South Africa

This country with its majestic mountains and sculptured valleys. Coastline of unspoilt beauty and vast areas of open savanna, dotted with a modest farmhouse and out buildings. This beautiful country holds a deep secret of violence and poverty, decay creeping into all areas not owned by the minority's few with money. Classic scenario of the rich getting richer off the backs of the poorest. 

This is not unique to Africa, most of the world has the same problem. In the first world, they still maintain and improve the infrastructure. This has two advantages:
1. The poor are part of a social benefit structure that looks after them financially.
2. This leads to a more secure society where the rich feel safe. They also have a stable work force that is reasonable educated and have ambitions that are, on the whole, obtainable. 

Africa deals with this disparity of wealth in another way. Corruption, starts at the top and trickling down, becomes the norm. No maintenance of the basic infrastructure and high level of crime, leads to a country that can not be governed effectively. This is how Africa copes and will do so until the rest of the world realise that the only way to govern the Africans is to have a system they understand. 

Let me take you back in time when Africans lived in tribes, ruled by a chief. This was a time of continual fighting and moving. Then the so called colonials arrived and fighting intensified for a while, until the rule of law was imposed on everyone. People started putting down roots and some small measure of prosperity was achieved. Yes the rich were getting richer but there was some security and hope for the rest of the population. 

Then came independence, chaos and corruption grew, anarchy now the order of the day. Independence should have brought prosperity and did not. The first world should have taken responsibility, they still can. I propose a type of Colonialist capitalism. Loan them the money to get their country on track but at the same time have a strict procedures in place to stop corruption and bad government. Impose a rule of law that everyone is answerable to, no exceptions. 

Effectively take over the country, imposing a long term plan, that kick starts growth and security. This can be done, given time and money but will be colonialism, just in another name. The head of the country, picked by the IMF, will be a puppet. All aspects of government will be controlled by the IMF and the UN would have to put in place a substantial military presents to up hold the law and bring back security, so people can start rebuilding the country and businesses can begin to grow and with that growth expand and employ.

Just a thought, maybe not really politically correct but worth thinking about. Robert will have some thoughts on this prickly subject.