Andrea’s weekly column for the Star.
When scanning the world news, I saw that Greece is dealing with an exacerbating financial and economic crisis: large and widening budget deficit, rising public debt, rating agency downgrades, budget cuts - and now public protests and widespread strikes against the austerity measures. All a little reminiscent of what many African countries went through in the 1980s and 1990s.
Now I am by no means an expert on Greece’s economy, or indeed Greece at all, but I think it is time to do something to help fellow humanity in that part of the world. Remember the discussion in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti that Kenya – and other African countries – should also play their role in the international efforts to help Haitians? So let’s pull our weight here: I’d like to propose that we send over Jua Kali. Or rather Nameless and Wahu? Maybe a happily married celebrity singer couple is more useful than just one singer? Two for one? They will meet up with Greece’s prime minister and the finance minister to offer some advice to deal with this clearly difficult situation.
Silly suggestion? Yes, very much so. Yet it’s par for the course when it comes to African governments: A friend forwarded me a press invite for a panel on ‘Economic Transformation’ that included amongst its speakers the IMF’s Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn, Kenya’s Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta – and, fantastically, Bob Geldof, listed as ‘Rock Star and Activist’. I was slightly gobsmacked and emailed back that I didn’t dare attend since I’d probably spontaneously combust with irritation. What exactly, I do wonder, qualifies Mr Geldof to hold forth on ‘economic transformation’? When has ‘throw more charity cash at it’ become a viable economic policy – or any policy at all?
In terms of overall media coverage, it wasn’t a bad week for the ‘Rockstar and Activist’: He went postal on the BBC who had earlier published an investigation that part of the LiveAid cash raised in 1985 had been diverted by the rebels in Ethiopia. Mr Geldof’s rant on the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ section made me wonder whether he was Brother-Leader Ghaddafi’s long-lost brother: Ghaddafi couldn’t stop himself in his last speech at the UN, described by a US official as ‘lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place, not necessarily a lot of sense.’ (accurate, if obviously not helping diplomatic relations, so the good man had to suck up to oil producer Libya and apologise before a similar fate as Switzerland would befall the US and they’d have a Jihad slapped on them). Brother Bob, in what amazingly was already an edited version, raved and ranted. The Mother of all Rants. As far as rants go, glorious, and practically incontinent in its holy fury. More fur flying than when my doglet fights with next door’s puppy. A Jihad on you, Beeb!
Not that I question Geldof’s sincerity and motivations, but good intentions are not enough, and with this rant, he has demonstrated again that his grasp of the complexities that you’ll find in every country is limited. Contrary to what charity campaigners will often suggest, delivering aid and humanitarian assistance in a conflict environment is not neutral Yes, aid will be diverted, yes, aid agencies have to hand over cash for ‘protection’, yes, aid will prop up one or several of the fighting sides and can perpetuate conflict. Vested interests, and often straightforward economic motivations, whether on an individual or group level, do play a role in conflicts. In the region, just look at Somalia or Southern Sudan. You can’t just flounce past everyone, greeting them nicely, and drop off your bags of food. It’s messy and difficult to understand without a detailed knowledge of the different actors, a country’s history, geopolitical aspects and international politics.
So a ‘rock star and activist’ may not be the best person to search out for contributions to policy in developing countries. When Geldof has spent a bit more time studying Kenya, its economy, the different sectors, how corruption can be reigned from draining public funds, how to improve power supplies, the regulatory bottlenecks, regional trade relations, absorptive capacity, financing for infrastructure, the tax regime and so on, or when he’s invested in a couple of companies here and been involved in running them, then I’ll happily rock up to listen to him discuss ‘economic transformation. Until then, I’m with this friend who commented: ‘There is something deeply wrong and not a little racist in the assumption that a foul-mouthed pop singer has anything to offer an entire continent in need of serious intellectual debate.’
It may be an urban myth, but as a story, I like it regardless: Reportedly Angelina Jolie had asked for a meeting with Thabo Mbeki when he was South Africa’s president. Thabo Mbeki, the anecdote goes, confirmed that she was, indeed, an actress – and then asked his people to arrange a meeting with the culture minister for her.
Republished with kind permission from the Star.
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