Is There Hope For Africa?

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  • Little Wing replied in the original forum to this topic and said this:

    Africa as a whole is a tragedy. But that doesn't mean there is no hope. There is always hope where there are people who are willing to support and contribute to something better. Often, in attaining freedom from colonial or peacekeeping powers, the vacuum that exists when this goes causes mayhem to return. This can be seen in places in the middle east as well.

    A lot also depends on the so-called developed countries in helping to bring stability and peace about. Many African countries are riven by borders drawn up by others. Rwanda is an example. The global community takes little notice of ethnic differences as a huge contributing factor to causing conflict among people told where they must go and how they must fit in. Afghanistan is one of these multi-ethnic regions. Look what has happened there. Many do not want western style democracy thrust upon them as they haven't escaped ancient tribal ways yet.

    A big problem is radical Islam. In Northern Africa where groups like Al Shabaab and Boko Haram operate no one is safe from their violence and their invasive ideology of Islamic states under their control and law. Africans are not Islamic by heritage. They were all converted and so the friction, the misery and the clashes of cultures are enough on their own to cause eventual strife when people want to move forward out of these primitive belief systems. They get hammered into submission and the UN hasn't done much to solve anything. It's also no use at all trying to turn everyone into an American democrat.

    The lack of progress is not surprising to me as you can't achieve much by enforcing peace. Peace needs to be an agreed state of being and when there is so much poverty, injustice, drought, war, famine, illiteracy and violence in these communities their failure to rectify the situation is no big secret.

  • South Africa is undergoing sea change as young people known as "free borns" (those born after the apartheid regime) become disenchanted with the ANC's lack of delivery, corruption and enormous nepotism, and go onto the political stage, and a good many other stages, and let rip.

    It is quite stunning to hear them sound forth on their grievances. They are articulate, determined and courageous. They stand up to the old order where champagne flows and elitism proliferates, and they criticise this shower for ruining their future, a future their own parents and grandparents suffered under and in cases of rebellion, fought against.

    Africa has problems and is a very expansive continent, but great trees from little acorns grow, and the acorns have germinated and are getting involved in protesting what is decidedly wrong with the status quo. They believe in their new found rights and they also believe that the new Constitution bequeaths these lights to everyone so they aren't impressed by all the old communist rhetoric that shields the powers that be and their flunkies from responsibility for what has happened and is clearly their fault.

    How this turn of events pans out depends on the democratic opposition's ability to convince more and more voters to reject what is rotten and vote for what is fresh.

  • This is what some angry protesters do in South Africa when their protests are interfered with by the police. They go at it with front end loaders, break the police barriers and overturn police cars.

    You know the people have had enough of you when ...

    Protests

  • Things are smoking in places. But, in general, life goes on, everyone is as they always are, people smile and laugh, the days go by in their usual way, people look in dustbins, sit on street corners without employment, wonder where all that guff about change went, commit crimes out of hunger and desperation, go to church, believe that God loves them, acknowledge hardship with amazing grace ... watch the elite whizz by in top of the range cars paid for with their taxes - all part of this place. This morning the bank tried to evict my brother and his wife from their home. All part of the spectacle on the pages of the bush jester's joke book.

  • Five years ago he fell on the edge of a stormwater drain while watching out for his wife who was checking on a neighbour's property. All the stars lined up, as they say, and what might not have happened, did happen. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye (it was a cat on the wall, turns out) and he spun round and overbalanced and came down sideways on the concrete edge. Connected with his thigh, broke the femur, sent repercussions into the hip, cracked the ball joint.

    He almost died from the severity of the accident, went into shock, was told he'd be lucky if he lived and had to have a hip replacement. Because this wasn't an ordinary operation for arthritis (my brother ironically had no arthritis) and one caused by traumatic injury, it took a long time to heal, he was in constant pain for about three years and had to practise walking without a crutch for months. No medical aid as like me he is also an artist and writer and he and his wife had a small silk screen printing business. So, no medical aid.

    In order not to die in the street where he fell, and to be let over the threshold of the hospital, his wife had to bond the property, a small house she inherited from her parents and this created a debt to repay. Just when they had paid off a large bit and were on their way to finishing payment of the debt, the economy slumped. It sent most of the industrial area into a state of ruin, their clients dried up, suppliers went bankrupt and they were forced to close, so their helper also lost his job.

    The bank threatened to auction their property. They couldn't pay the whole sum every month so they came to an arrangement with the bank to pay off a certain amount each month. My brother is 72 and his wife is 69. They are both pensioners and have been reduced to near destitution, as have a number of others on account of the government's lunacy.

    Today my bother phoned me to say the bank had sent round a clerk of court or whatever they send and threatened to auction their home out from under them, accused them of not having paid their amounts, when they have, and claimed they had sent several registered letters, when in fact no such letters had arrived. One has to sign for them so it's easy to prove this is a lie. There is proof of payment so ditto on that.

    So today the world has gone dark again as I try to help them make it through another crisis. I'm afraid one of them will have a stroke or a heart attack from all this stress. They are literally living on the edge.

    This has become the lot of millions here now. While the ship of state parties on ...

    Don't ask why some people take front end loaders to barricades. They are simply not willing or able to put up with any more of the ANC's bullshit.

    What this space 8):

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