The Foreign Service Journal, May 2008

F O C U S 48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 8 countries rightly or wrongly associate with our current for- eign policy. Tolerance for corruption is rampant on all continents, but the scourge can be effectively addressed in much of Africa, where U.S. prestige is still high. It can help release large populations from the insult of silence that stifles their hopes for fair play or a chance to live decent if mod- est lives. Such an initiative threatens the sovereignty of no nation, requires no military or constabulary to deploy, and restores hope to the large majority of people who look to the outside merely for validation of their circumstances, seeking no handouts. Cameroonian writer Jean-Claude Shanda Tonmé pon- dered the well-intentioned 2005 “Live 8” demonstrations in Edinburgh, Paris, Johannesburg and Philadelphia that were meant to draw attention to Africa’s material needs and secure commitments of assistance from Western countries to meet them. As he wrote then in the July 15 New York Times : “We Africans know what the problem is, and no one else should speak in our name. Don’t insult Africa, this continent so rich yet so badly led. Instead, insult its lead- ers, who have ruined everything. We need to rid ourselves of these cancers. We would have preferred for the musi- cians in Philadelphia and London to have marched and sung for political revolution. Instead, they mourned a corpse while forgetting to denounce the murderer.” Public denunciation of specific wrongs would be an act of American patriotism in a time of generally undermined U.S. prestige abroad. It would remind us, and others, of who we are as a nation, and how we may best honor and assist the people of foreign nations and their enormous, betrayed potential. We should send a clear message: those who cheat the people of their modest wealth and dignity are not friends of the U.S., and will not be welcome to our shores. The job of prosecuting them may belong to the local govern- ment, but whether they are formally prosecuted or not, we will deny them entry. It is our right and obligation to do so.