Aid Stolen by Officials Is No Help to Africa

Salih Booker’s May 20 commentary, “To Help Africa Battle AIDS, Write Off Its Debt,” overlooks the established fact that many of the current and former African political leaders quietly plundered their countries’ economies, siphoning many hundreds of millions of dollars (including foreign aid) into their personal bank accounts in Switzerland, London and other international locations. While I am all for helping others whenever possible, it seems ludicrous to give aid, allow it to be stolen and then write it off without any consequences.

There is, of course, an obvious solution that no one has yet addressed. As with any international financial crime (e.g., Nazi theft of Holocaust victims’ assets), why don’t the authorities simply seize this substantial pool of funds from the parasites who stole it and use it, in a controlled distribution, for the benefit of the African people, as intended? So simple.

Martin D. Webley

Los Angeles

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What am I missing here? Booker argues that “the United States has the power to change this [resolve the African debt crisis] at little cost.” If this can be achieved at such little cost, then why is it such a problem for the African countries to meet their obligations?

When the West extends loans, they are apparently viewed as being “pushed on African governments with little thought to their purpose or to their recipients’ capacity to repay.” However, when we deny resources, we are considered miserly and lacking in compassion. If the demand for coffee had increased by 60% rather than declining, does anyone really think we might expect Uganda to exhibit compassion by putting a cap on prices?

While one can appreciate the current difficulties confronting many African nations, it should be remembered that the African continent has an abundance of natural resources with which to settle its debts to the rest of the world. Nigeria, for example, is rich in minerals and benefits from every increase that OPEC makes in oil prices. The resources provided to the African people--represented by the amount of the African debt to the World Bank--could, no doubt, have been effectively used elsewhere in the world.

Edward R. Scott

Los Angeles