4 posts tagged “africa”
This should be the last post of this series, and it is actually the original followup to the primary post. I came across some shocking information regarding rape and sexual abuse in South Africa. This hits home for me on several different levels. I have personal experience with such matters, and someone very dear to me wants to go there soon to help out those in need. I must admit that it scares me to some degree, but all of that is another story, for another time...
What information did I come across? Well, according to a study into rape and HIV by the Medical Research Council (MRC), 1 out of 4 men in South Africa have admitted to raping someone. Let's get some stats out of the way, shall we?
Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.
One in 10 men said they had been forced to have sex with another man. Many find it difficult to report such attacks to the police in subcultures where the concept of homosexuality is taboo.A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.
That should be sobering for anyone. With such astonishing figures, it is important to understand why. Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC ahd this to say:
"We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."
I must admit that I agree with her. Having spoken with two of my friends who reside there, they confirm that assertion. I am aware of the lack of scientific merit behind such information, but you can't discount unbiased first hand knowledge. There are others who feel the same way as well. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said:
"We hear men saying, 'If Jacob Zuma can have many wives, I can have many girlfriends.' The hyper-masculine rhetoric of the Zuma campaign is going to set back our work in challenging the old model of masculinity."
I think that it stems from the cultural belief and thinking that men are superior and held to a different standard. There is a pervasive belief, practiced by many, with no real fear of punishment, and that inevitably leads to the widespread practice of such behavior.
The government has been rather complacent as well in its efforts to address the issue. In South Africa, only 7% of rapes ever lead to a conviction. In fact, the leader of the country stood trial for the rape of a family friend. His supporters demonstrated outside the court, verbally attacked his accuser and sang "burn the bitch, burn the bitch". He was eventually acquitted.
So what is the answer? Honestly, I don't think that there is an easy one. I think that there are two primary things that need to be addressed. The leadership needs to take responsibility in making sure that such crimes are punished. The need for a reform of the justice system, from the top down, is needed. Without such a reform, you will never change the matter. The second thing that needs to be addressed is the attitudes of the people. If you create a real sense that there may be a punishment for such an act, then you have tackled a large part of this issue. People are much less likely to do something if they know that they may face serious consequences for such behavior. The old model of masculinity needs to be addressed as well. This will be a much harder, and time consuming effort, but it is necessary if this behavior is to stop. People need to be made aware that there are victims in this, that women are equals, and that there are risks involved for both parties such as a sky-high HIV infection rate.
Given the current leadership, I don't suspect that much progress will be made in this area until new leadership comes to power. I remain hopeful however, since change needs to come to South Africa (and Africa as a whole) very badly.
I apologize for not really exploring the effect that economic aid has had in Africa. So I have done a lot of digging and figured that I would shed some light on the reality of aid in Africa. Do you remember Dambisa Moyo? She is the author of Dead Aid (you should read it if you care about this sort of thing-and you should), and a rather intelligent lady.
Moyo, who earned her doctorate at Oxford and has worked for the World Bank and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., focuses her criticisms on low-interest loans and grants from governments and multilateral lenders. Together, these make up more than 50 percent of the national budget in many African states.
“Africa is addicted to aid,” she says. “Like any addict, it needs and depends on its regular fix, finding it hard, if not impossible, to contemplate existence in an aid-less world.”
The West has funneled $1 trillion to Africa over the past 50 years, Moyo notes. Yet more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s 700 million people live on less than $1 a day, and the poverty rate doubled between 1981 and 2002, she says, citing World Bank figures. Real per-capita income today is lower than in the 1970s.
Cutting off aid won’t affect most Africans, Moyo argues, because they don’t have access to it to begin with; only their governments do. The continent is full of aid-funded roads and schools that stand uncompleted while government leaders ride around in brand-new Mercedes-Benzes, stuff money into foreign bank accounts and travel abroad, sometimes in private jets.
Outright grants and low-interest loans are all too easy to steal, she says. Aid makes African leaders more responsive to Western donors than to their own people and engenders conflict by making government worth fighting over, she adds.
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It is my opinion that aid needs to looked at differently. Rather than being given on the basis of promises of reform, initiatives, and improving the quality of life, I think that it has to doled on based on merit. The only entity that has been able to display large-scale, consistent progress in regards to relief in Africa has been the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They look at it like a business, and those with the best plan are awarded the aid. By tying the aid to something that is tangible, it therefore has real effects. I think that this is the only way to dole out aid in Africa, otherwise I would have to agree that we are just throwing our money away.
There is no doubt that Africa is a place in need of a lot of help, in a lot of different areas. In this post, there are two issues that I want to focus on however, and to a large degree, they are mutually exclusive.
The first of which is that the G-8 countries (G-8) that had pledged to supply $21.5 billion in aid to Africa by 2010 to help the continent get out of poverty and help with healthcare and education. With less than a year to go, there is a bit of a problem however. So far, only $7 billion has come through, with the remainder nowhere to be found. The two largest culprits are Italy and France, but there is more to this than the mere shirking of financial obligations.
The leaders of the world's countries didn't anticipate the economic maelstrom that swept the globe when they made their pledges. They were forced to spend billions of dollars bailing out their own economies (which was a contentious move in and of itself-and if you read this, then you know how I feel about it). The horizon doesn't look much better for anyone's economy either.
"As governments look to cut deficits, they will look to cut all parts of their budgets, and these parts that are to help the poorest may or may not be cut as part of that process," Bill Gates told reporters in London on Thursday after the release of the DATA report. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation operates in numerous African countries, and its $27.5 billion endowment makes it a far more significant donor than foreign governments are in some countries.
Why Wealthy Nations Are Stiffing Africa
There is, and has been for some time, a severe problem with aid in Africa. There is a fierce debate amongst aid and government officials about whether or not money for Africa is even worth it. There was a best-selling book (a very good one, and I highly recommend it) called Dead Aid written by Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo in which she argues that $1 TRILLION of Western aid during the last 50 years has actually left Africa more poor and dependant. Her sentiments were echoed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who wrote in the Financial Times last month that "as long as poor nations are focused on receiving aid, they will not work to improve their economies." But others have pointed out that carefully directed aid can play a critical role in removing obstacles to economic development. Gates told reporters that projects that focus on agriculture and health are "measurable and very impactful. The money had made a difference."
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I think that it is important to note two things not mentioned in this discussion however. There is overwhelming evidence that many of the African leaders have funneled vast sums of this money into their own personal Swiss bank accounts. Just as in any country, power corrupts. I also find it interesting that China isn't mentioned at all. China has-and does-donate more money to African aid than all of the G-8 countries COMBINED. Granted, it has one of the better economies currently, but it is a country that certainly has its own issues to deal with as well. I just find it rather curious that they are left out. To me, it is an acknowledgement that the G-8 countries are a relic of a bygone era. Formed with countries that had power and influence during the World War II era, I think that it is antiquated when looked at from a modern viewpoint that recognizes that China is one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Even if they (the leadership) are dicks.
Atrocities are nothing new in Africa. The Congo region in particular has been especially hard hit. I read a very gripping article by the New York Times that detailed that some of the most horrific rapes that I had ever heard of. There are tragic tales of girls as young as 11 months getting gang raped by as many as five men! The vast majority of these women are unable to seek help, and those that do find help severely lacking.
An Excerpt:
…
it has become the norm for armed men to use guns, knives and bayonets to rupture their victims' bodies. Sometimes they shoot bullets up women's vaginas. Victims often are rejected by their families, contract HIV, and are left to live in pain and shame.
In December, he operated on an 11-month-old baby raped by a 22-year-old neighbor. During one week in February, it was a 12-year-old girl who had been savagely raped by five soldiers. They stuffed a maize cob inside her.
Also treated last week was a 4-year-old whose mother sent her across the road to get something from a neighbor. She was kidnapped by soldiers and gang-raped.
The 4-year-old was infected with HIV, and they await results from a test on the 12-year-old. ''If three, four, five soldiers rape you, you are almost assured of contracting AIDS,'' Kinoma says.
Please read this article: Atrocious Rapes
