Who’d a thunk it, eh? All those well-meaning celebrities raising money for starving Africans and millions went to buying guns. Reporting on BBC Radio 4’s program “From Our Own Correspondent,” Martin Plaut reveals that Ethiopians diverted a big chunk of cash, at least $95 million, to weapons for their civil war and funding for what-the-heck-let’s-call-them-terrorists. “Aregawi Berhe is the former army commander of the rebel movement that operated in the Ethiopian province of Tigray. [He] explained how the aid money was diverted not just to buy weapons his troops needed, but also to build a hardline, Stalinist party – the Marxist Leninist League of Tigray.” Bowling for Tigray? Seriously though, we’re talking iceberg tips. Or, perhaps, not. Plaut encounters a wall of silence on the subject (including Sir Bob Geldoff) and bails. “The aid workers who did so much to help those suffering back then had not asked those questions either. But perhaps they would not have saved so many lives if they had.” Balanced against all the lives lost because of Live Aid’s war funding. Just sayin’.
This is why most of Africa is a shithole: no infrastructure, no progress, no development, cycles of starvation and desperation. Never send Africa money; send goods and food.
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