From: bross@splatter.nas.nasa.gov (Bill Ross)
Subject: Article: 'Africa's dysfunctional politics'
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 01:24:43 GMT

        Africa's dysfunctional politics

        Robert D. Kaplan , _New Republic_, Dec 28 1992

Summarized/excerpted by Bill Ross

  [In 1915 U.S. marines occupied Haiti at a point of complete anarchy
after 102 revolutions & coups in the previous 72 years. They left in
1934 after the modernizing the infrastructure: roads, health, civil
service, national guard & more.] "Within a few years the political
situation had deteriorated again to the point where Haitian doctors
sold off the drugs & supplies of the health service in one huge scam.
By the 1950s Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier had begun his climb to
power, and Haiti prepared for new levels of barbarism.

  "... Military intervention can do little to heal the body politic
of a land that lacks the basis of a modern political culture--thanks
to geographical isolation, low literacy rates, and a history of rape
and desertion by colonists. The French quit Haiti in 1804. The only
outside political influence the Haitians experienced before the Marines
invaded were the Bourbon & Jacobin varieties. To blame Haiti's problems
on U.S. support for this or that Haitian ruler ... is a grave
simplification.

  " ... Somalia and Liberia are only the first of many African nations
doomed to go over the edge into anarchy and destitution for the same
reasons Haiti has ..."

  [Political correctness keeps us from discussing how the African ethnic
and national cultures contribute to the problems. In contrast,] "To say
that there is something wrong with Bosnian Serb culture would elicit a
yawn at this point."

  [North African Arab cultures are omitted from what follows for a variety
of reasons; mainly, they are better organized.]

  "The rest of Africa is a pastiche of different cultures, values, and
national styles. Cultures like the Yoruba in Nigeria and the Amhara in
Ethiopia have rich, written traditions going back to antiquity. But,
as in any part of the world, generalities can be made [sic], and in
Africa's case, they are not always pleasant." [One must compare Africa
with other regions if only to understand business investment decisions.
In the world business perspective, in contrast to Africa,] "The Balkans,
on the other hand, despite the fighting, figure prominently as lucrative
market of the future. The Balkans, which have much higher rates of
literacy and industrialization, can be discussed honestly by business
and political types. If the same honesty is applied to Africa, the
charge is racism. So discussion is immobilized, [[sound familiar?]],
people get fed up, and they apply their energies and investment skills
elsewhere."

  [The more successful African countries depend on the former colonist
nationalities and Asians; when they are driven out things go downhill.]

  [Next category: post-colonial rule by "Big Men:" violent (Amin, Obote,
Mobutu, Doe, Barre, Mengistu) or economic crackpot (Nyere, Kuanda).] "All
contributed to polities that have become barren ground for any democratic
or even barely functioning political future."

  ... "... one thing I've learned in Africa is to never, never assume
that things can't get worse ..."

  "These iniquities are themselves being overshadowed by the rapid
advance of AIDS, which is undeniably reflective of a deeper societal
chaos: specifically a family structure under attack by the rush of
African men to the cities in search of work. The tradition of polygamy,
coupled with the long periods of tim,e men stay away from their villages,
helps create a situation whereby it is common for men to have multiple
female partners. Then, of course, there is tribalism, or ethnic conflict,
which is the real cause of famines. ...

  "My fear is that what lies beyond the stabilizing presence of the last
Big Men is nothing, simply nothing, and that Somalia and Liberia are
merely the first to fall. ..."

  "Though U.S. policy in Liberia and elsewhere was critical in propping
up nasty dictatorships, cold war realpolitik is not the source of the
trouble. The empirical evidence, whether it be in literacy rates,
infant mortality rates, economic statistics, or whatever, proclaims a
grim truth that the whole issue of race in Africa makes us afraid to
utter: African culture, in a modern political sense, is simply
dysfunctional ..."

  "... billions of dollars of American aid was effective in postwar
Europe precisely because there was a literate and relatively sophisticated
bureacratic tradition among the nations for absorbing and using the funds,
with a minimum of corruption and mismanagement; so the aid didn't
dissolve into the sand as it did in Haiti earlier in the century."

  "... I suspect that Somalia will, like Haiti, slip back into chaos as
it becomes apparent that there is no political process to restart there.
..."

  "... In the final analysis, private investment will do more for the
continent than government aid ... As one World Bank official told me,
'How can you aid governments that loot their own treasuries?' ..."

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