News from Sub-Saharan Africa these days is mostly bad. Stories of extreme poverty, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and political instability fill the media and the region’s prognosis seems bleak.
Millions of South Africa’s children live in poverty and under conditions where their rights in the Constitution have not been realised. What is required from the African Union and the South African government is an outline to why South Africa has such high levels of child poverty, what child poverty is, and how it has been thought about.
The recent statement by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the gap between the rich and poor countries is ever-widening makes one wonder whether this schism is ever going to be closed or more aptly whether poor countries are ever going to catch-up with the rich nations.
Here is a proposal for a new reality television show. It is called “Country Swap! The UK Government goes to Africa”, or just “Country Swap!” for short. The idea is that the United Kingdom Government is sent to a low income African country, and becomes their government for a decade or so. Accusations of colonialism could be avoided in part by the politicians taking out full citizenship of their host country, which could keep them at the end of the show. Sure, there would be democratic issues, but everyone involved could be handsomely compensated after the series by a major sponsorship deal from Coca Cola, Nokia, or some other suitable corporate partner.
Climate change will devastate Africa without substantial help from the world community, according to a new report released at the opening of a major U.N. climate change conference in Nairobi, Kenya Monday.
Africa is a mess and it’s not going to get better any time soon. That’s the awful truth that’s so hard to face — or to state publicly — for those of us who have had a long, intimate relationship with the continent. Mine has lasted for almost forty-five years. But from the very start, my experiences in Africa began conflicting with my hopes, indicating trouble afoot, foretelling that our utopian dreams were going to lead to crushing disappointments. Of course, we should have known what the entire twentieth century taught: that all utopian dreams fail, not least those wrapped in progressive rhetoric. Still, the reality in so much of Africa has been infinitely more appalling than anything we might have feared.
