I watched Sport Relief on Friday night last week and found myself getting a bit cross. What made me angry were the scenes of suffering across Africa but more specifically the fact that I feel I have been watching similar scenes throughout my life. It doesn’t seem to matter what the developing world does to support Africa, it is never enough. The £52+ million raised by Sport Relief is truly awesome, especially given the state of the UK economy, but I know that next time we see Children In Need or Comic Relief, the scenes will be the same.
Africa is a huge continent containing numerous countries and it seems sadly inevitable that there will always be tribal differences here, a famine there, a civil war somewhere else, and endemic government corruption everywhere.
Whilst the world cannot and should not just write off the countries and leave them to suffer, I can’t help but think that all our efforts do is address some symptoms and not the root cause of the problems. This has of course been said by many before me so it isn’t exactly original thought.
What is the solution though? I don’t know but I have been giving the subject some thought.
In recent history, there is some evidence of successful transformations of countries and the reunification of Germany is an interesting case. West Germany effectively absorbed East Germany, which in some respects was a bit like it taking on a third world country. The integration took place and over a relatively short time the reunited Germany then went on to became the most powerful economy in Europe.
Now before you worry about where this post is going, I am not proposing that Germany annexes any African countries, because there’s obviously some slightly less recent history that would ruffle far too many feathers. This is an interesting thought though – could Africa be helped by the involvement of foreign governments that are already very good at effective resource management – the Japanese are masters?
Should each African country have a sponsor/mentor or a partner country that takes on an agreed management
role? Maybe that’s all a bit too commonwealth!
Maybe companies could be encouraged to sponsor countries – let’s face it, some companies are valued higher than entire countries. Toyota is a brilliantly run company, perhaps it could help sort out Somalia. The Volkswagen Group is very well managed too; perhaps it could help manage Angola. There could even be some brand tie in potential – the legendary Apple could work with South Africa, home of the Granny Smith. If banks sponsored beleaguered African nations maybe we wouldn’t hate them so much for profiteering and paying outrageous bonuses. Just think if Stephen Hester and RBS helped manage the Congo rather than just be a corporate partner of Sport Relief – we might feel he had earned his bonus.
Maybe bonkers ideas I accept but the reality is that chucking money at poverty in Africa is not making the difference. There has to be a better way.
I watched John Bishop’s endurance race and I can state without hesitation that the man is heroic. He pushed himself to the point of collapse for the charity and I respect him massively for the effort and commitment. The money raised thanks to his selflessness was significant and he can justifiably feel pride in his achievements. I would say the same for Eddie Izzard and David Walliams too - these characters are all inspirational.
Next year though, we will have all the same images on our screens, my family will be watching the TV and crying
again and I’ll be wanting to turn the telly off. And that just feels a bit depressing.
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Africa is a huge continent containing numerous countries and it seems sadly inevitable that there will always be tribal differences here, a famine there, a civil war somewhere else, and endemic government corruption everywhere.
Whilst the world cannot and should not just write off the countries and leave them to suffer, I can’t help but think that all our efforts do is address some symptoms and not the root cause of the problems. This has of course been said by many before me so it isn’t exactly original thought.
What is the solution though? I don’t know but I have been giving the subject some thought.
In recent history, there is some evidence of successful transformations of countries and the reunification of Germany is an interesting case. West Germany effectively absorbed East Germany, which in some respects was a bit like it taking on a third world country. The integration took place and over a relatively short time the reunited Germany then went on to became the most powerful economy in Europe.
Now before you worry about where this post is going, I am not proposing that Germany annexes any African countries, because there’s obviously some slightly less recent history that would ruffle far too many feathers. This is an interesting thought though – could Africa be helped by the involvement of foreign governments that are already very good at effective resource management – the Japanese are masters?
Should each African country have a sponsor/mentor or a partner country that takes on an agreed management
role? Maybe that’s all a bit too commonwealth!
Maybe companies could be encouraged to sponsor countries – let’s face it, some companies are valued higher than entire countries. Toyota is a brilliantly run company, perhaps it could help sort out Somalia. The Volkswagen Group is very well managed too; perhaps it could help manage Angola. There could even be some brand tie in potential – the legendary Apple could work with South Africa, home of the Granny Smith. If banks sponsored beleaguered African nations maybe we wouldn’t hate them so much for profiteering and paying outrageous bonuses. Just think if Stephen Hester and RBS helped manage the Congo rather than just be a corporate partner of Sport Relief – we might feel he had earned his bonus.
Maybe bonkers ideas I accept but the reality is that chucking money at poverty in Africa is not making the difference. There has to be a better way.
I watched John Bishop’s endurance race and I can state without hesitation that the man is heroic. He pushed himself to the point of collapse for the charity and I respect him massively for the effort and commitment. The money raised thanks to his selflessness was significant and he can justifiably feel pride in his achievements. I would say the same for Eddie Izzard and David Walliams too - these characters are all inspirational.
Next year though, we will have all the same images on our screens, my family will be watching the TV and crying
again and I’ll be wanting to turn the telly off. And that just feels a bit depressing.
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