It is intolerable to ignore the terrible plight of the people in Ethiopia, who are once again facing possible famine. Yet all too often, well-meaning people become accomplices in a cruel charade. When Geldof invented �Band Aid�, he seemed to be acknowledging that aid can only ever be a temporary sticking-plaster on a gaping wound in countries whose governments prefer to keep their people poor. But now he is talking of a Marshall Plan for Africa, he needs to ask why 40 years of aid for Africa have achieved virtually nothing.
Many of the most corrupt African regimes are kept in power by aid. Most have destroyed their economies, and revenue from taxation is therefore negligible, so aid and crime keep them in the luxury to which they and their cronies have become all too accustomed.
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The aid industry does occasionally seem to recognise the absurdity of channelling taxpayers� money to Swiss bank accounts or routing it to the military-industrial complex. There has been a surge in workshops on �capacity-building�. And some aid does hit the spot, of course. Yet there is still an astonishing tendency to make excuses rather than call the bandits� bluff. No country has had to go without aid for long enough for us to judge whether the absence of aid might be more of a spur to better government than its presence.
Western governments argue that aid keeps us �engaged� and gives us some control. This is one reason why Britain refused to follow other countries in withdrawing aid from Kenya in 1995, despite its leadership�s appalling human rights abuses. But the reality is that no foreign aid minister wants their budget cut any more than any aid agency does.
Camilla Cavendish The Times May 29
