Journalistic 4-Mainstream

The West Can’t Save Africa: locals must take the lead (The Washington Post, February 13, 2006)

Summary: Economic growth and development expert, William Easterly, writes for the Washington Post summarizing how ineffective (but highly hyped) U.S. foreign aid was for Africa in the year 2005. He then compares it to the success stories of little-known African entrepreneurs, who started the ground-up movement he thinks is necessary for prosperity to reign in African countries.

Topic: Should the state department of the Obama administration double foreign aid for Africa?
Category: Mainstream journalistic
What is it? Article from the Washington Post

Title: The West Can’t Save Africa: Locals Must Take The Lead
Publication Information: Washington Post, February 13, 2006 (Page A21)
Author: William Easterly
Location: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021201150.html
Accessed: February 6, 2009

Support:
• Tony Blair, British Prime Minister
• Bob Geldof, Rock Celebrity/African aid supporter
• Jeffrey Sachs, U.S. economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
• Angelina Jolie, Actress/philanthropist
• Bono, U2 frontman/philanthropist
• Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Time Magazine, person of the year issue
• Patrick Awuah, runs Asheshi University in Ghana
• Robert Keter, Kenyan entrepreneur
• Monique Maddy, Liberian entrepreneur with Harvard MBA
Easterly quotes Tony Blair advocating a “Big Push” from the G-8 to get Africa on track. Bob Geldof is referenced in relation to his role in assembling the charity concert series, Live 8. Jeffrey Sachs and Angelina Jolie are cited as household names touring Africa as a part of the Live 8 series, in order to “shed light” on the situation in Africa. Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates are cited as being named Time Magazine’s “People of the Year” for their African aid attempts. Patrick Awuah is used as an example of someone from within Africa who is starting from the ground-up movement, so to speak. Robert Keter and Monique Maddy are from Kenya and Liberia respectively, and they’re both successful entrepreneurs helping to stabilize African communities. They add weight to Easterly’s arguments that African locals need to take the reigns.

Audience and Agenda: The Washington Post is a nationally distributed newspaper with a circulation of over five million. They are mainstream media, so they are journalism for an extremely broad audience. Easterly uses a lot more celebrity, pop culture references and layman’s terms than he usually does in order to appeal to a national audience. The Washington Post is funded by advertisers so their needs/wants must be factored into consideration regarding what is printed.

Usefulness: This article was written in response to the ever-popular growing opinion that foreign aid is the best way to help Africa and that all they need is a little (or a lot of) money thrown at them. In actuality, the African people themselves must be willing and committed to the cause and they must play an active role in getting themselves back on their feet. It is addressing those who believe that foreign aid is the best solution and forcing them to question what it is the U.S. is actually accomplishing with foreign aid, if anything. I would use this as more support that foreign aid is not the best answer and, while it sounds good to be “doubling foreign aid,” most of that money never touches the people it’s intended for. Easterly doesn’t address the times when foreign aid money has helped, he leaves out the success stories.

Works Cited:
• The Washington Post about page
• Washington Post ad site
• Jeffrey Sachs’s biography info page from Columbia University