Third world?

Question

why is it the continent of Africa is so behind than others. Do you know that most of African country dont make guns so where these guns come from? why these big countries are selling guns in africa?
3,000,000 of people died in Congo, why is it the world so silent?
Love your neighbor says the Bible

Answer 1

Africa is a mess for many reasons.

Except for Eithiopia and a few historical ruins in Central/West Africa you will not find "civalization" in the sense that the West defines it. Metal working was not very advanced. Sciences rudimentary or completely missing. Yet Eithiopia was one of the earliest civalizations. It also had constant contact with Egypt and many theorize that Egyptions first came from around Eithiopia or Sudan. Me I tend to believe the Moors came from there and thats what we are seeing.

I'll exclude Northern Africa because it is really Arab lands and more like the Middle East culturally and ethnically than the rest of Africa.

Culturally the African nations lack of technology is hard to explain. The American Natives had a religion and philosophy which really did not make for a good mind set for science which was required for technology. This was not the case in Africa. For some reason Africans never really bonded together into great cities and empires. So the driving force of inovation wasn't necessary. Wars were small demonstrations of skill and light on casualties. War being a major driver in technology for Europe and Asia.

Africa has some very devastating diseases and the terrain can be very difficult to traverse. This was why Islamic expansion never went south of Sudan. Africa never developed ocean going vessels so there was no trade or exchange of ideas. Eithiopia was the only African nation I know of which had any consistant contact with outsiders until Europeans colonized Africa. Still the trade was Egyptian and Asian traders who came to Eithiopia. This was a crucial failure technologically which kept them forever at the mercy of those who came to trade with them.

The lack of metalogy and domesticated horses made more advanced technologies impossible. Lack of glass was another major inhibitor to other discoveries. No need to learn navigation skills since they were not seafarers. No navigation no astronomy and without astronomy most ancient cultures had little reason to develop advanced Math. No advanced Math and no advanced building techniques.

So technologically Africa was a failure until European colinization. Many associate the slave trade with colinization. The two are seperate events completely. The slave trade was an African thing. Some African countries still practice it. Slaves were just handy comodity for African traders who lacked raw materials or manufactured products to trade with European traders.

The colinization had a dramatic impact on the whole of Africa. Boundries were set more on how far a given European nation could push into an area and hold that territory. This often put several tribes, often rival tribes into artificial nations that suited Colinizing powers. Religion was pushed heavily onto the native Africans who tried to Westernize the indigineous peoples. Many tribes completely lost touch with thier origional culture.

On the good side, schools were introduced. Written language was introduced. Medicine, cures for some of the diseases which ravaged the land. Vacinations, improved farming are just some of the million improvements in life.

So Modern Africa is a continent with huge wealth in resources but poverty and tyranny rule almost all African nations now as it did before Europeans came.

African's don't make much of anything in Africa. Guns, Cars, TVs and just about everything else come from other nations. Machette's are actually the murder weapon of choice in Africa. Far more die or are mutilated by machette than any other two violent means of death. As for why people sell guns to Africa. First it's profitable. Not anybodies biz what they do with those guns. Much of the mass murder is done by regonized governments anyway. Uganda for example. Idi Amin killed at least as many as Hitler.

Congo, Rwanda, Nigeria, Somolia, Sudan, actually it's easier to list the nations that havn't had mass murder going on in Africa which would be a might short list. South Africa and Kenya I think covers that entire list.

Most of the murder and other mayhem centers around three things. Ancient tribal rivalries being the biggest cause. The next two are minor but still cause a good bit of death. Religion, in particuler Islamic vrs Non-Islamic and just plain good old fashioned greed/hunger for power. Africa has very lucritive raw materials. Oil, Diamonds, lumber, exotic animals, etc. Enough that the region should be seeing an economic boom. What is happening however is that a very small minority get all the money from this. Little trickles down and none is invested in infrastructure. So soon as the raw comodity runs out so does the wealth. The nation is exactly where it started before the oil/diamond/whatever boom happened. Large investments go into military power as these are brand new nations who are learning how to be nations. The borders are not fixed and nor are many Govs in Africa remotely secure. A coup is around the corner for almost all the current Govs. Few are elected and the few that achieve a Democracy usually see it fall in short order or see wide scale corruption make a mockery of the Democracy.

