Web Letters: Why Africa Doesn't Want Foreign Aid

I agree with Ms. Moyo's basic position, and I have heard a similar comment from another African man sometime back. Recently BBC had a story about plants in one African country that grow wild and cured malaria. They grew the crop and shipped it to China for processing. The finished product was again shipped back to Africa for use. Naturally, the cost of transportation and production were added to the finished product that originated in Africa. Another story from India told of a cloth manufacturer who use to make a particular dye for his products, and this too was outsourced to China. He complained that he had trouble getting the dye back from China that he used to make himself.

Both the African country and India could make the products themselves, in their own country and do it cheaper employing their own people, who would help support the home market. In other words, you need to encourage development in your own independent national economy. You need a tariff so high that they are forced to manufacture any of your raw materials in your home country. Put a big export tax on those raw materials so you can develop your own industries. This is how America became a major industrial nation. Merely being a source of raw materials to a developed state makes you dependent on them for economic survival. If you do not control your own economy, you are not an independent country. Watch over the next few months or years, and you will see the Western developed nation commit economic suicide through their "free trade" relationship with China. China is in the process of collapsing because the Western consumer does not have the wages or disposable income to buy anything. Watch and learn!

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA