Short-changed by history, Africa deserves a hand up

[seemslikeadream]

Tony Blair's Commission for Africa is only the beginning, says Cameron Duodu - the West must revolutionise world trade

Sunday March 13, 2005
The Observer

...

But in reality all that had happened was that the whites had transferred power to their half-clones - lawyers in wigs; merchants with foreign bank accounts; parasitic traders profiting from artificial shortages; teachers; accountants: 'petty clerks' of all description. They could speak and write the coloniser's language, so they were handed the keys to government - and the people's taxes.

...

Thus evolved those monstrous corruption machines in human form - Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, whose personal property holdings extended from Paris to Rio de Janeiro, or Felix Houphouët-Boigny of the Ivory Coast, who blew $300 million on a tomb to serve him at death.

When the money ran out, the military began to play musical chairs with the presidential seats. Meanwhile, the hospitals turned into mortuaries; the roofs of the schools began to leak; roads crumbled and the poor went hungry.

Instead of trying to understand that Africa had been short-changed and needed a sympathetic hand up, her weakness was perceived by racists in the West as a disease that came with the skin colour.

more
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1436501,00.html

[Octafish]

1. Africa to the world is what Detroit is to America.

Leave 'em alone and let 'em rot. Neglect will take care of the open-air prison.

Tony the Poodle is worried about his soul. He knows what awaits him in the next world for going along with the Big Lie that is Iraq.

[Demeter]

2. Excuse Me!

As a daughter and 4th generation Detroiter, I must protest! Detroit was a vibrant, lively city with amenities comparable to New york or Chicago, until the Right Wing in the north and west of the state decided to do as you suggest. It was a stupid, cruel, and self-defeating decision.

Detroit will rise again, when we get the GOP off its neck. So will Africa, given half a chance and many fewer overseers.

[Octafish]

3. I, too, am a Detroiter.

The causes of our community's current condition are the result of the policies of neglect. Those with the means have done the least to improve the city -- from the neighborhoods to the schools to the downtown. The same goes for Africa.

[SemperEadem]

4. the rest of the world has been quite active in Africa

for many, many centuries... corralling the natural resources for their countries to the exclusion of the US. THe US has taken a "don't ask, don't be interested" approach to Africa... to the US, Afican is a place 'over there' where 'those savages' live--'let them kill themselves off or die from AIDS; they're less human than we are'. The Hollywood movie machine made damn sure the average american got that message burned into their brains. Meanwhile, Europe and Asia are smiling all the way to the bank.

When Europe and the rest of the world says "no" or "it's going to cost you 10,000x what it's worth" is when America will wake up from her stupidity and see how much of a disservice her racist mindset has been for her. But by then, she'll be whining and crying about how unfair it is that she should have to pay for her stupidity because she believes that she's justified in whatever action she chooses to take, and should be rewarded for it.