POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY INNOCENT MADAWO IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
First, Moyo is right, aid almost never helps.
There are many reasons why this is so, including the fact that much of aid is consciously given as an ongoing bribe to get votes in international forums, to bribe corrupt officials into keeping business interests safe, to support the vast waste of militaries, and to supply good jobs to careerist aid workers from the West.
There are good aid projects, but they are always led by dedicated people and they usually are under-funded. The reality of politics just does not support such efforts over the other projects serving the purposes above.
But more importantly, I completely disagree that investment doesn't go to Africa because of some nonsense about the "dark continent."
That is just excuse-making.
Investment avoids places with poor government, places with backward laws, places with overwhelming corruption, places with instability, and places with civil disorder.
Those are circumstances that prevail through much, if not most, of Africa.
Would the writer invest substantial personal savings in enterprises in any of these places as opposed to investments in stable Western economies?
Of course not.
