The voice of Africa
Nairobi
Hardly anybody bothers to ask ordinary poor Africans what they think about the G8 summit, so I did. On Sunday I went on an extended pub crawl around the Ngong Hills. First stop was the filling station outside Nairobi’s game park. ‘Aid won’t help us,’ said the petrol attendant. ‘Our leaders will steal it.’ ‘How do you know that?’ I asked. ‘I’m an African, I know,’ he said. ‘What do you think of Bob Geldof?’ His face brightened. ‘I love Bob Marley very much!’ ‘What about Bono?’ Blank stare. On the other side of the road a herd of buffalo waggled their ears as matatu taxis hurtled to and fro.
I drove on into the slum of Ongata Rongai. Fauvist signs advertising all imaginable human activities jostled with heaps of smoking rubbish, vegetable stalls and butcheries. I passed the Maximum Miracle Centre, Willy Fabricators, the Exciting Hotel and La Fairly Boutique. A drum-banging procession of men and women dressed as Old Testament prophets swayed by as I entered the Honey Pot Club and ordered Tuskers.
‘Yes I think Bob Geldof is a great man,’ roared Elias ole Mong’i above the plunky-plink of Congolese rumba music. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Because he’s fighting for the poor, that musician.’ I am incredulous, but the poor Kenyans who have heard of Geldof genuinely admire him. I asked Elias, ‘What would you do if you saw a Boomtown Rat?’ Blank stare. ‘Who’s Bono?’ Blank stare. Elias sells beaded Maasai artefacts to tourists in the city and feels he’s up and coming in the world. He agreed the G8 should forgive debts and double aid to Africa to help lift his home village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro out of the poverty which he blames on misrule by Kenya’s leaders since independence in 1963. ‘In my village they live in desperate poverty. All they know is God, who helps in time of drought and time of rain. Don’t keep us in darkness, but let the money be channelled to the people, not the leaders. Who benefits if you bring me £200 today and I don’t take it to the community? If tomorrow you bring £400, who benefits? We have greedy people in society. We elect leaders and they lie to you very good, but tomorrow they’ll never remember you.’ (Emphasis added.)
Read the rest here.
From The Spectator.co.uk
By Aidan Hartley
Hardly anybody bothers to ask ordinary poor Africans what they think about the G8 summit, so I did. On Sunday I went on an extended pub crawl around the Ngong Hills. First stop was the filling station outside Nairobi’s game park. ‘Aid won’t help us,’ said the petrol attendant. ‘Our leaders will steal it.’ ‘How do you know that?’ I asked. ‘I’m an African, I know,’ he said. ‘What do you think of Bob Geldof?’ His face brightened. ‘I love Bob Marley very much!’ ‘What about Bono?’ Blank stare. On the other side of the road a herd of buffalo waggled their ears as matatu taxis hurtled to and fro.
I drove on into the slum of Ongata Rongai. Fauvist signs advertising all imaginable human activities jostled with heaps of smoking rubbish, vegetable stalls and butcheries. I passed the Maximum Miracle Centre, Willy Fabricators, the Exciting Hotel and La Fairly Boutique. A drum-banging procession of men and women dressed as Old Testament prophets swayed by as I entered the Honey Pot Club and ordered Tuskers.
‘Yes I think Bob Geldof is a great man,’ roared Elias ole Mong’i above the plunky-plink of Congolese rumba music. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Because he’s fighting for the poor, that musician.’ I am incredulous, but the poor Kenyans who have heard of Geldof genuinely admire him. I asked Elias, ‘What would you do if you saw a Boomtown Rat?’ Blank stare. ‘Who’s Bono?’ Blank stare. Elias sells beaded Maasai artefacts to tourists in the city and feels he’s up and coming in the world. He agreed the G8 should forgive debts and double aid to Africa to help lift his home village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro out of the poverty which he blames on misrule by Kenya’s leaders since independence in 1963. ‘In my village they live in desperate poverty. All they know is God, who helps in time of drought and time of rain. Don’t keep us in darkness, but let the money be channelled to the people, not the leaders. Who benefits if you bring me £200 today and I don’t take it to the community? If tomorrow you bring £400, who benefits? We have greedy people in society. We elect leaders and they lie to you very good, but tomorrow they’ll never remember you.’ (Emphasis added.)
Read the rest here.
From The Spectator.co.uk
By Aidan Hartley
posted by HeavyHanded at
6:17 PM
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