allonym:

@ ijebuman,

you are confusing aid given by a country's government with aid given by organizations or private citizens. I'm not surprised that government aid mostly translates into reducing the debt owed by other countries. Perhaps you've never bought anything on credit or taken out loans. . . but there is a HUGE benefit when you reduce the principal amount of your loan. It does nigeria no good if it owes the us $100 million which grows at 5% interest per year if nigeria only produces $10 million in gdp. (for this example, I'm making up numbers). In this case, the 20% of the GDP would go towards paying the INTEREST on the debt alone . . . there is probably very little opportunity for many African nations to actually reduce their debt other than the aid your so despise.

Foreign aid is money provided by governments and thats the only 'Aid' i'm talking about. Charity Organisations do not give aid in monetary terms, they may finance a project but they do not give money to any government, same with private individuals. They can only give money to other NGOs in that country.

allonym:

However, many times, aid is specifically designated for food, healthcare, clothing, housing. Guess what happens to it when it winds up in Nigeria. . . . somehow, it evaporates. . . its kind of hard to take your argument seriously when the african nations themselves are a significant problem unto themselves.

Just to clarify here a lot of the major charities are not working in Nigeria (e.g Plan, Save the children etc) as Nigeria is not regarded as a 'poor' country. They tend to work in places like Niger, Mali, Sudan etc.
They are a 'significant problem unto themselves' but who compounds it by selling them weapons or by supporting dictatorships (see my earlier post on my alternatives to "Aid"

allonym:

private citizens give plenty of aid to organizations which work towards funneling money to the country or actually work housing, feeding, clothing, people, among other things. So, even if you discount the aid from foreign governments, what say you about this?

Like i said earlier charities do not give monetary aid, they provide humanitarian assistance when there's a disaster (like famine, drought and other natural disasters etc). They don't give money to governments. Charities like Red cross and Save the children, provide relief materials directly to the people affected. Once they finish they move on to the next emergency, they do not stay their indefinitely and they do this all over the world not just in Africa.

allonym:

Until african goverments stop leaking money like a water tank that has been struck by a missile. . . i don't think you'd see that much of a difference. . . .and blaming the people who are doing the most to help. . .probably doesn't help your case either.

If you read my earlier post at no point did i blame charities, how can i? when i actively support many of them working in Africa. It was "Foreign Aid" i was against.

I've only pointed out that the so called "Aid" the earlier poster talked about is not really "Aid" as it comes with a lot of strings attached. And the so called 'billions' spent is for their companies and consultants. Look at Iraq where all the juicy contracts for "rebuilding the country" was shared out amongst Bush and Cheney's cronies. All the billions [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1052186,00.html]spent in Iraq[/url] is going back to American firms like Halliburton (a company Cheney used to run before he became VP). And then they wonder why the Iraqis are pissed off.

Back to the negative western media portrayal, if you don't see anything wrong with the way things are then there's no point anyone complaining if European football supporters throw bananas at our football players or 'make monkey sounds' when they are on the pitch.
There's no point complaining if all Africans are seen as 'disease carriers'.
There's no point complaining if our ethnic groups are regarded as 'Tribes' (Even the BBC still uses this word to describe African ethnic groups despite repeated protests from African scholars to stop using it) or if ethnic rivalry in Africa is described as 'Tribal warfare' but in Europe its called something else.
There's no point complaining if foreign airlines fumigate their planes (while passengers are inside the plane) on African routes but never do the same on other routes.

There's no point complaining if the UK Guardian reports that 419 is now Nigeria's main source of foreign income after Oil and Cocoa (when any intelligent person will tell you it is money sent by Nigerians working abroad unless that is what they meant by 419  .US officials claim Nigerians remit back over $3b annually through 'official' channels like Western Union, while through unofficial channels it could be as high as $12b)

If you think we deserve all the coverage we get and this coverage is truly 'Fair' then there's no point complaining if anyone treats us 'differently' from other people.

mr. ijebu.

you talk am finish. see this yeye people saying that africa deserves all this racist coverage from the foreign media will be the first to complain when the same foreign countries thay hide in and now "claim" as their motherland treats them differently.

i wonder when africans will begin to stand up for africa and realise that no matter how long they stay in Western countries, the westerners will still view them as "one of the diseased folks from the dark continent".

why are black americans refered to as "African Americans" and not americans as other european immigrants are called? we never hear of european Americans!

