Posted on 09/14/2010 1:45:30 PM PDT by fightinJAG
[snip]
The chapter on aid (the charities at work in Africa) is a must-read section in itself. Mills says that the bleeding hearts who surge into the continent under various auspices undermine the self-confidence of sovereign states to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. On this topic, Mills (usually measured and courteous) allows himself a caustic tongue.
Mills also discusses South Africa’s resistance to globalisation and generally Africa’s eagerness to attend the myriad international events to which its leaders are invited, instead of submitting strategic and detailed execution plans at these events.
“Africa has the biggest voting bloc in the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other such organisations,” Mills notes. “But what does it ‘trade’ its vote for? Help for Cuba and the Palestinians, blocking UN managerial reform, and manoeuvring around tougher action on Burma and Iran. None of this does one bit for Africa or for Africans outside of the New York diplomats, who revel in such posturing, or those leaders overwrought by their own anti-colonial complexes. Africa is often the subject of these meetings, but its leaders generally miss the point.
(Excerpt) Read more at witness.co.za ...
“..The principal problem with African economics is politics, and the choices that leaders make in the interests of their short-term expediency of staying in power and ensuring control...”
I wish it was just foreign aid. But I think the problems of Africa are far deeper than that...and maybe insolvable...
Someone that used to live there as a missionary summarized it for me -
the leaders have the mindset that they are to be served, not serve.
Now, in what subculture of the “politariate” here in America have the same attitude?
Because it is full people who behave like savages.
I’m not an uncompassionate feller, but I’m just past caring.
Our great, great grandkids will be asking the same questions about the plight of Africa.
Agreed.
No, because it is full of people who ARE savages.
Because the civilized world was forced to leave.
Sorry, but whenever I hear about Africa it reminds me of (some) of the immortal words of Sam Kinison:
“Don’t send them food - send them U-Hauls. Get your kids, get your sh*t, we’ll make one trip. We’ll take to you where the food is”
RIP Sam - we miss your words of wisdom down here.
I was trying to be nice :)
The image of a group of crabs in a bucket come to mind.
A while ago I was listening to a Christian radio station and they were having some big fundraiser that was something like “give $100 and buy a well for fresh water for an African village.”
They had people on telling stories of how great it was that $100 could buy a well for a whole African village, so that the villagers could finally have clean water and how that would improve their health and so on.
So I’m sitting there and it hits me: PEOPLE. This is the 21st century. Trillions and trillions, gazzilions and gazzilions of dollars of aid have been poured into Africa, and you’re telling me that (1) there are still thousands of villages that don’t have ONE WELL FOR DRINKING WATER, and further that (2) for just $100 a village this pressing problem could have been solved yesterday, last week, last century — the day before the trillions and trillions of dollars in aid were poured into there. What are we thinking? What are the AFRICANS thinking?
You are very right. I do not see this changing.
Like, why is Haiti poor? Why is Detroit poor?
What?
Just think. Our current President is the son of one of these worthless parasitic African socialist leaders, crossed with a narcissistic expatriate hippie girl from a family of American fellow travelers. He’s genetically engineered to be a high-yield producer of disaster.
I had a professor who went to school during the depression. They got 25 cents a day for food but it only cost 20 cents to eat three meals in the school cafeteria. At night a guy came around selling candy bars for a nickel. A bunch of do gooders organized a campaign to stop buying candy bars and instead send the nickel to buy a chinese kid food for a week. My professor said he kept eating candy bars and when the Chinese crossed the Yalu he didn’t feel bad about being 4f because he already starved his chinaman to death. Feed ‘em now shoot ‘em later.
Because the rest of humanity evolved and moved the hell away from anything to do with Africa. Those left behind are primitives who haven’t the intelligence to make it better or leave themselves.
For a host of reasons, Tribal rather than national approaches, access to debt instruments beyond the ability to pay, just a host of reasons.
Sadly, only two things ever temporarily glued parts of Sub Saharan Africa together:
-Colonialism
-Communism
And thost NGO aid groups pretty much discourage local food production, how can they compete with “free”?
Sadly, FR is one of the few public forums where the politically incorrect truths spoken in most of the responses above, can be aired.
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