Should failing African governments be left to collapse? Letting failing systems to collapse is a somewhat romantic ideas because it is assumed that a collapse will forces the agents( in this case citizens of African state) into restructuring and eventually an efficient entity will emerge at the other side of the shake ups. The resulting picture will be that of a self sustaining and efficient self governing state which will be poised to take on the challenges of the new millennium. (See this Cato Insitute Video)The hostage situation off the coast of Somalia this past week provides us with evidence that allowing African states to fail will be a huge mistake. Mostly, because of the externalities associated with such an event.
Drawing a parallel from the bail-out of AIG which was too big to fail. An insolvent insurance firm that covered funky contracts involving mortgage backed securities. AIG was bailed out because if the firm was allowed to go belly up, contracts would have come apart at the seams and there was no telling how much of the guts of the financial system would have been spilled. How large would the snowball effect have been? The system had to be patched up regardless of the cost.
Similarly it may seem like the sheer cost of foreign aid that keep some African states from failing is prohibitively large. The cost of having a few ungovernable African states may even be larger. The untold story of piracy off the coast of Somalia is that of the vacuum of governance.
the pirates thrive because Somalia is a lawless state, one of the world’s most unstable. Somali piracy has been a problem for around a decade, although in 2006 it was tackled with some success by the Islamic Courts Union, the ruling authority. But the Islamists were ousted that year by an invading Ethiopian force that was backed by the Bush administration. The transitional federal government headed by President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed now exercises no authority on land or at sea.
Bad governance in African trounces no governance. More so the uncertainty about the human and material costs that will be required to fix states that have been allowed to fail is enough reason to abstain from suggestion like those in the video above. The rest of the world is obliged to support African states until leadership on the continent can find adequate means to rebuild the systems from its current state, afteral; the world needs Africa to survive. We live in an interdependent world, the days when countries were walled of gardens are long gone.
"Bad governance in African trounces no governance."
That is simply the reality of the situation. I read Loomnie's post on this matter as well and went in to a mini rant (sorry Loomnie).
Anyway, considering that many of Africa's worst dictators stayed in power with the aid and serious money of foreign interests and countries, and that the vestiges of those decisions are still, undoubtedly, felt today, it only makes sense that African countries are struggling to create true democracies and properly functioning governments.
Now, this is not to suggest that we all need to fold our hands and wait around, but only to add some more context for the likes of the gentleman that suggested letting African governments fail. It is inhumane to even suggest that people who are already suffering, as so many on the continent are, be allowed to fall further into more suffering as will be the case if the author/speaker's suggestion came to pass.
There are many African countries that have functioning governments. For those countries with under-performing governments, the key is to find a way out of the mess without violence. failure is not an option for us. Simple and short!
Well said. We definitely can't give a pass to the bad behavior of African dictators. Thanks for stopping by.