From Across the Globe

In a recent blog post discussing education in Malawi I mentioned that I thought corruption contributed to the precariousness of life for orphans in Neno.  While I was referring mostly to my own suspicions of minor local corruption within some of the social service departments, I was asked in a response what I thought about large-scale corruption and aid-dependence in Africa.  Particularly in response to the following article by Sorious Samura from the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7740652.stm.

In the article the author states that African countries have had enough time and enough aid since independence to pull themselves out of poverty.  Samura proceeds to assert that foreign aid is actually contributing to corrupt leadership in many countries as leaders learn to respond to poorly focused aid agencies instead of their own people.  This type of aid actually rewards corruption.

While Samura makes some valid points about foreign aid and corruption, I do agree that donors should do a better job of ensuring aid is result-driven, corruption alone plays less of a role in Africa’s current state than his article suggests.  Edward O’Neil, author of Awakening Hippocrates, notes that in Kenya people  

…have been poor for generations because of many complex and interwoven factors, including: the population explosion; the social and economic costs of illnesses such as AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; a relatively short time to recover from decades of colonial exploitation; ineffective governance modeled after colonial practices; lack of basic infrastructure; unfair global trade practices; debt repayments that rob vital social services; lack of foreign capital infusion; subjugation to global powers like the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund; ineffective and occasionally destructive “foreign aid” (2006)

African states were carved out during colonization and founded on institutionally corrupt governments in which a majority of the population was exploited.  It is probably not surprising given the historical context in which African countries exist that there is some level of corruption. But as Dr. O’Neil mentions, there are many other factors. 

Since independence, trade agreements, debt repayment and insufficient foreign aid have all been major factors.  Mr. Samura notes towards the end of his article that since independence, trade agreements have often worked against African nations, some refer to these types of practices, in which the west continues to exploit developing countries as neocolonialism.  He sites the example of the Ugandan cotton industry being unable to compete internationally due to U.S. subsidized cotton farming.  When wealthy western countries pour subsidized food aid into countries, the problem becomes even more severe.  The U.S. has pushed food aid into much of the Caribbean in recent decades.  These practices have destroyed the internal farming industries in countries like Haiti and Jamaica and left them with devastating food insecurity issues.  The documentary Life + Debt describes how heavily subsidized U.S. milk powder is dumped on Jamaica as unsubsidized local milk producers are quickly driven out of business.  The same is true in many parts of Africa.  Aid fuels the U.S. economy at the cost of developing economies.  Again, aid should be given responsibly.  In this sense, western aid certainly can have devastating consequences.  Ultimately, the factors mentioned above work together to hinder development.

But what about corruption?  We certainly hear of corruption often in Africa, and its effects can be truly devastating due to the precarious position in which much of Africa lives.  The following map from Transparence International shows that many of the most corrupt nations are in sub-Saharan Africa http://www.transparency.org/content/download/24101/360189.  Malawi’s last president, Muluzi, who was in power from 1994-2004, was reputed to be exceptionally corrupt.  In fact he was arrested just last week on one of roughly 80 outstanding corruption charges.  In a particularly egregious case toward the end of his rule, maize stocks were allegedly sold to foreign governments, threatening food security for many Malawians.  The location of the revenue generated from the sale is unknown.  Events such as this have a devastating impact on people in such a poor country.  In contrast, large scale corruption in the U.S. hardly effects the average U.S. citizen. 

In 1994, Bingu Mutharika, Malawi’s current president was elected, who took a strong stand against corruption. Based on what I’ve gathered over the last six months his efforts have been effective.  Crime has dropped as well as low-level corruption.  However, Malawi is ranked 164^th out of 177 countries on the human development index and has the lowest GDP of the 174 countries assessed in 2008.  Needless to say it remains extremely poor.

Last week I returned to the social welfare office in Neno to again plead them to help my young friend.  I was told that there was some food support, but it was in Lilongwe and there was no way to get it over the long rocky dirt road leading to Neno.  In addition, the social welfare officer claimed that the national program for orphans and vulnerable children had only received 700,000 of the 7 million they had been promised in funding.  He would be able to provide a few exercise books and a blanket.  It would be a start.

