Africa...What's the problem?

Hey bros...

I was surfing the Tube, and I found this video. It was made by List25, a channel dedicated to giving knowledgeable lists to it's viewers as food for thought. I watched one of his most recent list, '25 Of The Most Failed States In The World'. I found myself wondering at the end, why were majority of the list African countries?...and after that, I wondered, why is it that Africa is so bad-off?

It seems like every other continent has sped far ahead of Africa in the race, and contributes to some further development of the world. Where as, it seems like Africa only contributes to the poverty of the world (I hope that doesn't sound as harsh as it is sounding in my head.On the bright side, they do contribute to the natural of the world).

I apologize for any ignorance I have on the matter. As well, I know many that many of the countries in Africa are in poverty for different reasons. And, there are many places in other continents and countries that are really poor and in bad states. I also know that not all of Africa is extremely poor. You know, the Americas have the U.S. and Canada (?), Asia has China, Japan, India (?), South Korea, Europe has numerous, Australia is Australia. But, what do Africa have?

So, I guess I have a couple of questions on the topic. However, I don't want to bombard you bros with questions. So, what is your general thought on the situation with Africa?

d^?^b

I think they prefer food for stomach over there

@russellmania77:

dO,ob ???

Go puck yourself :)

@laflux: 10 times a day

@laflux:

Hey there...how did you beat me to 10000+ post?...

I have this for you...

d^_^b

soo much Zuma hate out there, poor guy

Cultural and religious differences (hate) that end up inhibiting progress.

Moreover, throughout history Africa has rarely seen a Golden Age like most of the rest of the world where advancement usually takes place in, be it technology, cultural or what have you. Africa has always been war-torn, be it amongst themselves or European countries fighting on it for colonial territory.

Its basically gotten the shaft.

Africa have so many problems its not even funny..

One of the reason of their misery and poverty is because their governments are corrupt as f*ck

And their natural resources are exploited but not for the benefits for their own citizens.

I've seen kids here in america throw away good food like they were garbage and yet kids in africa die of starvation.

Harsher climates, but most of all they are simply culturally different. Not everyone developes the same way and they might simply be behind us for various reasons, Africa is a bit more isolated then europe/asia as a continent and North America is colonies from europe.

This would be my guess, and is by no means a fact.

Africans will eventually prevail.

Probably humans.

The animals that are native to the continent probably like it there.

Africans will eventually prevail.

Guns, germs & Steel.

Whoa, Forgot all about that documentary.

Honestly, most of them gained Independence too early

It's a book... Lol.

They made a documentary of it on PBS a long while ago.

I haven't seen that, I'll have to watch it.

I'm no political scientist, but from what I gather, it's devolves to a combination of despotic leaders who are more interested in their own wealth and an absolute disregard for their countries denizens in some instances. Others are stirred by inter-tribal hatred, like the Hutu's and Tutsi's. Those literally took machetes and hacked each other to death. Can't be any solidarity when there is unresolved social issues within the country.

And there goes the westerners exploiting africa's natural resources for their own gain.

Government, drought, tribal ways of life, climate and more drought. IIRC there's only 28% of arable land on the whole African continent.

@fallschirmjager said:

That make since...I think Egypt is one of the few African countries to benefit with the world. And, Ethiopia is the farthest anyone went into Africa (Outside of the European colonization). I wonder why Africa could have gotten shafted...

Also, weren't other continents as war-torn?

Do you think they'll ever resolve their problems with one another, in order to better their nations?

I watched a few documentaries that have said that, through the Ancient World, Africa's poor agricultural halted their national growth. One Documentary stated that the domestication of animals was one of the best things Early man could have done. However, Africa does have animals that could be easily domesticated. As well, drought and harsh climates slowed down the benefit of steady agriculture. Because of these reasons, Africa had a harder time building empires like Greece, Egypt (I know it's in Africa), Persia, the Aztecs, Rome, Japan, China, the Mongols, Mesopotamia ect...

d^_^b

Also, do any of you think the Mid-East is as bad as Africa?

d?)(?b

@superstay: The middle east in many cases actually used to be a really beautiful place to be until talibans took over, thinking off Afghanistan in particular, in this particular example religion is what screwed everything over.

@bruxae:

Yeah, I always thought religion was the problem with the Mid-East...is India in any of the shuffle of Middle East's problems? I don't know why, I thought they never really bothered in the rest of the Mid-East...?

d^_^b

That's a load of crap.

Neoliberalism is one

http://www.globalpolitician.com/default.asp?21498-africa-malawi-poverty

While I don't like to scream "Blame the evil West for everything", US imperialism is one too.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-imperialism-in-africa/5317219

Blame Scar. Ever since he killed Mufasa, Africa has been in constant drought and the hyeenas have been running the governments.

I could say something, but I'd probably offend people.....

What do I care? I'm black anyway.

LOOOOL

You know on a serious note though, the problem is that too many people try to fix the problem before identifying the actual problem. Look at NGOs and all their work. It's really just the Western Superiority Complex at it's finest. They go in, build a school, pat themselves on the back and leave. But what happens after? How does the school stay operational? Where do the educated then go? I think that's one of the biggest issues here. The countries in Africa need infrastructure reforms but they're not going to get that from the west continually trying to "fix" what they "broke" in order to alleviate some sort of hereditary guilt complex without actually understanding what exactly is "broken".

Everybody is Black when they have something to say that may offend Black people. It's just how the internet works.

Idk but it saddens me.

This is one of the hardest things to watch I've ever seen. I'm left scratching my head and wondering why Africa is so terrible.

Ebola.

Ebola, War, Starvation,health and resources are the problem. watch beasts of no nation its a really good movie ?

N.A.S.

White people

In addition to all of the political issues in African nations, there are also issues from other parts of the world. Western countries pay very little for tea produced in west Africa. And, when the countries there protest the ridiculously low amounts of money paid to them, western countries threaten to pull aid from the countries. Additionally, the World Bank really doesn't like Africa.

Gee I don't know...it's almost like a bunch of White people went over and enslaved them all and then stole everything that was valuable on the continent.

I live in South Africa and trust me when I say the amount of platinum and gold we have here is a really big asset. We've got tons of money and minerals but our government is too corrupt to care.

I want to think that the Africans have been mistreated for so long that they are having a hard time pulling out of it.

Keep in mind that there are major cities and all the regular stuff in Africa, as well as the bad stuff.

Another part of me thinks that the Western way of living just doesn't suit the Africans. It is pretty hard on a lot of people in places like America, too, but it seems to have an acutely adverse affect across Africa.

Westerners are the mythological vampires. Living on the blood of fellow humans. It's a pyramid scheme that is not sustainable in the long term. As we are seeing.

Colonization. They became reliant upon the nations that colonized them and when they left everything slowly went to sh!t.

I can't help but wonder why Africa was so behind the rest of the world, though. Aside from Egypt was there any advanced civilization that existed in Africa that would have been on par with the Chinese, Greeks or Romans? If there was, then I have never heard of them. And considering Africa is one of the planets most rich lands in terms of natural resources, this really bugs me.

@sophia89:

Thanks. I appreciate that.

Good question, and many interesting insights in this thread.

In reality, I have no clue, but it's probably very complex and whatnot.

It's not America...that is why.