Marshall Plan for Africa?

Nov 15, 2016

Basically the German government is saying "Africans in Africa", at a time when their real migrant crisis is coming from the Middle East

By Hussein Lumumba Amin

The German government is calling for a Marshall Plan for Africa.

At first it seems like a marvelous prospect. One imagines the famous original Marshall Plan that was initiated to help rebuild Europe after the Second World War.

However the cause behind Germany's sudden "generosity" today isn't similar to the values expressed after the war. It is actually about the increasing number of African migrants they see roaming around their towns.

The reality in the news is that Syrians, Turks and Iraqi's are the ones flooding Europe in their millions. But as long as they shut up while dressed in western clothes, they blend in easier than the black African whose contrast with the environment is clearer.

Basically the German government is saying "Africans in Africa", at a time when their real migrant crisis is coming from the Middle East.

Maybe if they could just stop bombing that region and destroying people's homes...!!!

Planning to drop some cash in African countries as a Marshal Plan is not a solution that works.

Usually a few citizens, mostly the corrupt elite, will be the only ones kept busy collecting the proverbial manna from heaven, while only a few crumbs trickle down to the intended recipients.

Remember that upto 80% of any foreign aid is consumed in the so-called "administrative costs".

Germany's proposed Marshall Plan for Africa, rather than build infrastructure and establish industries like was done for Europe after World War II, they want instead to put the money in youth, education, training, and rule of law. The usual ‘snobbish' EU concerns.

Does that even come close to the Marshall Plan?

Don't get me wrong. The youth and the rule of law are essential to Africa's economic growth and stability.

However it is clear that the continents drive towards mass industrialization and modernization will come from ourselves and elsewhere other than Europe.

I wonder if it has been quietly agreed that Africa should not be awakened/uplifted to a level where the continent enjoys brighter industrial prosperity.

Surely Europe cannot help Africa industrialize and become its direct competitor.

But they can't tell us that upfront, can they?

The international aid card is the only sway/political leverage that Europe holds in Africa at the moment. The only thing maintaining EU's image of being busy with serious global economic and geo-political events.

The reality is that this new Marshall Plan could be simply about exclusion and political electioneering given the rise in anti-immigration extremism across the German electorate.

This clearly over-rated plan could therefore be more about political cosmetics for Angela Merkel's career prospects back home rather than a serious attempt to actually resolve the root causes of the migrant crisis via a mutually beneficial initiative.

Mme. Merkel could as well also declare that she will build a wall in the Mediterranean Sea.

What could have been a more serious and practical solution would be to invest in Africa. Building highways, electricity dams, extending tapped water and power grids. Telecommunications, hospitals and medical research facilities, passenger and cargo railways, major media, oil refineries, airports, bridges, large scale commercial agriculture, and upgrade of public service for example.

There is so much work that needs to be done and it could be mutually beneficial. Especially if European companies are contracted for the initiatives.

They would provide more jobs and opportunities to both Africans and Europeans while uplifting standards of living on our continent.

But nope, they aren't thinking in that direction, and maybe deliberately so.

Africans will therefore continue to swamp Europe. Even if it means hitching a ride on a whales back, they will head to Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, London and Copenhagen... until the discriminatory Nazi's and Fascists are outed.

Writer is the son of former Uganda President Idi Amin

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