In 1970, at the UN general assembly, developed nations pledged to spend 0.7% of their gross national income(GNI) on foreign aid by the mid-1970s.  This goal was never realized and the average spending for developed countries has remained between 0.2% and 0.4%.  The United States was consistently been one of the lowest spenders in terms of percent GNI.

African nations must work to reduce corruption.  Malawi has done a great job of this over the last five years.  But we should not point to corruption as the cause of poverty and suffering in Africa, at least not African corruption.  Developed countries can provide aid and support and do so in a fair manner.  So many of the interactions between the west and developing countries in the last fifty years have been a continuation of the colonial structure in which resources continue to be funneled out of Africa with little if any benefit to the African people.  Trade agreements can be re-worked.  Foreign aid can be allocated in a result-driven manner with fewer strings attached and debts can be canceled.  All of these factors would contribute to increasing the availability of resources for essential public services such as health and education.  Two basic rights my young friend has often been deprived of during his lifetime.

The day started off pleasant and cool.  Jon Tom, one of the night guards at the hospital complex, finished work at 7am and five of us gathered to go for a little hike with him.  He had offered to take us to his house located just past Neno Mission, the closest health center to the hospital.  We were all excited to see more of the district by foot.  Water was collected, sunblock lathered and we set-off on a narrow windy path to the south.

The trail snaked steeply up and down through the hills before meeting the Southern dirt road to Blantyre.  We followed this road for a bit before branching off onto what began as a road and slowly degenerated into a small footpath and finally a single-track through the forest.  I had been this far before, although on a bike.  We passed beautiful scenic views of the peaks beyond Mwanza to the south.  Jon Tom pointed out a small snake, which I unfortunately missed as I’d fallen behind to talk with a man and his wife who were working on their garden.  We kept up our pace though, taking only one or two brief stops to take note of our position.

We moved through the forest, bounding over rocks to cross the small streams and finally emerged near the Neno Mission Bridge.  We made our way up past the church towards the health clinic.  At this point we’d been walking for about two hours.  I’d started to sweat, but hadn’t broken into my water supply yet.  We continued past the health center and up the hill towards Jon Tom’s house.  The views became more beautiful each step we took and soon we could see across the valley to the radio tower that marks the hospital site.  We’d traveled a good distance.  During the dry season it is possible to go almost directly across the valley, but the river is high this time of year and required us to take a detour through the forest to the Bridge.

We finally reached Jon Tom’s house a few minutes after 10am.  We’d left at 7:30 and the almost three hour hike had started to tire me out.  This was the walk Jon Tom does twice a day to get to and from work.  He had walked in dress shoes, slacks and a button down.  I often see him on a bike, but I’m not sure how much easier it would be with the hills.   I was ready for some water.

We met Jon Tom’s family.  His wife was very beautiful and welcoming and his four children were adorable.  His house was located up in the hills past Neno Mission and overlooked the valley towards the hospital.  We had some raw cassava and sugar-cane to re-energize and headed down to the stream near his house.

We finally decided to head back towards the hospital at noon.  Rain clouds were threatening and we could see a rain storm approaching with the usual grey sheet that slowly covered near-by mountains.  I think we all had mixed feelings; walking the two and half hours back in pouring rain could be tough, but the sun might be worse.

By the time we got back down to the bridge I was fairly soaked in sweat.  I’d gone through a full water bottle and had refilled at a borehole.  We made our way back into the woods and kept up a fast pace.  The forest gave only a partial reprise from the blistering sun before we emerged on the opposite side.  There would be no shade for the rest of the walk and the rain had completely missed us.   Jon Tom admitted it was hot, although he seemed to be doing much better than us.  We were all pretty scorched and barely able to keep hydrated. 

We finally reached home at 2:30, having made great time on the way back.  I was exhausted, the sun had drained me.

