An American in Africa (Do yourself a favor..read)

The American Enterprise Online ^ | July/August 1997 | Keith B. Richburg

[ricpic]

I don't see it. The guy agonizes about Africa because he's black. To me it's a sinkhole. I could have said worse, but let's leave it at that. I say walk away from it. Hell, run away from it. And what is our President about to do? Flush 15 BILLION dollars down that turdbowl for, ha ha, AIDS relief!! Plus put American soldiers into harms way as "peace keepers" who WILL be shot at and WILL be killed for what?! What's the use.

[wildbill]

Actually it was the American Revolution that encouraged the French Revolution and many revolutions since then have used the words and ideas of the Declaration of Independence as a basis for their own movement.

The Declaration of Independence is quite a radical document when you study it.

[TexasCowboy]

"Forgive the typos. That was written in passion and in haste!"

I understand the passion, my friend.
I was in Lagos on Bar Beach during the coup of Yakabu Gowon when the dissidents were tied to stakes and shot - not once, but several times to please the bloodthirsty crowd who had dressed in their finest and waited several hours for the event.

I was in Lagos when a curfew was in force at 8:00 P.M., and anyone caught outside after that time was shot.
I saw the bodies of the street people tossed into trucks in the mornings to be taken to the bay off Ikoyi Island for the sharks to eat.

I've stepped over people lying on the sidewalks dying of cholera and come back an hour later to see them dead with no one noticing their passing.

I've been propositioned by an eight year old girl to give me oral sex in exchange for enough kobos for a chunk of bread.
To give her money was to guarantee her death by the scores of bigger kids waiting to take it away.

I've witnessed the squalor and filth in Nairobi, Kenya, whose main source of income is tourism.

I've witnessed the graft and corruption in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where the local government had stored tons of grain donated by the US to feed the poor.
The grain was sold to an English entrepreneur who resold it back to the local government who then resold it to the people - all in a successful effort to cover their tracks.

I've seen the people in the bush beating back the jungle to plant their yams in every conceivable spot to have some hope that they could escape starvation.

I've seen the hatred of tribe against tribe when nothing would satisfy them but complete genocide.

And some American blacks want reparations??!
They should be on their knees every day thanking God that their ancestors were delivered into slavery!

[TexasCowboy]

Thank you for posting this well written article.
It takes me back to some not so pleasant memories, but ones I need to remember.
Thank God that I'm an American!

[semaj]

With all of its hang-ups and warts, I'll take America any day.

[mafree]

No offense taken. Africa does need help and I'm willing to concede that anytime.

[4CJ]

A first hand, honest account of the state of affairs in Africa is good to hear.

Yep. Refutes the fairy-tale of the dims doesn't it? It would seem that Dr. Haley has the right idea.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Rick I don't see him agonizing at all......he continually says how the place is violent and backwards - he is an American, not an African - I read this very differently than you did - I took it more to be a pro-America piece.

[Valin]

"No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donne

[propertius]

Indeed they should. And they should realise that the "compassion" of liberalism has done immense harm to Africa with its botched, well-intentioned quick-fix solutions.
How many dictators has the West propped up by throwing money at them? Why are we so slow to condemn the hideous crimes of black leaders against their own people? Africa would be in far better shape if we reacted to all evil regimes like we did to apartheid South Africa. Instead Chirac insists on flouting a travel ban on the ZANU-PF leadership so he can make a few headlines by shaking Mugabe's hand.
Of course in many places the World Bank and IMF are setting tough but necessary economic recovery programs in exchange for aid. But because it took them so long to get round to that way of thinking it has made it tens times tougher for the ordinary people of the continent.

Liberal compassion benefited the ruling cadres, allowing them to buy mansions in the south of France, and betrayed 95 percent of the black African population. It was complicit in condemning them to penury, although the ultimate responsibility must rest with the leaders themselves. At the moment we are in a situation where the few things which do go right on this continent are because of the vision of brave African leaders willing to stand up to evil western neo-imperialists. And all the things that do go wrong -- yup, it's us evil Westerners again.

What were you doing in Africa? Excellent post. One of the things that disturbs me most about this continent is the appetite of the ordinary person for blood. Either watching executions (Bar Beach, Monrovia beach, Kigali stadium) or participating in them. Mob justice, another thing to blame on the West.

I have seen this happen many times but one occasion particularly sticks in my mind. A ten year old street boy in Nairobi stole a bulb from a street lamp and was caught by the mob. A wealthy businessman came past in a Saville row suit. He put his briefcase down and jumped on the child's head till his brain oozed onto the pavement. This man was hardly a member of the oppressed masses, filled with seething resentment against the injustices of society because he was one of those profiting, and profiting handsomely, from those same iniquities.

[TexasCowboy]

"What were you doing in Africa? Excellent post. One of the things that disturbs me most about this continent is the appetite of the ordinary person for blood."

I'm an oil well drilling consultant.
In Nigeria I was working for Ashland Oil and AGIP in the bush out of Ebocha and offshore out of Warri. I stayed three years in that place, but I never want to go back.
I was in Uganda and Tanzania for AGIP- better than Nigeria, but not by much.

I, also, was bothered by the blood lust and the complete indifference to the suffering of their fellow Africans.
I absolutely do not understand the mentality of someone who could stomp the brains out of a child or whack off their hands.
I saw that insane look in the eyes of the people on Bar Beach, and it's frightening.

[Paradox]

I have lived in Africa. No black I ever met blamed Africa's problems on America or white americans

The apologists live right here in the USA (and in other Western countries).

[BunnySlippers]

Bump for those who missed it.

[Valin]

I absolutely do not understand the mentality of someone who could stomp the brains out of a child or whack off their hands.


Tribalism?

[FreedomPoster]

Don't know if this is anything you'd be interested in, but it is very well written and extremely illuminating.

[FreedomPoster]

>>So far I believe Mao is the all time champion.

Atually, I think the Soviets are number one. I use this link a lot, it's worth a bookmark.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

[MEG33]

The Black Book of Communism lists 65million for China (deaths attributed to communism)I believe the estimate for the USSR is underestimated in the book so don't know who is right!Cambodia/PolPot was largest in percent of population it says.The damning of the deaths "for a good cause" (communist/utopia)is powerful in the excerpt I read.

[Skywalk]

What you described is abhorrent, I can't imagine living in such a society. We Americans feel like the world is collapsing when rioters loot and turn over a few cars, or fear the serial killer preying on the innocent. But give me those terrors before a culture where murdering a child is acceptable and even entertaining.

Looks like despite abortion, Americans still have a fairly good grasp of the value of human life.

[scan58]

This is worth another bump.

[propertius]

Just to show you how screwed up it is, look at the flip side of the coin. I've talked to a nine-year-old child soldier in Congo who killed ten women, shooting them or slitting their throats.
(50 percent of soldiers in north-eastern Congo are under the age of 15. Some of them are as young as seven).
I was far more nervous of the children with guns, all of them drugged, than many of their adult superiors. The children are the cannon-fodder who do most of the fighting and most of the killing. They're less afraid and follow orders better. Looking into their eyes is a profoundly disturbing experience. They are glazed over, robbed of innocence, devoid of hope, filled with hatred and bloodlust.
Africa is a savage continent. It is also astonishingly beautiful. Most Westerners survive in Africa by escaping to the beautiful spots and shutting their eyes and closing their ears to the savagery. In fact most will deny the savagery exists. Any admission would rock the delusional little world they created to make them feel better about themselves.
Yes, you're right. To misquote Rhodes, being born American is to draw first prize in the lottery of life.