Ethan Zuckerman: "Africa’s a continent. Not a crisis."

live8

My friend and colleague Ethan Zuckerman has written a beautiful post in response to criticism of his recent posts about Live8. Be sure to read the comments left by African bloggers at the bottom of his posts too. Ethan's analysis of Live8, plus his roundups here and here at Global Voices Online linking to what African bloggers have to say about the whole thing, are much more useful reading than most of the MSM's Live8 coverage.   He writes:

In several of the interviews I watched on CNN and MTV, concert performers and fans referenced “the issue of Africa”, “the African cause”, or “the problem of Africa”.

Africa’s not an issue. It’s not a cause or a problem. It’s a continent - a complicated, confusing, beautiful continent, with wealth and poverty, peace and strife, success and tragedy. When Africa becomes a cause, we tend to see only one side of the continent - a helpless, dependent, starving side that “needs our help”.

To actually accomplish the goal of Live 8 - the elimination of poverty in Africa - Americans and Europeans have to get a great deal smarter about this other Africa. This Africa needs investment and trade, rather than just aid and debt forgiveness This Africa is open for business. This Africa is as important and as real as the Africa that needs help.

Aid dollars don’t eliminate poverty - integration into a global economy does. (South Korea and Ghana had approximately the same per capita income when Ghana gained independence in 1957. South Korea’s income per capita has increased roughly fifteen times in constant dollar terms, while Ghana’s has fallen slightly. You may notice that we buy a great deal more from South Korea than we do from Ghana.) If the goal of Live 8 were to help people see the African continent as a place they want to visit, a place they want to open businesses in, a place they want to engage with, as opposed to a place they want to save, I’d be more likely to share Brian’s hopes.

But that would be a very different concert. It would be one that celebrated the cultural richness of the continent by putting African artists on stage, rather than inviting them - after Geldof was shamed by Peter Gabriel - to perform at a parallel event a hundred miles away from the main action. It would be one that put African leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators on stage, rather than using a silent young Ethiopian woman as a stage prop for Madonna and Geldof. It would be one that was more focused on changing the global image of Africa than on somehow changing the minds of the eight guys sitting around a table in Scotland.

Comments

[omih]

Sure by all means promote understanding of the issues and an apreciation for the continent. But you and I know the media doesn't work that way. That's too complicated a message.

But also, the tired suggestion that capitalism will save Africa comes up time and time again. Like Vietnam where I live, reporters venture here 30 years after the war and report back that capitalism is saving Vietnam. Forgetting of course that a period of peace is the biggest reason for the improvements (I'm not saying that capitalism hasn't helped but its also contributed to cuts in free education, healthcare etc).

I get tired of the mantra of capitalism, freedom, democracy etc. It doesn't always work, not least in America.

Having said that, this is about cutting Africa some slack. Cut the debt, increase the aid and then develop. Paying off the debts is costing countries education and healthcare, without which no country can grow.

Working for an organisation like VSO (www.vso.org.uk) no one needs to teach me that aid and development must be sustainable but, for the most part, Africa is so far behind that it needs assistance first.

Then, lets see how the capitalism thing works.

But in the meantime the race to be the quirky voice of reason with the whole Live 8 thing is boring in itself. It's about hearts and minds and in this age of spin nothing is more important. Lets keep the pressure on politicians. We could genuinely make poverty history.

But what really bugs me is when I read from someone who doesn't want their tax dollars to go to this cause. That they think that there is an way out of this mess that doesn't involve spending a cent.

Its almost as if the very act of charity has become associated with the left wing so those from the right have to find a more business-based solution of their own.

Bush is quoted in today's papers saying that he won't agree to anything that will not benefit the USA. What about benefitting mankind as a whole?

Live8 can be a great moment in world history if a decision is reached that benefits Africa and the third world. But Live8 only works if we drop the cynicism and decide that en masse we want to make a change and we are happy to sacrifice time and money to do this.