They are referred to as "African Americans" because they get upset when referred to as "black Americans". Spanish Americans are referred to as "Latinas" and it's not percieved as a derogatory term. Jews are referred to as jews.

why the "african"? why not simply american? they were born there! Why are Germans, brits, poles e.t.c. not called european americans? is it because they happen to be white so no one bothers?

For your reference:
- http://www.google.com/search?q=german+americans
- http://www.google.com/search?q=british+americans
- http://www.google.com/search?q=polish+americans

Why are American women referred to as "women"? What a derogatory practice; why not just "American"? Why are American teenagers referred to as "teenagers" or "young Americans" in the media? Why not just "Americans"?

you don't hear this in the mainstream media

"british americans" now i have to admit i have never heard that before

davidylan:

i wonder when africans will begin to stand up for africa and realise that no matter how long they stay in Western countries, the westerners will still view them as "one of the diseased folks from the dark continent".

sad but true my brother

you don't hear this in the mainstream media

That's because they don't make a big fuss over their "heritage". Unlike Yorubas, Igbos and Hausas, most white Americans don't spend hours inventing new ways to divide themselves unecessarily.

I can assure you that when the US president comes to the podium and talks about "protecting Americans", "defending Americans", "helping Americans", the black or "African" Americans are included. When you hear American, it means American. It does not mean "white Americans only".

Seun:

Unlike Yorubas, Igbos and Hausas, most white Americans don't spend hours inventing new ways to divide themselves unecessarily.

actually they do, its called 'Class' 

I can't disagree with that. People called "white trash" should start complaining!

davidylan:

why the "african"? why not simply american? they were born there! Why are Germans, brits, poles e.t.c. not called european americans? is it because they happen to be white so no one bothers?

I'm assuming your ignorace stems from the fact that you must have limited experience with the United States of America. If you had more, you would not be making such blatantly false statements.

Just so you know in the future, people of german, spanish, french, or any country not in North America are referred to as : German-American or Spanish-American, heck, people of mexican descent are referred to as Mexican-American. The only one I cannot recall hearing in the past 14 years is Canadian-American. . . either canadians are really special. . .or americans don't like them. . .or them us. . . or all. . .or some other thing.

ijebuman:

Foreign aid is money provided by governments and thats the only 'Aid' i'm talking about. Charity Organisations do not give aid in monetary terms, they may finance a project but they do not give money to any government, same with private individuals. They can only give money to other NGOs in that country.
Just to clarify here a lot of the major charities are not working in Nigeria (e.g Plan, Save the children etc) as Nigeria is not regarded as a 'poor' country. They tend to work in places like Niger, Mali, Sudan etc.
They are a 'significant problem unto themselves' but who compounds it by selling them weapons or by supporting dictatorships (see my earlier post on my alternatives to "Aid"
Like i said earlier charities do not give monetary aid, they provide humanitarian assistance when there's a disaster (like famine, drought and other natural disasters etc). They don't give money to governments. Charities like Red cross and Save the children, provide relief materials directly to the people affected. Once they finish they move on to the next emergency, they do not stay their indefinitely and they do this all over the world not just in Africa.
If you read my earlier post at no point did i blame charities, how can i? when i actively support many of them working in Africa. It was "Foreign Aid" i was against.

I've only pointed out that the so called "Aid" the earlier poster talked about is not really "Aid" as it comes with a lot of strings attached. And the so called 'billions' spent is for their companies and consultants. Look at Iraq where all the juicy contracts for "rebuilding the country" was shared out amongst Bush and Cheney's cronies. All the billions [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1052186,00.html]spent in Iraq[/url] is going back to American firms like Halliburton (a company Cheney used to run before he became VP). And then they wonder why the Iraqis are pissed off.

Back to the negative western media portrayal, if you don't see anything wrong with the way things are then there's no point anyone complaining if European football supporters throw bananas at our football players or 'make monkey sounds' when they are on the pitch.
There's no point complaining if all Africans are seen as 'disease carriers'.
There's no point complaining if our ethnic groups are regarded as 'Tribes' (Even the BBC still uses this word to describe African ethnic groups despite repeated protests from African scholars to stop using it) or if ethnic rivalry in Africa is described as 'Tribal warfare' but in Europe its called something else.
There's no point complaining if foreign airlines fumigate their planes (while passengers are inside the plane) on African routes but never do the same on other routes.

