Pardon my ignorance.. can someone fill me in why there is so much poverty in Africa?
 

is it the land? the government? something else?
discuss

the government(s) do not allow all or sometimes any of the aid the actually reach the people.

I blame colonialism.

It's the governments fault, Whenever there is aid sent it is taken. There is also the church that keeps telling people there that condoms are bad and to many people get aids and have kids when there is not enough to sustain them. It's a shitty situation that will not change in our lifetimes.

You can't blame the governments, not when most of the countries don't have them, it's the leaders and the people who blindly follow them.

Zimbabwe under Smith exported food and was a rich country. Under Mugabe they are starving and relying on aid to survive.

Except Mugabe, he seems over weight and not short of a few dollars.

Africa under Colonial rule exported food, suffered less oppression and genocide. They kicked out the Colonials and then blamed everything since on them.

The only country in Africa to have a chance is South Africa, which I believe has a very high rate of crime.

none from what I have heard

its the fucking govt, but guess wut? The West, especailly U.S. are behind it all. They tell the corrupt countries to stay corrupt and we'll help line ur pockets. america and the west benefit emensly from 4th and 5th world nations. they get cheap labor, resources like gold and diamonds and chocolate and coffee and cotton and oil etc they get cheap. every poor nation has the ability to be superpowers,or at least be like poland... but the big dogs want to stay on top, and clearly dont want anyone new...especially of color to be in the club. if africans were more nationalistic about their countries and helping their own people out, and not worrying about getting a visa abroad to america, london, or abroad, i doubt that they'll be so poor today.

the brutal effect of years under:

1. colonialism
2. capitalism

some countries just dont know how to share their wealth :(

Some do. Liberia ? the country founded by some nice cracker heads from US has been supplying their bosses with diamonds for ages. Latest dictator was US citizen who escaped from prosecution with his boss?s help.. (well now he?s canned) disposed?

the fucking government... or perhaps the CULTURE...

read the bell curve.

not politically correct to say it, but black folks don't do very well anywhere on earth compared to other groups.

and of course many will disagree, but if you are well traveled throughout the world you will observe it. it's not just africa.

Its called capitalism

Sounds about right !

hehe, a very "british" answer :winkwink:

You can't blame just one thing. It's a mix of several things.
If you don't get enough rain you can't farm the land.
If your level of education is way too low it will hurt the evolution.
If your government is corrupt help won't reach those who need it.

Your grasp of world politics is astounding. :1orglaugh

its like this...... there are not enough resources over there in most of the countries in Africa to handle the population. Even if the governments of the poor countries let ALL the aid the rich countries send to them reach the poor civilians, all that would do is help them survive to produce more kids which will create more poor people with less resources than before. Its a vicious cycle of retardedness.

since the blacks took over, yes

Yea there's actaully a pretty strong case that when we send food for aid it really just makes the problem worse by artifically allowing for more population growth with an infrastructure that can't support it hehe.

werent they the natives somehow?

wanton & thinkx can't be serious... right?

You know why all these kids you see on tv in africa have such big stomachs and skinny arms?









Too much food and lazyness.

d) all of the above.

I've never been there - so I can't say firsthand.

But I do remember how all the funding that was raised by Bob Geldof and the music industry in the past was misappropriated by the government, military and warlords and very little reached the starving people. While it was a noble effort...it seemed largely futile.

And despite its racist overtures and the fact its not politically-correct to state - others have said that history has demonstrated that black societies have difficulty with self-governing. That could also be a factor.

you dont need rain, you need resources and inovation.

well maybe Im wrong but the black ppl there were the natives werent they? Or did South Africa all of a sudden became a part of Sweden or so and invaded by black ppl?

:1orglaugh im pretty sure the black people were native.... :1orglaugh

I'm sure you're going to find some vegetables that can grow without water if I say "of course they need rain to grow some serious vegetables that can feed more than one person for a week".

I agree. During the Boar wars the dutch took over south Africa for diamonds.
During the imperialistic period the European countires tried to divide Africa, but many were unsucessful. So to defeat the African people they would do
things like infect them with AIDS. For example in Haiti. The french couldn't beat them then and today they are still trying. Plus the lack of education, and politics PLAYS A serious role.:321GFY

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

the truth of the matter is, africa is poor because of the asians. they hate the blacks and will stop at nothing to destroy them and leave them in abject poverty. down with asians!

Btw see the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and see that there is not 1 guilty, the true is that there are many thing$ involved, many people filling up the pockets with money washed in blood.

If a day come with no war on the world the many shity warlords would loose on Forbes ranking whatever ..., a world with no war is just a impossible dream, the good for someone is the bad for someone else, always the duality law, to someone in Ocidental world get food on the table somewhere in the world someone will die. Yes you can say that this is a dark view ...

I'll contribute my uneducated guesses based on lame reports:

1. Shitty governing bodies.
2. Lack of governing bodies.
3. Groups going over the carrying capacity of their environment.
4. Disease, lack of food, shitty land (see #3).
5. Foreign influence acting in foreign influence interests without regard for native interests.
....

