British PM’s statement amoral

The Citizen, Mobhare Matinyi, Thursday, 03 November 2011 22:06 Over a couple of weeks ago – on October 10th to be precise – British Prime Minister, David Cameron pledged to slash aid to African countries with poor records on gay rights. The man repeated his threat once more during the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Perth, Australia, last week. The Premier, who has been in power since May 2010, was quoted by the London-based Daily Mail saying that he will inform what he termed as ‘struggling nations’ that they will receive funding ‘fines’ if persecution of gays continues. Cameron seemingly wants dirty legislation enacted to encourage homosexuality in Africa.  Not surprisingly, the British Government has already cut aid to Malawi by £19 million after two gay men were sentenced to 14 years hard labour. Malawi, which has received £200 million from Britain in the past three years as aid, has plans to bring in tough anti-gays laws. According to the British International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, Uganda and Ghana are also on their way to losing foreign aid unless they drop laws against gays. Uganda, which is due to receive £70 million in 2011, is contemplating punishing homosexuality with the death penalty, an idea that has shocked another supporter of gay rights, American President, Barack Obama. Ghana, which gets £36 million a year, has promised to bring in measures to “check the menace of homosexuality” as Daily Mail reported, but interestingly London has not said a word about Zimbabwe whose president, Robert Mugabe, once described gays as worse than dogs and pigs. Mugabe has constantly warned that his government would jail any clergyman who officiates over a gay marriage. Mitchell’s spokesman cautioned last month: “The Government is committed to combating violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in all circumstances in this country and abroad. We only provide aid directly to governments when we are satisfied that they share our commitments to reduce poverty and respect human rights.”  Sadly, this is a declaration of cultural imperialism towards Africans. Why would the British impose their own way of living upon others? Could it be merely because of the £8.4 billion that Cameron is planning to distribute to 102 countries this year with Afghanistan and Pakistan alone taking 40 per cent? That’s odious and another proof that aid is simply a foreign policy tool. Currently, 70 per cent of the members of Cameron’s party want him to reduce aid so as to save his country’s ailing economy. Before flying to Australia, while at a public gathering in Nottingham, England, one woman told him:  “There are millions of pounds of debt in the country yet you are still sending billions abroad in aid. Surely charity should begin at home.” Cameron is thinking about increasing spending on foreign aid to £12.6 by 2014 in an attempt to reach the United Nations goal of 0.7 percent of Gross National Income for rich nations. However, in February, 2011, his government decided to stop direct aid to 16 countries including Russia, China, India and Iraq in a move described by Mitchell as “a good deal better focused.” Additionally, Cameron’s Government is planning to concentrate on 53 member states of the Commonwealth under the same reason. It is apparent that all is not well with the British Government and the gay card could be a scapegoat here because they know Africans won’t take it. But who is David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party who wants to legalise gay marriage in Britain? He was born in 1966, too young to know that Tanzania severed diplomatic relations with his country in 1965 foregoing all aid due to British policy towards Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence. As a teenager at school, Cameron was caught smoking cannabis, admitted the offence, and was punished. While at Oxford University, he was a member of the elite student dining society the Bullingdon Club, basically a group of unscrupulous boys who had a reputation for an outlandish drinking culture associated with boisterous behaviour. While presenting his ideas about a Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act in 2006, Cameron disappointed his former professor at Oxford, Vernon Bogdanor, who went on to tell The Guardian: “I think he is very confused. I've read his speech and it's filled with contradictions.  There are one or two good things in it but one glimpses them, as it were, through a mist of misunderstanding.” With less than two years in office, Cameron is accused of cronyism, a syndrome which often attacks poor leaders as the majority of people around him are his former school mates at Eton school. The bottom line is: Cameron is not the man many people would wish to think highly of; no wonder he is capable of issuing such amoral and horrendous culturally imperialistic declarations to Africans. I think it’s time for African leaders to stop begging. Yes, stop it!