Mbeki: Building a better Africa

I have a lot of issues with Mbeki including his position on AIDS as well as his non-existent criticism of Robert Mugabe but I think that this article written by Mbeki in the Post today also highlights what is good about the guy and the direction that he is taking South Africa as well as the continent. Looking at some of the leaders across Africa, it could be a lot worse. Mbeki is a briefcase carrying technocrat that actually wants to attend meetings to get work done and not just take a shopping trip abroad. In the US many people criticize Africa for wasting money (which they have often done) and being in a constant state of war (which still goes on today) but we fail to look at the full picture. Many of the wars across Africa were over problems left by and encouraged imperial powers and later on, those wars were often proxy wars between the US and the Soviet Union. More recently the US and Europe often talk about the need for open trade yet many of the products that Africa can produce are blocked out of important global markets because of protectionism. I am absolutely mad about Africa and hope that we in the west can help the continent move forward by letting Africans make their own decisions, both good and bad, and truly join the world community instead of what we have today.