A Poverty Of Government
The compassion business
Africa is not simply a continent of war, disease and catastrophe – it is also a continent rich in both resources and culture. We offer seemingly endless development aid, but the sad reality is that this type of assistance destroys the most important mechanism that could put an end to poverty in the long term: the development of capable, incorruptible state administrations, which serve the interests of the population. As long as unprincipled, unscrupulous, exploitative elites continue to govern Africa irresponsibly, blithely squandering resources because there is no retribution for such abuse, there is no end in sight.
Volker Seitz, who spent seventeen years in the diplomatic service in Africa, states the case for putting an end to this type of ultimately damaging international support, and taking an entirely new direction.