Last year, the US government said some African governments refused to participate in its forced deportation programme for illegal migrants. Ghana volunteered to collect them and help dump them.
In 2022, the British government decided it no longer wished to host asylum seekers on its own territory and needed somewhere to offload them. Rwanda raised its hand.
In 2016, the United States decided it could not keep certain Guantanamo Bay prisoners in its own facilities. Ghana openly agreed to receive them on African soil.
And now the United States has decided it cannot repatriate its own Ebola patients to its own vastly superior medical infrastructure. Kenya has offered to build them a treatment centre.
Every time a Western government identifies something it considers too dangerous, too embarrassing, too legally complicated or too politically inconvenient to keep on its own territory, there is always an African government somewhere ready to collect it.
Deportees, asylum seekers, terror suspects, infectious disease patients. The willingness of certain African leaders to position their countries as the world’s surrogate waste management service, in exchange for whatever diplomatic or financial token has no visible floor.
There will always be morally bankrupt opportunists in government who will not look at the safety of their people, the dignity of their flag or the solidarity owed to the oppressed, and will instead compete to be the most useful to the powerful.
You reduce crime by eliminating poverty. The reason so called nice neighborhoods have lower crime rates is because people’s basic needs are being met. It is not because of police, alarm systems, or neighborhood associations. Poverty creates crime.
This season was full of wonders. We saw Zamalek winning a league after 5 years, Arsenal winning league after 22 years, Al Nassr winning league after 7 years and Orlando Pirates buying the league after 15 years.