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| Aid workers offload supplies for people in Harare Photograph: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty Images |
by Pearl Thevanayagam
(December 13, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Cambodia and Khmer Rouge, Palestinians and Israelis, indigenous Red Indians and recent western settlers from Europe in the US, Darfur, Chagos Islands aka Diego Garcia and the US base set up with conniving Britain and Zimbabwe where the White settlers deem themselves to be the right inheritors over indigenous Zimbabweans and who saw Robert Mugabe as a demon. Where does one start?
While the UK Border Agency waived through White Zimbaweans at Heathrow in the early millennium decade following the confiscation of White farmlands in Zimbabwe, the indigenous Zimbabweans went through the most gruesome grillings. UK would argue that chasing out White planters could only make the Zimbabweans suffer without employment in their ranches. It is hard for them to digest they are an occupying force.
The White man gave Africa the Bible and took over the lands in Africa replete with its gold, diamonds and other precious metals. Congo’s war is not about their rebels. Five million people have perished due to violence, famine and disease since 1997. The war is about the West’s fight over its mineral Coltan used in mobile phones.
And to date Africa is an indelible stain on the White man’s conscience so much so more aid is pouring into Africa than any continent. But the aid is not benefiting the deserving Africans. The western sahibs and their African sycophantic leaders are in control and as in many parts of the poorer nations they are vault masters of international aid. International donors tie their aid to projects overseen by their own, suspecting recipient countries to be corrupt.
Fr Harry Miller, an American missionary who set home in sunny Sri Lanka’s east coast since 1947 could not have put it more succinctly when he said that if 60 percent of aid is spent towards administration Sri Lanka would still have 40 percent of aid. “This is something not to be scoffed at. Otherwise they have nothing”, he pointed out. In other words take the crumbs or else you will starve.
Western NGOs who set up base in Sri Lanka during Tsunami and during the final throes of the war did not forego the luxuries of air-conditioning or swimming pools. The western correspondents did not venture far into the North East where Tsunami wreaked the most havoc. Why? There were no five-star hotels with swimming pools. They holed themselves up in Galle with its five star facilities. Kay Burley from Sky News and George Alagaiah ( a Sri Lankan of origin from the Tamil community) from BBC reported that the southern coast was the most hit by the Tsunami.
UN employees enjoy the most luxurious amenities for their humanitarian work with duty free booze and food and endless all-night parties replete with cannabis induced soiree. I should know since I attended one such do in Anuradhapura when a UNESCO official was leaving the island and he was totally pissed out of his mind and he was banging his head against a window with blood pouring from his face.
India is still harbouring the poorest of the poor in Asia while ostensibly competing with China as the emerging Asian miracle. Dr Yunus of Grameen Bank fame who received the Nobel Prize for eradicating poverty among rural Bangladeshis is now under scrutiny for defrauding Grameen aid received from abroad. According to an investigative reporter from the BBC, a poor Bangladeshi woman was touted by Dr Yunus as the first recipient of Grameen loan which led to his receiving the Nobel Prize it transpired the woman died in her miserable hovel and not in the house Dr Yunus publicized as having built for her. The house shown belonged to a wealthy Bangladeshi living in the Middle East!!!
While western democracies thrive developing world despite millions of dollars in aid pouring in cannot raise their ugly heads above poverty line. Post-war Sri Lanka is a fine example of aid released by western nations and Japan for rehabilitiation, reconstruction and resettlement not reaching the victims. The government is pressurizing international humanitarian NGOs who have been overseeing funds and disbursing them to the needy without bureaucratic interference to leave the shores so that politicians can play with the funds and allocate them to those who are in their favour rather than the needy.
Winter is biting hard in the West and Tsunami anniversary is just days away. Just watch the figures in the arrivals of western NGOs and volunteers who would have a jolly good working holiday enjoying the beaches and surfing; all expenses paid. A few teaching English to the natives, others trauma counselling and yet some more engaged in uniting the communities. What the natives need is money for themselves so they build up their torn lives. The plane ticket for one volunteer alone can make a huge difference in a Tsunami victim’s life.
UK’s politicians were named and shamed and several resigned over their parliamentary expenses scandal. UK media is still hounding past prime ministers Blair and Brown over their expenses at taxpayers’ money. No stone is left unturned when it comes to those who misappropriate public funds. Sri Lanka gained independence 62 years ago and time already ran out to blame the ill that befell its economy on the colonisers. The noveau colonisers are our corrupt politicians since the British left our shores. And their brazenness is increasing with each elected government. The shamelessness and audacity of our politicians is evident in the fact how politicians jump ships according to whoever is in power and they are totally devoid of principles or self-respect.
Until such time as corruption is stamped out and power decentralized, Sri Lanka and other developing nations would remain dirt-poor foreign aid notwithstanding. But alas, we have elected a government which has virtually no intention of relegating power to the people but instead lives in a cloud cuckoo-land where they hope to reign as absolute monarchs.
Yet, as the saying goes all good things must end and the end is nigh.
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