why is sub-sahara so bad?

[IronWing]

Lousy soils, nasty germs and insects, lousy water, and Sally Struthers.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Pretty sure the white man ruined everything.

white people

Interesting? Racisim veiled as sarcasim, very clever

 

[artikk]

white people

Really? So, at what point do we stop blaming white people for the problems in Africa? Is there a set time limit or is there no statute of limitation for white guilt? When should Africans start taking responsibility for their own actions and improve their own lives or should they continue to blame whitey since that's always easier?
It's easy to claim the problems in Africa are because of colonialism but remember some of the nations have been receiving aid for a while and haven't improved at all. At this point I would let these people dig their own grave if they can't use free money when given. Corruption doesn't excuse the inaction of the rest of the apathetic populace. There's only so many excuses you can give until reality sets in.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Really? So, at what point do we stop blaming white people for the problems in Africa? Is there a set time limit or is there no statute of limitation for white guilt? When should Africans start taking responsibility for their own actions and improve their own lives or should they continue to blame whitey since that's always easier?
It's easy to claim the problems in Africa are because of colonialism but remember some of the nations have been receiving aid for a while and haven't improved at all. At this point I would let these people dig their own grave if they can't use free money when given. Corruption doesn't excuse the inaction of the rest of the apathetic populace. There's only so many excuses you can give until reality sets in.

Fucking over an entire continent doesn't fix itself after even several generations, and money isn't going to fix anything sadly.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

You know... If white, black, brown and any other colored people would allocate the money now allocated to something useless in our societies (for example soccer/football) we would have a prosperous Africa contributing to the betterment of the world's technological knowledge in less than three generations.

To bad our societies aren't structured in such a way as to allow for such rational decision making; If only we had someone at the top that could make these choices for us...

 

[lupi]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/11/kenya.children.beading/index.html?hpt=C1

 

[H54]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/11/kenya.children.beading/index.html?hpt=C1

http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2005/02/The-Gentle-People.aspx

 

[Herr Kutz]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/11/kenya.children.beading/index.html?hpt=C1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13367277

 

[KMFJD]

You know... If white, black, brown and any other colored people would allocate the money now allocated to something useless in our societies (for example soccer/football) we would have a prosperous Africa contributing to the betterment of the world's technological knowledge in less than three generations.

To bad our societies aren't structured in such a way as to allow for such rational decision making; If only we had someone at the top that could make these choices for us...

We have been sending money over there for the last 40+ years and it hasn't made a bit of difference, stop sending them money would probably be the best thing that could happen for them

 

[magomago]

Don't forget that Saudi Arabia only outlawed slavery in 1962 and it's been estimated that in the early 1960's, Saudi Arabia had over 300K slaves.

And all this about Europeans destroying African nations and the like....while the Europeans were complicit in keeping the various African nations down and not progressing, do not forget that Arabs engaged in a slave trade for over 1000 years, decimating Africa and the nations contained therein. Also include in that the Ottomans, Turks, Greeks, etc. It's been going on almost since recorded history......Sumer, Islamic Caliphate, Egypt, China, Assyria, India for example

So, the "modern" Europeans were only one of the later oppressors in Africa....and shorter lived ones, too.

I'm going to act like a regular forumite and toss common sense out the window and declare you're obviously racist.

You realize that the slavery that we think of - the complete and utter disregard for life was truly started by the Portugese, is a vastly different beast than what came before it? That isn't to say that being a slave before was great --> slavery is any form is crappy, but it would sound odd of us to think of slaves are have rights... Part of that is because of the morphing definitions of what constitutes a slave and what rights a slave did or didn't have, and how a slave was treated. Hell, as bad as slavery was in the USA, the vast vast vast vast majority (I think maybe ~5%, but I need to look up the numbers) went to places south of the United States (ie: Brazil) where the survival rates were absolutely atrocious.

but sure...go ahead and white wash over how how the 15-19th century European powers really changed what it meant to be a slave (and I'm specifically looking at the Spanish and Portugese empires of the time) into what we envision it to be today

 

[theevilsharpie]

Fucking over an entire continent doesn't fix itself after even several generations, and money isn't going to fix anything sadly.

Europe was fucked over multiple times in the 19th and 20th century, and they've since bounced back to be the world's top economy.

 

[BoomerD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

The great 14th-century scholar Ibn Khaldun, wrote: "the Black nations are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because (Blacks) have little that is (essentially) human and possess attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals...".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_slave_trade

Slavery in African cultures was generally more like indentured servitude: "slaves" were not made to be chattel of other men, nor enslaved for life. African "slaves" were paid wages and were able to accumulate property. They often bought their own freedom and could then achieve social promotion -just as freedman in ancient Rome- some even rose to the status of kings

 

[JimmiG]

European colonial powers did a number on Africa. Basically, they just carved up the place into colonies, and those colonies became countries after struggles for independence. Thing is, those new countries usually had no real cultural, historical, or linguistic foundations to build a nation on. This was very, very bad because it led to a great many nasty wars & civil wars.

Add to that the fact that the societies that had evolved before the Europeans got there had been systematically eradicated, and what was left was usually a governmental and social structure based on exploitation by the ruling elite. Usually, the colonialists were just replaced by local elites, who just continued on exploiting the people, instead of trying to build societies that actually functioned.

Europe ruined Africa.

Yup. In some ways it's quite similar to how the US ruined South America.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Europe was fucked over multiple times in the 19th and 20th century, and they've since bounced back to be the world's top economy.

The closest Europe ever came to getting screwed over on the scale that Africa did was the Mongols rolling over it the entirety, but that never happened. Having some wars happen isn't the same as getting occupied for centuries, exploited ruthlessly, and then dumped into a pure power vacuum.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

You know... If white, black, brown and any other colored people would allocate the money now allocated to something useless in our societies (for example soccer/football) we would have a prosperous Africa contributing to the betterment of the world's technological knowledge in less than three generations.

To bad our societies aren't structured in such a way as to allow for such rational decision making; If only we had someone at the top that could make these choices for us...

yeah it's really too bad Hitler and Stalin are long gone

 

[theevilsharpie]

The closest Europe ever came to getting screwed over on the scale that Africa did was the Mongols rolling over it the entirety, but that never happened. Having some wars happen isn't the same as getting occupied for centuries, exploited ruthlessly, and then dumped into a pure power vacuum.

Africa wasn't occupied for centuries. Europe didn't colonize the continent until the late 19th century, and most of those colonies gained their independence in the mid-20th century. Also, at no time in sub-Saharan Africa did you see the kind of devastation that continental Europe received during WWII.

 

[Sea Moose]

Another reason to stay away from africa