Violence as an Excuse to prolong primitive conditions
Violence is one of the excuses used to unnecessarily prolonging primitive conditions in Africa that long ago should have been replaced with roads, electricity, safe water and sanitation systems, improved homes, schools, medical clinics, modern agriculture, industry, foreign and domestic investment, international markets and trade. Africa needs Investment, Infrastructure, Education, Employment and Disease Control, not population control and extreme cultural preservation imposed through international interference.
I recently talked to a friend who had been convinced by a person from South Africa that violence and prejudice among rural Blacks are the reasons for the primitive conditions, and the reason why changing the situation is hopeless. The rural Blacks were seen as savages without normal human emotions and aspirations for their families, unwilling to improve their lot. This reflects the long-standing, internationally held prejudice, dare I say worldview, revealed in my book, that the rural poor in developing countries are genetically inferior, unwilling and incapable of improvement, and overpopulated, all of which are untrue. My friend was sure that I was quite naïve about true conditions in African and other developing countries. She did not know about my own work and life experience with the many people from developing countries who shared their experiences with me and proved the prejudices to be wrong.
Of course, I recognize the existence of violence, prejudice and superstition among powerless poor people. However, these continuing problems, including violence, are a result of, not the cause of, long-standing primitive conditions imposed by international organizations and corrupt domestic governments. Because my book is about correcting conditions brought about and continued by international Western powers, and not about local internal problems, I have not spent a lot of time on descriptions of specific internal conflicts other than to point out that corrupt governments almost guarantee such reactions among the powerless and dispossessed.
African countries would have progressed beyond primitive conditions long ago if they had been allowed and encouraged to develop apace with the rest of the world. Colonial powers and later Communist influenced corrupt dictators failed to educate the people and develop infrastructure such as roads and electrical systems that could eliminate isolation and develop the rural economy beyond subsistence. Foreign aid without accountability has propped up corrupt leaders who actually benefit from keeping the people poor, isolated, sick and ignorant, so that foreign aid keeps coming. Foreign aid should be replaced with foreign and domestic investment, and accountability of the leaders to the people, not their donors.
While businesses in many cities are growing at a rapid pace, much of rural Africa is stuck in the 18th century, where we all once were. Many rural poor constantly exist at the mercy of the next drought, flood or epidemic, without knowledge or appreciation of microscopic pathogens and parasites, while feeding themselves by slash-and-burn subsistence farming of low yield, unimproved crops, much of which is lost to vermin and insects. Modern agriculture can end deforestation, improve nutrition and can stabilize the population through reduced infant mortality. Modern agriculture, education, medical care, access to markets, electricity and industrial employment could alleviate much of the suffering.
Want to help? My book outlines some of the many ways you can get involved.
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My new book, Saving Africa From Lies That Kill: How Myths about the Environment and Overpopulation are Destroying Third World Countries is now available online and in book stores everywhere. In print and eBook through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million. Note: some bookstores may not have it yet, but asking for them to order it for you will help to get it on the shelves faster.
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