Clinton’s trip to Africa (Aug. 18)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just got back from an 11-day, seven-country tour of Africa, and one wonders whether that trip will have done anything to advance the interests of the United States.
Secretaries of state traditionally go to the dark continent and come back with a lot of information and directions for the African offices of the Department of State. These instructions usually tell the diplomats where to pour more money, the benefits of which are seldom seen. Then, the secretaries of state take a few well-deserved days off and privately say, “Thank goodness that’s over.”
Hardly anything can be more frustrating than trying to help those countries in Africa which need it, which is just about all of them. Though African nations may call themselves republics, most of them are still tribal and they behave that way.
The policy makers, once they are in power, make rules to benefit their own tribes, and to heck with everybody else.
Some examples are the countries of southern Africa, which include South Africa. These countries, also including Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, have low life expectancies because the AIDS virus is running amok. The governments of these countries deny there is an AIDS problem — even though they officially say they are doing their best to fight it. These nations are incubators for AIDS, but do only as much to battle it as they find necessary to avoid approbation from the rest of the world.
In Nigeria, which sits on oil riches, the death rate from disease is one of the world’s highest. Of the 150 million people who live there, the median age is only 19. The oil money is basically expropriated by the ruling people for benefit of their own tribes.
The so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda have even lower median ages — about 16 years. Rich in natural resources, the countries are ravaged by their own so-called leaders.
