Picture Africa as a school playground, where a lot of different kids are living. There is one group by the swing set, another by the school, a third live by soccer field, and a fourth is by the bike racks. Sometimes the soccer field kids throw small pebbles at the bike rack kids, and sometimes the bike rack kids get hurt and fight back, but usually it ends without much damage done and they keep to themselves.
One day, a group of kids from a different school come inside. Most of the playground kids are wearing ripped clothing and using bags for sneakers, these kids from a different school have Nike runners on. They all have mountain bikes and guns.
The new kids go to the swing set kids and give them a bunch of candy, stuff they have never seen before. The new kids ask in return for the swing set kids to capture the kids by the school and bring them to the swing sets. The swing set kids capture all the kids by the school and are taken outside of the playground, and never seen again.
Then the new kids capture the bike rack kids and are forced to start working for the new kids, along with the swing set kids. They start building new stuff. Slides, jungle gyms, everything the new kids want, they have to do. All the swing set and bike rack kids are tied to ropes so they can't escape.
One day the new kids leave and have taken the playgrounds clothing and food with them. But they leave a lot of guns behind.
The soccer field kids believe they are better than the swing set and bike rack kids. They fight for power in this unruled and divided playground. They have forgotten to live peacefully after many years of being ruled by the new kids.
The new kids are Europe. The soccer field kids are Rwanda, and the other three are Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and West Africans.
way to simplify a complex situation... if only things were so.
ReplyDeleteHow about some forced birth control with those HIV meds
ReplyDeleteYou can't force birth controle because a lot of thew natives are still illiterate about their situation. They know they are hungry, poor and hurting for jobs, a place to be a real home and propper schooling and medical care. The major problem, IMHO, is that the "new" play ground kids never asked to play and forgot to invite the swing set kids to join in after the first place. ~frowns~ My ooldest child says he will never father children willingly and my youngest has said the same. At this rate, though I love my children, I am so sorry to have brought them into such an ugly world where empathy is seen as weakness.
ReplyDeleteThe colonialists fought for control over Africa's resources, sharing the land between them. National borders were defined arbitrarily, cutting across tribal and language boundaries. The result is what we see today.
ReplyDeleteWhen the various African countries became independent, with or without a civil war, a strong leader emerged. To stay in power weapons were needed; purchases of natural resources were made in money and weapons. The old colonial powers were the main suppliers; China is emerging as a new player.
Strong leaders are not interested in concepts of freedom or democracy (of which they have no knowledge or interest and why should they given the examples that the colonialists have set?) or in advancing the interests of their people. Their sole focus is in advancing their own interests and staying in power.Remember "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely".
Africa is awash with weapons; in South Africa's townships an AK47 costs R700, a hand gun R200.
Get rid of the weapons and the evil people who provide them and Africa will heal itself.
When will we ever get beyond this notion that it all the fault of colonists. Africa was decolonized many decades ago. African leaders have a responsibility to run their nations properly and they aren't doing it. Look at Vietnam which was ravaged by foreign powers much more severely than any African nation, it starts getting run properly and the place is booming. Germany was ravaged by foreign powers in 1945, it was booming only a few years later.
ReplyDeleteSome African nations were decolonized badly (e.g. Belgian Congo) but most were handed over to a people demanding decolonization, with functioning governments. Those governments in many cases rapidly deteriorated to Kleptocracies without any assistance from foreign powers. Then when the corrupt leaders of these places are asked why things are run so badly they use the poor excuse of the convenient but otherwise totally irrational bogeyman of the former colonists.
Corrupt or incompetent leaders = miserable country
Some people do not have the chance to search and understand truth. There are no decolonized countries in Africa. Why do you think that Congo is the last in the list of countries by GDP per capita. WHY, ask yourself and search for truth.
ReplyDelete