Comment
Why tourist are the darlings of Africa’s kleptocrats today
Posted Sunday, January 22 2012 at 14:44
Disruptions of the tourism industry with killings and kidnappings, therefore, hit the local wealthy classes and their political allies harder these days because it means they will not sell rooms at their resorts, and will have no gamblers at their casino tables.
The aid workers, as the saying goes, milk local misery and state failure.
A small but growing powerful local elite, on the hand, milks the tourists. They are simply protecting the goose that lays their golden eggs.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3
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Unlike in socialist 'heavens', wealth in capitalist systems like ours is controlled by private citizens, some of whom are kleptocrats and some not. The wealth of a nation is the sum total of the assets of its individual citizens, some richer than others, but all having an interest in its protection, (not just the richer ones). So it's good for everyone that those in charge have a lot to lose if they don't protect the geese that lay the most golden eggs.
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