercial Bank, >since "it became clear that the appointment of an indigenous Kenyan >might lead to a run on the bank." >9. African states were not forged by ethnicity, nationalism and war. >They were simply bequeathed by departing imperial powers who left >highly centralised, authoritarian states to a tiny group of western- >educated Africans who rushed in and took over. >10. Independence often meant little more than a change in the colour of >the faces of the oppressors. >11. The African state, as invented by Europeans, has been neither >deconstructed nor reconstituted. >12. By personalising power, African leaders have undermined rather than >boosted national institutions >13.Their loyalties are regional or tribal, and they support the president >because he is the big chief. "I will vote for you when you are >president," challengers are sometimes told. >14. Most African presidents make no distinction between their party >and the government, using the panoply of state institutions in their >election campaigns. >15. The aid donors, whose support is essential for African rulers, >demand multi-party democracy on a western model. But they have applied >it inconsistently. Cynics call it donor democracy-just enough fair >voting and respect for human rights to satisfy the aid donors. >16. Few African palaces have anything in them made in Africa. > > >Thanks. > >Buharry. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------