Why is Africa a Failure?

[boramk]

Now I have to worry about all these new advanced/civilized stuff. My car, cellphone, traffic, pc, money - what for? I didn't need these things back then

Advancement is needed!!
How is all this unnecessary??

We need a car so its easier to travel those 20Km, this advanced from walking

We need a cellphone to communicate with other beings, and cellphones advanced from telephones etc

Traffic is only inevitable with our robust population (its getting bigger and we need places to go to)

Money is more simple than trading or bartering as its durable, homegenus, divisble and easy to carry. It has a value and is needed.
Money advanced from bartering/trading

 

[DJ...]

Exactly.

It is the New World which began creating these unnecessary needs.

They might not have been 100% necessary but they were intended to make life easier. Industrial revolutions are a good thing!

Would you prefer to be living in a loin cloth, hunting your own food?

Staying still is not an option. Change has been taking place for thousands of years and by that logic we could blame the Mayans, Egyptians and Sumerians for helping to develop the ancient world. Change isnt a bad thing. The lack of acceptance, adoption and teaching is when change becomes an issue.

 

[boramk]

They might not have been 100% necessary but they were intended to make life easier. Industrial revolutions are a good thing!
Change isnt a bad thing. The lack of acceptance, adoption and teaching is when change becomes an issue.

I agree!!

 

[UnoPanelvan]

Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Mali and Ghana.

Oh, The Wki bible again. Anyway from what I can see. It refers to the economy in modern times with brief reference to history. No justification of why Africa are still failing, even today.

All I can see from this quote is that after decolonization the Africans screwed it up themselves, the same as we saw in ZIM and now history is aiming to repeat itself in South Africa, with or without the PostmanPot exemptions.

Africa's current poverty is rooted, in part, in its history. The decolonization of Africa was fraught with instability aggravated by cold war conflict. Since mid-20th century the Cold War and increased corruption and despotism have also contributed to Africa's poor economy. While China and India have grown rapidly and Latin America has experienced moderate growth, lifting millions above subsistence living, Africa has stagnated and even regressed in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This poverty has widespread effects, including low life expectancy, violence, and instability, which in turn perpetuate the continent's poverty. Over the decades, attempts to improve the economy of Africa have been met with little success. However, recent data suggest African economies are experiencing faster growth.

 

[Chermobil]

What happened generations before?

Africans are peeved at Europeans who took and exploited Africa's resources, one of the reasons why there is such a need for African aid these days.

Again, africa is not a stable continent, they didn't have uniformity and borders. The colonists made the borders amoungst themselves , they say cities are vehicles for change, if it was left up to africa to do this itself, they will never have evolved.

You say exploited : as if africa had a chance of using it themselves. Remembr you need an industrialised country to refine raw ore.

One of the few things to thanks religious texts for. But remember, Africa has been exposed to the New World for considerably less time than that of Europe.

You talk a lot but you dont really say anything..

 

[Pixie22]

Such as?



Please tell me how it was hard for Africans to survive considering they were under the sun with an abundance of wildlife.

Then, compare African conditions to those of Europe.

Well disease would be one. Being attacked and having your arm bitten off by a wild animal would be another.. You would not live through that, even though it is JUST an arm..

If you want the ultimate example, in 1000 years from now, when an asteroid heads to Earth, either we will have progressed enough to survive, or we wont.

Progression is not JUST about survival though. Like I said it is supposedly going to answer some questions for us eventually.. It has already answered plenty. It also has to do with comfort and many other things. People like toilets, people like to have showers and be in a clean living space, people like to eat different foods everyday as opposed to the same thing all the time, people like to be able to travel anywhere in the world quickly and get in touch with people they would never have had a chance to meet if we all lived off nature in 50 person societies. There are many ways that progression has helped us. I think people can only appreciate those things when they are taken away.

 

[DJ...]

U know back then the only thing I was scared of was a snake, lion, or some wild animal.

Now I'm scared in my own house because someone might come with a gun (which I'm sure was not invented by an African), to demand money, cell phone, dvd, tv, car, u name them.
U call that ADVANCEMENT.

Back then maybe, but how did you get to that point? By previous change and advancement. If it wasnt for human intelligence, ingenuity and development, we certainly wouldnt be the top of the food chain and that lion you refer to would become your worst nightmare. Our need for food and protection is what began change and development for the human race - we then accepted that change was good and looked for more efficient ways to perform tasks and answer life's questions.

The irony here is that Africans are responsible for this initial change and development.

 

[UnoPanelvan]

Exactly.

It is the New World which began creating these unnecessary needs.

Technology which you now use to "Debunk" our POV's. Maybe we should try some smoke signals, You think we can arrange something? I would love to stream a National Geographic history film on why Africa is failing with the smoke signal technology. Would be fun.

 

[Eniigma]

Please calm down. As you get irritable, your posts begin to become incomprehensible.

Of course other African countried have problems unique to them.

No one else has mentioned other African countries with problems unique to it other than your mention of Kenya and Darfur, and I answered you regarding that.

The OP focusses on Africa as a whole, and not unique countries. This is the third or fourth time I'm trying to explain this to you.

Most of Africa's problems can be attributed to corrupt governments, failed central planning, geopolitics, human rights violations, despotism, illiteracy, superstition, tribal savagery, military conflict, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, bad water supply and sanitation and poor health services. Only South Africa is exempt. Nice logic you have there, prolly the best excuse any African could muster. Could win you an Oscar. Congrats.

[quotePlease highlite them, the special and unique exemptions for South Africa.../quote]

I already have. Things like AA/BEE, ANC incompetence, Eskom etc. all fall under the general list I've given above.



Please stop derailing this thread. If you would like to discuss South Africa and whether it is failing or not, you are welcome to create a new thread for further discussion.

