- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press (7 July 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300120176
- ISBN-13: 978-0300120172
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 246,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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"'... boisterous, entertaining and highly accessible. [Calderisi] challenges the shibboleths of the aid industry with courage, compassion and humour. A timely and bracing read.' Michela Wrong, author of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz 'This is a timely, intriguing and provocative book.' Baroness Lynda Chalker, former Minister of Overseas Development for the United Kingdom 'The Trouble with Africa is a blast of fresh air over a continent that has for decades been suffocating under a blanket of well meant concern, ineffectual at best, and harmful at worst.' Michael Holman, former Africa editor, Financial Times"
Irish Times, June 16, 2007
A brilliant, striking book.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Asking the right questions,
By
This review is from: The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working (Hardcover)
Aid to Africa does not work. Or at least, it does not work anything like as well it has elsewhere in the world. Despite billions of dollars from donors, led by the World Bank, more Africans are poor today than ever, whether as a percentage its population or as a grim figure. Why is this? If you maintain - like Bono and Bob Geldof - that the answer to the continent's crisis is to double aid to Africa, then look out: The Trouble with Africa by Robert Calderossi will make you very cross. But do not for that reason ignore this outstanding contribution to an under-informed debate. Mr Calderossi knows what he is talking about. He has worked in the front line of the aid businesss - as one of the World Bank's all-powerful resident representatives (in Cote d'Ivoire), and as the Bank's head of public relations. And if you believe that before well-meaning observers come up with answers to Africa's crisis, they should be first asking the right questions, this seminal book, as hardhitting as it is compassionate, provides a quiverful.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An alternative way to aid Africa,
This review is from: The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working (Hardcover)
This book is written by a Canadian working in international development for 30 years, predominantly in Africa. Calderisi is therefore well placed to write this critical analysis, challenging in a number of ways the understandable response of many to try and solve the problems of the continent by increasing aid. The major problem the author has to overcome from a sceptical readership is his long association with the World Bank and the accusation that his view is a thinly veiled justification of the position of that powerful organisation. However, he largely succeeds in providing a challenging, counter-cultural approach to the problems of Africa, both because his arguments are sound but also because his love and respect for the continent are so much in evidence. He refutes the belief that all Africa's problems can be laid at the door of the former colonial powers. His thesis is that much of the problem is now the fault of Africans themselves.
Despite his harsh criticisms of African countries, leaders and on occasion their people, he succeeds in enhancing the dignity of Africa and Africans by giving back responsibility. This book is timely. There is a risk that rich countries and rich people will tire of aid for Africa if results do not emerge soon from all the giving; Calderisi provides a powerful diagnosis and, even if his suggested ways forward in later chapters at times appear practically flawed, the challenges he poses provide an excellent contribution to the African debate. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone wanting an accessible understanding of the politics of aid to Africa.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Should have been printed on toilet paper,
By
This review is from: The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working (Paperback)
I'm surprised at both the good reviews given by other Amazon customers and by the adulation offered by top-ranking magazines, etc. This book is a pop-seller on development: 1. It's self-congratulatory = a full 20 pages on Calderisis' life, most of it of no particular rellevance. 2. Utterly biased = yes, you can expect plenty of defence on World Bank policies in this book, which, although legitimate, stands in a pathetic contrast to Graham Hancock's "Lords of Poverty" accusations. 3. In his introduction the author discovers his talent for history, and gives a superficial, almost childish interpretation of events. Here are some of my favourite sentences: "Africans survived the slave trade with the political independence and social institutions largely intact". Hey, why bother making distinctions between African communities, by area of living, etc, at the end of the day, they're all "African" aren't they. It's like saying the Holocaust left Europeans largely intact: Yes, if you're talking about Portuguese, no if you're talking about urban Poles, Gipsies, and of course, Jews. On the Jews, by the way, he makes an interesting comparison: "Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833 and in the French territories in 1858. More recently -just 60 years ago- six million Jews were systematically exterminated (...) yet it's not common view that the Holocaust made the survivors less entreprenurial and self-confident". My dear darling Calderisi, the Jews were obliterated during a short period of time, not 400 years (ever thought that small detail has any rellevance??). The Jews are a semi-monolithic group (differences apart, they feel one and the same) and were latter subjected to a sympathy no African ever received. My goodness, go back to banking and leave African history to others! 4. Much of the book is a collection of uncontextualized glimpses of African recent history, most of it negative, of course, and focused on corruption, abuse of power, etc. Fair enough, it's all there, but when an author tries to make a point about Africa by simply jumping from an example in Guinea Bissau to Djibouti and Nigeria, from Mauritius to Ethiopia, it leaves me thinking he just sees the African continent as one large smudge of complication which is easier to simplify than to try to understand. All in all, a rubbish waste of tree, but i'm sure it won Calderisi much applause and adulation, which is why the title of the book "Lords of Poverty", by Graham Hancock, still stands true. Thanks for confirming it, Robert Calderisi. Can't wait to read your next issue of self-praise!
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