“First, take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  Matt 7:5

All the events of the last few days (and it isn’t all over yet – particularly for Joao Simao) have caused me to reflect a lot on the Wests’ attitude towards the Global South/Developing World/Two thirds world/Third World (choose your preferred terminology.)

In the wake of Jubilee 2000 and the Drop the Debt campaign, a lot has been done by Western countries to remove some of the injustices which we put upon developing countries which exacerbate poverty.  Admittedly, there is still a long way to go in areas such as trade, for example, but I want to ask a question I have been thinking about increasingly for the last few years, but which events of the past months and now the last few days has intensified.

What is the point of removing debt, of initiating fairer trade laws, of giving “better” aid, if a country’s infrastructure is so corrupt and thieving, that money simply leaches away once inside the system?

It may well be the right thing to do, it may well expunge our colonial (or even post-colonial consciences), but are we simply interested in throwing a few more pounds or dollars in Africa’s direction, simply “improving” peoples standards of living, or do we genuinely want to see lasting change in terms of attitudes as well?

There may well be plenty going on at top governmental levels to increase accountability, but within the system here, immigration officials, police, traders, market stall holders, school teachers, football tournament officials etc. are sometimes corrupt to the core.  Go to the local market and you will find an array of Western T-Shirts, shorts, trousers and shoes – all donated to aid organizations – all sold onto the black market.  Finish with border line grades at school and your teacher may well ask for money in order to pass you.  (One of our ex-lads was told in order for him to pass, he had to find girls for the teacher to sleep with.)  Enroll for police or teacher training and you will be snubbed unless you pay a handful of “extra” payments on top of your fees.  Try to recover your stolen goods and the police will not release them unless you pay them for their trouble.  Take your kids to a local football tournament and you will be told you cannot play your best two players because they are “too old” – even when you hold their ID cards in front of the guy’s nose so that he can read they are young enough.  Add into this, that said official had been trying to scout them for his team 2 days earlier, and the situation becomes even murkier.  Do you get my point?

I understand that I am simplifying things here and can hear some protests already.  Police need to supplement their wages in order to live.  Well they already earn above the minimum wage here – and in a country where unemployment is anywhere between 20-50% they have a better standard of living than most.  It may be that culturally it is expected that bribery is just part of the economic system.  Ok, but this brings me back to my question.  Every culture has good, neutral and bad aspects to it.  It isn’t our job to destroy cultures in my opinion, but having looked at our own foreign policies (plank in our own eye) shouldn’t our responsibility then lie in removing, or helping to remove, the speck from our brother’s eye (e.g. in this case corruption)?

In 2005 the G8 was held at Edinburgh and along with hundreds of thousands of others I marched in protest against unfair trade laws etc.  I want an end to poverty in Africa.  However, I remember feeling a pang of unease at the time, that the three pronged attack of more and better aid, fair trade and an end to corruption, had been reduced to better aid and fair trade by the marchers.

The emphasis of the West, must include a real push for anti corruption if Africa is not to be any poorer 20 years on from the second Live8.  Otherwise, more money may well be entering a country, its GNP and rate of economic growth may be increasing, but all that is happening is that those with any power become richer, whilst the poor become poorer.

I have a Liberian friend who studied for a Development Masters in Manchester.  He was convinced that the main factor that kept Africa in poverty wasn’t the colonial legacy, or any of the post colonial economic factors but was corruption within.  Yes the other factors were important, but corruption was the crux of the problem.

We have spent a fair deal of time removing the plank in our own eye – (and still have splinters to go) but please, we must start focusing on the speck of corruption here if we really want to see long lasting change in all aspects of life.

Dave