Ingeniero

POLITICS, AN ENVIRONMENTAL CURSE FOR AFRICA

Author: Manny Ritchie

Email: mannylee74@yahoo.com

Abstract

This paper discusses the link between political decisions that disregard environmental concerns on the one hand, and economic development on the other. It seeks to show how by taking populist decisions to the detriment of the environment, politicians in Africa and otherunderdeveloped parts of the world abuse democracy for the purpose of winning elections. Two concrete examples of African countries where such unfortunate political decisions have been made are given and the interconnectedness between politics, society and economic development explained. The political blame game politicians use to discredit each other is explored and other typical excuses given by officials tocover either their inadequacy or acts of sabotage are dismissed. The paper also shows how the laissez faire approach to environmental protection nurtures a culture of filth among the public. It ends by pointing out appeasement by the international community as a contributing factor to political irresponsibility in poor countries.

Key words

Environmental curse, environmental degradation,culture of filth, international appeasement

Introduction

Despite the worldwide growing awareness among politicians and the wider public of the need to link development to environmental concerns, there still seems to be a persistent disconnect between politicians (especially those in Africa) and how every aspect of managing our natural resources and environmental amenities has an impact on theextent to which we live well or badly as society. There are many competing uses for natural resources, and society is challenged to manage them properly, with developmental sustainability at the center of every decision, not only in order to improve the social wellbeing of present-day generations, but also to make sure that future generations are not deprived of their right to the same or evenbetter wellbeing. Renewable resources such as water, land and the biosphere are so closely interconnected that decisions made with regard to one, obviously end up affecting the others. The onus is on us to make sure that such effects are positive wherever possible and that if they happen to be negative, the extent to which they cause harm is greatly minimized. Policy-making and management of naturalresources now require an interdisciplinary approach that taps on both the natural and the social sciences to correctly address our societal preferences. This paper discusses some of the flaws in African political thinking that usually end up achieving the opposite of their intended goal, which is to reduce and eventually eliminate poverty. By not fully understanding the interconnectedness betweenpoverty reduction and environmental protection, African politicians tend to dwell too much on implementing increased-production-based measures paying little attention, if any, to combating environmental degradation.

Environmental Ignorance or Hunger for Power?
Either out of genuine and therefore innocent ignorance or outright deliberate quest for holding on to power, politicians in ‘democratic’Africa and, to a considerable extent, those in other underdeveloped regions of the world, promote environmental degradation, poor sanitation and thus infectious diseases by encouraging social behaviors that favor their political ambitions at the expense of wider public interest. For the sake of wining votes, politicians often make decisions that not only work against their own governments’publicly declared policies and efforts to combat pollution, but also hamper the economic growth that so many of them seek to achieve. The following paragraphs are intended to shed light, by giving concrete examples, on just how little politicians in poor countries that claim to be democratic understand the connectedness that exists between environmental care, social behavior and development....