OMG, LOL. AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY IDIOTS.
strat1x, yeah good logic there, unfortunately, North America doesn't have a government either. Neither does Europe, or Asia, fuck, the world is screwed, these continents don't have a government, only the countries within them!!
Now that this is out of the way, what fucking country in Africa are you talking about? There are countries there that are doing very well, and others like Somalia that are fucked up.
Well Europe kinda does have a government in some ways, the EU makes a lot decisions otherwise taken by national governments - but that's being a bit pedantic really.
I agree with you. South Africa, Morocco or Egypt for example aren't doing too badly compared to say Sudan or Zimbabwe. Maybe not up to western standards of living, but some African nations are certainly on a par with many Asian, East European & South American Countries.
Much of the blame lies with my country - England, and other European nations. Slavery and colonisation really fucked up most of the continent and now after independence we continue to largely ignore the problems there, which we have a responsibility to help them deal with. The French seem to have been doing some good work in the Ivory Coast though, wish I could say the same about us British and Zimbabwe.
One positive point though, with the possible exception of South Africa, African nations are now generally governed by the natives. Something which certainly can't be said about many other parts of the world colonised by Europeans, particularly North America.
I'm no expert, but it seems that the problems of bad government stem from years of being ruled by other nations then sudden independence over the last century. If you were told what to do all your life and then suddenly had to think for yourself how would you act? Also, many nations have been forced into a European style democracy, which probably isn't the best form of government for a country with a completely different culture - same with the Middle East really.
Trade is playing a massive part in the current problems in Africa. These people have a great climate & cheap labour, yet can't sell their produce because Europe and America insist on handing out billions of Dollars to their own farmers. This is something that really pisses me off actually - seeing my taxes going to support rich farmers - especially when pretty much any other industry (for example coal mining) is allowed to die out because it isn't able to compete.
I don't agree with it, but I can understand it more in Europe - with it's socialist background - than America. America is perceived as supporting capitalist enterprise, not government handouts. Yet they pay cotton farmers billions of dollars of taxpayers money each year so they can compete with poor Africans.
Europe and America also impose import tariffs on many goods from poorer nations, or will sign free trade agreements only if the countries agree to measures like privatisation of public services. Foreign companies often take control of these services and want to make a profit from them. This certainly doesn't help a poor developing country that is also saddled with debt from money borrowed - and spent - decades ago.
Westerners have also spread Christianity to Africa - particularly Catholicism. This has done enormous damage, not only to their cultures but also by making people unwilling to use condoms - resulting in over population in many places and the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS.
As human beings we have a moral responsibility to sort this shit out, and if our governments actually gave a shit then we could do it. But no, they care about supporting business and getting re-elected.
Unfortunately the people that run our countries value money more than human life.
If they spent a fraction of what has been spent on the Iraq fiasco in Africa they could've provided clean water and AIDS drugs for everyone and virtually eliminated malaria and TB. If troops were sent to places that actually needed and wanted them then the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, if not prevented would certainly not have resulted in such a tragic loss of life.
Fuck, this is makin me sad just thinking about this shit, but what can the little people do? Support charities, buy fairtrade stuff, try to vote for the right people, spread information... not much else really.
Sorry, this is such a long post. The more I wrote, the more I thought of other things to write. I don't know much about it really - this is barely the tip of the iceberg. It's not fuckin simple.
