Afrikas problemer skyldes ikke, at kontinentet får for få penge fra vestlige lande, tværtimod. Afrika kunne have været et rigt kontinent uden en krone i hjælp fra Vesten. Kontinentet er fyldt med naturressourcer af alle tænkelige slags, og fødevarer kan produceres i større mængder end herhjemme p.g.a. et klima, som ikke begrænser høstsæsonen til én gang årligt.
Problemet med Afrika er elendig og despotisk politisk ledelse. Fra 1990 til 2005 modtog kontinentet f.eks. 300 mia. dollars i ulandsbistand, men lokale politikere og stammeledere brugte mindst det samme beløb på at bekrige hinanden.
Alle vore millioner og milliarder er blot med til at bilde afrikanerne ind, at de har det dårligt, fordi de er ofre for en uretfærdighed. I er fattige, fordi vi er rige - hvis vi er mindre rige, kan I også blive mindre fattige, lyder det underforståede budskab, som følger med pengene. Tænk hvis man en dag begyndte at sige sandheden til afrikanerne i stedet: I er fattige, fordi I tillader magtsyge despoter at føre krig for jeres penge. I er fattige, fordi I tillader jeres herskere at hundse rundt med jer. I er fattige, fordi I ikke gør modstand, når jeres politikere konfiskerer jeres ejendom til egen vinding.
Den franske jurist Étienne de La Boétie skrev allerede i 1552 det lille skrift Lydighedens politik: En afhandling om frivillig trældom, hvori han betroede os denne indlysende, men alt for underkendte sandhed. Han skrev bl.a. (undskyld det engelske, det skal ikke gentage sig for ofte):
"Poor, wretched, and stupid peoples, nations determined on your own misfortune and blind to your own good! You let yourselves be deprived before your own eyes of the best part of your revenues; your fields are plundered, your homes robbed, your family heirlooms taken away. You live in such a way that you cannot claim a single thing as your own; and it would seem that you consider yourselves lucky to be loaned your property, your families, and your very lives. All this havoc, this misfortune, this ruin, descends upon you not from alien foes, but from the one enemy whom you yourselves render as powerful as he is, for whom you go bravely to war, for whose greatness you do not refuse to offer your own bodies unto death. He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you? What could he do to you if you yourselves did not connive with the thief who plunders you, if you were not accomplices of the murderer who kills you, if you were not traitors to yourselves? You sow your crops in order that he may ravage them, you install and furnish your homes to give him goods to pillage; you rear your daughters that he may gratify his lust; you bring up your children in order that he may confer upon them the greatest privilege he knows - to be led into his battles, to be delivered to butchery, to be made the servants of his greed and the instruments of his vengeance; you yield your bodies unto hard labor in order that he may indulge in his delights and wallow in his filthy pleasures; you weaken yourselves in order to make him the stronger and the mightier to hold you in check. From all these indignities, such as the very beasts of the field would not endure, you can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces."
Tænk hvis man, i stedet for at bruge milliarder og atter milliarder af dollars, kroner, euro, pund o.s.v., brugte nogle få millioner på at optrykke dette budskab på små papirark i de sprog, som tales på det afrikanske kontinent, og uddelte ét styk papir til alle, der kan læse i Afrika ... Der er selvfølgelig ingen garanti for, at det ville virke, men forslaget har i det mindste én indlysende fordel:
Man kan ikke føre krig med papirflyvere.
Problemet med Afrika er elendig og despotisk politisk ledelse. Fra 1990 til 2005 modtog kontinentet f.eks. 300 mia. dollars i ulandsbistand, men lokale politikere og stammeledere brugte mindst det samme beløb på at bekrige hinanden.
Alle vore millioner og milliarder er blot med til at bilde afrikanerne ind, at de har det dårligt, fordi de er ofre for en uretfærdighed. I er fattige, fordi vi er rige - hvis vi er mindre rige, kan I også blive mindre fattige, lyder det underforståede budskab, som følger med pengene. Tænk hvis man en dag begyndte at sige sandheden til afrikanerne i stedet: I er fattige, fordi I tillader magtsyge despoter at føre krig for jeres penge. I er fattige, fordi I tillader jeres herskere at hundse rundt med jer. I er fattige, fordi I ikke gør modstand, når jeres politikere konfiskerer jeres ejendom til egen vinding.
Den franske jurist Étienne de La Boétie skrev allerede i 1552 det lille skrift Lydighedens politik: En afhandling om frivillig trældom, hvori han betroede os denne indlysende, men alt for underkendte sandhed. Han skrev bl.a. (undskyld det engelske, det skal ikke gentage sig for ofte):
"Poor, wretched, and stupid peoples, nations determined on your own misfortune and blind to your own good! You let yourselves be deprived before your own eyes of the best part of your revenues; your fields are plundered, your homes robbed, your family heirlooms taken away. You live in such a way that you cannot claim a single thing as your own; and it would seem that you consider yourselves lucky to be loaned your property, your families, and your very lives. All this havoc, this misfortune, this ruin, descends upon you not from alien foes, but from the one enemy whom you yourselves render as powerful as he is, for whom you go bravely to war, for whose greatness you do not refuse to offer your own bodies unto death. He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you? What could he do to you if you yourselves did not connive with the thief who plunders you, if you were not accomplices of the murderer who kills you, if you were not traitors to yourselves? You sow your crops in order that he may ravage them, you install and furnish your homes to give him goods to pillage; you rear your daughters that he may gratify his lust; you bring up your children in order that he may confer upon them the greatest privilege he knows - to be led into his battles, to be delivered to butchery, to be made the servants of his greed and the instruments of his vengeance; you yield your bodies unto hard labor in order that he may indulge in his delights and wallow in his filthy pleasures; you weaken yourselves in order to make him the stronger and the mightier to hold you in check. From all these indignities, such as the very beasts of the field would not endure, you can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces."
Tænk hvis man, i stedet for at bruge milliarder og atter milliarder af dollars, kroner, euro, pund o.s.v., brugte nogle få millioner på at optrykke dette budskab på små papirark i de sprog, som tales på det afrikanske kontinent, og uddelte ét styk papir til alle, der kan læse i Afrika ... Der er selvfølgelig ingen garanti for, at det ville virke, men forslaget har i det mindste én indlysende fordel:
Man kan ikke føre krig med papirflyvere.
