September 20, 2004
FOREVER DESCENDING
Africa's descent into nightmare (Cameron Stewart, The Australian, September 20th, 2004)
From the Ivory Coast in the west to Somalia in the east and Zimbabwe in the south, sub-Saharan Africa is in a crisis unprecedented even by the flimsy standards of its own troubled history. In a continent increasingly racked by war, economic stagnation, an AIDS pandemic, corruption and intractable ethnic and tribal divides, Africans are struggling to secure their future more than a generation after the end of colonialism.This bitter truth was been spelt out in unusually blunt fashion by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, himself a Ghanaian, following his recent visit to Darfur.
He warned that the Sudan crisis, while shocking, was only one of a host of new problems in the region that were placing African nations at risk.
"We must not let the achievements of recent years be rubbed out by a return to an Africa in which millions are plagued by terrible violence," Annan told a summit of the 53-member African Union.
But the reality is that millions are already being plagued by terrible violence –– one in five Africans now live in a state that is being torn apart by war.
Would the last person who thinks he knows the solution to Africa’s problems please remember to turn out the lights.
Posted by Peter Burnet at September 20, 2004 10:41 AMThe only thing you can do is concentrate foreign policy in supporting those few states who have their act together. After some years of political stability and economic growth, locked in with Western support, they'll eventually look to put their neighborhood in order. However, with recent debacles in West Africa, the only candidates are now in the south.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at September 20, 2004 11:35 AMNeeds a few thousand more years of evolution.
Posted by: J.H. at September 20, 2004 12:05 PMThat Annan, one of the the most successful enablers of genocide in recent times (and a genuinely decent guy---if Nicholas Kristof can be believed (and why not?)---hasn't yet nominated Sudan for a spot on the UN Security Council is beyond comprehension.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at September 20, 2004 12:57 PMBarry:
Yes, that is a serious omission. But I'm sure his successor won't forget.
Posted by: Peter B at September 20, 2004 1:05 PMChris,
Huh? Kenya, though troubled quite a bit with AIDS, recently experienced an essentially peaceful transition of power to a new political party. If that doesn't count as hopeful, what does?
Posted by: Kirk Parker at September 20, 2004 11:13 PMWe might start by erasing all of the lines that Europe drew on the continent, and making nations out of tribal boundries.
It's odd that Colonel Qaddafi of Libya turned out to be one of Africa's better rulers. (Although that's a low bar indeed, and by objective standards, he's been at best so-so).
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at September 20, 2004 11:39 PMWell, if you can knock off enough of your opponents, persuade your people, with a combination of oil money and fear, to "do the right thing," have enough oil to cajole foreign markets, and have enough savvy to invade and destabilize the right countries (as opposed to the wrong ones) the sky's the limit.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at September 21, 2004 2:13 AMOne of the first things Quaddafi did was institute malaria control, something neither Idris nor the Italians thought worth any attention.
Africa needs a lot of things, but, in my estimation, many of them are comparatively simple things
Posted by: Harry Eagar at September 23, 2004 4:52 PM