The only solutions to third world poverty are colonialism and enforced birth control, anything else is just wishful thinking.

After WW2, dozens of former colonies angrilly demanded the right to be independent of their colonial masters and to form their own countries. The Asian nations did that very successfully, but the same can not be said of the Islamic world, or any country run by black people.

Sad though this fact may be, black people in general are not very intelligent. Of course, such an observation is pretty self evident, but it is something which people of Socialist leaning will never, ever, admit to, because it undermines the entire basis of their humanitarian ideology. Better to just avert the eyes and keep finding novel reasons to Blame the White Guys for Everything, than admit that your holy orthodoxy needs a bit of work.

No matter how you put a spin on it, every former third world African and Islander population was much better off under colonial rule. The removal of white administrations always resulted in some comical, murderous, "President for Life" strutting around who did not have the brains to run a lamington stall at the local school fete. The result was predictable and inevitable.

Only the re-establishment of white or Asian administrations to black countries is going achieve anything, and that provided that black societies agree to do something about their exploding birthrates.

The only alternative is to keep pretending that blacks are the mental equivalent of whites, and keep pouring billions in aid into black countries. Then sit back and watch it achieve nothing while the demands for aid to be doubled or tripled just keep growing.

One of the reasons why I stopped being a lefty and became a rightie, was the it was screamingly obvious that the "angry young men" of the fifties who demanded the end of colonialism got it wrong, and the "racists" who opposed them were right all along.

wow, LEGO, you said what I suspect many people think but are too scared to say .. the politically correct ones will squeal and go into kniptions over this.

the reality though of the world .. would agree with your sentiments, Africa etc is a basket case, and always will be by the look of it, as most of the pacific islands are

it's refreshing that free speech and the internet is allowing more to be said and people to be more honest

it also means the suppression of ideas and thought is no longer controlled by the left leaning misery bags of the MSM

it will still be years I suspect before such honesty is actually put up on such sites as the ABC in Australia

I recognise other people's right to free speech, but wow, aren't there some complete nut-jobs out there?!

I would say that figure of 0.028% of funds misappropriated is an extraordinary achievement. One of the biggest challenges to the legitimacy of aid is its fungibility, and understandably the development sector has put a lot of effort into turning this around since the fabled days when World Bank executives would jet into Africa with suitcases full of US$100 bills for dictators to spend on Mercedes 600s. If this negligible level of loss can be achieved, then all I can say is that a gradual, cautious push towards achieving aid effectiveness looks equally doable. So good on AusAID, and let's hope the post-Bruce Davis days will give the place a chance to be a little more engaged in the region to boot.