‘The reason there will be no change is because the people who stand to lose from change have all the power.’

In honour of the Queen as head of the Commonwealth, Charlie Keeble has recognised a very supportive aspect about this organisation and how misguided altruism ruins the aspirations of poor people in African nations. 

Before the Queen died on 6th September I shared on Instagram a quotation from Machiavelli that I heard from a documentary called Poverty Inc. It goes like this: “The reason there will be no change is because the people who stand to lose from change have all the power. And the people who stand to gain from change have none of the power.” This is how to describe the global aid system as it operates today. It’s also something that I use as a parable to my autistic conservative objective and in autism advocacy, because in order for me to achieve change I need the power to make things better for myself, just as those that featured in Poverty Inc. need to do so as well.

I first discovered Poverty Inc. in 2016 and I was blown away by it. This documentary is really worth watching for itrevealed some shocking truths about the way the do-gooders of the world fight poverty as a business. As it happens the reason why these poor African nations are still stuck in persistent poverty is because of the tactics that these charities and NGOs use. They consist of grievance obsessions and profiteering from other people’s problems using good intentions as a mask for their causes. 

African nations are kept from making money for themselves by being made slaves to welfare donations. In their campaign videos charities frequently depict Africans in their campaigns as helpless and poor pathetic souls living in barren and empty lands with nothing to trade. That is a very infantilising and patronising way of portraying Africans They make it look like they had been plundered during the time they were colonies of Europe. That is not entirely true, they have got plenty of resources and produce to sell. I should know, because I work as a research assistant to an Africa-UK trade promotion company that uses social enterprises to boost their productivity and commercial sector.

When I read the tributes to the Queen online I saw some anti-monarchist sentiments from people who saw her as a representative of post-British Imperial rule. These types of activists are oblivious to the anarchy and political mismanagement that happened after Britain left it’s colonies to run themselves. They are not entirely poor because of plundering by Britain, but because of bad leaders in their home countries who took advantage of weak power structures. Since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960 over $600 billion have been stolen from the nation by military dictators. They took over and ran the country and deposited that wealth into the banks of rich Western nations. That amount could have completely modernised Nigeria for the good of it’s citizens with new roads, railways, hospitals, power systems and infrastructure that could have made Nigeria richer and stronger. 

Now the charities organisations and NGOs capitalise on such crises like these in order to make money for altruistic practices of giving. In Poverty Inc. it was revealed that by taking advantage of this poverty and chaos they have got more recipients and opportunities to profit from the poverty of developing nations. In the 1980s Kenya had a strong cotton and textiles industry that made a sustainable living for the people there with over 200,000 people employed. But in the 1990s when there was a political crisis that wrecked the economy, Oxfam and other companies moved in to take advantage of when their cotton farms started to suffer. They dumped tons of free clothes donated from Britain to clothe the people there, and in doing so they wrecked their local economy even further. But the Kenyan farmers wanted financial assistance to improve their cotton farms so that they could be earning a living. In response to this the charities just looked at them and said “You are a lost cause. Just take what we give you because that’s all you gonna get. Otherwise just starve and die!”. As a result of this Kenya’s cotton farms now employ just 50,000 people. 

When I hear things like that I see it in the same tone as I get from being an autistic person in Britain and being told by disability activists: “You are a lost cause, take what we give you, for you are now a slave to the welfare state!”. Many disabled activists, myself included, detest this kind of giving and feel like slaves to the welfare system as well. I and my fellow disabled activists want rights and freedom to be able to make our own living, and my team workers at Africa House London also believe in that value in the same way they want Africans to be empowered for their own wealth creation. 

The Commonwealth under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth does not stand for this exploitation of poverty. Their objectives are to promote human rights, observe civic justice and fair elections, and give opportunities for it’s member nations to invest and trade in one another. Many of the African member states have vowed through their membership of the Commonwealth to route out corruption and civil unrest in their own countries. Why thanks to the Queen’s blessings they have done some substantial progress. Rwanda now has an anti-corruption legislation enshrined in law and aspires to become like a global trading hub for all of Africa. So I won’t believe the lies that the leftist woke warriors protesting the UK-Rwanda migrant deal say that Rwanda is run by bloody thirsty tyrants. 

Maybe if the left stopped denying their own racism for a change then perhaps Rwanda might be seen as a prosperous and rich nation instead. All they are doing is giving capital to the poverty profiteers and letting the real corrupt officials within these African nations get away with murder. Some African citizens have chastised these left wing activists for blaming colonialism for everything, because it’s the same excuse that their state leaders use to get out of being responsible for things they do wrong. Like when they inappropriately misspend aid money for their own selfish interests.  

This is where the club of the Commonwealth has helped to improve Africa. This organisation has helped to bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa, provided refuge statusfor Ugandans fleeing Idi Amin’s brutal regime, and with further ambitious enterprises can uplift these foreign nationsnow the UK has left the European Union. The Commonwealth promotes free trade and enterprise between the UK and it’s former colonies. 

When we were in the EU there were several protectionist laws that stopped African goods from being sold in Britain that could uplift their farmer’s lives. Recently there is a new African food store opened in Romford that sells imported produce from Africa. There are currently 500 million African citizens earning less than $2 a day and if the Commonwealth of Nations continues to promote free trade with these nations then we can buy from them to make them richer and stronger, and less dependent on foreign aid programmes. 

There is a lot of hope and optimism the Queen gave to these countries during her reign as head of state. And as I have been a faithful and dedicated servant of the Commonwealth of Nations through my own voluntary work I shall continue to promote the wealth of the Commonwealth.