There's no point complaining if the UK Guardian reports that 419 is now Nigeria's main source of foreign income after Oil and Cocoa (when any intelligent person will tell you it is money sent by Nigerians working abroad unless that is what they meant by 419 .US officials claim Nigerians remit back over $3b annually through 'official' channels like Western Union, while through unofficial channels it could be as high as $12b)

If you think we deserve all the coverage we get and this coverage is truly 'Fair' then there's no point complaining if anyone treats us 'differently' from other people.

Oh. . .so you are restricting your talk about "aid" to that given by foreign government.

Ok. . .fine. . I'll go along.

Explain this though: Why should a foreign nation be expected to give "aid" without strings attached? Chances are, unless my country was doing so well, that we could live on our own, without ever having to require anything from any other country, I would not ever consider giving out aid just for the heck of it. It would always be designed to benefit my country. It is immature to expect otherwise, . it doesn't make sense to expect otherwise. Perhaps that is what confuses me most about your posts.

I really don't think Nigeria/Africa needs any financial foreign aid, we just need to come up with a better way of distributing this gigantic wealth of ours. Africa is the richest continent in the world, its just filled with the poorest people in the world.

allonym:

Oh. . .so you are restricting your talk about "aid" to that given by foreign government.

Ok. . .fine. . I'll go along.

Because that is what "Foreign aid" is.
If you don't understand the definition i suggest you check out wikipedia.

Foreign aid (also international aid or overseas aid) is a situation in which one country helps another country through some form of donation. The main recipients of foreign aid are developing countries (ie. "the Third World", and the main contributors are developed countries (ie. "the First World".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_aid

allonym:

Explain this though: Why should a foreign nation be expected to give "aid" without strings attached? Chances are, unless my country was doing so well, that we could live on our own, without ever having to require anything from any other country, I would not ever consider giving out aid just for the heck of it. It would always be designed to benefit my country. It is immature to expect otherwise, . it doesn't make sense to expect otherwise.

Exactly and that is why Africa does not need "Foreign Aid" as it hardly provides any benefit to us

Hope you now understand where all those "billions in USD that african countries get in AID" you mentioned in a previous post is going

allonym:
Paltry sums huh. . .the billions in USD that african countries get in AID every single year is paltry. This either shows just how bad the problem is in africa, or suggests to some ignorance on your part.

allonym:

Perhaps that is what confuses me most about your posts.

If you go back to the start of the thread i clearly stated i was against foreign aid in response to an earlier poster using it to justify the negative portrayal of Africa.
The reason you're confused is because you assume foreign aid (provided by governments) and humanitarian assistance provided by charities is the same. One has conditions attached the other doesn't.

So you don't want foreign aid, good for you. I'm sure there are governments / people out there that are glad of the assistance be it foreign aid or charity.

Charities send fund's to third world countries, that is not foreign aid in your eyes (Aiding foreigners). You agree to the charitable side because you get something for nothing, typical!!!!! Two words for you to think about, dept relief!

I'll continue to donate money for the people that need it. It's called being compassionate to others.

segun06:

I really don't think Nigeria/Africa needs any financial foreign aid, we just need to come up with a better way of distributing this gigantic wealth of ours. Africa is the richest continent in the world, its just filled with the poorest people in the world.

This maybe the case but until this happens how are some going to live without foreign aid??

@SIBLI_06
Kindly read this thread from the start to understand the context of this argument

Who is arguing? It's a discussion. We all have our own mindset. Re "the context of this argument", I beleive the subject is "The Western Media's Portrayal Of Africa" so we both should maybe go back to that.

ijebuman:

The reason you're confused is because you assume foreign aid (provided by governments) and humanitarian assistance provided by charities is the same. One has conditions attached the other doesn't.

I never assumed they are the same. In fact, I made sure to talk about them separately. What I assumed is by foreign, you meant anything not originating in nigeria. I didn't realize you were only talking about one specific form of foreign aid.

