Because if they all starve to death, there won't be anybody to rob.
The world's wealthy countries often criticise African nations for corruption - especially that perpetrated by those among the continent's government and business leaders who abuse their positions by looting tens of billions of dollars in national assets or the profits from state-owned enterprises that could otherwise be used to relieve the plight of some of the world's poorest peoples.
Yet the West is culpable too in that it often looks the other way when that same dirty money is channelled into bank accounts in Europe and the US.
[...]
Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities, whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas.
[...]
A few years ago rich [diamond] deposits were discovered [in eastern Africa] which held out the promise of billions of dollars of revenue that could have filled the public purse and from there have been spent on much needed improvements to roads, schools and hospitals.
The surrounding region is one of the most impoverished in the country, desperate for the development that the profits from mining could bring. But as [Zimbabwean journalist Stanley] Kwenda found out from local community leader Malvern Mudiwa, this much anticipated bounty never appeared.
[...]
Why cannot the resources for aid be directed into fighting this obvious problem? Is it not about time that something was done to stop those stealing our wealth, and those helping them steal it, from evading responsibility [and being prosecuted] for their crimes?
alJazeera
Yet the West is culpable too in that it often looks the other way when that same dirty money is channelled into bank accounts in Europe and the US.
[...]
Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities, whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas.
[...]
A few years ago rich [diamond] deposits were discovered [in eastern Africa] which held out the promise of billions of dollars of revenue that could have filled the public purse and from there have been spent on much needed improvements to roads, schools and hospitals.
The surrounding region is one of the most impoverished in the country, desperate for the development that the profits from mining could bring. But as [Zimbabwean journalist Stanley] Kwenda found out from local community leader Malvern Mudiwa, this much anticipated bounty never appeared.
[...]
Why cannot the resources for aid be directed into fighting this obvious problem? Is it not about time that something was done to stop those stealing our wealth, and those helping them steal it, from evading responsibility [and being prosecuted] for their crimes?
alJazeera
Well, that's just not the way it's done. The “obvious problem” only exists in the minds of the powerless. It's quite the opposite to those who could do something about it. It's their business solution.
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