| Some time ago I came across a list published by | | | | well-spent? |
| Russian Forbes Magazine, of 10 most wanted | | | | With very few exceptions, the standards of living in |
| professions for the next decade. According to that | | | | Africa have worsened during the last 30 years and |
| article, one of those top 10 professions is that of an | | | | the economies have impoverished. Some countries |
| expert in conducting business in Africa. | | | | have simply vanished. Others have been in a state of |
| I have been working in African countries for about | | | | unrest and civil war for so many years, that the |
| thirty-five years: first as a Soviet diplomat, later as an | | | | catastrophe has become a normal day-to-day life for |
| academic, and in the private sector during the last | | | | the people living there and for the international public |
| fifteen years. After all these years, I can proudly say | | | | opinion. |
| that I do have some experience in the matter. But if | | | | For instance, has anybody lately heard any news not |
| you asked me: "What is an expert in business in | | | | related to crime, civil unrest and piracy from Somalia? |
| Africa?" - I would not know how to answer. | | | | What about Congo, Guinea-Bissau or Côte d'Ivoire? |
| Where do the experts in Africa come from? What | | | | We cannot even be sure that the international aid will |
| kind of formation such specialists should receive? In | | | | save Africa from hunger. There is a trend of |
| USSR, the country where I was born, one's job was | | | | continuous impoverishment and, with few exceptions, |
| determined by a purely bureaucratic decision. | | | | there are no reasons to believe that such trend will |
| In 1975, after the Rose Revolution took place in | | | | revert, regardless of how much more economical aid |
| Portugal, its African colonies gained independence and | | | | is injected into the region. Moreover, the existing |
| started to build socialism. I was appointed to work in | | | | system of international welfare favors corruption both |
| Soviet Representation for Economic Relationships in | | | | in Africa and in donor states, and is greatly responsible |
| Angola, probably because I worked previously as | | | | for the further destruction of African economies. |
| Spanish-Russian translator in Cuba and, therefore was | | | | One thing is helping people who have suffered from a |
| susceptible to learn Portuguese in short time (at that | | | | disaster - be it a natural cataclysm or civil war. A |
| time, there were virtually no Portuguese speakers in | | | | completely different matter is teaching them to live off |
| USSR). And that is how I officially became a "specialist | | | | the international charity provided by the NGOs. |
| in Africa" or an "Africanist". | | | | The reality is that so far the governments of the |
| Our Representation was managing the projects | | | | industrially developed countries have not been able to |
| related to a multi-billion dollar credit granted by USSR | | | | offer any constructive ideas, let alone a plan for |
| to Angola. We had specific instructions to spend those | | | | structural investment in Africa, as an alternative to the |
| funds to the last cent within a strict time limit. | | | | disproportionally grown lobby of non-governmental |
| Some of our projects were blatantly absurd. For | | | | organizations, which are asking for more funds so they |
| instance, we built a mausoleum for the first president | | | | can "aid" Africa. |
| of the country, Agostinho Neto. We have spent more | | | | This is to say nothing about such obvious publicity |
| than one billion dollars (by eighties' rates) on the works, | | | | stunts as the so-called "solidarity caravans", which |
| including the maintenance of the embalmed late | | | | covers the well-known Paris-Dakar rally route on |
| president's body (which turned out to be an extremely | | | | trucks loaded with pasta and tomato sauce. Is it really |
| complicated technical procedure). To build the | | | | necessary to traverse the whole continent on trucks, |
| mausoleum, a considerable residential area was | | | | when this food can be delivered by a freighter in a |
| demolished in the capital of Angola, a country already | | | | couple of containers? |
| ravaged by civil war. | | | | I did not regret losing my job when USSR ceased to |
| In early eighties, we received a visit from the USSR | | | | exist - quite frankly, I deem I did more harm than good |
| Minister of Economic External Affairs. While we were | | | | as an appointed "specialist in Africa". I started a private |
| reporting on the accomplishment of our contracts (as | | | | business and became acquainted with people to |
| you can imagine, a big budget required hundreds of | | | | whom, while I was a bureaucrat, I had never paid much |
| contracts), the Minister had fallen asleep. When he | | | | attention before. I am talking about people who have |
| woke up he told us that our work made no sense. | | | | been doing small and medium size businesses in Africa |
| Many of the present agreed. | | | | for decades: Europeans, Americans, Asians. |
| I was young and thought that the Minister was going to | | | | Some of these people have come, like I did, to work in |
| give us a wise advice. And so he did. | | | | Africa. Some have been born there. I have the |
| 'You must start organizing "kolhozys",' he said. | | | | pleasure to know several European and Lebanese |
| The Counselor on the External Economic Affairs of | | | | families who are managing companies started by their |
| Soviet embassy in Luanda was a resourceful | | | | grandparents at the dawn of the past century. These |
| character. | | | | small and medium-sized businesses are creating actual |
| 'We are already on it,' he answered. | | | | employments and provide the much-needed working |
| The "kolhozys" were "created" by the citizens of the | | | | training in Africa, in fact being the only driving force for |
| then Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, sent to Angolan | | | | the building of what in USA and Europe is known as |
| cotton plantations abandoned by the Portuguese. As | | | | the middle-class. |
| specialists in socialist farming, the Uzbeks were | | | | As a side-note, the definition of the business size in |
| supposed to share their experience on organizing | | | | Africa is very relative. For Western Europe, a |
| collective farms with Angolans. | | | | company of ten-twelve million yearly turnover can |
| The area where the plantations were located, and | | | | hardly be called a big business. However, in any small |
| where our government was sending these groups of | | | | Western or Central African country a firm of this size |
| Uzbeks, was not under control of the Angolan | | | | provides from 20% to 50% of food imports for the |
