Africa makes me cry. :( (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Sjordal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3462901.stm

Can we invade Uganda next?

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Paul,
That utterly and completely breaks my heart :frowning:

Africa is a dangerous place, and it's been neglected far too long.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Edwin-S]

So another army in there would make things better? These people have to solve their own problems. Maybe they should try some other methodl rather than immediately picking up a gun.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

It was meant in jest ("If I laugh at a mortal thing, it is that I might not cry").

I don't want to go into detail because I don't want to get this thread closed down, but suffice it to say that if you and I had a political discussion, we'd probably not be very far apart in opinions.

 

[Holadem]

The Africa you never see.


--
H

 

[MickeS]

Holadem, good point. Plus talking about "Africa" as if it's one country a la the US gets a discussion off on the wrong foot almost immediately.

But you can't deny that the atrocities going on in parts of Africa in recent decades have been ignored, to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of people, and leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more.



Sadly, that IS all a lot of people know about America.

 

[Jack Briggs]

This thread is being watched, all. So play nice.

 

[RobertR]

Two things:

First, we have a lack of knowledge about other people and places, which generates false impressions based on the omissions of those who promulgate the information about those places. The same is true about how others perceive us. It was amusing to me to hear that people in other countries perceive some western US cities as “wild west shootup” places, or that my hometown of Denver is viewed as perpetually snowbound in the winter (it isn’t). Neither did all of Southern California go up in flames during the Rodney King riots.

Second, the “news media” generally considers news of interest if it’s “bad”. That is, you don’t see a reporter saying “Area X is calm, peaceful, and has good weather today”. They report murders, bombings, fires, natural disasters, wars, etc. That’s the nature of the biz. All of which means that certain impressions are not surprising.

 

[Micheal]

I strongly disagree with this statement.

I'll say no more to keep this thread alive.

 

[aaron campbell]

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/inte...363663,00.html

 

[mattCR]

One of the other problems is that sometimes we apply such blanket solutions to a continent we don't get the results we want.

For all the campaign of "Debt forgiveness" last year, it really wasn't the right solution for a great number of nations.

There are several nations in Africa that have set themselves up and debt forgiveness could be a useful thing for them. However, for others (war torn) all it really does is empower a government that is not representing the people well more leeway to borrow money or clip aid funds to continue efforts of oppression.

This Link Debt Relief not always good sums up:


The University of Ghana actually had a big symposium on this around the time of the G8 to campaign against debt relief. For example, they argued that out of $568 (Billion) in funds for stopping Malaria, most countries didn't even have tent/house nets to stop the bugs from getting in.. because while "good" governments spent to help the people, other spent on, well, ramping up their military to oppress the people.

The whole bit of one solution for all is really pretty short cited. :frowning: I think there are several governments in Africa that do their best, and I think others take complete advantage of aid & debt relief and make life harder on their neighbors by staying in constant states of oppression & war.

Edit: Aaron, that article is brilliant.

 

[RobertR]

Yes, it says things that need to be said.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

This statement is applicable to the media's treatment of most topics, not just Africa. The way ALL news media deal in sound-bites rather than in-depth reporting (not commentary/opinion) is maddening.... Guess they feel our entire culture is built around ADD.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Nice post Holadem.