Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-24-Speech-3-343"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071024.40.3-343"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Madam President, Mr President-in-Office, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which I represent as draftsman, is in favour of all these efforts. It is concerned about Africa and it supports everything that has been said. It only wants to know whether we are really bold enough for the task.
What we cannot write, although our report suggests it and indeed I am able to say it, is that when it comes to Africa there is a lot of politically correct and asphyxiating hypocrisy that has to be got rid of before we can really achieve our objectives. As regards enabling Africa to develop by allowing its products access to our markets, it must be remembered that some forty African countries have nothing whatsoever to export. This slogan is quite simply dishonest. Not a single African country is self-sufficient in foodstuffs. They have to import to eat, while exports from here and from Brazil are killing off the local subsistence agriculture. We have to help Africa to protect itself. This is the message that we have repeated in the report.
Of course corruption acts as a destructive blight on Africa. Yet this problem is endemic in extremely poor countries. We therefore need to start with the big fish and focus on them. This means the usual well-known suspects, even if they are ministers, and those on our own side who engage in bribery. Small-scale corruption will only disappear with economic development. Let us not start accusing them of the very same things we were doing a few centuries ago, for our expansion and development too were based on corruption.
Finally, a dictatorship cannot become a democracy even with the help of trade and foreign aid. However, it can become an enlightened despotism. Putting an end to torture and abduction, allowing freedom of expression and establishing the independence of the courts and their control over the police all have to take priority over the pluralist elections that are organised simply to please the West, while all the time they are abducting people and murdering journalists and election candidates. The conditions that we impose should take account of these factors. There is still much to be said on this subject."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples