Corporate tax, not aid, for Africa

A massively qualified African academic has lit a fire by declaring
that government-to-government aid to Africa hasn't, doesn't and won't
ever work.

According to Dambisa Moyo, Live8, Bono and Geldof are misguided. China
is doing a better job of helping Africans out of poverty than the
West. The elections that the West demands don't lead to rule of law or
institutional improvement, just unrest.

Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that we don't expect higher
standards from Western corporations active in Africa.

Many of them have got away with all kinds of mischief. Tax
avoidance, easily achieved where tax departments have no resources to
put up a fight, is rife. But at the same time as we put our hands in
our pockets or demand that our politicians give some of our own tax
contributions to African governments, we continue to buy stuff from
the corporations who're denying Africa an effective infrastructure.

That's because we have no easy way of knowing which corporations are
paying full whack and which aren't. With a TaxTicked logo, we could at
least know who is. First in this country. And then overseas.