Don't Cry for Me Africa

Shame that, on average, most Africans are worse off today than they or their parents were forty years earlier; guilt that we are an embarrassment in the comity of nations, and a defensiveness that insists with passion but no conviction that we are like everyone, everywhere. Since the era of its Independence, the whole world seems to have been concerned about Africa, eager to help the unfortunate Dark Continent. [...]it proposed a policy matrix that was Africa's version of the "Washington consensus." [...]was born the structural adjustment program that was soon to become the vehicle for thinking about and financing African development. [...]the initiative was repackaged and presented, in classic UN fashion, some would say, as the operational arm of UN-NADAF. [...]Section VII of the document on the "Special Needs of Africa" pledged to support the consolidation of democracy in Africa and assist Africans in their struggle for lasting peace, poverty eradication and sustainable development, thereby bringing Africa into the mainstream of the world economy.