The bombings in London overshadowed the real
story of the G-8 Conference; its massive exercise of self-delusion and its
failure to address the greatest threat to Western civilization since Germany's
Third Reich. -- Alan C.
G-8
Failure on a Global Scale
By Alan
Caruba
I’m
fairly sure that the world leaders at the G-8 meeting in England were more
disappointed being overshadowed by the Islamist terror attack in London than by
the fact that their priorities and solutions were so misdirected and wrong the
conference can best serve as an example of gross incompetence.
Let’s
start with their priorities. Top of the list was the reduction of greenhouse
gases presumably responsible for global warming and massive debt relief to
African nations. The attack in London was a stark reminder that the first
priority of the West is the defeat of Islamic fundamentalism and its proponents.
One
initiative of the G-8 conference was to pledge $3 billion in “economic aid”
to the most committed terrorists on the face of the Earth, the Palestinians.
Despite all the money they have received to date, there is not a scintilla of
evidence they ever intend to cease attacking the Israelis. What parallel
universe do these “leaders” live in that permits them to ignore this?
Thompson
Ayodele, Director of the Institute of Public Policy Analysis, headquartered in
Lagos, Nigeria, says, “The resources needed for development in Africa can be
generated within the continent,” adding that “More foreign aid will not
eliminate poverty and launch African countries to productivity and growth.”
The only thing that foreign aid has produced is the maintenance of corrupt
governments in many African nations and the heavy debt that impedes any growth.
Thus,
the protestations of G-8 leaders from the seven wealthy industrial democracies
and from Russia, supported by the silliness of music concerts, ignore the fact
that massive foreign aid is part of the problem afflicting African nations. As
Ayodele points out, “Between 1970 and 1995 aid which started at about 5% of
Africa’s Gross National Incomes later peaked at 18% in 1995.” The result was
that GDP growth-per-capita “nose-dived.” Millions of Africans survive on
barely $1 a day.
The
only thing this aid succeeded in doing was to prop up dictators, encourage
corruption, while contributing nothing to the need for governments that support
the rule of law, the protection of property rights, and encourage indigenous
entrepreneurial efforts supported by the freedom to trade.
Dept
relief hides the fact that 38 of the world’s poorest nations, mostly African,
received $40 billion in debt relief between 1989 and 2002. At the same time,
they became further indebted with $93 billion in new loans. As The Washington
Times noted in a July 6 editorial, “Today, their cumulative debt burden totals
$144 billion.” In Nigeria alone, in the 45 years since Britain granted it
independence in 1960, “a succession of despots squandered nearly $400
billion.” The same can be said of far too many African nations that gained
independence in the latter half of the last century.
Africa’s
problems exist on a monumental scale. Forgiving a bit of the debt they owe the
West is more about public relations than about the need to address those
problems. For example, as Peter Brookes, a Heritage Foundation analyst, has
noted, “40 million Africans are at risk of starvation. Another 30 million have
AIDS. Forty-two million children are not even enrolled in school. And civil war
and ethnic violence rock the Democratic Republic of Congo (3 million dead) and
Liberia (200,000 killed), among others.”
Returning
to my view that the primary problem facing the West these days is Islam, Brookes
noted that, “The continent has become a regular home to international
terrorism, including al Qaeda.” In 1998, US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
were bombed and the continent has seen a succession of comparable attacks, all
initiated by the Jihad whose goal is to advance the domination of Islam
throughout Africa and the world.
Talk
of debt relief ignores the tremendous wealth that exists in Africa. Nigeria,
Angola and Gabon are among the top fifteen providers of oil to the United
States. Other nations such as Algeria, Congo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial
Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Chad are also energy producers.
Moreover, the restrictions African governments put on business enterprises
within their nations continue to stifle any effort to create stable, productive
economies. The subsidies Western nations pay their farmers also insure that
African produce cannot compete in the world marketplace.
Tens
of billions of US oil company investment is scheduled for Africa and this
represents an important hedge against dependence on Persian Gulf oil. This is a
national security priority.
Before
we make pariahs of the oil companies who are forced to do business with corrupt
African governments, let’s remember that little of this investment (or foreign
aid) reaches ordinary Africans in terms of the building of roads, bridges, water
and sewage facilities, and schools.
Short-term,
debt relief is simply testimony to the history of failure of foreign aid to
Africa and will accomplish nothing. Long-term, the leaders of the G-8 nations
and all others need to acknowledge that the greatest threat is Islam itself,
mired in laws formulated in the seventh century AD. If they do not want to see
the world plunged into chaos, they need to start now to address this threat.
That
stark fact seems to have been lost on the G-8 leaders who continue to say that
Islam is a peaceful religion and the problem involves only a handful of
fundamentalists who hold it hostage. How much better the latest conference would
have been if it had announced a broad range of programs designed to punish any
nation that harbors and supports the Islamic revolution.
Alan
Caruba writes a weekly commentary, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet
site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.
©
Alan Caruba, July 2005
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