The Rich Can Do No Wrong

The European Commission has backed a plan to give 1bn euros (£800m) of unspent EU farm subsidies in aid to farmers in Africa. What a selfless, generous gesture! You would think.

That money would be used to boost the supply of fertiliser and seeds for African farmers, helping increase production over the next two years, said commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger. Now would you have any doubts where that supply will be procured?

When you are rich, whatever you do you only become richer. In a well researched and written-about historical instance, the super-profits the Arab states made thanks to the 1972-3 all eventually ended up in Western banks where Arab oil barons traditionally keep their money.

Back to the African aid pledge: there is another sideline boon to the whole scheme. Now that European post-imperialism has by large abandoned Africa in favour of its own backyard in Eastern Europe, Africa's sentiment starts leaning towards China whose investment bears no demands for more human rights. Losing a market of scale and a major supplier of raw materials to the irresistible force of ever-growing China may prove to painful to the EU. A double-handed 1-billion deal may not be enough to sway Africa back to its former colonial masters but it is a nice try anyway. And at any rate Europe has nothing to lose. When you are rich, you can't go wrong.