The long and ugly tradition of treating Africa as a dirty, diseased place (Triple Bagger)

Washington Post ^ | 25 Aug 14 | By Laura Seay and Kim Yi Dionne

[matt1234]

Yes, I’ve been to Tanzania. It was quite dirty by US standards, including open sewers in some urban areas.

[GOPsterinMA]

Any doubts that the natives benefitted from colonialism should have been erased long ago...

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[SkyPilot]

It may not be PC but I contend had WWI not occurred the practice of Imperialism would have eventually brought civilization to the continent.

You're probably not far off.

When I was in grade school, our geography classes morphed into what was called "Social Studies" and as a kid in the 70's we were Guinea pigs for a lot of new cirriculum.

We used to spend HOURS listening to teachers talk about those "evil European colonists" and what they did to rape and rob the "pristine people and land of Africa."

Today, the best off countries in Africa were the ones that were most stringently colonized. You travel there, and the structure built 120 years ago are still being used - and haven't been improved upon - although they have fallen in disrepair...but they are still using them.

The roads built, the damns, the Africans benefited from them immensely. When they kicked out the evil Europeans, things started to go to hell, quickly, as we all know. My teachers would tell us that the reason things were so bad there was because of the "legacy of Colonialism."

[SkyPilot]

Northern Africa, and South Africa is the closest to “Clean”, and that only applies in certain places.

South Africa had the most wealth, the most cars, the most development, the most of everything, around 30 years ago, in the entire continent. I think I read once that the entire economic wealth of South Africa in 1985 was the equivalent of some 10 other African nations combined.

Now here is an interesting rub - many in North Africa don't want to be associated with the rest of the continent.

Egypt is a prime example. Look at this map of US Central Command. Do you know why Egypt is in the Middle East portion? Well, yes, they are primarily ethnic Arab, but the place is in frickin Africa. When AFRICOM was formed a few years ago, the US military put Egypt on the map for Africa as part of that area of responsibility for US military relations, alliances, and other matters dealing with Africa.

The Egyptians went NUTS! I mean they blew a gasket. So they put Egypt in CENTCOM's area of responsibility.

[RipSawyer]

I don’t know what they are but in no way do I see a monkey there. Look at the skulls, nothing like a monkey skull.

[patriot08]

Exactly

[Veto!]

Extraordinarily difficult to read. The inside of the authors mind must look like a squirrel cage filled with fur. Most of the comments are just as bad.