Africa

Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters seems to be of the same mindset as myself on Africa in regards to the aid that has been given them.

The good Cap'n says:

After $568 billion has gone down the tubes in Africa -- an mind-boggling amount -- clearly that solution has been tried and found wanting. Money may be needed, but very obviously the conditions on the ground keep it from the uses that would rescue the continent from itself. Pushing more money into the existing political systems there only serves to keep despots in power and criminals in control of the aid we send. It is Oil-For-Food, only on a much grander scale.

......................The G8 will have to force Africa to reform itself, and unfortunately, there are only two ways to leverage that: money or force. Therefore, we have to prepare to spend some money in order to get the political reform African nations need to bootstrap themselves into self-sufficiency and out of the abject poverty into which their strongmen have consigned them.

Instead of looking at this as aid, perhaps it's better to look at it as financial incentives -- and we need to be tough about releasing the funds for it. No democracy, no money. Let those nations who truly reform benefit, and the pressure on others from the example will work its magic on their more recalcitrant neighbors. We may find that much less money will actually be needed to make that work, in the long run.

He has some other good info in his post along with some links. Go here to read it. See my earlier posts on Africa here , here, and here.