Will Bob Geldofs plan for Africa actually make things worse ?
830141
Smart point!  The calamity will be in the usa.  I delivered UN supplies to africa for several years and we DO not want it here.  Angelina's bleeding heart will cost us. Gun Manufactures start extra shifts and open 24 hour gun shopsFor every one of "them" that survive , you will see the US Government relocating them - and guess where to?  You will have generations of heatherns,  thieves, rapists, violent tribe-ists running the inner cities of america.
1034379
Hey hey hey...back the truck up pal. We can only do so much at once. And caring for our own impoverished isn't one of those things, Africa is a HUGE mess that the WORLD needs to gang up on and fix. You have Christians being slaughtered by Muslims. You have Ethnic cleansing between tribes and provinces. You have war lords with more $$ then god funding their own militias. You also have the Aids epidemic which is where it started from in the first place. And safe sex is NOT on the agenda. In fact you have infected men raping virgins with the superstition that by doing so you can rid yourself of the virus. Yeah....HUGE problem down there. And if we address one, we have to address them all. With the way our current monkey in office is spending our money, we won't be able to borrow $5 in 5 years.
20631
First of all, I don't think that's a fair assessment.  There are plenty of people who do in fact care very much about Africa and its people. UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, and just about every AIDS group you can think of is involved over in Africa quite a lot.\n\nIf you mean "Why isn't Africa a higher priority for most of the world's goverments?" then I think you are hitting nearer the mark.  \n\nI'm no expert on Africa, but I think there's a couple of reasons why it doesn't peg a bit higher on the attention-o-meter insofar as the US is concerned.  \n\nHitherto, Africa hasn't had a whole lot to offer us.  Sounds harsh, I know, but it's the truth.  We are forced to deal with the Middle East because they are a big energy source, but if the oil wasn't there we wouldn't be either.  African oil is starting to become a market player now too, so some of our attention may be shifting towards that region.\n\nThe other main reason is the perception that Africa is a continent filled with people who simply cannot get their collective sh*t together.  It's brimming with petty dictatorships, bloody coups, transient goverments, unending civil wars and ethnic violence.  In the international arena there just isn't anyone reliable to deal with on a nation-to-nation level.     Our news stories have left me at least with the view that Africa is a limitless sinkhole into which all the world's largesse could be poured without doing much more than fattening up a corrupt few at the top and financing more armies to fight in the wars and/or commit the heinous genocides we read about all too often.\n\nDo the African people suffer?  Of course they do!  Most of those organizations I listed at the top are all about addressing the suffering on the individual's level.  But until Africa starts to produce more responsible goverments, not too much will ever be done geopolitically to help them.
400013
As a capitalist, I believe the best way for me to help the people in Africa is work hard at the job I have and to waste as few resources as I can. If everyone everywhere did this there would be more to go around. \n\nAs a realist, I realise that there is a tendency for wealth to accumulate (IE. the rich get rich) therefore I accept  that there is a need to redistribute wealth.\n\nI don't particular feel the need to give money to professional charities. Especially those with large professional staffs and who are less effective than the government when it comes to providing help to people.\n\nHowever, if you planning a trip to Africa to work there, dont let me discourage you. If you have skills they need, then I do recommend you go.
441559
I do not foresee Africa thriving in this century or the next.  It really saddens me though, since I am an African myself.
663767
The worst things that have happened lately is in the country of Rwanda. A genocide in where 800,000 people, including women and children were viciously tortured, raped, beaten and killed.\n\nRwanda was a Belgium colony before being Rwanda. In order to have more effective control over their dominions they divided all people in two distinct social classes: HUTUS and TUTSIS, they are slightly different.\n\nThey cruelly decided to give TUTSIS all the priviledges, best posts, best housing, best everything, and the price was to be loyal to the Belgian authorities, they even were the Belgian police. \n\nAnd to the HUTUS they treated them like animals, by means of the TUTSIS.\n\nWhen the Belgians left, the country became chaos, ridled with Civil war between this artificially created difference in races.\n\nAfter the assasination of a HUTU president, all hell broke loose, the HUTU government, backed of by the Interhamwe, an illegal militia of killers, began sistematically killing every TUTSI they saw, and very viciously.\n\nBecause Rwanda did not have any important economic interests with no big power, and it did not have any major power country as a friend, no one intervened in helping stop this slaughter, even the UN and our country, the United States, turned their backs on them. NO ONE helped.\nYou can rent the movie Hotel Rwanda. It is very clear there what happened. \n\nThe United States did not want to participate do to the recent memory of what happened to the military personnel we had in Somalia in 1992 (you can see it in the movie BLACK HAWK DOWN), a terrible tragedy for us....\na big tragedy for US soldiers.
