Should we leave Africa to die?

phenomenon

Despite all the money and aid "the West" has been sending to Africa for decades, there stills seems to be little improvement across the continent and sub-saharran or black Africa in particular. Should we give up on trying to help this charity case? It appears black people are unable to rule themselves properly. For example, Zimbabwe (or Rhodesia) had its golden age under British rule. The Brits built the roads and infrastructure, set up an actual education system and provided jobs for the locals on farms. As soon as Mugabe seizes power he kicks out the Whites who are the ones actually keeping the country afloat. And kills the ones that refuse to leave. An ape is a word that springs to mind.

After WW2, Japan and Germany were in absolute ruins. Yet within a few years they were back on their feet (with help from America of course) and now these two countries have some of the strongest economies in the world. Why can't Africa do the same? Especially considering the vast amount of resources the continent contains. Look at the Arabian peninsula: Smart business-minded Arabs converted the region from a bland desert hell-hole into a prosperous, habitable region with beautiful cities by realising the value of their precious oil and marketing it wisely.

So instead of spending all their time illegally trying to enter Europe, shouldn't Africans try to get their act sorted back home? All intelligent responses welcome. Please don't play the racist card, I'm looking for a proper discussion on the issue.

shaper13

Ah, Mr Myers, we've been expecting you.

Kama

You know, it would *really* help with not getting the race card if you didn't refer to African leaders (regardless how bad they are) as 'apes'. It really doesn't work out well as a 'I'm not a racist, but' approach. Unless you hadn't noticed, all of us humans are kind of apes, its a bit of a weird insult, unless one happens to be Creationist-inclined.

Sure, didn't the Oirish take long enough to get their feckless arses up after whinging about colonialism so long? Sure didn't we immigrate (often illegally) into other countries to steal their jobs and veemen? But yeh, I'm sure African development issues are because they're just lazy, feckless, and frankly unevolved due to having too much melanin...that would be a better explanation than going into the complexities of history and international economic policy.

phenomenon

Fair enough mate. Give all your hard earned money to Zaire's space program. Its government reckons this is putting its money to good use. Forget half the population starving.

We live in a global economy these days don't you know. To which Africa contributes less than 2%....

phenomenon

Kama wrote: »

You know, it would *really* help with not getting the race card if you didn't refer to African leaders (regardless how bad they are) as 'apes'. It really doesn't work out well as a 'I'm not a racist, but' approach. Unless you hadn't noticed, all of us humans are kind of apes, its a bit of a weird insult, unless one happens to be Creationist-inclined.

Sure, didn't the Oirish take long enough to get their feckless arses up after whinging about colonialism so long? Sure didn't we immigrate (often illegally) into other countries to steal their jobs and veemen? But yeh, I'm sure African development issues are because they're just lazy, feckless, and frankly unevolved due to having too much melanin...

I'm not talking about one country here. I'm talking about a whole continent. Can you name me one sub-saharran African country that you would label as "successful" and makes an active contribution to the world economy? Fair enough Ireland received grants from the EU to help develop our country but we did just that and developed. Africa has been receiving much more money for much longer and is still a slum.

Mr Benevolent

Can you name me one sub-saharran African country that you would label as "successful" and makes an active contribution to the world economy?

I can name two.

Botswana & South Africa.

Please don't play the racist card

Whites who are the ones actually keeping the country afloat. And kills the ones that refuse to leave. An ape is a word that springs to mind.

QED

phenomenon

Confab wrote: »

I can name two.

Botswana & South Africa.

South Africa: Ravaged by AIDs; Ranked second in the world for murder and rape rates!; Its Human Development Index (or HDI as measured by the UN) has fallen dramatically since Aparthied ended (not saying I'm for Apartheid because its a horrible system but these are the facts). It seems any success the country has had can be crdited to the Whites. You merely serve to prove my point.

Mr Benevolent

You conveniently forgot to mention Botswana. What have they done wrong then?

South Africa is successful. Yes, it has problems, but so does Paraguay, Portugal (which is essentially a third-world country) and Columbia. The citizens of the above countries are not black.

It appears black people are unable to rule themselves properly

I just love unbiased debate.

oscarBravo

I can't think of any reason to allow this racist diatribe to continue.