From: "nkrumah lumumba" <[log in to unmask]>


> WHEN THEY SAY "AID", THEY MEAN "RAID"
> =====================================
> [Col. Writ. 6/13/05] Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
>
>   Recently, the news columns were full of a supposed
> dispute between the Americans and the British about
> foreign aid relief to Africa.  If the news reports are
> to be believed, the British wish to push the Americans
> further, to provide more debt relief for countries
> staggering under their economic burdens.
>
>   The media image that arises is one of the rich,
> Western, White nations caring about the lives and
> conditions of starving Black Africa.  And like many
> media images, it simply isn't true.
>
>   What is often lost in this angelic imagery is the
> truth behind the so-called aid.  That 'aid' that was
> given years ago, was given to military dictatorships,
> and it was often military aid meant to strengthen
> dictatorships, against, not foreign attacks, but
> popular resistance, from their own people!
>
>   Indeed, in a 1960 meeting of the U.S. National
> Security Council, American spies and diplomats spoke
> rather openly about U.S. support for military regimes.
> The minutes of the meeting record them saying:
>
>
>      We must recognize, although we cannot say it
> publicly, that we need the strong men of Africa on our
> side.  It is important to understand that most of
> Africa will soon be independent and that it would be
> naive of the U.S. to hope that Africa will be
> democratic ... Since we must have the strong men of
> Africa on our side, perhaps we should in some cases
> develop military strong men as an offset to Communist
> development of the labor unions.  The President agreed
> that it might be desirable for us to try to 'reach'
> the strong men of Africa ...
>      [Fr. NSA mtg., 1/14/60 as published in *Foreign
> Relations, 1958-1960, Vol. XIV*, pp. 73-78.]
>
>
>   From meetings such as this, came US 'aid' to such
> dictators as Zaire's late Mobutu, who was among one of
> the wealthiest men in Africa, if not the world.
> Through 'African strong men' such as he, the U.S. ran
> many countries as neocolonies, through which they
> could further exploit the people of the continent.
>
>   The late U.S. President, Richard Nixon, spoke a
> powerful political truth when he said: "Let us
> remember that the main purpose of aid is *not to help
> other nations* but to help ourselves." [Fr. Graham
> Hancock, *Lords of Poverty* (New York: Atlantic
> Monthly Press, 1989, p. 71].
>
>   Think about it this way: when millions of dollars
> in military aid is given to a dictatorship, where does
> the money go?  To the receiving country, or to the
> arms dealers and defense contractors which makes the
> weapons?  So, how is this 'aid'?
>
>   It's aid to ourselves to arm forces that keep their
> own people in line.  Also, since at least the 1970s,
> U.S. food aid has been tied to the myth of population
> control.  In order to receive 'aid' from the nice,
> White, West -- African, Latin American and Asian
> countries have had to pledge they would reduce their
> populations.
>
>   Why would countries that are agricultural gardens
> of Eden even need food aid?  That's because, after
> formal colonialism, Western powers often installed
> military dictators who spent the nation's resources on
> weapons used to break and destroy labor unions!  A
> 1986 study by the National Academy of Sciences found
> that the single country of Zaire, alone, could feed
> it's own population -- 62 times over!  Indeed, that
> one country, with high agricultural outputs, could
> feed the entire continent of Africa!
>
>   But, under the rapacious U.S. -supported military
> dictatorship of Mobutu, much of that agricultural
> potential, and it's vast wealth of resources, was
> squandered, and sent into Belgian and European banks.
>
>   The late, great Kwame Nkrumah said 'political
> independence, without economic independence, is but a
> mirage.'
>
>   The sweet words of 'aid' muttered by British and
> American officials to Africa is to lull the people
> asleep with promises.
>
>   It is, in truth, yet another plan to exploit people
> who have been exploited by outsiders for millennia.
>
>   True 'aid' is reparations, for the crimes of
> colonialism.
>
>   Real 'aid' would be an end to the support of
> military regimes.
>
>   Real 'aid' would be an end to political, economic,
> and social interference in the social, cultural and
> familial affairs of African people.
>
>   Real 'aid' would be an end to imperialism!
>
>
> Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
>
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