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I was watching an ad on telly today , a charity pleading for help with Ewan McGregor to help the children of Africa who have no clean water to drink , showing the brutality of the situation...Now Im 70 years old but when at primary school aged five we were shown films of poor starving children with no clean drinking water in Africa and were told to save foil lids from milk bottles to help them.. how this helps I dont know but we all cleaned the milk bottle tops and put them on a string until we had loads and they were sent off to help..we were also asked for old toys etc.. which we all did.... but its been over 65 years and nothing seems to have changed at all for these people.. All the Band Aids, Oxfam and other charities who gave millions along with workers to put in standpipes for fresh water seems still to be a major problem in the country....Is it their lousy leaders that cause this or another issue... Id love to know as how much money is needed to try and help and save these poor people...
My opinion: misgovernance and corruption. Many countries are just badly run. In others the leaders take for themselves aid that was meant for some purpose, or steal resources or product the people developed.
Sometimes the problem is the aid itself because is suppresses local industry.
Inconsistent or limited natural resources and often degraded environments. Man-made climate change is slamming many countries in Africa making it hard to make a living. Huge lakes (for fishing) are completely dried up and growing crops is risky if at all possible in many places.
And of course, corrupt, selfish leaders, rapacious neo-colonialists like China, too many groups that don't mix/work together, brain-drain, etc.
It's never been easy developing areas in Africa, may as well be Antarctica compared to Europe and North America.
My opinion: misgovernance and corruption. Many countries are just badly run. In others the leaders take for themselves aid that was meant for some purpose, or steal resources or product the people developed.
Sometimes the problem is the aid itself because is suppresses local industry.
I think you're heading in the right direction.
I lived in Thailand for a couple of years -- yes, I know, not Africa -- and I quickly came to the conclusion that Americans have no concept of what corruption really is, and how endemic it can be in the 2nd and 3rd worlds. It permeates everyday life.
The one thing I would add which is, apparently, very true in parts or all of Africa is -- I mean this literally -- tribalism. It was rampant, for example, in South Africa in Nelson Mandela's time. I am reading Trevor Noah's autobiography right now, and although one wouldn't expect it, it probably tells the story of tribalism (and apartheid) better than most sources from an everyday perspective, rather than only from a political perspective. Any idea of uniting many African nation's citizenry seems bound to collapse.
Inconsistent or limited natural resources and often degraded environments. Man-made climate change is slamming many countries in Africa making it hard to make a living. Huge lakes (for fishing) are completely dried up and growing crops is risky if at all possible in many places.
And of course, corrupt, selfish leaders, rapacious neo-colonialists like China, too many groups that don't mix/work together, brain-drain, etc.
It's never been easy developing areas in Africa, may as well be Antarctica compared to Europe and North America.
I would disagree with "limited natural resources". I doubt any continent has more abundant natural resources.
All the above answers are just excuses. I hate to say it but race makes a big difference. Many non-African countries have suffered worse in terms of war, poverty, colonialism and natural disasters but yet have built themselves up and are now thriving.
There is not ONE black or black dominant country that you can say is a success. Ironically, South Africa was built up by the “racist” whites but since it has reverted back to black rule, it has fallen to lawlessness and decline. Not a coincidence.
Of course what I said is not politically correct and so no doubt I will get a lot of hateful replies and the usual excuses for why black majority countries are not successful.
P.s. LOL at the comment blaming China for Africa’s problem. China is one of the main reasons many African countries even have a semi-respectable, modern infrastructure.
All the above answers are just excuses. I hate to say it but race makes a big difference. Many non-African countries have suffered worse in terms of war, poverty, colonialism and natural disasters but yet have built themselves up and are now thriving.
There is not ONE black or black dominant country that you can say is a success. Ironically, South Africa was built up by the “racist” whites but since it has reverted back to black rule, it has fallen to lawlessness and decline.
Of course what I said is not politically correct and so no doubt I will get a lot of hateful replies and more excuses for why black majority countries are not successful.
All the above answers are just excuses. I hate to say it but race makes a big difference. Many non-African countries have suffered worse in terms of war, poverty, colonialism and natural disasters but yet have built themselves up and are now thriving.
There is not ONE black or black dominant country that you can say is a success. Ironically, South Africa was built up by the “racist” whites but since it has reverted back to black rule, it has fallen to lawlessness and decline. Not a coincidence.
Of course what I said is not politically correct and so no doubt I will get a lot of hateful replies and the usual excuses for why black majority countries are not successful.
P.s. LOL at the comment blaming China for Africa’s problem. China is one of the main reasons many African countries even have a semi-respectable, modern infrastructure.
Which doesn't explain why the U.S. states with the most dominant White political systems are among the poorest in our country.
Which doesn't explain why the U.S. states with the most dominant White political systems are among the poorest in our country.
It doesn’t explain it because that has nothing to do with why black dominant countries always perform poorly.
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