Tuesday 15 April 2014

So, Uganda Doesn't Need Aid?


Whilst Museveni boycotts the EU summit, doing his best impression of a juvenile in a strop, rather than a world leader,  this excellent article by Bernard Tabaire poses the question: If Uganda didn’t need foreign aid, why have we been getting it then?

The chorus is still on. It is a din. We can do without foreign aid. They can keep their aid. Uganda does not need aid. Uganda is a sovereign country. It is a mantra, recited from up there where President Museveni reigns down to the intolerant bishops and pastors and on to the lowliest of bigots. 
We will have our anti-homosexuality law; they can keep their dollars, pound sterling, and euros. The great custodians of Ugandan (read African) sexuality and culture proclaim... 
Of course we need aid. That is why we have been taking it for decades. That is why we are taking it today. If we truly do not need aid anymore, let us say no to all aid – not just aid from the Western countries that are “imposing there (im)morality” on us. Let us say no to Chinese aid, to Russian aid, to South Korean aid.
If President Museveni had solemnly announced that we did not need aid anymore in calm times like, say, five years ago, I would have believed him. 

Very well put.

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