Loudah. retweetledi
Some years ago I wrote that African politicians can loot state coffers and once in while, organize a charity event. And people will still celebrate them and say “well at least he is a generous thief”.
That is how most of our first ladies on this continent became distributors of sanitary pads and plastic buckets in so-called charity activities, handing back crumbs of what was stolen from the very people receiving them, and being applauded for the generosity of the gesture.
I realised today that the exact same logic applies to foreign powers looting our resources. They can extract hundreds of billions over decades, assassinate our leaders, control our currencies, poison our waters and then return with a token pledge of meager investments at a summit they organised to rehabilitate their own image, and people will say: “well, at least they were kind enough to host the event here because hotels were sold out”.
When you have been conditioned long enough to expect nothing, a crumb looks like a banquet.
English
