Africa doesn't need handouts: it needs honest governments (ATTN: DANNY GLOVER)

The Daily Telegraph ^ | February 5, 2005 | Niall Ferguson

[MadIvan]

Just a convenient counterblast to Danny Glover's call for reparations.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[nopardons]

Danny Glover is a racist and doesn't know any history nor any factual current events!

[clee1]

I dunno....

I have serious reservations about respecting the opinion of anyone who quotes the Sex Pistols. ;)

[cyborg]

He was on the cover of AARP. I wrote them a letter expressing my disgust and cited how he was wrong about something he said in the article. Why didn't they print my letter??? LOL

[NZerFromHK]

Of the three pillars of modern Western world's conservatism, proclaiming that the West has overall done more good than harm and ready to protect its interests unashamedly is the hardest one for the West to swallow.

According to the leftist establishment, you can actually be a free-market support while at the same time wallowing in post-colonial/Civil Rights guilt and be respectable among the chardonnay socialists in control of the MSMs. We call them libertarians. (Well, not all libertarians are like this, but there are some that do)

According to the leftist establishment, you can actually declare you support traditional morality, family values, and Christian ethics and at the same time wallowing in the same post-colonial/Civil Rights guilt. We call them evangelical Left and again they are perfectly respectable according to these same chardonnay socialists in charge of the MSMs. And there will even be mroe respects if you happen to be an ethnic minority.

But not for those prepared to defend the West. This is a big no-no for these establishment.

[nopardons]

WHY???????????? LOL

[cyborg]

It was a civil rights special edition... which would have been good but they just had to ruin it by putting his crappy interview in there. Here's the one that had me up in a dander...

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/Articles/a2004-03-17-mag-dglover.html

[nopardons]

He's a bigot,a racist,and a MARXIST tool.What a disgusting waste of air.

Yeah,Colin and Condi are just puppets...un hunh.NOT!

[tkathy]

Money is NEVER the problem in failed states.

Corrupt government, coupled with vast complicated social problems share the blame.

[kingsurfer]

There wa s good series of programs on Channel 4 about the problems of Africa as discussed by white and black africans.
They highlighted four main areas of problem:

1) Massive corruption and dictatorial leaders.
2) Poor transition from white to black government.
3) Harsh Geography
4) Unequal trading laws.

Nowhere did they say that more loans or aid was needed, in fact they said the opposite that Africa needed to earn its money rather than depend on handouts.

It is nice to see that some people get it.

[Iwo Jima]

"what African politicians find hard to understand about democracy is why, once they have got power, they should have to hand it over to someone else just because of an election."

Great quote in a great article. That does make self-government difficult, doesn't it? The observation that more money just makes the problem worse is spot on, too.

[MysticKnightOfTheSea]

There is a more fundamental problem causing the current situation in Africa that is not mentioned. Africa is a tribal country. One's first loyalty is to one's tribe. Multi-tribal countries violate this fundamental cultural foundation. Corruption is the result. One sees this phenomenon wherever tribal, clan or familistic loyalties are stronger than those to larger institutions (e.g. China).

[cyborg]

That's right on, especially number one and two...both are intimately related.

[kingsurfer]

The west main culpability was just handing over control to people that were not capable of running a country. We should have been tougher in the beginning.

Although the mess in Africa and the ME was more of European doing than the US, the US seems to get a lot of the blame which seems unfair as they only benefited from slavery not from colonial occupation.

[cyborg]

Tribalism is one of the big problems, especially if it's combined with a sizeable muslim presence. What should have been done was to outlaw pagan religion and establish christianity BUT Africa was all about land grabbing first and foremost. Pagan religion was outlawed in most British colonies outside Africa.

[cyborg]

I agree. US does tend to get the blame, when in fact, Portugal and Spain were the forerunners of European slavery and left behind the worst colonies.

[kingsurfer]

I do hope that our countreis in the west do the right thing by Africa by demanding democracy and honest government. That would be a hundred times better than any loan or reparation.

[LibertarianInExile]

"According to the leftist establishment, you can actually be a free-market support while at the same time wallowing in post-colonial/Civil Rights guilt and be respectable among the chardonnay socialists in control of the MSMs. We call them libertarians. (Well, not all libertarians are like this, but there are some that do)."

WTF are you TALKING about? I've never met a libertarian on this board who 'wallows in post-colonial/Civil Rights guilt,' and libertarians aren't remotely respectable to the MSM. Hell, libertarians only EXIST when the MSM wants to promote liberal civil rights and liberal drug legalization programs. The only 'libertarians' that the MSM even recognizes are those like Bill Maher, who don't even want to admit the word "liberty" exists, unless a government program is regulating it or promoting it.

[cyborg]

Agreed.