I'm stupified that some people are okay with their continent being trumpeted as one dead, rotting place always clamoring for aid from foreigners. I'm not saying that truths should not be truths, I'm saying that this image of Africa is becoming all too irritating. And the "foreign aid" (AKA financial corporation Inc.) isn't doing much to help either. It's a fact. Ask any foreigners (even some Africans in Diaspora) about the first thing they think of if Africa is mentioned. Africa's problems, are in the truest sense, magnified.

And this stuff about foreign Aid aren't we capable of helping ourselves? Are we so constantly needy that we have to keep on begging all the time for money? Aren't there intelligent people helping out? You know what? As another poster commented, we are the architects of our own poverty. There has to be some low-esteem crap happening if people from a HUGE continent are percieved as the wretched of the earth. 

Sorry for my rant , it's just that things like this enrage me all the time.

This maybe the case but until this happens how are some going to live without foreign aid??

You sound like you've seen some positive effects foreign aids have had, can you kindly point them out.

segun06:



You sound like you've seen some positive effects foreign aids have had, can you kindly point them out.

Well, before I respond, what type of foreign aid are you talking about? Government, private citizen, non profit organizations, or some other type?

Well, any type.

Ok, perhaps you can explain how Dafur refugees have been feeding, clothing, and healing themselves? Divine miracles?

allonym:

Ok, perhaps you can explain how Dafur refugees have been feeding, clothing, and healing themselves? Divine miracles?

Could you fill me in on this Dafur refugees you talk about, They don't really cover any African news here and when they do its most likely exagerrated.

@ allonym u don't seem to understand the situation by the use of your homeless man analogy. He'd blame you for not tossing him a dime if u are partly or wholly responsible for his having to live in a box. The last G25 summit or was it the last but one i can't quite rememeber, there was this cotton farmer who slashed his throat and died as a result what the double standards in trade policies does to his harvest every year. A lot of people on this thread have said already there's no free lunch anywhere, i think we are better off without the "diplomatic foreign aid", without it we just may be able to work out our problems better. It's should be called what it is conditional aid.

@ Seun it is obvious u don't understand the power of semantics, the terms black american has hidden meanings of derogation when used in the mainstream that's why people don't like its use. Remember people from the Orient used to be called orientals which suggest a superiority on the part of the user, people from the orient are called asians now but the fact is they are still from the orient. The use of the word jews invokes a certain type of emotion in the average american that is not invoked when the word middle eastern is used. I can't rememeber ever feeling anything good or positive when i hear middle east but the fact is jews are middle easterns so u have to understand that people have been conditioned to think of certain things when ceratin words are used.

@ Nnenna i couldnt agree with you more in a ddition to what u said it's slavery all over again only we are in economic shackles as opposed to physical ones. Where i take a difference view is that we are partly to blame for slavery because it's success was also as result of the connivance of the elite which is what is happening all over again, we have to find ways of dealing with these problems, unless the powers that be suddenly start getting some conscience i don't see this happening.

I watched a coverage of the just concluded census on CNN - Inside Africa report today. This programme is anchored by a Nigerian - Femi Oke. To my dismay, the only place shown throughout the report was the slum used by the plywood marketers as you travel on the third mainland bridge.

I guess census also took place at Ikoyi or one of those posh places all over Nigeria, but no, we don't get to see those pictures.

The Africa You Never See

By Carol Pineau

In the waiting area of a large office complex in Accra, Ghana, it's standing
room only as citizens with bundles of cash line up to buy shares of a mutual
fund that has yielded an average 60 percent annually for the past seven
years. They're entrusting their hard-earned cash to a local company called
Databank, which invests in stock markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana and
Kenya that consistently rank among the world's top growth markets.


Africa Stock Exchange Association (ASEA)

Chances are you haven't read or heard anything about Databank in your daily
newspaper or on the evening news, where the little coverage of Africa that's
offered focuses almost exclusively on the negative --
the virulent spread of
HIV/AIDS, genocide in Darfur and the chaos of Zimbabwe.

Yes, Africa is a land of wars, poverty and corruption. The situation in
places like Darfur, Sudan, desperately cries out for more media attention
and international action. But Africa is also a land of stock markets, high
rises, Internet cafes and a growing middle class. This is the part of Africa
that functions. And this Africa also needs media attention, if it's to have
any chance of fully joining the global economy.

