EDITORIAL
Poverty is the real enemy
Published: 30-SEP-04
It probably won�t make an iota of difference to the terminally
narrow-minded Axis of Idiocy presided over by US
President George W Bush and his British counterpart
Tony Blair, but South African President Thabo Mbeki�s
stinging reminder to the Western world about the real threats
facing the world did not come a moment too soon.
In his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly,
Mr Mbeki articulated the feelings of billions of people across
the world when he said that the greatest threat facing the world
today is not terrorism, but poverty and underdevelopment.
�I am certain that if we say to those affected by violence and
war that we have made a good beginning towards the establishment
of a just and lasting peace all over the world, they will not
believe us,� said Mr Mbeki.
�I am equally certain that if we say to those who, every day,
go to bed hungry, that we have made a good beginning towards
freeing the entire race from want,
they will also not believe us.�
There�s no doubt that world leaders have failed miserably in
meeting the goals of the UN Millennium Declaration of 2000,
which set targets in line with a development agenda. But the UN
is so caught up with the so-called terrorism and instability in
Iraq that very little is likely to be done about it right now.
Bush talks about nations �acting together to extend freedom
and democracy to countries gripped by tyranny�. Fact is, he
wouldn�t know freedom and democracy if it slapped him with a
wet fish. Instead of pausing to wonder why the US is so hated by
elements of the developing world, he rides roughshod over human
rights to get his hands on other countries� resources.
Right now, parts of Africa are embroiled in conflict which
makes Iraq look like a tea party. If Bush were so committed to
democracy, he would have deposed half the leaders in Africa
by now under some fictitious guise like searching for weapons
of
mass destruction � the very same weapons the US has in
abundance.
There�s no doubt that Saddam Hussein is a bad man who
perpetrated screaming atrocities against his own people. But
there are plenty of African leaders � no names, no pack drill
� who have done the same, and will continue to do so with
impunity for as long as they don�t have any oil the US would like
to get its hands on.
Back to Mr Mbeki, though, who cut a bit of a lone figure as
he said he believed the reason why the vision of a world of peace
and shared prosperity had not been met lay in the fact that �we
have, as yet, not seriously confronted the difficult issues that
relate to the uses and perhaps the abuses of power�.
He spoke compellingly of the widening imbalance between
rich and poor countries, saying contemporary society was characterised
by gross imbalances in the distribution of power.
Perhaps it is time, as Mr Mbeki suggests, to stop relying on
the powerful. It is
perhaps time that �we, the poor and powerless,
abandon our wheelchairs and begin to walk unaided�. The
silence from his fellow African leaders was deafening. Where
was UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan? Where was Nigeria�s
Obasanjo? It was too much like the sound of one hand clapping.
If only Mr Mbeki would be so decisive at home, where he has
sat back and allowed what is tantamount to electoral fraud by
allowing the noxious practice of floor-crossing under his nose.
In South Africa�s elections earlier this year, some 250 000
people voted for the ailing New National Party (NNP) of the
ultimate political opportunist, Marthinus van Schalkwyk. If they
had wanted to vote for the ruling ANC, they would have surely
done so. Instead, they have been effectively disenfranchised
through the NNP�s decision to merge with the ANC.
The same goes for each and every unscrupulous politician
who to took it upon themselves to make free with the votes of
the common man in the
street by crossing the floor to another
party. It is all ostensibly legal, because a bunch of politicians said
so, but the nett effect is exactly the same as if they stuffed ballot
boxes. The message to the electorate is clear: it doesn�t really
matter what you think, because we know better.
While that�s the level of democracy we allow ourselves, our
people will continue to starve while the hawks make war,
not peace.
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