Africa debt relief

Bush and Blair met today to discuss Africa's problems, which as we all know, they have a lot of. Not to mention that the nature of them has not changed for quite some time.

At a joint news conference in Washington, Bush said: "We... agree that highly indebted developing countries that are on the path to reform should not be burdened by mountains of debt."

"Our countries are developing a proposal for the G8 that will eliminate 100 percent of that debt."

Alright, sounds good. Way to think geopolitics just like your daddy, Bush.

Except... wait a minute now...

U.S. officials have made it clear the White House does not want to double aid to Africa or forgive debts unless countries weed out corruption and reform their governments.

Bush told reporters last week that developed countries "are not going to want to give aid to countries that are corrupt, or don't hold true to democratic principles, such as rule of law and transparency and human rights and human decency."

That's some catch. Do they really expect that despotic rulers are going to suddenly drop everything and "weed out corruption and reform their governments" all for some debt relief? Do they honestly think that people like Robert Mugabe give a damn about the well-being of their people at all? The commoners are the ones that could really use the foreign aid in order to rebuild their shattered economies. However, getting around awful governments that will just as soon confiscate the money and use it to buy tanks than give it to their people to buy tractors for their farms is always the major issue. Conflict and disunity sparked by tribalism is something else that needs to be addressed before serious progress can be made. All and all, Africa is a snake's nest of problems, and they're not the type that you can just throw money at.