Africa's media image comes at a high cost, even, at the extreme, the cost of
lives. Stories about hardship and tragedy aim to tug at our heartstrings,
getting us to dig into our pockets or urge Congress to send more aid. But no
country or region ever developed thanks to aid alone. Investment, and the
job and wealth creation it generates, is the only road to lasting
development. That's how China, India and the Asian Tigers did it.

Yet
while Africa, according to the U.S. government's Overseas Private
Investment Corp., offers the highest return in the world on direct foreign
investment, it attracts the least. Unless investors see the Africa that's
worthy of investment, they won't put their money into it. And that lack of
investment translates into job stagnation, continued poverty and limited
access to education and health care.

Consider a few facts: The Ghana Stock Exchange regularly tops the list of
the world's highest-performing stock markets. Botswana, with its A+ credit
rating, boasts one of the highest per capita government savings rates in the
world, topped only by Singapore and a handful of other fiscally prudent
nations. Cell phones are making phenomenal profits on the continent.
Brand-name companies like Coca-Cola, GM, Caterpillar and Citibank have
invested in Africa for years and are quite bullish on the future.



The failure to show this side of Africa
creates a one-dimensional caricature
of a complex continent. Imagine if 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing and
school shootings were all that the rest of the world knew about America.

I recently produced a documentary on entrepreneurship and private enterprise
in Africa. Throughout the year-long process, I came to realize how all of us
in the media -- even those with a true love of the continent -- portray it
in a way that's truly to its detriment.

The first cameraman I called to film the documentary laughed and said,
"Business and Africa, aren't those contradictory terms?" The second got
excited imagining heart-warming images of women's co-ops and market stalls
brimming with rustic crafts. Several friends simply assumed I was doing a
documentary on AIDS. After all, what else does one film in Africa?

The little-known fact is that businesses are thriving throughout Africa.
With good governance and sound fiscal policies, countries like
Botswana,
Ghana, Uganda, Senegal and many more are bustling, their economies growing
at surprisingly robust rates.

Private enterprise is not just limited to the well-behaved nations. You
can't find a more war-ravaged land than Somalia, which has been without a
central government for more than a decade. The big surprise? Private
enterprise is flourishing. Mogadishu has the cheapest cell phone rates on
the continent, mostly due to no government intervention. In the northern
city of Hargeysa, the markets sell the latest satellite phone technology.
The electricity works. When the state collapsed in 1991, the national
airline went out of business. Today, there are five private carriers and
price wars keep the cost of tickets down. This is not the Somalia you see in
the media.

Obviously life there would be dramatically improved by good governance -- or
even just some governance -- but it's also true that, through resilience
and
resourcefulness, Somalis have been able to create a functioning society.

Most African businesses suffer from an extreme lack of infrastructure, but
the people I met were too determined to let this stop them. It just costs
them more. Without reliable electricity, most businesses have to use
generators. They have to dig bore-holes for a dependable water source.
Telephone lines are notoriously out of service, but cell phones are filling
the gap.

Throughout Africa, what I found was a private sector working hard to find
African solutions to African problems. One example that will always stick in
my mind is the CEO of Vodacom Congo, the largest cell phone company in that
country. Alieu Conteh started his business while the civil war was still
raging. With rebel troops closing in on the airport in Kinshasa, no foreign
manufacturer would send in a cell phone tower, so Conteh got locals to
collect scrap metal, which they welded together
to build one. That tower
still stands today.


Nairobi Stock Exchange



As I interviewed successful entrepreneurs, I was continually astounded by
their ingenuity, creativity and steadfastness. These people are the future
of the continent. They are the ones we should be talking to about how to
move Africa forward. Instead, the media concentrates on victims or
government officials, and as anyone who has worked in Africa knows,
government is more often a part of the problem than of the solution.

When the foreign media descend on the latest crisis, the person they look to
interview is invariably the foreign savior, an aid worker from the United
States or Europe. African saviors are everywhere, delivering aid on the
ground. But they don't seem to be in our cultural belief system. It's not
just the media, either. Look at the literature put out by almost any
nongovernmental organization. The better ones show images of smiling African
children -- smiling because they
have been helped by the NGO. The worst
promote the extended-belly, flies-on-the-face cliche of Africa, hoping that
the pain of seeing those images will fill their coffers. "We hawk poverty,"
one NGO worker admitted to me.

