|
At the present time,
stemming the continuous flow of economic refugees gathering at
the frontiers of the European Union, seems to be high on your
agenda. Many of the refugees are black Africans.
It has long been
well known that the pressure is strong. Thousands of dead bodies
already line the roads through the desert, where outdated trucks
have collapsed. Bodies lie in the depths of the Strait of
Gibraltar, where makeshift passenger boats have sunk. Bodies are
strewn along the highways of Europe, because someone forgot to
air the storage tank or container space in which the refugees
have had to travel.
However, when one
route is barred, another soon opens up … and this will be
the case for a long time to come!
You may well lease
the humiliating charter flights for the “repatriation”
of refugees to their fatherland – a measure which deeply
scars the soul and the memory of hospitable Africans, who were
called upon, not so long ago, to help defend your fatherland.
You may well add a
third row of fences to the Ceuta and Melilla centres (what
are we doing there still?) or tear down the refugee camp at
Sangate (FR).
You may well
organise forced returns under the floodlights of TV cameras. That
might reassure your ill-informed public opinion at home, but it
will not stop the arrival of more refugees.
They will arrive
nevertheless, because the Government of France and other European
states never sincerely wanted to enable West African farming
communities (80% of the population) to live from their work on
the land. You refuse to buy their products at a decent
price, which would allow them to stay in their own country. You
refuse to invest in small-scale agriculture, which is the only
way to ensure that populations can continue to live in their
country of origin. You have consistently preferred to distribute
aid, which uproots structural patterns, when it is too late and
when the weakest already have died. You prefer to administer
“last aid” and bring in your unsold stocks at high
transport costs, instead of creating a framework which would
enable African farmers to develop their own production and
stocks. You destabilise their markets with artificial pseudo
world market prices, which you manipulate as it suits you
(through subsidies or dumping). And to the world you then
announce the great novelty:
Ultraliberal
Trade = Development
But we can see each
and every day that this recipe only makes the rich richer and the
poor poorer.
They will arrive
nevertheless because your colleagues in charge of Development
have too often reduced development to budget contributions or
occasional loans, only to favour corrupt recipient governments of
lawless states, where the racket permanently rules over the
weakest. There is little hope for the young to find a motivation
for their future in such an environment. They all want to go to
Europe, and they will.
They will arrive
nevertheless because even if they leave their rural villages for
the city, they will find insufficient infrastructure, no jobs, no
consideration and no prospect for their future. The scarce
employment available is already in the hands of a minority, which
keeps a tight reign on all opportunities for itself. What
remains? Only the “Road to adventure” with its glossy
appeal to their young eyes (as broadcast by TV 5). They dream of
Europe.
They will arrive
nevertheless because in the end you will need them
- in agriculture
(for vegetables, fruit and early season products), given that the
large supermarkets push prices down and therefore do not pay
normal wages to those who grow and harvest;
- on construction
sites, because sub-contractors of the large companies in the
building trade and public works will not pay their manpower
regular wages either, although they generate important profits;
- in the general
population, because it will be necessary to fill the gap left,
when the big generation of baby boomers withdraws into
retirement.
* When the European
Community realises that the world needs all its farmers;
* When the EC
decides that it is right and fair for Africa to protect its
emerging production, in agriculture and other sectors, in order
to achieve food sovereignty;
* When the EC
actually opens its markets to products from Sub-Saharan Africa,
so that it finally becomes solvent;
* When the EC
abstains from imposing its Economic Partnership Agreements ( in
reality free trade agreements), which will ruin whatever is left
of local production and which will impoverish African states yet
a little more;
* When the EC stops
supporting African dictatorial “democracies”;
THEN, Mr Ministers,
and then only, the pressure might ease up a bit at your borders.
Good Luck!
Jacques
LACOUR
Koudougou, April 6, 2006
|
