Bono Heckles Speaker At African Aid Conference
There is a big movement afoot in Africa to end that continent’s dependence on international aid and instead focus on helping people help themselves through the private investment of capital, thus creating jobs and bolstering the economy. As Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda put it, “What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?”
Unfortunately, this idea of individual empowerment isn’t popular with everyone. Among those, apparently, is U2 rocker and international political activist Bono who took to heckling and cursing at Mwenda during an African aid conference.
...the second, more interesting theme—echoed by every speaker—is that traditional aid and charity, whether distributed by nation-states or nongovernmental bodies, have failed. Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan journalist and social worker, now a fellow at Stanford, made the case most strongly. He argued convincingly that 30 years of Western aid to Africa has achieved nothing at all. More, he said that the persistence of African poverty could be explained, in part, by aid. He explained that aid had convinced the brightest Africans to work for corrupt governments rather than as entrepreneurs, and it had “distorted the incentive structure.”
“What man or nation,” Mwenda asked, “has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?”
Far better, he said, is finding Westerners to invest in African entrepreneurs or businesses, which would create wealth. Mwenda, like other speakers, described at length the investment opportunities in Africa. (I half expected the pitch to be directly addressed to Doerr et al.)
This line of argument enraged Bono, however, who began heckling Mwenda.
“Bollocks!” he shouted. “That’s bullshit.”
Bono is a strong supporter of intelligently managed aid. When it came his turn to speak, he said that Ireland’s current prosperity is explained by government investment in its people, particularly education. He said that listening to Mwenda was like listening to an African Margaret Thatcher.
Classy.
Of course, Margaret Thatcher was instrumental in re-vitalizing Britain’s economy during her rein as Prime Minister, so perhaps Mwenda should take Bono’s barb as a compliment. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone thinking that government taking care of people is a better situation than empowering people to take care of themselves.
Regardless, it kind of makes me happy that my state’s Democrats weren’t able to pass a resolution honoring this jackass.
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