704362
No. It will be a third world backwater.
658563
Wait... you are going to invest money in an area that goes through waves of genocyde, tribal war, government coups, and citizen unrest every 6 months... not to mention the entire population is dieing of aids?\n\nYou would be better off investing your money in a dried up oil well.
984118
the ramifications will be bad
210895
AIDS is contributing to the underdevelopment of the entire African continent.  There is no good reason for the US to withdrawl funding to fight it.  It is morally reprehensible to ignore the problem and from a more pragmatic view the problems in Africa will hurt America in the long run.  Disease has destabilized much of Africa and led to wars, racial tension, and genocide.  This is a world problem, not just Africa's.
688497
Invasion of Afghanistan... anyone would have done that...\n\nMedicaid prescription program... good idea, poorly executed... but still helps some people some...\n\nI think there has been some African aids funding... that's good...\n\nHe's done some for Darfur... not enough, but doing something is better than nothing I guess?\n\nThere are more... I mean... I'm not going to say that there is nothing... \n\nBut there are many more issues that I have serious problems with than those that I like of his... but that's not what you asked...
101420
Mess in Afgahnistan??  I think the TALIBAN caused that mess and the Europeans are helping because it is the right thing to do!  A lot more of the world is helping there as well!\n\nSouth Africa has made so many strides, FINNALY abolishing Apathied, giving up their nuclear weapons VOLUNTARILY, and helping in missions that promote freedom.  I applaud and welcome all the good things that South Africans are doing.  I hope that they get more foreign aid and investment from the USA, maybe we can stop buying everything from China and Europe...  \n\nI hope for an economically strong South Africa that will lead the continent to freedom and the rule of law.
404188
It will end up in complete disaster.  Once again for all the talk the UN and other countries wont do a thing to stop disaster in Africa.  Bottom line is all of the people with power (ie Western Europe, America, Japan, and a few others) dont care about people unless they are in their backyard.
234119
I think they should. Africans cannot pay for this because over half of them are in very low poverty who cannot even afford a loaf of bread. I have the most horiffic feeling that if these prices do not go down or are not free, that an extreme of Africans will die.
721811
In most cases I would argue that the people in other contries are far worse off than then even the sick and homeless in developed nations but in the USA I would argue otherwise.  The reckless disragard for human needs displayed by big businesses and the government alike are creating a growing underclass of starving unemployed people which soon will eclipse those in other nations.\nDetroit has a statisticaly higher infant mortality rate than Ethiopia - how can this be right?\nThe USA is stupidly wealthy - waste and excess in levels beyond the contemplation of foriegn tyrants but almost all the wealth is concentrated in an emmerging super wealthy class of people while more and more normal people are disguarded as businesses move abroad for cheaper materials and cheap "slave" labour.\nAmericans need to unite as a people against the buinesses and corporations which are expanding the economy at the expense of the citezens.\n\n“the country was founded on the principle that the primary role of government is to protect property from the majority, and so it remains" - Noam Chomsky\n\nLet Oceania, Europe, Japan, and other nations help Africa and Asia - America has to helpm it's own people before they end up in the same state!
553014
The American government isn't doing anything to help Africa at all. There are American Christian organizations that send aid to Africa like the Red Cross from the Catholics. The Bible belt doesn't give them anything they are just cheating the public, and lining there pocket's for themselves. TV Evangelists are scam artists, that money never gets to the poor people of Africa,(They are thieves). That is why the problem never gets any better.
861289
The situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating quite rapidly. Human rights abuses are rampant, and the country's economy is like a drain. That said, change will happen sooner rather than later. Remember, Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe is significantly older than Saddam Hussein was at the same point in his country's deterioration. Seriously, the man's 82. \n\nSecond, the US has a longstanding policy of non-interference in Africa; especially following the debacle in Somalia during the Clinton administration. Should we as a moral nation help Zimbabwe? Yes. Should we help Darfur? Yes. Should we have prevented a genocide in Rwanda that killed 10 million? Definitely. Will we? Sadly, no. Even if American voters could stomach the loss of American lives and cost of war to fight those battles (and to those who say we do now with Iraq, I point to the events of the recent midterm election), our military is so stretched thin and overwhelemed, we'd likely create an even bigger nightmare than already exists. \n\nSad, but true.