wasn't this the country that had the watering hole webcam?

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Originally posted by chimera66 that's unfortunate that you feel that way...world is smaller than you realize and you should care for other parts of the world because perhaps it will affect you in some indirect way. as for the aid, maybe we shouldn't send food that we know will never reach hungry people and just sits in trucks until it goes rotten...difficult situation because africa isn't all as backward as some people would like to think. on tv they love to show the people out in the bush.

The only way I could see this as directly affecting me is the fact that Africa is a host of many important resources. War and pestilence can possibly have a far-reaching effect on the harvesting and usage of said sources, but in all honesty, there's been war and pestilence over there for a while now.

I'm sure my position is not entirely welcome, but I see it as Africa has been given aid for a while now. Many different countries send money, people, technology, and their educational abilities over to Africa with seemingly no apparent outcome. I believe all people are on the whole equal. Why is it then, that nearly everyone else in the world has advanced or is seeking advancement and they aren't? We all started out with relatively the same mental faculties and drive to sustain and progress (I believe), but why can they not? What has this gotten us? Why help someone who won't help themselves?

Meh. Call me a heartless bastard or a "typical American", but it's how I stand.

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Originally posted by Audious I think a lot of people forget that, despite being one country, most of our states are the size of European countries. Our news covers a lot more area than you would think.

Well, despite our size, we are just one small part of a global community. Our national news devotes entirely too much time to crap (Daily Brittany, Anna Nicole, every breath the Presidential candidates take) and not enough on the events occurring in countries other than ours. (unless we are at war with them)
Trust me the news channels are the default channel in our house and I haven't heard a peep about Kenya.

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kanye > kenya

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Originally posted by Lesbianosaur Typical American response.

i think that's pretty harsh. How many countries in africa have been rules by dictators since independance? How many billions of dollars have been given in aid and gone no further than the cronies of those in power?

However, kenya was one of the best functioning democracies in africa, despite the tribal split that has affected most due to the rather random split of the continenet during the colonial rush.
the best way forward for this region seems to be the massive investments by china. Investment, not aid.

News coverage globally is quite poor on africa, though there i splenty of alternate channels to the spoon fed mass media option now.

They should just have a, "Other countries have problems and it's the US' job to fix them," news channel.

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Originally posted by tubby i think that's pretty harsh. How many countries in africa have been rules by dictators since independance? How many billions of dollars have been given in aid and gone no further than the cronies of those in power? However, kenya was one of the best functioning democracies in africa, despite the tribal split that has affected most due to the rather random split of the continenet during the colonial rush. the best way forward for this region seems to be the massive investments by china. Investment, not aid. News coverage globally is quite poor on africa, though there i splenty of alternate channels to the spoon fed mass media option now.

kind alike Darfur?

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Originally posted by stren a tiger ? in africa ? is that why they run so fast ?

only in kenya

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NOBODY DOES THIS ANYMORE

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Originally posted by Audious They should just have a, "Other countries have problems and it's the US' job to fix them," news channel.

the US will not be at the top for much longer and at some point we might be the ones receiving help. why not help those that you can? we don't live in a bubble.

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Originally posted by denys envy kanye > kenya

....that's stupid

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Originally posted by Ygrene I once saw Swamper peel off 4 or 5 $100 bills from a fat roll and say this to Donald Trump: "Go clean yourself up; you look like a bum.". And then he threw the bills right in Trump's face/hair! Then Swamper and his entourage of 30, who were all wearing TA monogramed Rolexes, left the room and flew to Hawaii for a few hours because Del wanted fresh coconut. To his defense, Trump didn't even really look like a bum.

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Originally posted by chimera66 the US will not be at the top for much longer and at some point we might be the ones receiving help. why not help those that you can? we don't live in a bubble.

I'm not saying that we will be and I'm not saying that we are.

I donate money to several charitable causes, however, I can't donate to everyone who has a problem.

Every country that has a problem appeals to the US. There are other first-world countries.

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Originally posted by Ted Promo My typical American and ignorant self just can't see these wonderful, new, exciting things Africa is doing these days.

Well it's obviously because you aren't looking. There are 54 countries in Africa - do you honestly believe that they are all at war? A lot has been made so far about Kenya's purported development in relation to the rest of the continent but the fact of the matter is that Kenya was far more corrupt and impoverished than most other African states for many years, and only through wide-sweeping reforms enacted by President Kibaki (an African) did they see the staggering improvement the country is now lauded for.

Likewise, other African leaders such as Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, who despite the legacy of Idi Amin and civil war has transformed his country into a shining example of economic development; Festus Mogae in Botswana, who has championed the cause of AIDS prevention in the most infested country on the planet - reducing the spread to zero; Armando Guebeza of Mozambique, who has curtailed corruption and increased the capacity of the state to be the very first African state to be entirely self-sufficient in crisis management, as well as the first to willingly decrease the amount of aid it receives in order to build local capacity for relief and NGO work; Nelson Mandela, who I should hardly need to mention.

Look, it is true that there are many problems endemic to the African continent, but how is that much of a surprise for an entire continent of 850 million people that have no real memory of self-governance? The only governance that many Africans knew prior to independence was entirely exploitative (do you have any idea what the DRC looked like under Belgian rule?) - hardly the shining example for them to follow once they gained control. Some of these countries have only been independent for 32 years... imagine that. What did Europe look like 32 years after the creation of Germany? What did the United States look like? If African politics appear archaic compared to the West... well, isn't that to be expected? African states are still in their infancy - need I remind anyone of the Civil War that almost rent the United States apart 75 years after the Constitution was ratified? Of the World Wars that TWICE ravaged Europe? Or what about the entire feudal history of constant war? To disregard Africa because they aren't on par with the transparency and "civility" of Western states is stupid and naive, and demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge about African history and the current improvements being made on both fronts across the continent.

I'm not saying that the United States or any other country bears responsibility for the plight of Africa, but we certainly are complicit in it. That said, I'm not one of those people who will say that we have a moral obligation to help Africans (though I've never really understood the arguments against that either -- "because it doesn't affect me" is one of the most sickening lines of tripe I've ever heard). We don't help because we feel responsible. We don't help because we feel like we should. We help because we can. Because at this moment in time, the United States and other Western countries are capable of doing real good and helping people that are suffering. Pointing our fingers at other countries that don't do anything is missing the point - when it comes down to it, the question is simply what can we do to help?

So yes, it was a typical American (read: me me me I'm ignorant about this issue so why should I care?) response.

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And now please explain to me why these marginal betterments of their societies took so long to come about?