I'm sure I'm not alone in having problems with President Zuma of South Africa. He's not an appealing man for many reasons, but I suspect he's right when he says this, as reported in the FT this morning:
Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, has warned western companies they must change their old “colonial” approach to Africa or risk losing out even more to the accelerating competition from China and other developing powers.
Western businesses and governments have a “psychological problem” and are still prone to lecturing Africa, Mr Zuma said in an interview with the Financial Times.
We saw a perfect example of this "problem" yesterday. Tony Blair reflected the ethos in an Observer article, quoting as his allies Bon and Geldof. He promotes a failed culture of aid backed by western foreign direct investment that has denuded Africa through tax abuse via tax havens; issues Blair fails to mention and that, oddly, Bono doesn't like to adress.
No wonder Zuma thinks as he does.
There is much more on this here.
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Richard, what’s your view on Blair’s statement that Aid has transformed Africa? Do you think this is just propaganda or has there been a real benefit?
I’ve made clear – we need to move to a post aid world
And during the period in question more tax was stripped out of Africa than went in in aid
Blair ignores that
The question is, why?