With the recent confirmation of Dr Jim Yong as the New World Bank (WB) President, the United States (US) stature in World Affairs has only but remained: un-assailed.
As age-old Lwo folk wisdom might declare, “the croaking of the frog does not stop the cow from drinking the water.” It is, indeed, an apt comparison to the spirited campaign by, among others, Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who, in spite of veritable and undoubtedly, solid credentials could still, not make it to the top WB grade.
Yes, plain truth is that President Obama made a choice and no amount of “croaking”, including the remarkably-choreographed media campaigns could change that fact. So Dr. Yong, the Korean-American (apparently better known as a Public Health Medic of quite some enviable distinction) has taken the seat, thanks to the super- power backing of the US.
For us in Kenya, it should provide an opportunity to reflect a little more on our international relations and obligations therein. In spite of widely- reported “geo-political shifts” that some claim, have made China, the destination to watch and do business with, some facts and events are not for nothing.
There is perhaps no denying that China has made a sterling international presence since the heady " Mao" days. It has equally encroached into Africa with greater success and convinced an ever-increasing lot of leaders that they are hell-bent on changing the world power equation as we know it. This could well be true, judging from the interesting trade and FDI statistics now liberally thrown around round to support the case, and more so, the much touted ease of “Doing Business with China”. It may explain why Chinese contractors are to be found everywhere; on roads and oil mines, from Khartoum to Libya. To be sure there are no awkward questions about the animal called democracy and Human Rights and is truly musical to the ears, no one gets to “murder the sleep of dictators” as the saying goes.
The reflection here is nevertheless simply that, in spite of the remarkable influence of Zimbabwean author, Dambisa Moyo’s in Dead Aid and How the West Was Lost, we need to doubly upsurge our intellectual rigour on these matters. There are many pending issues best left to the wisdom of time. Yet if you enquire deeply enough, see no surprise, for the West, and especially Barack Obama’s America is not sleeping; the symptoms of any disease must never be confused for its root causes.
Daniel Gross writing in Newsweek (May 7 2012) has powerfully illustrated the clear dangers of writing- off the US even by the most ardent “declinists”. He has rested the case for many of us: “the US is, “better, stronger and faster than anywhere else in the world”. The facts-even on a recent general visit would agree, that “the US remains the largest, richest, most secure market in the world, full of valuable resources. That’s why it continues to lead the world in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In 2010 FDI rose to $194.5 billion from $135 billion in 2009 and stood at $155 through the first three quarters of 2011...”
Of course, readers are free to debate Mr Gross analyses, but he is reasonably persuasive. He concedes, “ the US is losing primacy in geopolitics but it remains the indispensable economic nation...the systems that American companies have invented are being put to vital use. Egypt’s pro democracy activists organised on facebook. Planes manufactured by Boeing provide mobility to people in Africa...” Ad finitum.
One would certainly be mistaken to write the obituary of the US, and good old Britain. If you recollect, when push came to shove, even the Russians ultimately supported the G7, and George Bush authorised the invasion of Iraq. Today, there is a fatalistic sense in which some of the newly emerging "sanguines" echo Sadam during the Operation ‘Desert Storm'; those choicy, unrepentant phraseology over territoriality and prowess. The truth though, of the pudding remains in the eating.
For any non-aligned watchers of today's world, one safe prescription is that our “little” African countries, can only afford to keep friends on both sides: we do not have the muscle yet, to dare dump.
Need one say more to any disenchanted Western diplomats?
*Dr Outa, Works as ‘Communications Advisor’ in the Office of the Prime Minister and expresses the views herein in a personal capacity.
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