Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Giant and DwarfKenyan economist James Shikwati and is a good example of the way radical critics attackdevelopment aid. James Shikwati is the leader of the Nairobi-based think-tank Inter RegionEconomic Network 172 and believes the road to prosperity in Africa is free enterprise andsensible public policy. These assertions would not appear to be incorrect at first glance. Justthe opposite, neither Kenya nor Africa is going anywhere without effective businesses orgood governance. The problem is that Africans are not going to achieve either of thesegoals without foreign aid.Even more interesting than the contents was the fact that the article received a lot ofsupport and was chosen for the “Selected” portion of the site. This portal allows Slovakreaders to show their support for the content and ideas contained in a given text by voting.The article was published under the title “African Expert—For God’s Sake, Please, Stop theAid!” and received nearly 700 supporting votes. 173 That level of support in the “Selected”section isn’t even enjoyed by politically charged texts during election campaigns. It does tellus a good deal about a portion of the readers of one of the two truly opinion-forming newspapersin Slovakia. One could also speculate that an article named “African Expert—ForGod’s Sake, Give Us More and Better Aid” would have easily been lost in the mass of otherarticles. The text is not long which allows me to provide the original version in English. 174African Expert—“For God’s Sake, Please Stop the Aid!”Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm thangood. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effectsof Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstatethe AIDS problem. Here is a transcript of the article “For God’s Sake, Please Stop the Aid!”published by the Spiegel.de website.Spiegel: Mr Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the developmentaid for Africa...Shikwati: ...for God’s sake, please just stop.Spiegel: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If theindustrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate thisawful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also theones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, thecontinent remains poor.Spiegel: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?172 More information is provided at www.irenkenya.com.173 The Slovak version of the article can be found at: http://vybrali.sme.sk/c/Africky-expert-Preboha-prosim-zastavte-pomoc/.174 The Slovak version of the article can be found at: http://vacko.blog.sme.sk/c/282347/Africky-expert-Preboha-prosim-zastavte-pomoc.html#ixzz1loaydQob.186