Africans on Africa: Debt
As the G8 Summit is held in Scotland this week, the BBC is looking at African problems through African eyes each day this week. As Africa is a prime disussion topic of the Summit, it is unsettling to me that it is not represeted there. Today's topic is that of Debt, and Ugandan radio journalist Andrew Mwenda offers his thoughts. I've included the link below, but here is an excerpt:
If you forgive bad debts it teaches bad lessons, creating a culture of defaulting. That's certainly exactly what happened with Uganda. In 1998 Uganda was forgiven its debts through the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. As a consequence, government indulged itself in very luxurious expenditure - increasing the size of Parliament - and invaded Congo and Sudan. And not only that, it went on a renewed borrowing spree and today, seven years later, Uganda's debt has more than doubled and now it is unsustainable.
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Parliament is so foreign aid-dependent that even the chairs and desks are funded by Denmark.
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And worse, with so much of our country's budget in the hands of the foreign aid donors, the power of Ugandan voters to hold our government to account has been usurped by international creditors - precisely because he who pays the piper calls the tune.
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If only foreign aid could be shifted from lining corrupt politicians' and bureaucrats' pockets to developing private enterprise, then Africa would have hope.
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for the rest of the Africa on Africa articles, including articles on Governance, Colonialism and Conflict, see the right side of the screen at the top of the link posted above.
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