[Previous entry: "Bush's climate row aide joins oil giant"] [Next entry: "Study Shows Big Brained People are Smarter"]

06/17/2005:

"Developed world criticised at African meeting"

The developed world came in for criticism on Monday at a conference on African revival for "the blackmail involved in international aid" and a vested interests in wars.

Blackmail has become "quite a common fixture of 'aid'," theologian and former anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak said, addressing a Pretoria conference on the African Renaissance.

In 1995, he said, United States subsidies for arms exports accounted for more than half that country's bilateral aid, and 40 percent of total US aid.

'War is a highly profitable business'
"This emphasis on weapons exports comes at the expense of programmes designed to promote economic development and social welfare in recipient countries," he said.

If he were an African leader, Boesak told the conference to many approving nods, "I would look very closely at agreements I sign with (US President) George Bush today, and see what is aid..."

On the questions of wars, he said these not only cost money, but also "make money for somebody".

"War is, above all, a highly profitable business, and we ignore that fact at our peril," Boesak said. "It helps explains the millions dead in wars since 1945... namely the common interest of the military-industrial complexes of the West and East and the power elites of the developing world."

Turning to debt relief, he said the cancellation of the debt of 18 of the world's poorest countries, announced by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations at the weekend, was a drop in the ocean.

"We are not touching reality here, ladies and gentlemen," he said.

Unless discussions about debt relief yield tangible results, and more aid than the promised $40-billion is received, "the African Renaissance may yet die in its infancy".

Boesak referred extensively to Africa's colonial and apartheid past, and what he described as the "destruction of kingdoms, the rape of our continent and the theft of our land".

The ongoing exploitation of Africa ensured the continued development of rich nations, he said.
Full: ioa.co.za