> These "poor" countries only problem is large deep corruption.
I'm curious, why do you think there's so much corruption in these countries compared to others globally? Just keen to understand what your take on this is.
I'm curious, why do you think there's so much corruption in these countries compared to others globally? Just keen to understand what your take on this is.
Africa is resource rich. If left alone, African countries might be as influential as the Saudis. Gold, colbat, petrol, diamond and other resources would be far more expensive to buy. Thus, a divided, corrupt Africa is in the best interest of developed countries.
It's said that Kwame Nkrumah, a man who helped hasten the independence of a few African countries including Nigeria was ousted from Ghana through external help (CIA?). Because he was working towards an industrialized, self reliant and United Africa.
I also read here on HN of a Swiss banker whose job it was to offer attractive loans to African leaders for projects he knew would never be repaid. And collect payments in intentionally undervalued natural deposits and/or concessions for their multi national companies. He would in the same deal help setup untraceable swizz accounts for these leaders. And teach them various means of looting their countries dry. And threaten the leader who doesn't play ball with immediate repayment of compounded loans.
Lastly, like the war on drugs, I believe that Africa's war in corruption is corrupting the continent far more than all other factors combined. Here's why:
New leaders spend their first two years fighting corruption, trying to recover loots because the treasury's empty. Thus houses will be seized, companies repossessed, accounts frozen...
Thus the current commander in thief and his crew would invest in foreign real estate, companies, offshore accounts... Thus impoverishing the country further.
Obviously, the solution is that they shouldn't steal. But that's not an option. Because leaders who don't steal are mocked by the populace - true story. Money equals power. Thus, honest but powerless ex-leaders are easily framed / scapegoated by their successors.
To protect their interests, the truly corrupt never leave power. 40 years in office is normal. And their children gain official posts as soon as they are born - no joke.
That's my two cents.
100 years from now, hopefully, transparency will get better.
Which is for good reason: most folks don't interact with the State, they only really get help from family and occasionally friends.
So when in power who do you think they will tend to favor? When the family calls in a favor, you give. Or you do favors for your family and call in a favor later when you really need it.
Strange as it may sound, I can corroborate this. The darndest things truly do happen to happen.
However, do notice that a lot of pretty corrupt countries (south and eastern Europe, China, South Korea, some parts of Latin America) are still comparatively very rich. So it seems that corruption is not the _only_ problem, but it's certainly one.
The classic example was in centralized corruption, you knew that at certain points on your drive across the country, you'd hit roadblocks where the fastest solution is to pay a bribe to the soldier or civil servant. In decentralized corruption, those roadblocks might appear anywhere, created by anyone.
I'm from Bulgaria and it looks like we have plenty of both types here. Come to think of it, the whole Balkan region looks like decentralized corruption on a large scale - there is no central authority that can take your bribe and let you get on with your business in peace.
Thus, if the leader is corrupt (and few aren't, given that much control) then the corruption becomes much more apparent and influential at all levels of government. Compare this to, say, most Western countries which have a tradition of strong checks and balances in place to prevent this level of unilateral control, right down to the citizenry (consider any recent HN article on the term extension of Xi Jinping and the related comments).
According to folks like Dambisa Moyo, aid is part of the reason these regions are corrupt: governments becomes beholden to foreign donors instead of local citizenry.
An additional difficulty Niger has is that it has the highest birthrate in the world.