Hacker News Reader

Comment by pero | Hacker News Reader

Capitalism creating wealth in Africa? Cruel joke?

Nope. Counter-intuitive truth.

It isn't even that counter-intuitive. The approach for the longest time was to give aid through food and other basic necessities. Teaching a person how to fish rather than giving him fish clearly produces better results in the long term.

This is the "dirty little secret" about the sudden rise in African fortunes in the last decade or so (it is the fastest ascension of the middle class for Africa in... well, ever).

And, I know correlation != causation, but it's interesting nonetheless to note that this has happened under unprecedented investment by China in the continent, while investment rates actually shrank in the West (particularly in Europe, which probably is attributable to the financial crisis). This ascension is a marked improvement compared to, say, the efforts of Colonialism (the so-called "scramble for Africa"), Apartheid, and guilt-ridden charity.

It depends, if your teaching the person to fish to improve his way of life or teaching the person to fish to further line the pockets of an overseas corporation.

I think the wikileaks stuff on shell's behavior in Nigeria highlights this issue.

The real issue for the longest time was subsidy. We gave aid to African dairy farmers...but we subsidized American Diary so much that it was cheaper for Africans to buy our milk, and neglect their own domestic production.

"We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so. Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually accompanied by some impertinent attempt on the part of the sentimentalist to tyrannise over their private lives. Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table?" - Oscar Wilde

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/hist_texts/wilde_soul.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com