Ain't that the truth? Nicely put. Every time an elected official come into power here the first thought we all have is: "Well, how's this one going to make his friends rich and fuck the little guy?" It doesn't matter if you're white, black, yellow, blue, or purple. All people can be good, bad, or somewhere in the middle. I give everyone a fair chance up front, and if they do good all is well; if they piss it all up and be shitty then we have a problem. I'm truly egalitarian, I can love or hate everyone, considering actions speak louder than words in my book.

Cheers to that! Beer, food, and tits for everyone! :)

I don't feel guilty as I had nothing to do with what happened.

What the west should do is stop selling fucking guns to third world governments and whoever else they can, wipe the debt for the entire third world and then leave them the fuck alone. Then you can say it is time for them to stop blaming the past and make the best of things.

I recommend The Constant Gardener (John le Carré) for a guide to complicity, corruption and just plain evil in this life we live now.

Go Ledge,go!

Like Ledge said the problems start to arise from the early days of colonisation. The colonisation era destroyed the original infrastruture and raped the whole society. When the colonisation era ended it was replaced with economic disguised colonisation.

Did you knew that most of the food produed in the 3rd world is sold to multinational companies for cow chow half-free because that's what they have to do to keep up with the interest ratres of their debts? The 3rd world is so heavily exploited that they can't build up or keep up a good infrastruture and a lack of proper infrastructure leads to endless swamps of social unwellness and warfare.

Although some of the big debts of some of the poorest nations in the world are forgiven, but it's only a small help as the exploitation continues. Capitalistic global economic thinking has led the mankind into a tail spin towards a shit pit. The suits hold money stacks made of injustice, blood and immorality and it's all ok.

Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, Somalia, Sudan. Live in peace with your neighbour. We're not interested. Hey, starving people of Zimbabwe... The list goes on.

I'd like to agree with just about all you say, but it's not that simple and the solution is not so idealistic. You are just not taking so much into account.

Africans are tribal. If a man has access to wealth he will not share it. He will marry many times and have a massive fucking family.

Do you know that men in South Africa belive that they will be cured of AIDS if they fuck a virgin? This is the same country where the president doesn't believe that AIDS is caused by HIV infection.

Slavery. Been going on in Africa since well before we went there and is alive and well to this day. In Africa. And I don't mean working in McDonald's.

We haven't even mentioned religion yet. Christian missionaries are a plague, but at least they don't advocate female circumcision.

Ah fekk. Chew that.

Rwanda is a prime example of people fucked over by colonisation. Did you know that the two tribal groups involved there didn't exist before colonisation but come from a class system introduced by the English (I think).

You asked why these countries are fucked up? It all stems from the west fucking with them.

"All" is a strong word, "Most" without question.

Every society has problems of their own, whether they've been colonized/taken advantage of or not.

Ultimately, blaming others for one's problems is of little benefit.

The western domination of Africa (and India and the middle East) sure as hell didn't help things, but I can't help but think that all people, in the here and now, have a choice each and every day to do the right thing or not.

Old Vantaa Man, I had no idea about the myth of curing AIDS by having sex with a virgin. Jesus, that's sick, and ignornat.

What's the estimated percentage of the population of Africa that is infekted with HIV? Isn't it like 50% or greater in some regions? That alone is a very grim outlook. Those infected young will become sick and non-productive very early in their lives, and become needy of substantial medical/humanitarian care in societies that are already resource depleted. There's no way to fix that for the current generation. All that can be done is to try and save those not yet born via educating the living. There's no hope if all the virgins/non-infected girls are going to get raped by ignorant, HIV-positive older men because they expect her young, pure flesh to be a panacea for their ailment.

Rwanda. Germans and Belgians mate.

Alex. Sorry good post there mate. I think you just summed it all up:

Ultimately, blaming others for one's problems is of little benefit.

;-) Matt

It's the fact that the west continues to make it difficult for poor African nations by lending them money that they are unwilling to pay back and at the same time insisting that they follow economic policies that are no good for them that is fucked up at the moment.

As I said, if the West forgave all the debts owed and stopped interfering then you can say stop blaming the past and get on a fix things, but at the moment it makes it near impossible for things to be fixed.

Ever dollar that has to go to financing debt or buying weapons is a dollar less that can go to building schools.

South Africa on the other hand is completely to blame for its own problems, the Government there was handed a strong economy from under apartheid and seemed to be doing okay under Mandala but when he left corruption set in and ruined any chance they had.

Pretty much the same for Zimbabwe. The blame for that countries current woes can be put down to the Mugabe cunt. Someone should just assassinate him.