Cut all aid to Africa, just set up armed wildlife preserves to save the animals.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1
WASHINGTON (AP) - Declaring the age of paternalism over, President Bush said Thursday the United States demands clear results for the billions of taxpayer dollars it sends to Africa. He accused other nations of exploiting the continent's resources or irresponsibly offering aid as charity.
"America is serving as an investor, not as a donor," Bush said in a tone-setting preview of his six-day trip to Africa, which begins Saturday.
Bush's speech was largely aimed at Congress, which sets the foreign aid budgets that will ultimately shape whether his initiatives outlast his presidency.
The president said the United States has a moral imperative and a vital security interest in helping Africa overcome disease, poverty and instability. His message reflected that foreign aid goes over better with lawmakers and the taxpaying public when it turns up tangible results and lasting change.
Meanwhile, with conflicts roiling Africa, Bush sought to show an engaged administration. His African travels are not about peacemaking, but Bush said that during the trip, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will split off to Kenya to support political reconciliation led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.
More than 1,000 people have died there since late December, when a disputed presidential election led to bloodshed.
Bush offered to delay going to Africa if it would help settle an unrelated fight with Congress about a terrorist surveillance law. He did not make clear how such a postponement would help.
The president is traveling to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. All have benefited from U.S. aid to save lives and develop their countries.
"We have also revolutionized the way we approach development," Bush said. "Too many nations continue to follow either the paternalistic notion that treats African countries as charity cases, or a model of exploitation that seeks only to buy up their resources. America rejects both approaches."
Instead, Bush said, the U.S. treats African leaders as equal partners who must set clear goals and achieve measurable results.
Bush did not name which countries he thought were being paternalistic or exploitative. White House press secretary Dana Perino said later that "we believe there are many countries who could be doing more to help Africa develop responsibly. But we are not naming names."
"The between-the-lines message is that countries that shower budget support on all countries, such as the World Bank and the Europeans, are often merely pouring good money after bad," said Joel Barkan, a specialist in African issues at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. He said Bush's comment was also likely a "not so subtle dig at the Chinese," who are a major investor in the African continent and a competitor for oil and other resources.
Bush's address had another goal: to ease nervousness in Africa, where some who have benefited in his presidency wonder what will happen when it ends.
"I will assure our partners in Africa that the United States is committed to them today, tomorrow, and long into their continent's bright future," Bush said, even though that promise extends beyond his reach.
Bush's investment initiatives for Africa are widely viewed as popular and productive, even in a deeply political atmosphere in Washington.
The Millennium Challenge Account, for example, provides U.S. aid to developing nations that show good governance. More than $5.5 billion has been awarded to 16 countries that are investing in the health and education of their people and fighting internal corruption. In Tanzania, where Bush will spend three nights, he will sign a compact worth almost $700 million. It will be the largest in the program yet.
"We believe that countries can adopt the habits necessary to provide help for their people," Bush said. "That's what we believe. And we're willing to invest in leaders that are doing just that."
Bush also prodded Congress to support health initiatives centered largely in Africa: his program to combat HIV/AIDS, which Bush wants to double in size to $30 billion over five years, and his Malaria program, which aims to cut the number of malaria-related deaths in 15 African nations by half.
Along with trade and education initiatives, Bush is touting a broad investment package that, in his view, shows the generosity of the American people.
Bush pivoted to less rosy matters at the end of his preview speech.
He said he is dispatching Rice to Kenya to deliver a message directly to Kenya's leaders and people: "There must be an immediate halt to violence, there must be justice for the victims of abuse, and there must be a full return to democracy."
Annan is trying to mediate a political solution between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Rice's visit is expected to last only several hours. In Nairobi, rival factions of the political crisis reportedly agreed Thursday to write a new constitution, a move that could allow for power-sharing as part of a deal aimed at ending weeks of violence in the East African country.
Bush, noting mass killings in Sudan and dictatorship in Zimbabwe, acknowledged that Africa has "security challenges."
"These are great challenges," he said. "But there is even greater cause for hope."
Odinga's spokesman called Bush's decision to send Rice to Kenya an encouraging sign that could help quell the nation's election violence. Salim Lone said that the Orange Democratic Movement "welcomes the decision ... to assist in the full restoration of democracy" and ending weeks of violence in the East African country.
"The Americans have been so waffly about the election outcome that this decision today by the president is a very welcome development," Lone said while visiting U.N. headquarters in New York. "Free and fair elections are at the core of democratic practice, and we are greatly encouraged by the U.S. determination to take the lead."
