Parts Africa are in a dire state and as noble Western governments from the ‘civilised’ world attempt to use their hard earned monies to send off to help these poor poor people and bring Africa from the edge of the cliff we are left patting ourselves on the back!

This is how many people feel. They feel Africa is undeveloped, a lesser-place than the great Western nations, starving and begging and it’s a good job we take pity! But with problems in the West many are asking why we still give to Africa when problems are growing at home.

Of course, the story is much more complex than that and the narrative is extremely twisted.

Gerald Caplan has written an excellent piece in Canada’s Globe and Mail entitled “The truth for Trudeau: We’ve been ripping off Africa for decades” that looks at the fact that the Trudeau government are looking for a new Africa strategy and maybe it’s just about time they came clean! Canada, as much as other Western nations, gives some money in aid but they also reap so much from Africa, especially in Toronto where a large amount of the world’s mining companies are registered and paying taxes.

As the article states:

In 2012, the last year of recorded data, poor countries received a total of $1.3-trillion (U.S.), including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But that same year some $3.3-trillion flowed out of them. In other words, developing countries sent $2-trillion more to the rest of the world than they received. Since 1980, these net outflows add up to a staggering total of $16.3 trillion. That’s how much money has been bled out of the global south, including Africa, over the past few decades.

And yes, it’s trillions.

Add in the massive corruption, enabled by Western interests, plus the violent coups and conflicts that Western interests facilitated, and there’s only one conclusion: Rich countries aren’t developing poor countries; poor countries are developing rich ones.

Read the full article here.