Africa and the G8 summit
When: Jul 8th, 2005 10:12:32 am - Subscribe
I'm feeling: amazed
Talk, Opinion, Music, Life, Stuff: Music, Life, Opinion
So, the Live8 concert was held last Saturday, to create awareness about poverty in the Developing World i.e. Africa. (As if they didnt know!!) Funny how that particular event completely passed Africa by.
On tuesday morning, I asked some of my friends if they watched any of the concerts. No, they said. I had personally made up my mind not to watch. After all, no African musicians were deemed good enough for the main show. We are the sideshow, hence African musicians performed at a smaller event in Cornwall (where?). Kudos to Peter Gabriel for recognising the importance of African Music.
Is this what Africa has been reduced to? A side show?? An Agenda? A Cause? I get so furious when I see our dignity as a continent stripped on the world stage. We have allowed orselves to be reduced to nothing!! If you examine attitudes to Africa, you will find that we are not viewed as equals on the world stage. We cannot be as able and as capable in education and technology as our counterparts from the developed world. The only place we can compete is athletics(those Kenyans and Ethiopians!!).
So, since I had just finished an exam, I rewarded myself and decided to watch the charade going on around the world. If it was awareness they wanted, awareness is what they got. The crowds were huge!! They were all singing (and some added some cuss words to our vocab.)
I thought to myself, do we have to wait for the west to "save us" from ourselves? If they dont throw another Live8 in the future(because Geldof said there will never be another one), what are we to do? Will it be the end of us?
Granted, the West can be blamed for everything that went wrong. But even if they are responsible, it is time we took up our cross. we are the ones living in the continent and we are responsible for it. The West can only help us soo much.
BTW, I was just thinking, Africa has recieved tonnes of aid since we got back our independence. This strategy clearly hasn't worked. One of my lecturers says "if you do something the same way, you will get the same results". We need to change our approach so that we can get new results. For me that means NO MORE AID. We have been blessed with soo much, we are accountable for how we have misused it. If we cut our dependence on aid, we will have no alternative but to improve Africa for ourselves.
This will only benefit us in the long run, because it means that we can have our own sustainable markets without AGOA and etc. The money will also stay in the continent to benefit us, unlike the current case where profits are repatriated to the west. The future for us, is InterContinental Trade.
Lemme put and end to my ranting, but I'll Be Back!!!
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anonymous - July 15th, 2005 |