Disease, refusal to adopt modern agriculture/ technology and especially AIDs are furthor crippling African nations. The philosphy of most of these nations just makes it worse. Something bad happens it is somehow the fault of the West. AIDs for example which came from Africa is blamed on Western influence somehow. Still don't follow the logic, but never could follow the logic of most African nation's decisions.

The war in the Congo is a great example of all the problems going on in Africa. A former colony which has never really had a long term stable Gov since the French left. It is also a chessfield for the surrounding nations as they back one faction or another rather than fight each other directly. Tribal rivalries and corruption insure that no fair Gov has a chance to come into existance. Forign intervention is useless as the best it can do is get them to shoot each other out in the jungle rather than in plain sight.

You ask why we supply arms to them. For the most part we don't. We sell arms to the more stable Govs that surround the Congo. They in turn supply the factions they back with these arms. When I say we I mean the US, Europe, Russia and China. Arms dealers also ply the area and it is one of thier biggest profit centers. So few arms are sold directly to anybody in the Congo by anybody. If we were to not sell arms to a given nation around them it would make them a sitting duck for the other nations and they would be invaded or undermined through guerilla warfare.

The outright hostility Africa has for the West in particuler means there is not much we can do for them at all. They take our money for food and technology and buy weapons with it. They use the UN to extort money from other nations. They have no infrastructure to use that money so almost every penny is money thrown away. There is no interest in building an infrastructure. Racism is violent and pervasive. Indians and Europeans were either killed or thrown off the continent in almost every African nation. Zimbabwe is a great example. Once an exporter of food the racist attacks on White and Black farmers is creating a famine in that nation. Anybody who did not support the mass murderer in power there now will have thier land ripped from them, might be killed will be at least beaten. Unlike the Congo we could actually do something helpfull in Zimbabwe. We do not raise a finger. In the Congo it is cival war. In Zimbabwe it is open and blatent mass murder.

Plain and simple you can't help somebody who doesn't want help and Africa clearly and violently shows us that they do not want help. They want hand outs and nothing more. The hand outs are useless. Thousands of aid workers risk thier lives every year to keep people from starving to death. Most of them would have ample food if the Gov of that area was not intentionally starving them for political , tribal or economic reasons. We keep them alive so they can be multialted or killed with a machette, mowed down in a cival war or die of AIDs instead of hunger. We provide free medical care, medicines, vacines. What we in the West get in return is hostility and nothing else. Not a thank you. Nothing. We never asked for anything, but the hostilitiy has many in Western nations feeling that aid to Africa is a huge misguided waste of money.

Many European nations and to a lessor extent the US has taken in Millions of Africans fleeing oppression and often outright murder in thier nations. Maybe they are angry we give those people a safe place? I do know that most African nations use the UN as a sort of revenge against the West and hand out machine. In fact African influence is fueling a big backlash against US membership in the UN. Five years ago only fringe groups were calling for the US to leave the UN. Today it's becoming a popular cry. Even some major parties are starting to espouse it on the state level. If things do not change in a hurry I think the US will leave the UN in the next 5-10 years. Possibly sooner if the UN continues to ratchet up pressure on the US. While not all of it is African issues, the African nations comprise a large voting block which consistantly vote against the US and against European interests. Africa is by far the largest reciever of funds yet has the least to show for those funds. Africa is also the least stable region in the world.

In this instance I have to say the problems of Africa are for the most part the fault of the people of Africa. The many attempts to fix these problems by outside interests have almost always resulted in total failure. Those that suceed only succeed until the next Gov change destabilized that region and all the gainsa re lost in the ensueing bloodbath. To stop the rivers of blood flowing in Africa it would require a complete attitude change by the populations of Africa. The racism and ethnic tensions would have to be set aside. Education, medicine and sciense would have ot be valued. An infrastructure would have to be built to help lead those nations toward self sufficiency. Most of the current African leaders would have to be dethroned and replaced with much more honest Govs. The superstitions of the rural African's would have to be conquered. For example the rumor that the West manufactured AIDs and spread it through small pox vacinations. Rsearch shows this is not true nor is it possible. AIDs existed and was already turning into an epidemic long before then. Nor were the monkey's used to manufacture the vacines capable of transfering a strain of AIDs which would infect humans. However much of Africa is convinced the West brought AIDs to them. Our kindness and money spent to help erradicate Smallpox turned against us.

