The Running Commentary

1

African opportunity from African ruin…….

Africa

I was listening to the Africa report on 567 talk radio this morning by JJ Cornish. I was struck that much of what he reported on, as been said before (several times) – Zimbabwe will need more mediation, The LORDS resistance army is still to come to that table in terms of signing the peace treaty.

I felt at the end of the “brief flip around Africa” that we are a continent of so much promise and hope with a leadership that seem hell bent on profiteering for themselves.  I cannot help but get the sense that we need as countries on this great continent to focus on cultivating a new breed of leaders.

We need to change from the despotic image of fighting for a solution and instead work on ways of getting negotiated solutions. To be successful as this we need to raise up a new form of political leadership, we need young, passionate and most importantly educationally advanced leaders. We need these to be reared in all countries on this continent so that we can show the world that we are able to find workable instead of violent and oppressive solutions to the issues facing us.

I have said so in the past and will re-iterate it, we need to move from a donor mentality, where we are seen as simply an outlet for some well meaning fund raisers, we need to be seen as a serious investment opportunity. The only way we are going to see this come true is if the leadership is held to account in a democratic way. Zimbabwe is being ruined (some may argue already has been ruined) by a tyrant who is oppressing the very people he fought to free from colonial domination.

We need to see reason return to this and many other negotiation tables. The leaders in this struggle seem only interested in what they can gain from the process. Millions of the “loyal subjects” are being forced to starve and die from disease as a result of the greed of the privileged few.

Before any of you say I am sounding socialist, I am not advocating this at all. I believe in a free market economy where some people will get rich and be ahead of the vast majority, but this need not mean that the majority suffer with no basic food and health.

We need as Africans to move into a more balanced and rationale approach to problem solving, we need to vote leaders into power who really serve their constituents and not themselves. We need leaders morally sound and educationally strong so that they can take the plight of Africa and turn into in the opportunity for Africa.

africacorruptiondonationsinvestmentZimbabwe

Mike • December 1, 2008


Previous Post

Next Post

Comments

  1. Zimbabwe » CFA 300: African Globalization: Creating a Positive Environment ...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published / Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.