I wish I had a platform - tall pulpit from which I could address all the peoples Africa at this time of a rather fascinating awakening. This is what I would tell them: "My people, neither the West nor the East loves you - in fact they both liberally detest you! And you know what, many studies, including some by respectable and credible Western agencies, acknowledge that net capital outflows from Africa vastly exceed the net capital inflows into Africa. A huge portion of these outflows are attributable to kleptocratic anti-capitalist anti-western anti-imperialist anti-colonial leaders robbing their people and stashing the loot in the West; incompetent and corrupt cronycrats (NOT technocrats) negotiating skewed agreements for the exploitation of our ample natural resources; West-based multinationals repatriating their supernormal profits made from paying a pittance to their labourers and avoiding taxes or obtaining 'investor' tax exemptions; and of course the give-with-one-hand- and-take-with-the-other-hand nature of most aid and grants - 'we lend you money, to employ our citizens, to build you a road, to transport your natural resources to us, for which we will not charge you any interest for ten years!'! And no, they do not give us this aid and grants out of pity for our desperate poverty stricken, pest infested high-mortality lives - it is for their own strategic purposes! And they are all doing exactly the same thing - both our Old Friends from the West and our New Friends from the East! The only difference is that the former became our 'friends' by colonial conquest, while the latter are becoming our masters by sovereign choice!!