After all was said and done we must have walked for close to six hours.  At the hospital I have found that patients often walk for five or six hours to be seen, sometimes arriving a day early and sleeping outside.  The outpatient waiting areas are filled each night with sleeping mothers and children.   I can’t imagine making such a walk while sick.  Many people also carry belongings in preparation for a stay at the hospital.  They carry blankets, food and usually a child.

I can remember on my first day in Neno I was traveling to the health centers with the pharmacy team.  On our way home, at around 7PM we found what must have been 50 people walking down the middle of the road carrying a mattress above their head.   One of their friends was sick and they were taking them to Magaleta, the closest health center.  We stopped and took them in our car.  First we made our way to Magaleta and then decided they should be taken to the hospital, which was another 45-50 minutes by car.  It would have been a five hour walk if she had needed to go to the hospital by foot.  People do it everyday here.

Last week I posted a response to Steve’s comments on culture, development and the environment.  I recently finished Muhammad Yunus’s book Creating a World Without Poverty.  He describes Grameen Bank, his business, and his vision of social businesses for the poor.  Towards the end of the book he comments on development and the environment.  I thought I’d post it as food for thought.

“Solving the Growth Dilemma”

Meanwhile, what can we do about the Growth Dilemma – the conflict between the absolute need to improve the living standards of the billions of poor people in the world and the equally absolute need to prevent economic growth from accelerating the destruction of our global environment and producing devastating climate change?

It seems clear that we must make progress on several fronts.  Over the past two centuries, since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the rich nations have enjoyed the use of the world’s nonrenewable resources without any restrictions.  Now it is time to decide how the world’s remaining resources are to be allocated.

We often hear that the fast-growing economies of the South (India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, and expanding economies in Africa) must not fall into the same consumption style as the North; instead, they must develop a better and more environmentally sustainable lifestyle and value system for themselves.  This is true, but it’s also insufficient.  We should not be talking about two lifestyles- one for the North and one for the South.  That is neither desirable nor sustainable.  Instead, we should move toward one converging lifestyle the world over.

Of course, there will always be cultural, historical, and religious diversity in lifestyles.  But as products become global, company operations become global, and information technology turns the whole world into a global village, there is no way to maintain the current divide between North and South.  What the North does affects the people in the South – Which is why countries like Bangladesh are already suffering the effects of global warming created mainly by consumption in Europe and in North America.  Soon the North will start feeling the impact of damage done to the planet by the peoples of the South.  We are in the same boat, and we must all learn to life responsibly – or we will sink together…

Page 216-217

My close friend Steve recently wrote a post from his site in Uganda where he mentioned a conversation we had about a month ago regarding cultural erosion and the need for health care in many parts of the world.  Steve had visited me around New Years in Malawi and we spent some time in Neno.  Steve quickly noticed that the market area near where I work is becoming fairly built-up for such a rural area and people don’t live or interact like they probably did in the past.  Certainly things are a little different in the Boma (government and market area) than in the villages.  Throughout most of the district people have very little if any disposable income, most are subsistence farmers.  In the Boma shops have sprung up, there are three bottle shops (little bars) and we now have a big beautiful hospital.

Steve noticed most that there are differences in the way people greet each other.  He noticed that I often just say ‘Bo’, or ‘Shap’, or ‘Wawa’ as I pass people.  In the villages people would not use passing greetings, they would stop and talk and say hi.  While, I’m not sure this is entirely true, I think greetings have more to do with relative social position, there are differences that are springing up in the market.  For example, many people now have cell phones, even if they rarely have minutes to use on them.

It can be disconcerting to see things change so quickly in a place, for more commercial practices to spring up and for people seem a little more westernized.  The Neno market has really only become what it is today in the last two years.  Are we ramming western consumer-based culture down everyone’s throat?  Surely, we must be one of, if not the most, hegemonic nation in the world today.  I’m still holding out hope for Obama to change things, but maybe I shouldn’t hold my breath.

