I think foreign aids to developing countries should be
base on conditions of democracy, social justice and
human rights.There is no cause giving aids to regimes
than continue to violates the fundamental rights of
their own people no matter even they are so-called
allies of united states or Britain.In most instances,
they use the aids to build repressive
institutions.Aids to regimes should not be use for
security building but as a redeemer to alleviate
poverty and empowering the people.For example there is
no just cause for the British government to give
miltitary assistance to Jammeh's regime after the
incidences of April 10 and 11. For many years aids to
dictatorial regimes have done more harm than
good.Another example is Gambia's missing millons from
Taiwan.Which we all know when into private bank
accounts in Europe and America. In the end it is the
poor people of our country who should re-service such
debts.It is about time we put regimes in power than
will not depend on western aids.I know as we take more
debts, most of our natural resources is being mortgage
to re-service the debts and its impacts is on the
environment.As our environments degrades,more and more
people will continue to be engulf into the cycle of
poverty.
Abdou Karim Sanneh
Manchester, UK
--- "SS.Jawara" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Ylva:
>
> I think it is now the time for rich nations to
> consider more in detail the
> issue of development aid. How important is it ? To
> what extent can it
> contribute to the elimination of some generally
> acknowledged causes of mass
> poverty? Causes such as lack of natural resources,
> insufficient know-how in
> various aspects, insufficient infra-structure,
> modern technical equipment,
> funds etc..
>
> I believe that foreign aid is very necessary for a
> fast economic growth of
> many poor countries because of their desperate
> demand of a combination of
> funds and skills and a spirit of enterprise that is
> only to be found in the
> rich and developed countries. A masive transfer of
> such assets from the rich
> countries to the poor i believe is the fastest way
> to solve the problem.
>
> I heard president Bush´s speech last night, but i
> am afraid that the aid he
> mentioned is just going to fall back to their
> friends. What Castro said had
> already been said many times before. What lacks is
> the willingness to give
> from the rich countries. Rapid population growth is
> a big hindrance for
> economic growth in many poor countries.
> Both the human skills and natural potentials of a
> poor country may be
> insufficient for creating the economic growth that
> is needed to support a
> large and rapid growing population.
>
> However, i still do have my reservation as well just
> as i said previously,
> that it would be rash to expect that foreign aid
> alone will ever solve the
> development problems of the poor countries.
>
> Thanks for sharing!
>
> SS.Jawara
> Stockholm, Sweden.
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ylva Hernlund" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 7:28 PM
> Subject: [WASAN] Monterrey Conference (fwd)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 10:18:57 -0800
> From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
> To: an WASAN <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [WASAN] Monterrey Conference
>
> I am forwarding the following pieces because, while
> not specifically about
> Africa, the International Conference on Development
> Financing, which is
> discussed, affects Africa and the information
> presented below is not likely
> to be covered in the US media.
> dm
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
>
> March 21, 2002
> Granma International
>
> In Monterrey, Fidel urges an end to conditions for
> development funding
>
> MONTERREY, Mexico.- President Fidel Castro stated
> today Thursday that
> allocating funds for nations’ development should be
> carried out with the
> democratic support of all, and without sacrificing
> any countries’
> independence and sovereignty.
>
> When speaking at the International Conference on
> Development Financing, the
> Cuban leader commented that resources for providing
> direct help to countries
> should be in the hands of the United Nations, and
> not disastrous
> institutions like the International Monetary Fund
> (IMF).
>
> He considered that the forum’s planned resolution,
> called the Monterrey
> Consensus, should not be imposed at the conference
> by the world’s masters,
> thus delegating us to humiliating, conditional and
> interfering charity.
>
> Fidel Castro affirmed that the rich world should
> forgive foreign debts and
> offer new, soft loans for development financing,
> while traditional offers of
> aid, always miserly and very often ridiculous, are
> insufficient or not
> fulfilled.
>
> In that regard, he urged that all the international
> finance organizations
> that had been created since the Bretton Woods
> Conference until today, should
> be rethought.
>
> The Cuban president highlighted that in the face of
> the current serious
> crisis, we are being offered an even worse future,
> where an increasingly
> ungovernable world’s economic, social and ecological
> tragedy will never be
> solved, where poverty and hunger increase daily, as
> if a large part of
> humanity were superfluous.
>
> This is the time for politicians and state leaders
> to reflect calmly,
> suggested Fidel.
>
> He called the current world economic order a system
> of plunder and
> exploitation, the like of which history has never
> seen before, and which has
> led to the underdevelopment of 75% of the world’s
> inhabitants.
>
> Every day people believe less and less in statements
> and promises, and the
> prestige of international financial institutions has
> dropped to below zero.
>
> Cuba’s president referred to the world economy as a
> gigantic casino, when
> explaining that according to recent analysis, for
> every dollar used in world
> commerce more than $100 USD are used in speculative
> ventures that have
> nothing to do with the real economy.
>
> He also pointed out that 1.2 billion persons now
> live in extreme poverty in
> Third World nations, while the abyss is growing, not
> getting smaller. In
> 1969, rich countries had 37 times more income than
> poor nations; the figure
> currently stands at 74.
> He indicated that we have reached such extremes that
> the world’s three
> richest persons possess assets equivalent to the
> combined GDP of the 48
> poorest countries, while in 2001, the number of
> hungry people was 826
> million.
>
> Currently, there are 854 million illiterate adults,
> 325 million children who
> do not attend school, two billion persons who lack
> essential low-cost
> medicine, 2.4 billion who have no basic sanitary
> conditions. At least 11
> million under five’s die every year from preventable
> causes and 500,000 go
> incurably blind due to a lack of vitamin A.
>
> He stressed that the inhabitants of developed
> countries live 30 years longer
> than sub-Saharan African people, calling that true
> genocide.
>
> Fidel stated that poor nations should not be blamed
> for the tragedy, because
> they had not conquered or looted entire continents
> for centuries, nor
> established colonialism, nor re-introduced slavery
> or created modern
> imperialism. They are its victims.
>
> The main responsibility for financing development
> belongs to those states
> which today, for obvious historical reasons, enjoy
> the benefits of such
>
=== message truncated ===
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