| government, and was mostly occupied by UNITA | | | | whole population. |
| guerrilla factions. Neither USSR nor the Angolan central | | | | The businesses I am talking about are generating little |
| government was willing to recognize the existence of | | | | to none media attention: on one hand, the public does |
| anti-governmental guerillas, the official statement being | | | | not seem to be particularly interested in them (unless, |
| that any armed conflict on Angolan territory was | | | | of course, there is a nasty story to tell), on the other |
| provoked by "South African regime of apartheid, a | | | | hand, any press releases would surely create |
| puppet of American imperialist expansion". In fact, | | | | problems in the countries they are working with. They |
| Moscow preferred to send our "specialists" to the | | | | are also generally ignored by their governments, which |
| no-man land just to prove that said land was actually | | | | are incapable of offering them any protection (the |
| under control. | | | | tragic story of English farmers in Zimbabwe |
| The Uzbeks were left to handle by themselves, which | | | | immediately springs to mind). |
| they did quite well under the circumstances. They | | | | The companies working in Africa and people behind |
| grew vegetables and sheep, and hunted for living. | | | | them are nor saints nor Samaritans; they do not |
| They were wise enough not to bother with cotton | | | | pretend to build a utopian society and do not think in |
| plantations and never tried to organize the local | | | | terms of global solutions to global problems. Their |
| population for that task. Before Angola became | | | | stories are of strife and survival, and they are the |
| independent, work on cotton plantations was carried | | | | actual pillars of the battered African economies. |
| out by convicted criminals and the Angolans regarded | | | | Recently, I came across another article published in |
| this kind of labor as a new form of slavery. | | | | Forbes, "The Business of Africa" ( ). The author, Mr. |
| The Uzbek colony received fertilizers, agricultural | | | | Michael Maiello states similar concerns on the role of |
| poisons and medicine from USSR. They shared their | | | | the NGOs in the African impoverishment, and writes |
| medicines with UNITA guerilla, which did not harm them | | | | about the proposal of the "New Marshall Plan for |
| in return. | | | | Africa" penned by Mr. Glenn Hubbard, a chairman of |
| The Angolans found a good use for the fertilizers and | | | | the Council of Economic Advisors under George W. |
| poisons meant to be employed on the imaginary | | | | Bush and now dean of Columbia Business School and |
| cotton plantations: they used them as poison for | | | | Mr. William Duggan, a former aid worker who spent |
| hunting and fishing. We were very lucky it never | | | | two decades in Africa with the Ford Foundation and |
| occurred to UNITA to use those products on Luanda's | | | | other charities. |
| water supplies. | | | | Although I cannot avoid feeling certain skepticism about |
| Meanwhile, we kept reporting to Moscow on the | | | | any new plans to aid Africa after all these years, the |
| progress of socialist's transformations in Angolan | | | | idea of implementing a structural aid package based |
| agriculture. | | | | on USA assistance to Western Europe after World |
| Today our exploits in Angola might have been labeled | | | | War II, does seem like a glimmer of hope on what |
| with a popular term "synergy". The Counselor on the | | | | otherwise is a pretty bleak picture. |
| External Economic Affairs called it by a more | | | | The main difference between the original Marshall Plan |
| ideologically correct (by those standards) word | | | | and the current system of economic aid to African |
| "kolhoz" for which he was awarded a medal from the | | | | countries is the former was structurally oriented. The |
| Soviet government. | | | | US credits were offered to privately owned European |
| During the eighties' Gorbachev Perestroyka, USSR | | | | companies, thus encouraging the private business and |
| and USA tried to implement several cooperation | | | | strengthening of the middle-class. By the same token, |
| projects for Africa's development. In particular, one of | | | | the returns from these credits were invested in |
| such projects was aimed to prevent the desertification | | | | re-establishing and development of the infrastructures |
| of the continent. | | | | of the western European countries, battered after the |
| To be honest, it reminded me very much of the | | | | World War II. |
| "kolhozys" we were building in Angola. All of our | | | | Although it is hard to predict the success of the |
| Russian-American projects were simply different | | | | formula proposed by Hubbard and Duggan, I am |
| takes on bureaucracy decisions on the distribution of | | | | certain of one thing - ignoring the interests and |
| aid. | | | | experience of small and medium sized foreign |
| One may say that is what happened in Soviet Union, a | | | | companies in Africa would be a crucial mistake of the |
| country which has proven to be economically | | | | New Marshall Plan or any other initiative for a structural |
| inefficient. But I would like to ask you to give me one | | | | recovery of African economies. |
| example of effective assistance to Africa by Western | | | | Moreover, such plan would only make sense if the |
| countries. Of course, there are hundreds or thousands | | | | creditor states agree on the actual aim of the |
| of examples of water wells being drilled, solar panels | | | | economic aid. Are they actually intending to help the |
| and windmills generators installed. But how many of | | | | African countries in building their self-sufficient and |
| those installations left to be managed by local labor, | | | | competitive economies or to stage yet another |
| are still working, at least two years after the foreigners | | | | experiment on pseudo-socialism? |
| who built them have returned to their homes to tell the | | | | The experiments with utopias have failed so far. |
| stories about how they have helped Africa? | | | | Africa simply might not survive the new wave of |
| During the years of independence, African countries | | | | pseudo-socialist populism - for instance, of the sort of |
| have received international aid on the amount of more | | | | Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. It is doubtful that the |
| than two trillion dollars. Most of these funds were not | | | | NGOs, which mainly share the beliefs similar to the |
| granted on ideological grounds - USSR has ceased to | | | | ideas of utopian Proletarian, Christian and, as of recent, |
| exist almost 20 years ago. Was this money | | | | Muslim socialism, will play a positive role in this process. |