The news that the World Health Organization reversed its decision on the use of chemical DDT is evidence on how developed countries' intellectuals inadvertently contribute to deaths in poor countries. Malaria a major killer of African children, and key contributor to lost working hours, has wrecked the continent for over 30 years simply because some policy makers thought it was wrong to kill mosquitoes using chemicals.

Why do African intellectuals simply mouth strategies that common sense would otherwise dismiss? For instance, the heavy investment on mosquito net use as a strategy to prevent Malaria, in spite of the obvious fact that mosquitoes do not wait for one to sleep before they attack. Mosquito nets reduce rates of infection, but they do not eradicate the cause of infection.  

Another area heavily controlled by strategists in developed countries is the quest to have a developed Africa. The World Bank has been on the frontline on foreign aid to poor countries for over 5 decades. The quest to redefine 'aid' to include  'targeted,' 'technical' and 'real' is evidence enough that the World Bank and other aid agencies are off the tangent. The latest Economic Freedom of the World 2006 Annual Report published by the Canadian Fraser Institute identifies foreign aid as a major contributor to lack of economic freedom in poor countries. Poor countries are forced to imbibe instructions from rich nations. The lifting of a 30 year restriction on DDT usage best illustrate how Africans lost millions of lives simply because of a poor policy. "Instead of the Berlin Wall, we have the 'Aid Wall,' behind which the poor nations are supposed to achieve their escape from poverty through collective top-down plan" writes William Easterly in the latest Fraser report.

African countries must strategically kick out developed country 'middle men' who assume the role of fixing African problems. The plan by World Bank to fight corruption in poor countries is yet another illustration of an international agency bankrupt on ideas. Just how does the World Bank propose to fight corruption when its activities fuel corruption? After failing on the aid agenda, the World Bank seems keen to try it out on fighting corruption. Major corruption scandals rocking African countries are normally linked to international transactions that involve aid money. 

On the environmental scene, Africans have been treated to policies that view people as a threat to wildlife, use of wood fuel as a danger to forests and the general quest to retain the continent as a pristine environment for tourists. What developed country experts do not inform the World is why this is so! Wildlife and Africans co-existed for centuries, the environmental imbalance caused by new approaches to land ownership led to an increase in human wildlife conflict. To solve this, one need not cast locals as blood thirsty hunters, it is all to do with the need to widen economic opportunities which shrank when land imbalance were created. 
 
If anybody in Africa is keen to know why Africans are poor, the answer is simple; we have not learnt to listen to ourselves! The Western intellectuals can afford to theorize and earn academic credentials on the African predicament, but the African elites are keen to scoop a few thousand dollars to give credit to ideas they do not believe in at all. If African elites join the World Bank strategy of fighting corruption, they will simply help in sustaining the 'African Middle Man' mentality that benefits from portraying the African people as genetically corrupt. African people are not genetically corrupt, name any Kenyan involved in grant corruption and behind him/her their will be a character from the developed country! 

The onus is on the African people, to first get agitated against the prevailing circumstances where people die of preventable and curable diseases simply because some local elites want to access external markets. Second, the African people must get agitated against poor policies that give elites discretionary powers over local resources hence providing a breeding ground for corruption. Third, the African people must speak out their issues at a global level in order to drive out elitist 'middle men' whose activities have proved counter productive. Fourth, the most urgent step is to widen economic opportunities for our people that will ensure that not only land, trees and other primary modes of production remain the key to economic activity. Fifth, it is time that we learnt to think long term, learnt to forego the pleasure of a few dollars today and make the right decisions that will make us earn millions after we save our people.

The biggest challenge for African intellectuals is how to develop a sifting mechanism that will help them import workable ideas from rich nations while discarding those that cannot work. With the lift on DDT usage, should people in Africa sue the international agency for the Malaria related deaths?