The gulf between the rich and poor countries is widening day by day. Right now, it is larger than at any time in history.
With the rich creating most of the damage and the poorest in the world suffering most of the consequences, the rich countries of the North should prepare themselves for an imminent massive revolt, the “revolt of the hungry”.
The present state of affairs confirms the fears that the poor and poorer countries are on the verge of an explosion. The anger of the poor has prompted the rich nations to act to address the situation.
The first step came from the Europeans who started taking action to ward off the approaching danger. French President Jacques Chirac was the first to put forward an initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he addressed by video conference.
Chirac said the world suffers chronically from the “silent tsunamis” — famine, infectious violence and revolt, and warned that the divide between the rich and the poor has widened to a frightening degree. France suggested overcoming poverty through combined approaches and proposed all countries that do not yet contribute 0.7 percent of their GDP to help the poor countries should commit themselves to a schedule enabling them to reach this figure as speedily as possible. He also suggested an international tax on jet fuel and maritime transport to fight AIDS. The United Kingdom then stepped in with Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiling the Commission on Africa’s report on how to tackle poverty. Blair said immediate action should be taken to address Africa’s poverty.
The plan as outlined by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who toured the continent to muster support for the project, calls for African leaders to own up responsibility for the part they played in grinding the continent into the dust. The report asks for an additional $25 billion a year in aid by 2010. It also calls for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to write off all the debts of poor countries, dismantling of trade barriers, especially on agricultural products, enforced by countries of the European Union and establishing an investment fund capable of pumping $50 billion annually to provide additional assistance to the continent.
As usual, both the French and British plans were met with criticism and applause without a specific stand that expresses the opinion of a majority that can proceed with seriousness toward the implementation of those proposals.
It must be said here if the French and British governments committed themselves to the enforcement of the proposals this would have a tremendous effect on efforts to alleviate the poverty in Africa.
However, attention need to be paid to certain important points that I think could influence the way in which this chronic humanitarian issues should be addressed:
• Africa is rich in natural resources and suffers no shortage of labor but the African labor force is unskilled and this is a heavy burden on any development plans. It is this that retarded the social development in the continent. Therefore, a sizable portion of the aid should be directed to education in its broader sense.
• Africa suffers from political instability. Attention must be focused on ending the causes of this political instability by engaging the African Union as the agency capable of intervening in African countries’ affairs if necessary with the support of the international community but away from the Security Council that has lost its credibility among Third World countries. Here, all forms of foreign intervention must be stopped, namely interferences by the Americans and Europeans that only lead to the continuation of conflicts and wars among countries of the continent.
• A well-planned aid program identifying priorities and how the money should be spent must be prepared in cooperation with the African Union that on its part must set up a special device to ensure the money is spent as specified. Previous experience has shown that aid money usually end up in the pockets of the ruling class.
• The trade system should be revised taking into consideration the conditions of the poor countries before catering for the interests of the rich states.
• Lastly, there must be complete re-evaluation of the volume of consumer goods that must only be provided in extremely urgent cases while focusing on investment and productive programs. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” says a Chinese proverb.
