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Ikh' ra (Learn)
Ikh' ra (Learn)
Senegal has lost much
Related to country: Senegal

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by Ababacar

Senegal has lost much in the last 20 years. Each day, a little more of our cultivable land crumbles into sand dunes; each night, our pirogues (traditional fishing boats) return with a little less fish than the day before. The rural exodus and illegal immigration are the forerunners of an ecological poverty which threatens the margins of our survival.
Due to all these problems, the cost of life in Senegal is high and getting higher.
Negotiations between the Senegalese government, the unions, and employers were held more than three months ago. At this meeting, according to the news reports, the different parties came together to examine the demands for an increase in buying power. Saying that poverty is gaining ground is becoming redundant in Senegal and in many African countries. For many years, “Africa experts” have maintained that the main reason for the poverty of the continent is tribal wars. But even if there is some reason in this theory, seeing the example of Senegal and of other countries which have not been at war, one must question the truth of these generalizations. A common phenomenon right now, which illustrates the level of poverty and despair which holds sway in the country, is the young people who take to the sea in pirogues in an attempt to migrate to Europe. Here they tell us that the youth are the vehicles of development, but they never say what kind of development or in whose or what interest. Most young people refuse to discuss politics, saying that it is a waste of time. Is this true, or are they simply falling victim to a vision of politics created by the people in power? Are we letting them get away with their lies? They tell us we must go to university, and be successful. Most of us go to school to relieve loneliness, but unfortunately find ourselves there alone because most of the professors are absent from their classrooms (University of Dakar, Department of Letters and Social Sciences/ English). According to a source at the association of students of the College of Letters and Human Sciences, their college was constructed to hold 600 to 1,200 students but it has passed between 25,000 and 30,000 registered students, 25 to 40 times more than the number predicted.

The authorities expect the students to be successful, but the system is set up for them to fail. Here, they demand the population to be patriotic and public-spirited, and yet the ministers themselves falsify their resumes in order to be promoted. Why should we be surprised to see, two weeks ago, the citizen who was arrested for helping his fellow student citizens make their way to study in France using fake diplomas he created himself? They warn that you can’t do whatever you want in Senegal, because it is a country with justice. But, like many African countries, our ‘just’ justice seems to ignore that millions of citizens are living poorly because some people have stolen millions of dollars from them. In reference to these millions, I can’t even begin to estimate the debt of this continent. Since independence, our countries have done nothing but indebt themselves, or rather our governments have done nothing but indebt themselves. It is important to point out that the loans seem to enrich our governments but bizarrely impoverish our countries and our people. The Northern countries, who since independence have participated in the theft of riches from the continent, soothe their conscience by giving us what they call ‘development aid’. What they realize and we seem to ignore is that the development aid does nothing to help us develop. At the same time, their model of development has already shown its limits and consequently they are now trying to find a new solution which is commonly called ‘sustainable development’. African leaders still want to develop their continent in the former model; they want to take what Northern countries have thrown out, while the North continues to develop itself by exploiting Africa’s natural and mineral resources, but especially through a new phenomenon which is reminiscent of slavery: selective emigration. Europe is surprised to see how many young Africans (most of them Senegalese) are fleeing in pirogues. On our side, it is their incomprehension of this phenomenon which surprises us.
Who is it who comes and pumps our seas of its resources for their own needs? Who is it who has caused and continues to cause the ill-being of the Ogoni population of Nigeria?
Quel développement durable pour le Sud? - Résultats Google Recherche de Livres. According to them, our continent represents only one percent (1%) of world trade. This is incomprehensible to us, because it seems clear that African resources are indispensable for so many of the things which are done in their countries. If Africa is poor it is because the IMF and the World Bank, in complicity with shady African regimes, have dirty politics which consist of keeping our head under water so that we will stay in the position of dependence on them www.bamako-film.com/. When African leaders embezzle our money, they keep it in Northern banks. When they finish pillaging Africa and finally withdraw, though they will never completely retire, it is in the North that they will finish their pampered life. We will never know what deal exists between these two poles, in which it is the people who are the victims. Nevertheless, the African peoples must wake up and take their future in their own hands. Africa is out of breath from dancing too much. Let us choose leaders who are competent and motivated by the desire to develop the continent in a sustainable manner, not choose leaders and dealers who are of the same religion or hometown, or who are of the same ethnic group… as me. This last type of leader does not hesitate to auction off the resources of the continent, creating a famine, and then violently suppressing the populations who protest against their hunger. www.haitiwebs.com/forums/world_news/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/world/africa/18senegal.html?ex=1371528000&en=28e917442c014b0b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

January 19, 2009 | 9:22 PM Comments  0 comments

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