As South Africa is a part of Africa and this topic is about the failure of Africa in as a whole and in general; it is perfectly acceptable to use examples from ANY African country, including South Africa. South Africa is unique in that it went from Colonial rule, to white minority rule and finally now to black majority rule.

Crying foul (aka derailment) every time South Africa is mentioned is counter productive and not in keeping with the general vein of this thread. If South Africa is exempt because of it's uniqueness as you claim, every single African country could be made exempt as a valid example for the "failings" of Africa (each country has its own unique features and factors which could exclude it), thereby rendering this entire debate moot.

However you cannot blame the whole of Africa's woes on BEE/AA, the ANC or Eskom. BEE/AA and certainly Eskom are unique to South Africa and have no place in this discussion. ANC is a fair target to a degree but only as an example of poor government so prevalent in Africa.

 

[PostmanPot]

So?...this means it's GOOD lol

Debatable. In the Westernised society we've grown up in, we know no different. So yes, in that case it is good.

However whether it was necessary in Africa before colonialism, is another question.

 

[Robin Hood]

U know back then the only thing I was scared of was a snake, lion, or some wild animal.

Now I'm scared in my own house because someone might come with a gun (which I'm sure was not invented by an African), to demand money, cell phone, dvd, tv, car, u name them.
U call that ADVANCEMENT.

lol

 

[Robin Hood]

Back then maybe, but how did you get to that point? By previous change and advancement. If it wasnt for human intelligence, ingenuity and development, we certainly wouldnt be the top of the food chain and that lion you refer to would become your worst nightmare. Our need for food and protection is what began change and development for the human race - we then accepted that change was good and looked for more efficient ways to perform tasks and answer life's questions.

The irony here is that Africans are responsible for this initial change and development.

lol...i think Heita is pulling your leg here

 

[PostmanPot]

Now I'm scared in my own house because...

Aren't we all.

 

[The Cosmos]

Why is it that Europe, the Americas including the poor South and Asia all getting better economically and advancing but Africa always stuck or progressing backwards?

It's the only continent in the world to have their average GDP to grow down (I'll try to find the article I read it from)

Sure all country have corrupt polititions but why does Africa have all the corrupt/stupid ones the world could host?
(Even if Bush were to take presidency in a place in Zimbabwe or here he'd do a better job.)

Why are the people here so slow at everything and leave everything for last? (Eskom etc.)

Why is it always "me first" and no "here take, let me help"

All the people do in this continent is blame colonialism, racists and other countries for their own problems and this all is p*ssing me off.
Hong Kong and Singapore were colonized, it didn't stop them from using the colonialist infrastructure to build up their economies tremoundesly.
S. Korea after the Korean war was a messed up country. It had more internal problems than this whole continent and had no natural resources such as coal, oil or gold to trade. Now look at them, they built themselves up pretty nicely for being the size of 2 Gautengs.

Africa has potential, and its not using it

Why is this continent so hopeless?
Feel free to flame me or discuss and try to awnser my question

Why is africa so hopeless ? Because black people are incapable of running a country. It's been proven over and over again.

 

[PostmanPot]

Advancement is needed!!
How is all this unnecessary??

It's not unnecessary.

 

[Fuma]

Why is africa so hopeless ? Because black people are incapable of running a country. It's been proven over and over again.

True. Black people can't run the country according to the western ways.
We all know that this world is run by the west, so if u don't do it their way, then u r a failure.

 

[PostmanPot]

They might not have been 100% necessary but they were intended to make life easier. Industrial revolutions are a good thing!

Would you prefer to be living in a loin cloth, hunting your own food?

Staying still is not an option. Change has been taking place for thousands of years and by that logic we could blame the Mayans, Egyptians and Sumerians for helping to develop the ancient world. Change isnt a bad thing. The lack of acceptance, adoption and teaching is when change becomes an issue.

I agree with your post. But let me rephrase what you quoted of me.

It was only as the New World came to Africa, namely through colonialism, that the sort of advancement related to the New World began to apply to Africa. Before the New World's arrival in Africa, Africans knew no different. They were perfectly happy with the simple life.

At this point in time, of course I wouldn't want to be wearing loin cloths and hunting my own food. But if I was living in Africa, pre-colonialist and New World time, I would have been quite content being ignorant in my loin cloth hunting animals.

 

[Fuma]

But if I was living in Africa, pre-colonialist and New World time, I would have been quite content being ignorant in my loin cloth hunting animals.

Exactly. With these new advancement, there is more crime, wars, diseases, global warming, stresses, and all that ****. All these in the name of advancement.

 

[PostmanPot]

Oh, The Wki bible again. Anyway from what I can see. It refers to the economy in modern times with brief reference to history. No justification of why Africa are still failing, even today.

All I can see from this quote is that after decolonization the Africans screwed it up themselves, the same as we saw in ZIM and now history is aiming to repeat itself in South Africa, with or without the PostmanPot exemptions.

It's called Wikipedia, not the Wiki Bible. Your dramatisation is not necessary.

I have covered why Africa is/has failing/failed since colonialism. Corrupt governments, failed central planning, geopolitics, human rights violations, despotism, illiteracy, superstition, tribal savagery, military conflict, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, bad water supply and sanitation and poor health services.

The first six paragraphs refer to pre-colonialist times.

 

[PostmanPot]

Again, africa is not a stable continent, they didn't have uniformity and borders. The colonists made the borders amoungst themselves , they say cities are vehicles for change, if it was left up to africa to do this itself, they will never have evolved.

You say exploited : as if africa had a chance of using it themselves. Remembr you need an industrialised country to refine raw ore.

Please provide a quote as to where I said that colonialism has not helped Africa in any way?

You talk a lot but you dont really say anything..

I'm not forcing you to reply.