Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Is Africa still being looted? A debate dodging World Bank schizophrenia

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, August 27, 2010

Is Africa still being looted? A debate dodging World Bank schizophrenia

by Patrick Bond from CADTM.

The continent’s own elites, the West and now China are still making Africans progressively poorer, thanks to the extraction of raw materials. Reinvestment is negligible and the prices, royalties and taxes paid are inadequate to compensate the wasting away of Africa’s natural wealth. Anti-extraction campaigns by civil society are the only hope for a reversal of these neocolonial relations.

The author fights the disinformation regarding African development emanating from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) and a representative from the World Bank.

While the researchers of the World Bank may acknowledge some real facts that suggest policies in contradiction to the agency's policies, the agency exists to serve the needs of their masters--the world's capitalist classes.