Never before have so many African intellectuals called for an end to the classic type of development aid. "Aid is not the solution," was the headline of the Kenyan newspaper The Standard. According to the paper, aid does not go directly to the people but to "bureaucratic structures."
The worst thing about foreign aid, says the Monitor from Uganda, is that it prevents democratic development and urgently needed reforms. The paper also believes that aid stands in the way of long overdue and highly beneficial transparency in society.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's commissioner for Africa, the Green politician Uschi Eid, warns against sweeping acts of charity. If the donor countries don't make demands on Africans to act themselves, then they shouldn't expect any reforms -- which could be politically unpopular -- to be carried out.
The complete dependence on help from abroad and the World Bank's absurd demands have killed off individual economic incentives. Western therapy for Africa is like giving poison to a sick man. Or chocolate to a diabetic.
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