Some Ideas for Africa

[Hope springs eternal]

I've been thinking about Africa for a while and I was wondering if there was some progress being made on that front. I don't think we give African issues enough play here and here's some stuff I was thinking could help the situation:

-Solar farms placed across the Sahara and Grasslands region to provide local areas with electrical power and also to sell power to Asia/America as well.

-Desalitantion plants along the Atlantic coast to allow for irrgation of farmland in the South. More farms alloted to local people.

-A pan-African natural resources council to ensure the safe and effective distribution of the continent's mineral wealth to it's popualace.

-An Pan-African legal and police system to monitor arms and drug trafficking as well as safe, effective resolution to land and civil disputes as well as combating urban crime.

-An abandonment of the abstinance campaign and it's replacement by safe-sex education.



This is just the beginning, so what do you think?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Good ideas. But, Africa is a continent, not a nation.

One of the things that I've heard from Africans, is the concept Americans/Europeans have that Africa is made up of people who look somewhat alike, so they must be the same.

They speak different languages, have different cultures, different aspirations, just like Germans are different than Portuguese, or the Irish are different from Moldavians.

It's kind of like saying "Asians should..", or "North Americans" should.

I certainly agree that Africa gets far too little attention here.

[Hope springs eternal]

2. I'm not that intellectually ignorant

However, we must come to grips with the fact that Intra-African racism/ethnocentricsm, lack of democracy and poor education are endemic across Africa. If Africa is going to move forward, it has to be in a unified vision. Look at Europe prior to WWII.

This might sound wrong, but throwing food from planes is old and tried. My greatist wish is a successful, enriching Africa. But the current ways of dealing with the crisis is simply not sufficent. We need to come up with solutions that make Africa an equal partner on the world stage, not an eternal welfare case.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. I most certainly agree.

So far the grand schemes to "help" Africa have failed.

But, here's something we actually do that is working.

http://kiva.org/

It doesn't change the world but actually does help.