Mo Better Blues
So you’re one of Africa’s wealthiest individuals, having made a killing in the telecoms industry. You’ve just sold your company to a Kuwaiti transnational for squillions and now you’re experiencing the first symptoms of a syndrome that afflicts many of the world’s über-capitalists – the dreaded Bill Gates Disease (BGD).
Yes, Mohammed Ibrahim – ‘Mo’ to all your chums at Davos – we feel your pain. Those strange guilt-twinged charitable impulses are said to be rather awkward and off-putting at first, but soon they will subside as you settle into your new ultra-philanthropist persona. Seriously would like to congratulate Mr Ibrahim on the unique path he has chosen to show off his new post-corporate colours. Not content to follow in the well-trodden footsteps of Bill (and Melinda), Mo knows better. While the Gateses harp on about the children, Ibrahim wants to save the poor and unfortunate dictators of Africa.
Yes, you heard that right. Ibrahim, flush with cash after selling off his company Celtel (a controversial sponsor of this year’s World Social Forum in Kenya) to MTC for $3.4 billion, is offering a ‘prize’ of $5 million plus $200,000 every year thereafter to one lucky African despot. All the prospective candidate needs to do is volunteer to leave office if the electorate asks them to, desist from theft and promote ‘good governance’ in the country of his or her rule (in other words, do what they are supposed to do). The prize, the largest of its kind in the world (Nobel laureates rake in a mere $1.3 million not including sponsorship deals), has provoked outrage from African civil society groups and scholars. Some have argued that the prize would have been better spent funding campaigns to drop the debt, reform the global economy and reign in corporate power.
But Ibrahim has been wowing audiences with his heartbreaking accounts of the plight of Africa’s kleptocrats. Pointing out how former US and British leaders can look forward to promising careers on the global lecture circuits, the Sudan-born Ibrahim told British newspaper The Independent: ‘Our guys have no life after office... Suddenly, all the mansions, cars, food, wine, is withdrawn. Some find it difficult to rent a house in the capital.’ Aw, the poor dears!
So next time you open your purse-strings and heart for the world’s needy, spare a thought for the deprived dictators of the world. Sponsor a despot today!
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
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