Steve Forbes on Africa

Steve Fobes starts his opinion piece about the changes that need to be made in Africa in This Money Won't Buy Happiness stating a fact that should be obvious to anyone wanting more African aid:

Alas, this emphasis on giving more money to benighted countries is mis-begotten. Most of it will be wasted, and despite "safeguards" all too much of it will be siphoned off by corrupt politicos and bureaucrats. Africa has received more than $400 billion in aid since 1960, yet per capita income has declined. No other area of the world has suffered such a regression. Blair, Bono et al. should be focusing on measures that would allow sub-Saharan Africa's existing entrepreneurial energies to put their countries on the path of rapid, India-China-Pacific-Rim-like economic growth. There are huge barriers blocking those who could catapult Africa's poor nations onto an economic fast track.

He then lists high taxes, unsound monetary policy, regulatory obstacles, and aids and malaria as factors in African poverty that need to be addressed in order to actually help Africans.