In a Moneyweb article today, presenting
a radio discussion on the meeting, it was reported that it is expected that
notables attending the meeting will be the Prime Minister of Namibia, the
president of Senegal, the president of Uganda, and the King of Swaziland as
well as his prime minister and possibly the President of Zimbabwe. The meeting
will also be attended by the President of South Africa, who will make the
opening address.
And therein lies the problem.
The people attending, with the
possible exception of the Prime Minister of Namibia, are all leaders of nothing
nations, nations brought close to poverty by the policies and actions of their
leaders. One could hardly be expected to show respect for the King of Swaziland
in his role as an economic leader. He demanded a 25% finder’s fee for a loan of
R2,4 billion granted to his country by South Africa, in the form of a bail-out.
Readers will remember that the South African Minister of Finance explained to
infuriated South Africans that the loan would not cost South Africa anything,
as it was borrowed and lent on. That sort of bush accounting goes a long way to
explaining why South African bonds now enjoy a junk status! Uganda is enjoying
a boom at the moment, probably because the huge sums flowing from the location
there of the African Union are largely provided by Europe, a continent which is
roundly condemned by most African countries, except when they make their begging
bowl presentations. Zimbabwe presently holds the lowest ranking in the world,
apart from North Korea (a country highly respected by Namibia as an example of
economic and democratic excellence), in the fields of corruption, repression of
democracy, lack of transparency in government, honest elections (with the
notable exception of South Africa, whose Electoral Commission, in its capacity
as an expert observer, declared the most recent election to be free and fair,
the only observer believing that), incredibly poor economic policies and practically
any other metric related to good governance. And, of course, the geriatric
President, Robert Mugabe, will spout his usual diatribe about America and
Britain as the examples of everything that is wrong. That will delight Jacob
Zuma, the equally crooked President of South Africa, who enjoys the distinction
of having brought down the most powerful economy in Africa while building his
personal wealth. Zuma dotes on Mugabe, seeing in him the example of what he is
striving to be, a dictator of a banana republic.
It is worrisome that a meeting of
this nature should be lauded as worthwhile, even valuable to the development of
the African and world economies. That shows just how far the world economy,
with the exception of the Western nations, which are viewed as having value to
Africa only as donors and supporters, has slipped.
In times such as these, the world
has need of great men and women as leaders. Few are to be seen, and the nations
in a large part of the world seem to be turning to people whose sole interest
seems to be personal wealth and aggrandizement, rather than the pursuit of
sound economic management. Even the United States has slipped down the ladder
of leadership, with the new President Trump being elected on the basis of
hatred, arrogance and grand-sounding promises. There are few leaders in the
world who can lay claim to the heritage of careful thought, considered action
and application of democratic principles that was handed down by their
predecessors only a few decades ago.
Why do the people accept this?
Can it be that the citizens of the world have lost so much intelligence and
perception that they cannot understand what is being done to them by the people
they have chosen to lead them? What has happened to the grand experiment of
democracy?
It seems that the succession of
failed leaders in so many countries has created the view that democracy is not
worth fighting for, that empty slogans appealing to uninformed and unthinking
populaces have greater value than important principles, that the amassing of
personal wealth, at the cost of the world economy and environment is more
important than providing the basis of a good life for our children and
grandchildren. The continued abdication of their rights of control by the
citizens of the world to ‘leaders of no apparent worth will surely result in a
growth of a new form of dictatorship by those hungry for wealth and power.
Perhaps the citizens of the world will deserve what they will ultimately get.
The World Economic Forum promises
to be no more than another talk shop, at which empty slogans will be mouthed
for the purpose of gaining newspaper headlines glorifying the participants, to
be reported in their home countries in glowing terms by sycophantic reporters,
while the business leaders build their circles of conspirators at the elevated
levels of government, with the prime objective of each feathering their
personal nests, while they lay the foundations for the next world war.
Is this what we, the citizens of
the world, want?
