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IMHO - they would do better sending used tractors, plows, fertilizer, seeds and instructors than money. The former will help grow food the latters is stolen before it gets anywhere near the impoverished.
Yes but even that becomes a commodity worthy of theft. Build a water well, a gang of thugs decide to charge protection money or create their own version of meter on it. Send a used tractor to match every head count, it becomes less of a bullseye on someones back for the crime of owning one. Money alone is guaranteed to feed despots one way or another. Churches have a long history navigating around that kind of ugly, even if you disagree with how they go about things.
Well if I were reading a similar post and had my head stuck up my own arse, I'd probably think the same thing. Fortunately, I know better than you. Africa = garbage. But don't take my word for it:
"Kim Du Toit" sure does have a good deal many american colloquialisms considering her African heritage. Are you sure you aren't Kim? I missed the link.
I don't get why people like Bill Gates and Bono keep on spending money on Africa when there are some very poor people in the US. The papers always talk about how the rich are donating their money but they either spend it on Africa or frivolous art projects.
Its their money, they can do with it as they wish. Typical thinking: I know what to do with your money, better then you do.
I could care less what they do. Build a bonfire with it and roast marshmellows. They earned it, let them do with it as they please. At least they are doing SOMETHING productive.
For all the money and food Africa has received..even since I was a little kid, they are still no better off today. I think my mother even grew up hearing about the "starving children in Africa".
This statement is just demonstrably false. Africa is not an amorphous blob and every country has it's own situation. I don't think it makes any sense to mention Somalia and Botswana or the CAR and Gabon in the same breath. Rwanda has made extraordinary progress considering the horrendous events that just recently took place there and Angola was growing at a very quick pace when last I checked.
Actually they are better off today. But things are still bad in many places. There is a significant amount of investment going on in Africa that the majority of Americans don't know anything about but they have a long way to go. Long term an by long term I mean about 10 to 20 years out Africa is going to have some serious economic growth potential. Some countries like Ghana, Botswana, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique are already showing signs of this.
You probably think I'm crazy for posting this but Africa has what the world wants NATURAL RESOURCES. And the demand for those resources is INCREASING.
In for 2009 here is the GDP Growth Rate for some African countries
Ethiopia - 8.70% ranked 5th in the world
Democratic Republic of the Congo - 7.60% ranked #7
Malawi - 7.60% ranked #8
Mozambique - 6.30% ranked #14
Zambia - 6.30% ranked #15
Tanzania - 6.00% ranked #18
Gambia - 5.60% ranked #21
Nigeria - 5.60% ranked 22
You rather want to look at average growth rates for the last 30 years.
Ethiopia - 29%
Democratic Republic of the Congo - negative 65%
Malawi - 0%
Mozambique - 82.4%
Zambia - negative 28%
Tanzania - 32%
Gambia - 1%
Nigeria - 22%
And to compare this to some other countries at the same welfare level in 1980.
China - 903%
India - 198%
Vietnam - 277%
South Korea - 307%
Botswana - 207%
So I think it's safe to say that a lot of countries in Africa is not better today than before, especially considering how poor they were before. It's much easier to increase living standards if you start at a lower level. There are some african countries that are doing well, but that is generally the ones who have taken steps to improve economic freedom, create a proper judical system and limit corruption. Botswana is pretty much the only country on your list that have done that. The other ones haven't been a disaster like other African countries, but they haven't done very well either.
The ones who are doing best the last 30 years is Botswana, Maritius and Egypt.
I don't get why people like Bill Gates and Bono keep on spending money on Africa when there are some very poor people in the US. The papers always talk about how the rich are donating their money but they either spend it on Africa or frivolous art projects.
Um, the poor in Africa are WAY worse off than the poor in this country. And unlike the poor in this country, they have very few opportunities to advance themselves.
Maybe they spend it in the US as well and you just don't hear about it. You could ask the same question about the US government.
Of course they do. Wealthy people give a great deal of money to the poor right here in the US. The OP's question is simply put out there to start an argument based on a false premise.
"Kim Du Toit" sure does have a good deal many american colloquialisms considering her African heritage. Are you sure you aren't Kim? I missed the link.
Colloquialisms, even those American-sounding to you, say nothing of heritage. They are learned and not innate, so hinging on writing style does not cast doubt on heritage, at least not to any reasonable person. By the way the author is a man and no, I'm not him. And, I provided no link because Kim's site is gone and the only place I could find that writing in it's entirety was in the form of a quote on another forum. It seems pointless to me to link to someone else's quote of another person, so I left it out.
Kim Du Toit is considered "satan incarnate" to the progressive left, with his anti-femanist, anti-liberal straight talk, long of inflammation and short on political correctness.
And while I find his reckless abandon refreshing in our misguided society that would rather self destruct than risk offending someone with the truth, his analysis is sometimes as shallow as the situations and groups he criticizes.
In this particular case of Africa, there is little room for challenging the facts he presents, as most of the claims can be substantiated. It's the analysis and conclusions I find off base, because focusing entirely on what is wrong in "Africa" and using those details to dismiss an entire continent of human beings is lacking a reasonable level of "enlightenment".
I believe that should this approach be taken with any westernized nation, a similar, if not stronger case could be made for "letting us sink" too. Go no further than an accurate account of the misdeeds of the British Empire to highlight the possibility that the world would have been far better off if Britain had never existed.
More to the point of the OP ... Gates, and other so called "Philanthropists" and their "charitable" ventures are rarely analyzed in depth by the media or the public, as such an exercise would paint a much different picture than the one currently on display and applauded by the mainstream.
To be perfectly frank, Bill Gates is pure evil, and diligent investigations would reveal a very dark soul, who's underlying intentions and results are quite a different story than the one being told.
For those unfamiliar with "Agenda 21" and it's goals and intentions, you'd be wise to watch:
Pay careful attention to the veiled language that the majority seem totally oblivious to ... the first of which should be, but isn't obvious to most .... reducing manmade CO2 to near zero would require reducing human population to a similar figure ... because YOU EXHALE CO2
In language you don't understand .. he's telling you that he wants to dramatically reduce population levels on the planet ... because he and his elitist colleagues believe the majority are "useless eaters", polluting "their planet".
This is at the heart of the efforts to which Gates has provided significant funding to the World Health Organization in their vaccine programs in Africa, which is now estimated to have a population of 50% HIV positive, spread throughout the continent via these "charitable" programs to "help".
On the surface, this of course sounds like "madness" ... and it is psychopathically insane ... but the truth nonetheless.
If you're inclined to dismiss the notion out-of-hand ... then you are playing right into theirs. Because they are doing the same thing to us with vaccines rife with cancer viruses and agents that reduce fertility, along with the other multi-level program components that include the purposeful poisoning of the food supply with GMO .. the disastrous overmedicating of the public by the "heath care" establishment, and the contamination of the water with industrial waste (otherwise known as fluoridation).
Dismiss it at your own risk ... or educate yourself. It's your choice to remain ignorant.
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Are you sure you aren't Kim? I missed the link.
