[DEBATE] : Manuel is still blaming the poor (they're bad; remember they spent their money on alcohol)

[Sean Jacobs]

>
> Feed: The Times - Breaking News
> Posted on: 21 May 2008 16:30
> Author: The Times - Breaking News
> Subject: Poor must take responsibility: Manuel
>
> Sapa
>
> Government's anti-poverty interventions will not succeed unless the  
> poor demonstrate a willingness to improve their circumstances,  
> Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said.
>
> Briefing the media during the launch of the World Bank's Commission  
> for Growth and Development report in Cape Town, Manuel said  
> government's anti-poverty programme could only work if the poor took  
> more responsibility for the improvement of their situation.
>
> "The poor should get actively involved, unfortunately this link is  
> lacking in South Africa."
>
> Government was concerned about the fact that some of the rural poor  
> no longer engaged in productive activities such as farming just  
> because they were now receiving social grants.
>
> Land was now laying fallow in rural areas because people were  
> getting social grants, he said.
>
> The report, compiled by a team of economics experts, identified  
> safety nets as important tools for reducing poverty. It draws its  
> conclusions from the distinctive characteristics of countries that  
> had registered phenomenal growth rates over the years.
>
> None of these countries had managed to reduce poverty before  
> realising a higher economic growth rate.
>
> "The growth report... kills off once and for all the misguided  
> notion that you can lift people out of poverty in the absence of  
> growth," said renowned economist and chairman of the commission  
> Professor Michael Spence.
>
> African countries with natural resources were growing quickly thanks  
> to the hike in commodity prices.
>
> The challenge was how to use this boom to reduce the region's  
> dependency on commodities, and how to face food shortages, a problem  
> that might worsen as the climate warms.
>
> Botswana is one of only 13 countries that have been successful in  
> achieving sustained high growth.
>
> South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda and Madagascar are countries  
> that, having achieved macroeconomic stability, can now afford to  
> think about long-term growth.
>
> The report calls for industrialised economies to grant African  
> countries time-bound trade preferences to manufactured exports to  
> help them overcome the disadvantages of being "late starters", and  
> to finance the expansion of Africa's tertiary education to make up  
> for Africa's brain drain.
>
> Some of the report's main recommendations specific to Africa include:
>
> Increasing agricultural productivity and output;
>
> Reducing the cost of doing business through simplification of  
> administrative procedures;
>
> Continuing progress in elementary school enrolments, improving  
> quality of education, and committing more resources to secondary and  
> tertiary education, ensuring the inclusion of girls;
>
> Encouraging regional co-operation and integration, key for  
> landlocked countries;
>
> Giving all citizens and sectors access to secure channels for saving  
> and credit;
>
> Adopting best practices in the area of the exploitation of natural  
> resources, such as setting up a fund for resource rents, which pays  
> out a percentage of the total each year for the benefit of the  
> citizens; and
>
> Continuing to focus on macroeconomic stability and responsible  
> fiscal policies.
>
>
> View article...
>