[img]http://www.buyusa.gov/westafrica/en/125.jpg[/img]

Last November, ABC television aired a special on Britain's Prince
Harry and his work with AIDS children in Lesotho. The segment, titled "The
Forgotten Kingdom: Prince Harry in Lesotho," painted the tiny nation as a
desperate, desolate place. The program's message was clear: This helpless
nation at last had a knight -- or prince -- in shining armor.

By the time the charity addresses came up at the end, you were ready to
give, and that's good. Lesotho needs help with its AIDS problem. But would
it really have hurt the story to add that this land-locked nation with few
natural resources has jump-started its economy by aggressively courting
foreign investment? The reality is that it's anything but a
"forgotten
kingdom," as a dramatic increase in exports has made it the top beneficiary
of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a duty-free, quota-free
U.S.-Africa trade agreement. More than 50,000 people have gotten jobs
through the country's initiatives. Couldn't the program have portrayed an
African country that was in need of assistance, but was neither helpless nor
a victim?

Still the simplistic portrayals come. A recent episode of the popular NBC
drama "Medical Investigation" was about an anthrax scare in Philadelphia.
The source of the deadly spores? Some illegal immigrants from Africa playing
their drums in a local market, unknowingly infecting innocent passersby.
Typical: If it's a deadly disease, the scriptwriters make it come from
Africa.

Most of the time, Africa is simply not on the map. The continent's booming
stock markets are almost never mentioned in newspaper financial pages. How
often is an African
country -- apart, perhaps, from South Africa or Egypt or
Morocco -- featured in a newspaper travel section? Even the listing of
worldwide weather includes only a few African cities.

The result of this portrait is an Africa we can't relate to. It seems so
foreign to us, so different and incomprehensible. Since we can't relate to
it, we ignore it.

There are lots of reasons for the media's neglect of Africa: bean counters
in the newsroom and the high cost of international coverage, the belief that
American viewers aren't interested in international stories, and the
infotainment of news. There's also journalists' reluctance to pursue
so-called "positive stories." We all know that such stories don't win awards
or get front-page, above-the-fold placement. But what's happening in Africa
doesn't need to be cast in any special light. The Ghana Stock Exchange was
the fastest-growing exchange in the world in 2003. That's not a "positive"
story,
that's news, just like reports on the London Stock Exchange. I
imagine a lot of consumers would have found it newsworthy to learn where
they could have made a 144 percent return on their money.

My independent film was made possible by funding from the World Bank, for
which I am extremely grateful. But the bank wouldn't have had to step in if
the media had been doing their job -- showing all Africans in all facets of
their lives. In a business that's supposed to cover man-bites-dog stories,
the idea that Africa doesn't work is a dog-bites-man story. If the media are
really looking for news, they'd look at the ways that Africa, despite all
the odds, does work.

Author's e-mail: capineau@aol.com

Carol Pineau, a journalist with more than 10 years of experience reporting
on Africa, is the producer and director of the film "Africa: Open for
Business," which premiered last week at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.


Forward Ever (by any means necessary)!

@Topic

Slobodan called it The WAR MACHINERY. The BBC, CNN and other agencies is an intelligence listening outpost for the parent country. Your Elite Group Love stories about their own countries from foreign people.

They have a complete control of the mind of the people when they keep telling you about your country.

A war is 80% won or lost In military terms when the enemy have or does not have Intelligence info.

All news is info The white guys you see here are doing data collection on Nigeria.

You can win a war if you have info on the country you are about to strike.

They will continue to seek for information and this they use in Business trade and other things to win always.

They only way you can do this is to stop them from coming here Physically and your Journalist should have love for their country.

You should set up TV STATION with NCC slapping heavy sanction on Overly negative News Reportage. we should have TV station that take up News articles from these war Machinery that they put out there and Explain to masses the truth.

What i mean is when news breaks out in these countries We should have a Rebuttal news In our countries and have panel discourse the intent of the news Reportage.

In ESP This people are called Sleepers.

