It is such a great time in many African countries economically. After the Asian miracle, we have an Africa which is growing fast than other regions of the world. A great time indeed.
But this growth has many many obstacles which make some gains in GDP growth mere academic exercise for a lot of countries - Zambia included. Why? Well to start off, we have an economy propelled by the mines whose contribution to the economy is actually not that great. We have read about the way our multi-nationals have taken almost everything out through tax avoidance or worst case tax evasion. If there was a good contribution from most of these multi-nationals, our tax contribution as citizens through (Pay As You Earn) PAYE would be reduced. But alas, even Switzerland gets a bigger chunk of 'our' money than we do!
Why is the state of affairs like that? Well, partly because I believe the West benefited from this arrangement! Do you think Switzerland would not enjoy stolen money presented to them as taxes? Honestly? They have built an economy out of the proceedings of crimes (as my Zambian law would put it). Think about it, they have built a system of secrecy on all banks and they are proud of it and say, you want to sort it out, deal with your issues in your country. The West enjoyed this and it was business as usual.
But as you know, there is a little thing I learnt from Martin Luther King's statements and now quotations. I have kept this in my head at all times and has really guided me to make some decisions since I was in grade nine.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" - Martin Luther King Jr.
There was an injustice on many resource rich countries and the beneficiaries just turned a blind eye to the happenings. But the threat has now caught up with them! Tax avoidance has now not only hit the resource rich third world countries, it has hit the "first world". It has hit them so badly that the G8 meeting has put the three (3) Ts on the agenda.
But as life would have it, the G8 is a group of 8 from the world's eleven (11) wealthiest countries. The three (3) missing countries include China, Brazil and India.
The good news, the west and us are being attacked perhaps by the same enemy! So we now have an opportunity to make things right and just. ?The demand from the resource rich nations has just been one - access to information. The g8 meeting is also working on making access to information a priority and an agreement should be worked on those lines. So maybe because we speak the same language on this issue, we can now move together and make progress? I seriously doubt it! The west still enjoys and would like to enjoy the fruits of crime in African countries. I will be shocked if they prove me wrong by actually working for the better standing of all countries facing this enemy. My belief is that they would come up with agreements that will suit themselves and leave the third world on their own path to freedom. Maybe under the G11 would we expect something seriously correct - maybe!
I have great respect for Cameron for making this topic priority. He has done a lot by just putting it as an agenda item. I wish more could be said on this issue. And I believe his statement "Making sure we have more trade deals so we keep prices down, making sure we have greater transparency so we can help developing countries get the tax and revenue that they need, and this issue of taxation, making sure we crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, so right across the world, countries get the tax revenue they need to keep taxes down for hard-working people." as quoted here, is a good one, but I think the motivation is wrong. It should have been done on its own merit when the issue started coming out! Not when they have been hit by the same "crime". If they had not been hit, they would have gone on with business as usual. That is exactly what is wrong with the economy structure at the moment. Things only change when the powers that be are in the firing line. We need to strike a balance and act when something wrong has been sighted.
Lets pray and hope the G8 makes a good outing of these issues as they can make things better for the world. We have to work to improve the taxation and justice in revenue collecting. I always say, there is a time that the west will need justice in such matters when the developing countries actually develop. It looked like a joke, but today, even the G8 countries are not among the 8 wealthiest nations. There is a group of "emerging economies" that have emerged and got into the top 8! Imagine 40 years from today who will be among the top 8 wealthiest countries.
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