The reason is the blood diamonds among other things that the african countries export for primarilly guns. 60% of all small arms are located in africa and is purchased with the wealth found in the ground such as oil, diamonds and other precious metals.
All the gun runners supplying arms to africa are littarely drowning in cash from the endless plunder the socalled "liberation" armies are conducting in africa in order to gain control of the lucrative natural resources.

And this is the part that most of the times is hidden, it's easy to say the neggas are 1001 things, but rarely you can ear people say that US, Russia and European countries feed the war with weapons and get the diamons, cocoa, oil, oil, oil, oil, gold, oil ...

"can someone fill me in why there is so much poverty in Africa?"

Loads of varying and different reasons. Its hard to generalise over a whole continent.

The only generalities are in the history with colonialism, the slave trade, raping the land of it's natural resources and oppression.

The rape still continues today in the form of ... it can be called "agreements", "trading partnerships" or "government aid". Rarely is there a deal with any country in the African continent that where there is a net benefit to that country.

The worst offenders are western govts and corporations.

Governments proudly boast of "aid" to Africa - but "aid" always comes at a price or with a reciprocal deal for more resources than the value of any "aid" offered.

Corporations/companies already have a history of raping the resources in Africa - part of that regime is a leftover of the colonial and slavery era. Modern "corp speak" comprises screwing as much as possible and earning a profit to show on the stock markets of London, Wall Street and Tokyo. There is never a consideration for the base providers of their profits or concern for their welfare - it's all "take".

If ever a continent was raped repeatedly - it's Africa.

Meanwhile western politicians have been known to talk about Africa - and even take a photo opportunity tour, show concern, compassion and agree to provide aid. Bush was a recent visitor and promised 15 billion in "aid". In reality, they were lucky to see 5 billion - and even that came with a positive price tag for the benefit of US corporations. (BTW.. Bush has a very nasty habit of lying about alledged aid to Africa - he lies about everything else, so why not Africa as well?) The rape continues.

Lately we have celebs putting their name to assisting the African continent and they have to be commended - at least they are trying and hopefully will have some effect. However, no way can a group of celebs ever return or replace the damage caused over decades.

A friend specializing in development in third world countries finished his tour of duty in one African country last year. He had an almost unlimited budget, but found it hard to even give this away. The object of the excercise was to provide sustainability to this country in the form of industry and agriculture. In practice, there was pressure from western countries and corporations to not upset the applecart. The rapist corps and governments were busy at work and they did not want their profits being hit by having local industry competing or interferring with their cheap work force. The rape continues.

Next time you eat food, you can thank Africa in part for putting that food in your mouth - chances are it played a role somewhere.

Because they have no good leaders..

Agreed.

Africa has a lot of the former, but little of the latter.

Odd you should say that. That is one of the favorite trading tools of the US. (Who also happen to supply more arms than all countries of the world combined).

The deal goes - Supply us with a load of natural resources and we will give you bullets in return. Another favorite is... Gimme all your telecoms, water and power utilities and we will provide some aid. The utilities infrastructure is then passed over to western corps who increase prices and remove all profits to Wall Street. That's called "raping nicely".

Strange that ya seen to think a whole continent does not have "good leaders" :1orglaugh

But agree.. there are folks in power in Africa who should not be holding that power. But... the same can be said of a few western countries as well.

The main reason for poverty in Africa is, of course, colonialism. Not so much because it exploited Africa (which it did), but because it fucked up traditional economies and, perhaps just as importantly, because it introduced national borders which divided existing tribes, put together opposing tribes, and even created ethnic divides where there had been none before (for example, the divide between the Hutu's and the Tutsi was created by the Belgians).

Having been thus destabilized during colonialism, breaking free from it occured in the worst way possible. Within a few decades after WWII, most African nations gained freedom. However, the economic structures from the colonial period remained, making diversification of the economy extremely difficult and costly. Worse, many natural resources had been stolen or destroyed.

Now, perhaps these troubles could have been overcome, but unfortunately, most former colonies gained their independence during the cold war. Because of that, communism and the west fought over the various countries, supporting those who sided with them even if they were run by entirely corrupt dictatorships, which used the aid they got from their respective "allies" to strengthen their own position and fight any opposition, rather than to build up sustainable economies. This, in turn, fueled poverty and corruption, as well as internal strife. Also, loans taken out by corrupt governments have saddled most of Africa with an insurmountable amount of debt, while at the same time doing nothing for the local economies because the money went right to the pockets of the most corrupt politicians, officials and military leaders.

Another big contribution to today's situation is "blind aid", aid given without any regard for the political and economic consequences. For example, food aid has often fallen into the hands of the wrong people, who have used it to inprove their political position, while at the same time providing unfair, destructive competition for farmers and businesses.

Add to this an area mostly rife with disease, large amounts of less-than-fertile land, western trade barriers and a total lack of existing, efficient political structures, and it is not surprising that Africa is screwed up.