Africa is the greatest disgrace since the beginning of recorded time. The plunderers of so many nationalities have robbed the continent blind, have created a climate that allows for the likes of Mugabe to survive, bringing a whole country to its financial knees, poor and starving, just one of many that have not been seen by the UN and its controller, the US, as worthy of any effort at all to stabilise the economies or help the populations.

Is it jaundiced to say how different it would have been if the continent was awash with oil able to satisfy America's thirst for SUV fuel supplies. Even more surprising is that with so many of the US population having roots in Africa, more support has not been forthcoming from there.

The Rwanda disgrace made one realise how little the UN thought of Africa, the genocide being the very worst example of the result of UN ignorance and manipulation by the powerful nations who control the actions of that world body. There are few countries in that geography that have not warranted at some time in their history an serious involvement by the UN to assist in their development. Imagine what you could do for Africa with access to the monies wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan. No political value in that though.

I am sure that most caring people sympathise with the comments in this article by Brian. He has experienced it first hand and is therefore much more impacted by what the continent has become in 2011. The destruction of the wildlife alone, if occurring in any other country other than the US who have destroyed many species together with indigenous peoples from east to west, is an indication of the lack of any real interest in the future of all the countries that make up this great body of land and its different people.

It is a sad story, the history of Africa. There seems to be little in the way of future planning on the horizon which is designed to change the status quo.

Man’s inhumanity to man.

The usual stuff from Brian: long on emotion, short on facts.

Africa will pull itself up by the bootstraps, as ordinary Africans begin to use modern technology to innovate and trade. Witness success stories like Kiva and M Pesa (http://www.npr.org/2011/01/05/132679772/mobile-money-revolution-aids-kenyas-poor-economy).

With burgeoning wealth will come education and emancipation. Once these three are in place, birth rates will almost certainly drop. With lower birth rates and greater wealth, environmental stewardship will improve.

Africa will be the success story of the 21st century.

Brian, above all else, Africa’s problems are encompassed within the fundamental constraint of shrinking resources around an ever-expanding population:
From the Population Reference Bureau: “Africa’s population, currently growing faster than any other major region, is projected to account for 21 per cent of world population by 2050, up from just 9 per cent in 1950.”
The subsequent growth in the basic human needs of such numbers might dwarf all other, undoubtedly desperate, circumstances by a multiplier effect.
The continent, carrying a load of about 200 million in 1950, had that increased by another 800 million by 2010, and is projected to heave another billion aboard by 2050.

Brian, you are not the first to carefully skirt around the most basic fundamental of all human problems - its cute procreating-bunny effect. That, instead of giving a poke in the eye to those who do their damndest to prevent assistance in reproductive health for the overburdened fertile females there. Those fundamentalists have carried the field their way in countering the good declarations for action by those assembled at the 1994 Cairo Conference on just this issue. I get no joy in seeing them get another freebie.

Dear Brian,

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11448#194867

collinsett, got close to the truth with mention of population growth occurring most recently, but still missed it.

EVERYTHING HAS GOTTEN WORSE since the colonials left & EVERYTHING the "BLEEDING HEARTS" have done since then, to "SAVE" the "starving Africans", has only doubled the number of "starving Africans" at the next drought.

In the early 1970's it was the starving Biafrans. Every drought since then, the only difference has been the name & exponentially increasing numbers of "starving Africans".

Give them vast amounts of food aid, clean drinking water & what do you get? Happier, healthier people doing what comes naturally.

So instead of only 1 million, there are 10 million next time.

Thanks Brian, its all your, the Loony Left, the unholy roman catholic church of Satan & Sir Bob Geldof's fault.

Love how the left get to indulge their racism in the name of Gaia.

Religion, cultural beliefs and practices - until aid workers [including teachers and doctors] are ever able to influence the broader communities to increase childbirth control, [education, encouragement and birth control has been available in many parts of Africa for over 20 years]by many Aid Workers, the situation will remain the same as always.

One of my family members has worked for 15 years in many African parts educating and promoting a wide range of positive health techniques/steps.

Many of us know of someone who has travelled or lived in Africa doing Aid work.

Yet what is the realistic primary solution to an age old situation involving religious and cultural beliefs within a country that has cost millions of childrens lives and millions of childrens deaths forthcoming in the future as a partial result of birth control related issues?