The eighth floor

[E*F*4L]

over many years lots of money has been spent in Africa, however it never seems to have a big enough impact or actually solve any of the problems, so money it seems isn't the answer but what is ?

one of the reasons i think is the corruption at a government level but what i don't understand is why the people put up with it, the West has difficulty in trying to help & advise because of the old colonial past & that it's felt that 'we' are interfering yet again.

another reason is the population of Africa that just keeps on rising, i understand why they have so many children the mortality rate is high but also because more children can do more work & earn more money for the family, but with a exhausted food supply already the population is un-sustainable.

Africa is a very complex issue but is there a solution to the Africa problem ?

[Hammer]

Frankly I don't believe anyone on this forum is going to come up with a magical solution that the greatest political minds of the world have somehow forgotten about.

The money spent in aid to Africa does have an impact, it's just not going to be regime changing by nature. In the words of Tesco, every little helps.

[Lucinda]

I don't think treating the whole of Africa as a problem to be solved is a good idea at all. That is a typical postcolonial (or perhaps even neocolonial) way of looking at it and makes sweeping generalisations.

An important issue is, what constitutes development? I've studied this in quite a lot of detail as part of my degree. It seems that 'development' is seen as a process of modernisation, mechanisation, 'catching up'. Those kind of views are starting to change. Basically, who are we to tell them what being 'developed' is? Is the best life a life with 3 TVs and 2 cars for each household? If we all wanted to live like that we'd need several times the resources we currently have on the planet just to cope with the current population. As Julian Simon put it (quite bluntly), if people in developing countries thought their lives were that terrible, they'd kill themselves. He is talking about every day subsistence lifestyles, not wars/genocide kind of situations.

So what are the problems in Africa? War, famine, the other two horsemen of the apocalypse. First off, these problems aren't everywhere. You might be surprised to know that Africa is also suffering from growing obesity and the burden of disease is changing from infectious diseases to non-infectious (heart disease, type 2 diabetes etc.). In many parts of Africa, being overweight is considered a sign of affluence. To some extent, the past and present actions of 'developed' countries are to blame. We have taken advantage of their natural resources and paid them below the odds. We stop them from selling their food to EU countries because the CAP subsidises food production to such a great extent. Past policies of dividing countries and playing off different groups against each other, the 'divide and rule' technique also used by Stalin in the Caucasus, have helped to fuel tensions and some of these conflicts still go on around the world.

I could go on about this for a lot longer but there's no point because no one will read it. Not long ago I was reading a BBC "Have your say" discussion on the subject of Africa and it horrified me, the views people have. Many people's views don't seem to have moved on from the days of Environmental Determinism (the theory used to justify and vindicate colonial exploitation) where it was believed that those living in tropical climates are naturally lazy, stupid and unproductive because of the heat so they need 'educating' and controlling to use their resources more productively.

I think I've said enough. I don't think the question you've posed is valid at all.

[E*F*4L]

so if Africa is in a better position than i thought, why do they keep needing food & medical aid ?

i understand the food subsidies argument & i agree that the EU subsidies damage the African farmers but it seems to me that if they can grow so much food that they could ship over to EU countries why are so many in Africa starving ?

i admit that my comment may have sounded a generalization, but the majority of African countries have different problems & that surely must affect the continent as a whole, the problems in Zimbabwe for example are spreading into neighboring countries.