Last week, I covered the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which took place here in Cape Town. There was much talk about the global financial crisis and steps countries should take to manage or avert it. What was exchanged were mainly platitudes. My favourite one: ‘the crisis is not a challenge but an opportunity’. Yeah, right.

Many economists had suggestions for how the African continent could deal with the crisis. African countries should focus on a regional approach, diversify products and markets, reduce spending and avoid incurring new debt, they said. On the surface, this made perfect sense. But, of course, the minute one digs a bit deeper, one hits hard rock.

What wasn’t mentioned was the multitude of international instruments and trading agreements that are all tailored towards keeping Africa a) dependent and b) in debt. They will ensure the West’s access to Africa’s wealth of natural resources, and not only that. They will also foster perverse situations, such as the export of raw materials (valuable but cheap) used to manufacture products in the West, which are then resold for lots of money to Africa. Isn’t that just too clever?

Visually, the conference drew an interesting picture, too. Almost without exception, everyone was dressed in black suits (no blue, no brown, no beige). Even many of the journalists who covered the conference wore suits, which is highly unusual – journalists are infamous for being casually, and often badly, dressed. And almost everyone was male. The world changes very slowly if at all.