Without these and many other changes there is no help for these nations. Without Africa deciding it really wants help and making an honest effort most money spent there is money thrown away. It could be spent in SE Asia, Eastern Europe, South America instead and have far better results and returns. All places that desperately need the help but are almost completely denied aid because African influence in the UN.

Answer 2

I once read an article that said, even if the continent of Africa started increasing its GNP by a whopping 5% a year, it would take 200 years for it to reach the level of prosperity in the West.

In most cases, countries are poor because of governmental corruption. Why is Canada rich while Mexico is poor? Rampant governmental corruption. If you were looking at the relative benefits each country has, Mexico should be the rich country. Mexico is rich in oil, doesn't have winters to contend with, has two coastlines, plenty of deep water ports, is strategically well placed, has plenty of tourism, and many natural resources. However, the corrupt Mexican government squanders all its advantages.

The only significant external reason why Africa is poor is due to crop subsidies in the West. African farmers can't compete with European and American farmers who get huge subsidies.

Blame the UN on the atrocities occuring in Africa. Kofi Annan and his ilk remain silent while the Sudan and other countries are being consumed by internal strife.

Answer 3

It's not the Africans' fault that they had borders imposed on them by Europeans who didn't know anything about their tribes during the Berlin Conference 1884-1885. Many of the problems Africa is experiencing today were created by the failed experiment of and inherent racism contained within the colonialist system. Africa is still suffering the consequences today, and the "independence" movement of the mid-20th century was just European powers' way of washing their hands clean of the problems. We turn a deaf ear to Africa's problems because it's such a big mess we just don't want to deal with it. A few people were killed in Somalia and we were out of there faster than you could say "stay the course."

Answer 4

The real answer; because the Congo does not have anything of interest in regards to market value. Sure it has some natural resources but not enough to make a dent in the globalized business world. If it did, you'd see the U.N., U.S., and other countries getting involved. It all comes down to the market.

Answer 5

I read your comments and I would like also to add mine. First of all the west are part of the mess in Africa.
The histry shows that the west played a major part of it. The King ghost(King Leopold 1 of Belguim had killed 1,000.000 congolese in 18's, read the book "king gohst" and you might learn
1. They went there without a visa and today they urge African to get one. (The best people who lived africa was those who did not know the outside world, they were content with what was before them)
2. They took the strongest men out in slavery for the west constructions
3. Support the most crucks leaders exp. Mobutu of Zaire. The west knews that all helps given went to his own poket still help went in

Answer 6

Because it is easier to turn your face to the TV and not care. I think that all of us should be aware. As a single person very few have the strength and the courage to change the world, but if all of us are aware of the awful things that the governments and corporations do, and make it known, and unacceptable, we will give the first step to a better world.

Don't burden yourself because of the awful things that happen in the world, but find strength in knowing that there are a lot of other people who care, and that we can make a difference.

Answer 7

When the attempted genocide was committed against the 800,000 Rwandans, it was done mostly with machetes and clubs. The world remains silent until the financial stability of another country is affected.

I personally hope that the world gets a clue about over population. It is this very problem that causes this level of apathy.

Answer 8

Corrupt leaders are everywhere. I would not send them a dime without strings attached. The money goes to where it is needed, or not at all.

Get rid of corrupt leaders, make the climate a sound one to attract business, and you may get somewhere. All I can say to Africa (and the U.N.) is good luck getting to that point.

Answer 9

Are Africans children? Of course not, so you cannot blame the UN or other external sources. Africa is backward culturally, still relying on tribal form of society, which does nothing but fragment their society.

Answer 10

Governments .. sorry for this, but i cant believe that millions of people who have bad president, will still be bad if they will have a good one, the problem is, in the thrid world, presidents are writing the law and constitution while they are in bed or in vacations, coz no one can control them, they have full access for everything and anything, if there will be a force that can control the president from the government it self and the people, it would be the best .. but how can you have this force while the bad presidents are bad ??