In every interaction that occurs between people of different cultures there are exchanges.  American pop music blares from radios here in between Malawian and South African songs, and the few people who can afford them have promptly purchased TVs and satellite dishes.  But is the world slowly homogenizing?  I don’t think so.

In Neno, many people are now in a better financial and social position than they were two or three years ago.  There are more jobs and a little more money in the economy.  A bank was just built in Neno Boma, the first ever as far as I know.  And so yes, cell phones are purchased, a TV or two, radios and clothes.  Young men can be seen wearing flamboyant 50 cent shirts and god forbid, a few women wear pants.  I would argue people are still uniquely Malawian though.  They assimilate foreign culture slightly differently than anywhere else, making beautiful knit cell phone holders and I haven’t found anyone who doesn’t love nsima, the local dish.

But, this is where Steve and I parted ways, sort of…  I think we have a moral responsibility to make available new technologies and medical care that can alleviate suffering and fight poverty.  What people do when they have freedom and have broken the binding shackles of poverty is up to them.  I don’t think that we can look at a culture in which extreme suffering is endemic and say that ‘it’s ok, this is their culture and we shouldn’t tamper by bringing in western culture’.  Steve wrote in his post that he agrees, but that we may be in trouble when we “may have eliminated a lot of the cultures and their customs that thrived without these materials”.  My problem with this is that people were not thriving here in Neno.  As I have mentioned in previous posts we cannot call the level of HIV, TB and Malaria prevalence here anything but a human rights violation when treatments for these have been around for so long.

So, what do we do.  I guess one thing Steve and I agreed upon is that providing aid should be done in a sensitive way.  And most importantly, people living in these communities should be given a voice.  We should listen and see what people want and need here.  Here, people want treatment for the ailments that keep them from work and that prevent them from overcoming poverty; they want clean water; and they want shelter.  All of which are simple things that can easily be made available.

At around 2pm today a set of massive soot black rain clouds engulfed the Kirk Mountains, a lengthy range that run the South Western border between Malawi and Mozambique where I stay.  The mountains quickly disappeared behind a veil of rain as everyone made their way for shelter.  We are now most surely into the rainy season.  The rain brings new life.  The fields grow greener and lusher everyday.  The ground is soft and rich, and I believe I have seen and felt more insects in the last three weeks than in the previous 24 years of my life.  And, with the rainy season comes a new year and a new semester of school for the children in Neno.  A time I remember in my ongoing education, as, like the rains, bringing a new start, a new beginning and a new chance for growth.  What does it bring for children half a world away from where I was educated?

Last semester I helped a boy on our local soccer team return to school.  Already roughly four years behind in his primary school education, he had again withdrawn from the free primary school in Neno. Upset about the lost opportunity, I spoke with a teacher from his school who I knew. The teacher explained that although all students have the right to free primary education in Malawi, many drop out for a range of reasons.  Students may skip school if they do not have presentable clothes, if they have lost their exercise book and pen, or if they are needed to work at home.  In essence, the poorer you are the greater your chances of dropping out.  The boy on my soccer team, an orphan, has only two sets of clothes, sleeps in the market most nights and has difficulty obtaining soap for himself and his clothes.  All of which make the aforementioned requirements daunting, especially for a thirteen year old boy.  I would argue he is in greater need, and more deserving, of an education than almost anyone I have ever met.

Younger than most of the soccer team, although older than most in his classmates, the boy was acting as the team’s equipment manager, lugging the team’s bag of donated jerseys to and from games and washing them after each game.  Hand washing a full soccer team’s jerseys and socks is not a trivial task.

I decided that we should compensate him for his work and help him get back into school.  The team was supportive.  Over my first few weeks in Malawi a colleague and I found out exactly what he needed to get back into school.  A few exercise books, a pen, a school shirt and some soap sufficed.  The items did not amount to much, but made a big difference for him and he managed to finish the fourth grade, or standard four as it is known in Malawi.  A truly comprehensive school support package, including exercise books, pens, a ruler, a math instrument, a uniform and some body care items can be had for $40 or less.  But, even $5-10 can really help a student stay in school.

