Manuel complained that rich governments such as that of the United States and those of the European Union pushed poor nations to lower trade barriers, but they maintained their own subsidies on food and textile products, making it difficult for developing countries to benefit from more trade.
Kevin Hassett and Robert Shapiro, in their article: How Europe sows misery in Africa, said while "the average person in sub-Saharan Africa earns less than $1 a day, the average cow in Europe—thanks to government subsidies—earns about $2 a day".
It was this glaring anomaly that prompted Manuel to ask, just before he became head of the World Bank's development committee, "Are we too stupid or too poor?"
Manuel had already been South Africa's Finance Minister for six years when he asked this question in 2002. The African National Congress, which Manuel belongs to, had ditched the Freedom Charter that it adopted in the 1950s, when it won the elections in 1994, to accommodate the West.
The Freedom Charter , which calls for equal distribution of South Africa's land and wealth, opens: "We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people; that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality; that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities; that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief; And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers adopt this Freedom Charter; And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won."
Nelson Mandela vowed, only four years before becoming president, that: "nationalisation of the mines, banks and monopoly industry is the policy of the ANC, and a change or modification of our views in this regard is inconceivable" but he started singing a different tune immediately after his election.
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