Statistics show that the African brain drain has accelerated rapidly in recent years with the departure of high level academics and senior management personnel to Europe and the United States. The main attraction of course has been the pursuit of higher salaries and standards of living.

Anti-immigration policies in the west have been the bottleneck controlling this seepage. I know some consider this a bad thing, but in my opinion, this has been Africa's saving grace. It is now worrying that the US and EU are considering new policies that will do the following:

• Attract skilled labor
• Boost job creation
• Control illegal immigration

Countries like Germany are at record unemployment rates (10%), with almost 5 million people out of work. Ironically, there is a shortage of skilled labor and homegrown solutions to this problem are failing, forcing them and other EU countries to result to other means - specifically reassessing immigration policies. Immigration can of course provide them with badly needed skills, boost productivity, and raise living standards overall.

Unfortunately these policies will do nothing to alleviate Africa's dire state of poverty - but leave us worse off. More African scientists and engineers work in the United States than in all of Africa - leaving the entire African continent of 600 million people with just 20,000 engineers and scientists.

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We welcomed South Africa's freedom with open arms - new markets, new trade partners and quite importantly new technology. Realize that from the 60's South Africa experienced unprecedented economic growth that rivaled many countries in the west. Much of this was attributed to low wages for black labor resulting in extremely high profits.

South Africa has become such a force on the African continent to the point that they're now rivaling the post-colonial influence of Europe… hence the term Sub-Imperial. A 'Trojan Horse' is the best way I can describe it. Consider this: NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) which was initiated and overseen by South Africa exerts muscle on other African governments and is the backbone of the African Union. Further, NEPAD takes its orders from IMF, World Bank and the WTO (World Trade Organization).

Writing in the February 2006 issue of Openspace, a digest of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the University of Botswana, Console Tleane-head of the media and ICT programme at South Africa's Freedom of Expression Institute-observed thus: "For some, the relationship that South Africa has with other SADC member states, and the continent as a whole, is that of self-imposing sub-imperial power which will stop at nothing to exert its influence and extract as many benefits from every relationship that it develops".

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1. ENCOURAGE IDEAS
The high cost of books in Africa is a de facto tax on ideas. Publishers in rich countries should allow African publishers to print a limited run of their books. If the authors forgo royalties and publishers co-operate, locally printed versions could sell at a fifth of the foreign price.

2. MAKE FOREIGN NGOS COMPETE
NGOs should work more with the private sector: much of their development work should be open to tender. Companies running large projects should include a social component (primary education or healthcare) that the voluntary agencies would tender for and operate.

3. THE PRIVATE SECTOR SHOULD BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE
In Kenya, the pot-holed Nairobi-Mombasa road should be rebuilt under a build-operate-transfer scheme. The construction company operates the project for an agreed period before handing it to the state.

4. CHARGE FOR PROFESSIONALS’ VISAS
Professionals who emigrate from Africa, whether doctors or dentists, engineers or lawyers, should have to pay a market rate for the privilege of a visa which allows them to work abroad. The money raised should be used in the emigrants’ countries of origin to train replacements.

5. CHOCOLATE MUST CONTAIN MORE COCOA
Double the minimum amount of cocoa required to make chocolate under current trade rules. Cocoa prices will rise and chocolate will taste better.

6. PROMOTE AFRICAN MUSIC
Africa needs a Nashville-style center to promote its music and attract more commercial backing. It would be a center for the production of great music and would train managers and musicians.

7. MAKE AID CONDITIONAL ON IMPROVING THE BUSINESS CLIMATE
The latest International Finance Corporation’s report on impediments to business shows that registering a company in Kenya takes ten times longer than in Hong Kong and requires five stages, compared to two. This is repeated across Africa, whether registering a business, selling property or recovering debt.

8. ABOLISH TAXES ON COMPUTERS EXPORTED TO AFRICA
Privatization, de-regulation and the emergence of democracy go hand in hand. Computers are critical to this development. In return, African governments would end import levies on computers.

9. FAIR TAXES ON COFFEE AND FAIR RETURNS FOR FARMERS
Imported raw coffee is taxed at a third of the rate of processed beans, the first stage in a trading system that ensures that less than 0.2% of the value of processed coffee is retained by the growers themselves. Reforming this tax will benefit Africa’s growers and their families, some 60m people. There should also be better marketing and packaging for Africa’s products. East Africa’s coffee producers now use attractive vacuum-sealed, foil packets but in Congo a fine soap made from pure palm oil is sold wrapped in newspaper and in northern Uganda, mangoes rot on the ground because no one can dry and package them to international standards. Foreign retailers should share their expertise with African traders.

10. GIVE POWER TO AFRICA’S WOMEN
Disenfranchise African men for 5 years.

( From www.kubatana.net )

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