Africa not happy with the “crumbs hand out” from G8?

The Washington Times in its commentaries said this (which pretty much ties up what I wanted to say on the topic):-

“Twenty years ago, Mr. Geldof organized the similar Live Aid concerts and reportedly raised $2 billion for African famine relief. Missing from this charity, however, is a clear understanding of the problem’s causes. Simply throwing more money at Africa — particularly at the government level — never solved anything. What happened to the $2 billion from the Live Aid concerts? What happened to the other $25 billion given by other private and public donors over the last decade? Why did African economic output drop 35 percent since the Live Aid concert?”

“Of 54 African countries, less than 15 are democratic. Africa represents 70 percent of world AIDS cases, and more than 12 million people have already died from it. In countries with tremendous wealth in mineral resources, including gold, diamonds and precious metals, corrupt African political leaders have garnered it for themselves and their supporters, and consigned ordinary Africans to poverty, misery, even starvation by sloganeering, brutal repression and arrant plunder”

It ended the commentaries with this:-

Afterward, the rich rock stars can shrug their shoulders, walk away, and say, “We’ve done what we could, but it didn’t work”

How true. This what I think Africans can do to pull themselves up:-

1. Stop blaming others

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The current blame is on the farm export subsidies where they complain rich countries force their farmers out of business. In a continent where the demand for food is huge, look at your own backyard to sell your goods. Starting blaming yourselves – Perhaps it is due to your incompetence, the country is in a mess. Look for the problems in yourselves and start working out a feasible solution.
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2. Work the ground

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Too many fertile lands lays idle due to problems with the ownership especially if involves tribal land. Government should act to get the land for better usage while regulating on the issue of ownership. Some are due to red-tapes in getting assistance from the government. Others due to incompetent land policies like the one in Zimbabwe – compare this to this
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3. Improve on education

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With education, it creates awareness and positive mindset. Africans must discard the mindset of they will be under charity by the rich and powerful. Those days are gone.
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4. Think global

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With advent of technology and the Internet, Africans cannot stick to the old ways of doing things. With technology, the output of work can be improved and can be implemented in various fields such as government operations, manufacturing, agricultural, etc
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5. Create haven for investment

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Let’s face it. No body in his right mind want to go to a country torn in civil war and corruption unless that person is an arms dealer or someone who had made special arrangement with the high level government personals to rob the country’s resources for huge profit
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Start doing that and perhaps one day; Africa can do it’s own “Live 8” for other poor countries in the world (Picture source: www.oppression.org)