[Alberta's Child]

If Western governments really wanted to do something to help Africa, the easiest thing they could do is open their markets to African products.

This is like saying that the best way to deal with a house that is a fire hazard is to put a fire alarm box in every room.

There is only one thing Africa needs to do to cure its problems, but no outside nation will ever be able to force this solution upon it. The entire place needs to grow up and move into the 19th century, at which point they can start thinking about the 20th.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Actually, for food production, South America probably has more potential (as well as actual) productability than Africa does.

[Egregious Philbin]

Where does the Marxism come in? Bartlett fails to acknowledge that prosperity doesn't come from nothing. And the wealth from many of the resources that Africa does have don't make it to those that need it. Oil in Nigeria, diamonds in Sierra Leone. The profits belong to foreign corporations. The white farmer's in Zimbabwe didn't have their farms taken away just because they were white, it was because they owned all the good farmland! If he is saying that we need to make sure aid money goes where it should, and where it would be most productive, I agree. (And there isn't one generic fix for the whole continent!) You can't "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" if you don't have boots or straps.