At the same time I met with the Neno District Social Welfare office a number of times.  The office has a program for orphans and vulnerable children that could have potentially been a more secure method of helping my young friend over the coming years.  They provide support for such children, helping them until the age of 18 through a program for orphans and vulnerable children.  Support includes most of the same items the team supplied.  They assured me they would be able to help my young friend, although seemed keenly interested in what I was personally providing.

On Monday the new semester began.  My friend came to me asking for notebooks and pens.  I foolishly assured him that his school would provide some paper and pens, as it was only the beginning of the semester, and that he should hold onto them and not lose them.  Each day he tracked me down at work, asking for paper and pens so he could take notes in class.  Based on advice from my Malawian friends I reassured him the school would give the materials out at some point during the week.  Well, the first week has passed and he still has no books.  I spoke with the teacher at his school and learned that there are no books; the students must buy them this semester. 

The schools truly lack funding and support, there are no text books, the school day ends at noon, and now there are no exercise books.  The books cost about 15-20 Malawian Kwacha a piece (140MKW = $1) and pens are about 20MKW.  Usually students need about 10 books a term and a few pens amounting to 260MKW, roughly 2$.  Then there is a math instrument and ruler, which add another 250MKW.  The entire package adds to about 4$.  For a young boy without a family and no income obtaining even these few items can be difficult.

Earlier today I got a call from the District Social welfare office.  They wanted to let me know my friend was waiting there and wanted to get in touch with me.  I finally had them on the phone!  I told them I had been trying to call them all week with no success.  I asked them when they were going to provide the support that had promised in early November.  The line went quiet for a moment, “We don’t have anything to give him right now”, they explained.

Having suspected that they may not provide anything I spoke with a few people I know from the community this week.  Most people told me not to waste my time and that the office would probably not be of much help to my friend.  The responses I got claimed a mix of mismanagement, lack of funds and corruption.  In fact, I believe all three are likely true, and at the moment the office is likely without supplies.  Many government run programs in Malawi lack funding, including schools, health centers, even social welfare offices.

So, where is the money going in Malawi?  I know it is one of the poorest countries in the world, but there is an enormous amount of donor funds pouring into the country and the corruption level is relatively low. Surely there must be some money for orphans such as my young friend.  Kids like him comprise a tragically large percentage of Malawi’s future.

I recently came across an article in NewAfrica, Profiting From Poverty, complements of my close friend Steve, a Minerva Fellow working in Uganda.  The article outlines how governments and multinational corporations, claiming to be investing and supporting African nations take far more than they contribute.  While I will not spend time explaining the support for the thesis of the article, the article concludes with a section on dept repayment.  The author notes that debt repayment in Zambia outweighs education spending and Malawi’s yearly debt repayment is greater than its health care budget.

In 2003, Malawi was paying 70 million U.S. dollars a year to the developed world (although none to the U.S.) in debt repayment and between 2000 and 2006 paid a total of roughly 440 million U.S. dollars (http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Malawi%20gets%20debt%20cancellation+2238.twl).  In 2006, a large chunk of Malawi’s debt was canceled due to their adherence to the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative.  The country now pays about $5 million per year in debt repayment.  However, the debt cancelation program stipulated that Malawi begin to chomp away at internal debt and that the country was no longer eligible for most of its World Bank funding.  Ultimately, the debt cancellation probably amounted to a decrease in available funds for Malawi.

While I am not sure if Malawi’s debt repayment currently outweighs its education budget, I can say that Malawi, like much of sub-Saharan Africa continues to pay for ‘progress’ in the developed world.  It is frightening that more hasn’t changed since colonization.

So, what does an education cost?  I could put a price tag on mine that would be inconceivable to most people here.  But, what about my young friend’s education?  Would he be in standard two (grade nine) instead of standard five (grade five) had Malawi been able to use some of the $440 million it spent on debt repayment in the early 2000s?  Would he be able to go to school for a full day?  Would he have a text book to learn from?  Today, as the rain sets in, I can’t help but feel that the cost of my education has been his.