Bush Gets Africa Right Part II

The bungled foreign policy of George W. Bush does not include Africa. On this continent, he is getting things largely right, and this journal has been cheering for him on this point for two years now. In advance of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, he has announced a three-pronged initiative targeting malaria, female education, and aid to provide legal support for women who are victims of violence or sexual abuse. It’s enough to make one proud to be an American.

Malaria, along with bad drinking water and AIDS, is one of the biggest killers on the planet. Regular readers are mostly likely tired of the repetition in these pages about it – so is this journal, and eradication is the best way to get internet nagging to vanish. And this is largely what Mr. Bush’s plan is targeting. “In the overwhelming majority of [malaria] cases, the victims are less than 5 years old -- their lives ended by nothing more than a mosquito bite,” said the president. His goal of cutting malaria death in half by 2010, and spending $1.2 billion to get it done, is a major step forward. Complete eradication by 2010 is not feasible, but half is a start.

With regard to female education, Mr. Bush wants to spend $400 million to help educate Africa’s little girls. It is an anthropological fact that female humans are the ones who pass on most of the culture and values – which is a slick way of saying they get stuck with the kids most of the time. With apologies to Maurice Chevalier, little girls only grow up in the most delightful way if they are taught to read and write and reason. Teaching a generation of Africa’s girls to read could well break the back of illiteracy there. Is $400 million enough? No, but again, it’s a start.

The third part of Mr. Bush’s proposal is $55 million over three years to “improve legal protections for women in Africa against violence and sexual abuse,” according to CNN. This is a pittance, and the legislation is tied up in Congress, where it could well die in committee. But the size of the funding is less important at this stage than getting people focused on the issue. At the end of the day, this is an African problem, and it must have an African solution.

However, Mr. Bush also says that corruption in Africa is a problem – and he is not alone in that assessment. Aid that doesn’t get to the people because the funds are sitting in a Swiss bank account can’t improve the situation. And again, that is an African problem needing African solutions.

As for Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, Mr. Bush told The Times (not New York’s), “He's a tyrant. He’s ruined a wonderful country, a country that used to not only feed Africa, in other words, an exporter of food, and now an importer of food, because of the decisions that he has made.” And “I've always said we should never use food as a diplomatic weapon. And therefore, I think we ought to use the fact that we're working in partnership with countries as an opportunity to convince him to -- convince Mugabe to make different decisions. On the other hand, I don't think we ought to make -- or allow his tyranny to cause others to suffer on the continent of Africa.” Mr. Bush’s famed ineloquence remains, but it seems that he has goals in search of a policy, possibly regime change?



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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