Addressing the Poverty Trap - Seemingly Ceaseless War and Civil Strive
Recently, one of my readers posed the following question. In the next series I want to title "Addressing the Poverty Trap" I hope to address and share my opinions in an attempt to educate and create discussion on the idea of 'poverty' as we currently know.
Why is it that African countries such as
My Response:
Ok, I'm going to try and scratch the surface as to why I believe that African countries such as Liberia have a hard time rebuilding themselves after war or maybe a more general question as to why Africa in general has had a hard time 'developing' in general - and I use that word very gingerly. And before we get started I'll just offer a brief disclaimer that this is a question that the entire world needs to be faced with and I believe that nobody but God has the answer for. These are strictly my views on the situation and I challenge any readers to challenge me on my views or my hypotheses so long as the discussion moves us forward in our thinking on the causes for and reasons why, currently and in recent history,
When faced with this question, and its one that I toy with quite often and one that is up for a lot of debate. There are a few ideas that initially come to mind and its those that I'll elaborate a little more of:
1. Seemingly Ceaseless War and Civil Strife (divisions between Opposing Tribal Groups and Clan)
2. Colonial Geopolitical boundaries
3. Widening Gap of Realities between Western Donors and Recipients of 'Aid'.
4. Corruption of Power-mongering African Governments
5. Increasing Dependence of Local Populations on Foreign Aid
6. Lack of a True Indicator of Well-Being (GDP does not account the for progress of social, religious, and community-centered goals - economic progress is only one aspect of an individual)
1. Conflict - Seemingly Ceaseless War and Civil Strife
If we're going to look purely at the economic development of a country and what falls under that umbrella (infrastructure and transportation networks, currency valuation, and attractiveness of the country to foreign investment, among others...) there is no wonder Africa is 'undeveloped' economically speaking just due to the frequency and duration of varying conflicts on the continent.
Taking
A couple weeks back I was driving back to our office with our Chief of Security and I asked him how he saw the rebuilding effort coming along in the four years since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2003. I cannot quote him word for word but in essence this is what he said,
...In war, you can tear down and destroy in minutes what it can take years to build up...
If you reflect on the Liberian Civil War that lasted 14 long and destructive years, the nation's entire, and I emphasize ENTIRE, infrastructure was destroyed. Never in my life had I imagined the destructive power that war can have on the physical backbone of a country.
Diverging from the
There are so many relevant examples of and causes of conflict within Africa but I think the main thing to understand is that conflict is definitely a major problem in Africa and something that plays a major role in keeping the continent from benefiting from the gifts that God has given them (ie. culture, natural resources, etc.)
Labels: Development, New Paradigms, Poverty, Progress, State of the Country
1 Comments:
At 3:58 AM, Unknown said…
Kevin, thank you for your insight and thoughts on Liberia's continual struggle... Your words provoked, intrigued, and saddened me. I yearn for a different world, and I'm glad you are striving to seek answers and solutions to some of the many prominent issues troubling our world today.
You are an inspiration to me and countless others. I look forward to the other elaborations on your stated hypotheses.
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