Mark Steyn on Africa

Africa is all the rage these days and feel-good guys and gals are oh so very concerned about the plight of those poor people over there.

Mark Steyn has a few words for those paternalist hypocrites.

Western liberals, Steyn argues, feel

that paternalism and condescension are the only ways to deal with Africa, they're just quibbling over the particular form of condescension....

[W]e all know Africa can produce wild, vibrant, exciting jungle rhythms. What's unclear is whether it can produce anything boring, humdrum and routine. Accountancy firms, for example.
....

According to the World Bank's Doing Business report, in Canada it takes two days to incorporate a company; in Mozambique, it takes 153 days. And Mozambique's company law has been unchanged since 1888. In the midst of the unending demands that Bush do this, Blair do that, do more, do it now, would it be unreasonable to suggest that, after 117 years, the government of Mozambique might also be obligated to do something about its regulatory regime?

Meanwhile, next door in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's government is being given hundreds of thousands of tons of emergency supplies from the UN's World Food Programme. At the press conference, James Morris, head of the WFP, was at pains to emphasise that the famine was all due to drought and Aids, and certainly nothing to do with Mr Mugabe's stewardship of the economy. Some of us remember that during the 2002 G8 summit, also devoted to Africa, Zimbabwe's government ordered commercial farmers to cease all operations.

But still neither the UN nor his fellow African leaders will hear a word against Mr Mugabe....

The issue in Africa in every one of its crises - from economic liberty to Aids - is government. Until the do-gooders get serious about that, their efforts will remain a silly distraction.

Read the whole thing here.

This summarizes the difference between the approach now being advocated by George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, both of whom insist that aid to Africa be targeted toward promoting business development, international trade, and political freedom, and that of Blair and the EU who are willing to simply dispense money to corrupt dictatorial kleptocracies, trusting them to spend it wisely.