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Why Africa is Poor
The Witness ^ | Sep. 14, 2010 | Stanley Uys

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 ...


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To: fightinJAG

You read me.

Same as here in the good ole’ USA. If the Pilgrims, etc were forced to give up colonizing this nation, it would still be a populated by savages no different than Africa


21 posted on 09/14/2010 2:05:48 PM PDT by wilco200 (11/4/08 - The Day America Jumped the Shark)
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To: miss marmelstein
Why Africa is Poor

..Doesn't have to be...Zimbabwe used to be rich and prosperous..until....well, you know.

Greed.....and especially ignorance will finish off anything or anybody. I would bet that there are millions of Africans in the former Rhodesia, black and white, who are longing for a return to the prosperity of the '70's there (if they are old enough to remember)....before Mugabe and his thugs were "elected"......

...Zim is one of the glaring examples of the old sayings:

...elections have consequences, and...

... you better be careful of what you wish for...you may just get it.

22 posted on 09/14/2010 2:05:48 PM PDT by B.O. Plenty (Give war a chance...)
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To: jveritas
I am presently reading The Journals of Lewis and Clark (a public domain book, BTW). Captains Lewis and Clark give a very matter-of-fact, evenhanded description of the Indians, their village and tribal life, values and behavior. They make absolutely no judgments or editorials one way or the other. Nor do they go out of their way to provide extended commentary on the tribes.

Yet I am coming away with a definite understanding of how and why the Indian nations died out rather than live peaceably with or become assimilated into the new American country.

23 posted on 09/14/2010 2:07:33 PM PDT by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: fightinJAG

I was there in Tanzania...in some areas the women would spend a good part of their day walking to get the water and bring it back to the village. They seem to just accept this without question.

We could drive for many miles, see huts scattered here and there, but no water source.


24 posted on 09/14/2010 2:08:10 PM PDT by Aria ( "The US republic will endure until Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the people's $.")
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To: fightinJAG

Aren’t there a lot of moooslems in Africa? Stone-age societies are by definition, poor.


25 posted on 09/14/2010 2:08:43 PM PDT by A. Patriot (CZ 52's ROCK)
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To: Aria

I have no doubt this is the situation. But with all the aid we’ve poured into Africa, it’s hard to believe the basics were not provided to the people long ago. It’s hard to believe we’re still having telethons on radio to raise 100 bucks for water wells.


26 posted on 09/14/2010 2:11:05 PM PDT by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: fightinJAG

Socialism and greed. It fails everywhere it’s tried.


27 posted on 09/14/2010 2:13:46 PM PDT by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: LadyBuck

“We have deserts, we just don’t live in them!”


28 posted on 09/14/2010 2:15:11 PM PDT by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: B.O. Plenty

Interesting...I read somewhere that some black Zimbabweians are even wishing for colonialism to make a comeback. That’s pretty pathetic and not likely to happen until long after we all are pushing up the daisies!


29 posted on 09/14/2010 2:16:45 PM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: Aria

The concept of these do-gooders seems to be that if we just drill a hole in their village, it will produce water.

The reason they have to go somewhere else to get water, is because that is where the water is.


30 posted on 09/14/2010 2:20:35 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (lame and ill-informed post)
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To: padre35
And those NGO aid groups pretty much discourage local food production, how can they compete with “free”?

Same is true with several budding industries. I remember some African pleading to stop sending donated clothing to Africa. He was trying to get a textile manufacturing business going but could not compete with "free".

31 posted on 09/14/2010 2:23:15 PM PDT by super7man
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To: fightinJAG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

One Look at the IQ in Sub Sahara Africa tells the taletells the tale.


32 posted on 09/14/2010 2:28:10 PM PDT by Cheetahcat (Zero the Wright kind of Racist! We are in a state of War with Democrats)
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To: fightinJAG

I’m thinking we got ripped off. Our church wanted $200 for a well.


33 posted on 09/14/2010 2:28:32 PM PDT by super7man
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To: Cheetahcat

Make that one tale.


34 posted on 09/14/2010 2:29:24 PM PDT by Cheetahcat (Zero the Wright kind of Racist! We are in a state of War with Democrats)
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To: fightinJAG

Sam Kinison had the answer.


35 posted on 09/14/2010 2:29:36 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: fightinJAG

“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.””

I remember those ads going way, way back. I guess the business model works!!

Same goes for emotional TV preachers. Remember dark tears running down the face of Tammy Faye Bakker?

$$$$$$$$


36 posted on 09/14/2010 2:30:43 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: fightinJAG; newgeezer

I’d like to see this question answered with pictures. It’d be funny. Someone should start with cell phone lip disk guy.


37 posted on 09/14/2010 2:31:55 PM PDT by DungeonMaster (My dad put his arm around me like that once, to this very day he wears orthopedic shirts.)
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To: fightinJAG
Although some of my freeper brethren are making veiled (thinly) allusions that might be considered RACIST, I would beg to differ with them. It seems that once out of Africa, many of these same people become prosperous. The problem with Africa is a huge Cultural one. Basically, they need to adopt non-African culture(s). Be it White, European, Asian, Indian, whatever, but the indigenous cultures of Africa are NOT conducive to anything but abject poverty in this day and age.

That said, things are never going to change there, because telling Africans that they have to behave like non-Africans is considered Racist. The Africans themselves resist this kind of change, yet they still clamor for foreign aid. This will not change, not in the foreseeable future.

38 posted on 09/14/2010 2:37:44 PM PDT by Paradox (Socialism - trickle up poverty.)
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To: umgud

Neah.
Your great-great grandkids will think that Africa has ALWAYS been part of China.


39 posted on 09/14/2010 2:38:32 PM PDT by Little Ray (The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!)
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To: fightinJAG

Tribalism, tribal politics, tribal traditions, tribal customs amounting to all of the above. I said this when I was a 19 year old college student and I will say it again at 60. Leave them alone, let them die, you can do whatever you want to help them and they will either kill you, run you out or refuse any help or change. That is the root cause; they will not change their ways for all of the reasons listed above. If you manage to save 1% of the children it will make no difference because they will not change their tribal, political, religious or cultural practices that are causing them to die. Let them die; helping them over all of these years only allows them to postpone their demise as a culture and to do the same self-destructive things over and over.


40 posted on 09/14/2010 2:39:25 PM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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