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Last year a black Harvard professor actually said the rich countries should stop wasting their money by sending it to Africa. Approx $1trillion dollars have gone to waste in Africa over the last 50 years and it is still in the shit.

Yeah its all very well coming from an overfed, over educated probably fat bloke full of western creature comforts and a good life to say that.

He wouldnt happen to be a secret member of the Ku Klux Klan would he? I hear they were three piece suits these days andstill speak with forked tongue.

Yes a shitty comment made by me. One shitty comment deserves another I think.

So what if a trillion dollars was spent in 50 years? Thats not a bad bargain considering its going on lives being saved. The banks spunked that and sparked a crash that put us in a recession.

Where would you rather that money have gone?

I think a lot of the famine in Ehtiopia was because of regional conflicts within the country. Obviously a failing crop, little rain, and unbelievalbe heat was the thing that actually did it to the people in the northern desserts of the country, but the thing may well have been able to have been prevented and the people helped before starvation began had it not been for regional problems, near Civil war, and people in one part of the country not caring so little about the others - as was the case. I am not an expert on Ethiopia but my lay understanding of it is that was more or less what was happening.

I pointed out in a comment earlier on this thread about all the extreme wealth there was in the capital Addis Ababa at the time. Most people in the west didn't seem aware of that. There is also a very limited understanding of what goes in the West in some of the more remote part of some nations - I remember after 9/11 people saying that many of the farming communities in rural areas of Afghanistan had never even heard of America, the Twin Towers, or George Bush.

I imagine that famine stricken families in the northern desserts of Ethiopia would not have been very aware of the famine relief efforts happening in Europe and the USA, probably knew little about the nations raising the money for them, and so on. All of a sudden loads of vehicles arrive with food, tents, water and so on and these things may well have come from another part of Ethiopia for all they knew. Therefore if some of the money is nicked by rebel groups the average dessert dweller probably didn't even know what was intended for their region and the people there - so when it nearly gets to them but doesn't quite then they are not missing anything as they were not kept informed of what was being raised, where is was coming from, and so on.

As far as rebel groups arming themselves with some of the famine cash, when one considers these people never gave a damn about the starving people in the northern region of their country then they are hardly going to feel any guilt about pinching some of the money for themselves and their militia. I dont know why people in Europe and the USA were given the impression that Ethiopia was one united country, where everyone would have done everything they could to help their fellow citizen if they could. This was hardly the case at all.