African children receive generous packages of clothes. Good? Not necessarily. Local merchants lose their livelihoods because no one in the low-wage world of Africa can compete with the donated products that find their way to the black market. In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria's textile industry; six years later, the figure had fallen to 57,000. The results, Mr. Shikwati says, are similar in other areas "where overwhelming helpfulness and fragile African markets collide."
Increasing numbers of Africans decry the damages of paternalism, but you didn't hear those voices at the Live 8 concerts. Rage and protest were not directed at corrupt local leaders, either. Nelson Mandela's heroism directed at whites who oppressed blacks is needed now directed at black politicians who oppress the black masses.
The developed world rightly directs its generosity to crises of health and hunger, but aid must be part of a larger package to educate and encourage private incentive and enterprise. It's not enough to teach an African how to fish, but we must show the African how to sell the fish in a market where competition is fair. He has to learn how to keep government officials from cutting in on his business. Aid without reform is a dead-end concept, literally.
Nor can aid be understood in isolation. Many of the performers at Live 8 support environmental protections, but bans on DDT have killed millions more of Africans of malaria and other insect-borne diseases than hunger ever has.
Bill Gates, who has established a foundation to find innovative ways to fight disease in poor countries, says his money will be monitored carefully for its effectiveness and will be withdrawn from inefficient programs. We should follow his business example. "Success depends on knowing what works," he told the Live 8 audience in London.
Jean-Bedel Bokassa, once the leader of the Central African Republic, got it right: "We ask the French for money. We get it, and then we waste it." James Shikwati sums up the problem today. "Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its baby sitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet." This is not the feel-good message easy for feel-good masses to applaud, but snapping fingers only adds to mindless noise.