I’m also interested how a continent inhabited by “tribal savages” is able to contain several countries experiencing 5% plus growth rates and developed, industrialized economies.

crr6 on July 8, 2008 at 7:18 PM

I’m not joining the original discussion, I just wanted to ask, which countries did you mean? Thanks in advance.

Believe it or not, Jessie Jackson Jr. seems like a good man when you listen to him.

saiga on July 8, 2008 at 5:27 PM

I disagree. He’s my congressman and I’ve listened to him plenty. I find him one click above retarded. His political philosophy is one click above Marxism (read his manifesto and tell me where I’m wrong).

He is embarrassingly stupid.

It’s so ironic, to me anyway, when scientists claim that the African continent (including the Middle East) was the “birthplace of man”, and they’re sooo far behind in the evolutionary process.

For being the birthplace of man, the African continent sure is evolutionarily challenged. The African continent has always been inhabited by tribal savages, and it seems it always will be. They have nothing to offer the world but drama and suffering. It’s time to cut the cord.

SilverStar830 on July 8, 2008 at 11:36 AM

Are you saying Africa is less “evolved” than the west? And that civilizations “evolve” in a predictable, linear way? Cause if so you’re at least a few decades behind with your thinking. In other words, you’re sooo behind in the evolutionary process!!

I’m also interested how a continent inhabited by “tribal savages” is able to contain several countries experiencing 5% plus growth rates and developed, industrialized economies.

“I said that sanctions… wouldn’t change the regime,” Senegal’s leader Abdoulaye Wade told AFP news agency.

If you believe sanctions weren’t sufficient to cause a regime change in Iraq (and they clearly weren’t), why would they be sufficient in Zimbabwe? Wade’s statement isn’t an example of Africa “failing”. He was just making a reasonable observation.

The Bush Doctrine of strategic pre-emption suggests that the only way to deal with Mugabe is to invade and force regime change if its lawlessness becomes a invitation for terrorist groups to operate there.

While Mugabe may be a murdering b*stard, I haven’t yet come across any reports of al`Queda or any other groups setting up long-term shop in Zimbabwe, as they did in Sudan. Until something like that happens, all we can do is watch.

That being said, I agree with what patrick neid said above. When I was a much younger man, I used to believe that aid provided by NGOs such as World Vision would actually “help a child”. Now I understand that all such aid does is incentivize thuggish kleptocrats to continue raping their citizens through either outright theft of state resources, or else through a continued willingness to use strong-arm tactics to cow the populace and keep them in line.

Bottom line is, the citizens of African nations are ultimately responsible for the actions (or inaction) of their governments. If conditions get bad enough, eventually someone will rise up to push back on dictatorial leaders. However, as long as the West continues to pour aid into a black hole, those leaders siphon off enough of that aid to maintain their financial base with no need to correct any of their famine-causing policies.

I think Bono is the worst enabler in this regard. African leaders racked up huge debts that did nothing to benefit their citizens, and erasing those debts without first acknoweledging (and summarily deposing) the culprits only ensures that new debts will replace the old ones. Again, the citizenry suffers.

I realize that taking a strong stance on this issue flies in the face of “won’t you help a child?” adverts coming from the NGOs. Yet I believe that Africans deserve better from the West than the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Our help to those peoples should come as a reward for their having risen up and replaced bad leaders with good ones. Only then will our collective goodwill produce any tangible results.

Two main reasons – diamonds and oil, possibly uranium also.
There are many natural resources in Africa that the rest of the world wants.

All that will still be there when the famine, disease and genocide runs it’s course and it will be much cheaper.

If Africa insists on protecting Mugabe, then Africa has seen the last dime of aid from the West.

So George Bush is like hitler for deposing a brutal murderous dictator and now he can be a hero for deposing a brutal murderous dictator?

I’m confused.

But, could we be smarter with our aid? Stop letting it go to corrupt politicians and start making sure it actually helps people?

Perhaps some “guerrilla aid” where we operate outside of the corrupt governments so they can’t steal their 90% processing fees off the top….

What we’re doing now certainly isn’t working, and I don’t see any reason to keep throwing good money after bad.

It seems that all the good Black politicians like Michael Steel don’t get elected. Believe it or not, Jessie Jackson Jr. seems like a good man when you listen to him. But, I think the victim baggage many Blacks kling to fogs their ability to reason soundly.

Isn’t that basically the Dem approach to foreign policy? Let’s give it a shot and see if it works!

If Africa insists on protecting Mugabe, then Africa has seen the last dime of aid from the West. Bono and Bob Geldof notwithstanding, the West does not need to prop up tyrannies and the toadies that act as their apologists.

Damn right. What you subsidize, you get more of. What Africa does not need is more tyrants like Mugabe.

He’ll behave cowardly and unethically by not lifting a finger to help the suffering masses in Zimbabwe, confident that no black african leader will cajole him.

He’s equally confident that no white leader will cajole him for fear of being called a “RACIST!”.

He’s seen how well this works for Obama so you can’t blame him for trying it himself.

No news here. Africa has been a stinking cesspit for decades precisely because of people like Mugabe (a perp), Mbeki (an enabler), and the rest of us (financiers).

We are as guilty as the rest.

Now there’s an empty, feel-good gesture! Ditto for economic sanctions, which if anybody bothers to look at Saddamist Iraq or North Korea, for example, clearly do more to prop up tyrants than any form of aid ever did. Dictators controlling and hoarding resources simply consolidate their power, while resistance is further reduced by impoverishment and starvation. China and Russia, of course, are always happy to step into the breach — expanding their spheres of influence without the inconvenience of competition from the west and cementing corruption at every level.

While I sympathize with the desire to do something, economic measures do nothing to rectify injustice; they are a tool of containment which simply fences in the slaughter till dictators consolidate enough power & lucre to begin exploring their potential nuclear options.

patrick neid on July 8, 2008 at 10:10 AM

Very well said.

For being the birthplace of man, the African continent sure is evolutionarily challenged. The African continent has always been inhabited by tribal savages, and it seems it always will be. They have nothing to offer the world but drama and suffering. It’s time to cut the cord.

However, lumping all of Africa into the Mbeki mold is a mistake; the countries over there are as different as elsewhere. And, like everywhere else, the leadership rarely speaks for the people (does it even do so in this country anymore?). Mbeki’s own popularity at home is suffering on this issue.

All aid must stop for Zimbabwe, period; it’s only used to keep that monster in power. People need to rise up, or vote with their feet. Our resources can go elsewhere, into more stable regions.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often….

Leave Africa to its own destiny.

For a continent so large, why come does the rest of the world have to keep pouring money into a lost cause?

madmonkphotog on July 8, 2008 at 11:05 AM

Two main reasons – diamonds and oil, possibly uranium also.
There are many natural resources in Africa that the rest of the world wants.

That and they can’t go under until they transfer that 75 mil that I won to my account – they seem to have run into some paperwork problems – very inefficient.

Remember our own country’s history…it wasn’t all that long ago.

For a continent so large, why come does the rest of the world have to keep pouring money into a lost cause?