[zimdog]

Given the abundance of raw sewage in many African cities that's a very debatable assertion.

No, it's not. And we are talking about African countries, as per your initial post, not African cities.

We're not comparing the WSJ website with a less sophisticated but nonetheless clean website of a small town U.S. paper. We're comparing ANY reputable newspaper website with geocities.

What is the "geocities" website in question and how is it relevant your dismissal of the content of an Africultures issue based on your aesthetic opinions alone?

Except that you also harped about your original unsourced claims for two weeks and responded to my reasonable requests for better numbers with overt hostility.

I actaully gave you the name of Echenberg's book. You refused to consult it. I gave you more specific numbers when I got my hands on the book in question. If I was hostile at all, it was because you had made outrageous claims with no factual support and, when directed towards sources that would improve your understanding of history, you simply refused to read them. Putting an attitude like that in writing would earn you an "F" on whatever term paper you might be writing.

[lqclamar]

No, it's not. And we are talking about African countries, as per your initial post, as per your initial post, not African cities.

The cities are where the population is. And their refuse, as the world's biggest toilet aka the Niger River indicates, spills across entire countries.

What is the "geocities" website in question and how is it relevant your dismissal of the content of an Africultures issue based on your aesthetic opinions alone

Not merely aesthetics. It's web source skepticism. What differentiates the website you gave from any other amateur webblog, geocities, or myspace posting?

I actaully gave you the name of Echenberg's book.

But nothing specific from it until I hounded you about it for 2 weeks, the entirity of which you vigorously resisted. Anybody can throw out a book title or author. If you can't show specifically what they say and represent it accurately you shouldn't expect others to take your word on it.

You refused to consult it.

You are the one who made the claim about the numbers. It was therefore your burden to show. Then, as now, you exhibited overt hostility toward meeting that burden.