What do we do when government officials invite foreign journalists and treat them like kings? There was even a time when some of them were given dollar padded envelops for attending a press conference. This stems from the fact that Africa is viewed from a stereotypical prism in the west. The only "good things” about Africa we may see on Western media are Sahara and animals. The west sees Africa as a nation instead of a continent.
Even people who know Africa very well like Oprah still perpetuate these stereotypes. I was watching her show on her Leadership Academy in South Africa. She showed an animal squatting in her balcony without showing the whole view of her hotel, which I know must have measured to the best leisure facilities in the west. But that depiction alone further reinforced the erroneous impression that Africa is a place peopled by animals and trees.

In 2000 alone, Americans spent about $70 billion on illegal drugs. This figure is two times bigger than our national budget
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/drugfact/american_users_spend2002/index.html. U don’t get to hear much about this, but Nigeria is always portrayed as heaven for illegal drugs.

. Africans govts have to open up the political and media regulations. How can NTA be funded and controlled by the govt? It cannot fairly and effectively disseminate information. We need to borrow a leaf from S/African media companies like SABC. Their media industries have developed to point that most western media do not rely on the western reporters to report on South African issues. CNN's Chief African correspondent is a South African. Its liberalization of media in Africa that would jump starts the process of changing African image beyond continental shores. Aljazeera was born because of western media. Today, Qatar, which is home to Aljazeera Networks, wants to establish a world class journalism school in partnership with Northwest School of Journalism, USA.
If we have strong and vibrant media, western journalists will be looking for collaborative efforts not to portray Africa in a very embarrassing situation. Simple economics dictates that it’s cheaper and thorough when local journalists do the reporting.

We don’t to get to hear case like these. Nigeria even bettered India in Children’s Nutrition. If you ask this question to most westerners, they will say Nigeria has more malnourished kids than India. Half of India's Kids Are Malnourished.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Half_of_Indian_kids_malnourished/articleshow/779981.cms

More than 300 million people in India are affected by one or more micronutrient deficiencies, and about 35 per cent of the world's malnourished children live in India. This amounts to over 40% of Africans given the fact that African is about 800 million, yet you don’t get to hear about all these in the western media.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2201/stories/20050114000307100.htm

That's what am campaigning against on naira land. Stop d inferiority complex.
D problem is we don't think we can ever succeed without d whites

The Foreign Aid Issue Is one that is Military Weapon.

If any Government Accepts Goes for foreign Aid He has accepted a Trojan Horse or a cluster Bomb.

Let me tell you how the Aid is used as a weapon.

Take for Instance you have Problem on Malaria or Guinea worm.

1) The Research is done (mostly By UN) and thrown out there through their Media war Machinery (some of the people working in this media houses think they are even Just and patriotic) I call them PAWN BLIND INTEL MEN.

2) Once the word is out their African Leaders will be Under pressure to Spend money and go begging.

3) To put Pressure on The African Leaders They will send Men on the Ground to Form N.G.O. in the countries this Problems are.

4) This N.G.Os on the Ground will gather more Info(life Pictures) and send back to countries outside.

5) The local component of the N.G.Os will be supplied money and "equipments" He will be a voice on ground of the "Success" of The N.G.Os

6) The Success will be presented as Guinea Pig proof that their project is the way to go. this is another pressure On the leaders of the State in question.

7) By the time the Opposition gets hold of this Information The Leader is already to weak to bargain for anything.

The easiest way to solve this problem is by destroying Malaria Parasites, killing Mosquitoes and their Habitat.


Primary School Children can handle this Problem if a Leader TRUST HIS OWN PEOPLE (THIS IS WHAT I CALL ORGANIC SOLUTION)


LET ME TELL YOU THE REAL CATCH FOR THEM COMING

THEY WILL TELL YOU THEY WANT TO SPEND $200million to solve the problem

The truth is that the will spend 20million The Physical cash you will is may Just be 10 million.

The rest are spent on

1) CONSULTANCY (80% of the loan or Aid Grant "Money" stays in the parent country)
2) FOREIGN AID MATERIALS
3) ACCOMMODATION FOR THE FOREIGN AID PEOPLE
4) TRANSPORTATION ( They Just Love Jeeps)

All this money will be paid back by the Government.

I will give you one life example in my Next Post . I was just Laughing at the Proposal When I got the whole grip of the Project.

D world bank loans and d paris debt is another issue