Kids writing in the dirt because their school doesn't have chalk
CNN has a very enlightening article on kids and books in Africa. The educational system and resources in Africa are shocking. According to a U.N. study, 33% of school aged children in Africa have never set foot in a classroom, many kids don’t even have access to a pencil, and there are no bookshops in Tanzania. Books are so rare that kids greet them, treasure them, and protect them as if they were the most important thing in the world.
There is something criminal about this situation. Kids need education. They need it earlier rather than later. Kids writing in the dirt just doesn’t cut it.
Part of the problem–as always–has to do with the stability of these African governments:
The low literacy rate in Africa is related to political instability as well as poverty, says McDonald.
When civil war erupts, books become targets. Even newspapers and magazines are relatively scarce in countries like Tanzania, she says.
“One of the first things soldiers do is burn information,” McDonald says.
This could be problematic:
During colonialism, a bitter joke among Africans was that missionaries gave them the Bible but took their land. The joke reflected a belief among some Africans that Western nations used Eurocentric books to manipulate and build self-hatred among Africans.
Books for Africa officials, though, say they refuse to send books that celebrate the superiority of Western ways. In fact, they only send books that African schools request.
I think they are correct in filtering post-colonialist nonsense that undoubtedly is coming from the West. This is one of my primary complaints with slimy religious crazies who proselytize in poor countries. However, it’s a balancing act. When your people are illiterate, you need to start somewhere. In other words, have your standards, but make sure your standards are reasonable.
It’s amazing how much information we Americans have. However, we do have to remember that not everyone has access to the same privileges. Hopefully this CNN article will bring some awareness to these children.
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I also wanted more rice than what could fit inside the wrap....
One question that no one has EVER asked in the American media is, “How is it that these places have no food and the people have ragged clothes, but the militias have new assault rifles and RPGs?”
Africa’s political instability isn’t the result of the people on their own. Their internal political stability has been undermined by outside countries and corporations who thrive on the cheap resources that politlcally unstable countries give.
As an example. Sony gets metals for the Playstation 3 from the Congo. Now the Congo has a war going on between Rwandan factions who decided to take their fight next door rather than battle it out at home.
Now, how can Sony excavate for metal in the Congo int he middle of a war? Because somebody (a third party) has paid the militias to allow them to do so. It’s a LOt cheaper to pay some thug enough money for a new shipment of AK-47′s than it is to pay a stable government exorbitant rates for mineral rights.
These conditions were engineered, not natural.
Look at the corrupt “leaders” in Africa and you will see the foreign countries who propped these thugs up.
Follow the MONEY my friends. And you’ll discover everything.
And china has started to do much like the Europeans. It’s more than China supporting the arba thugs in Darfur. They want cheap minerals and land for Chinese expatriates to live on. This is not good for Africa who is trading their own resources for a few “investment” dollars from china.
The best thing the whole world could do for Africa would be to simply leave them alone. No more “loans etc” or trying to colonize them physically with immigrants or economically or politically.
Do that and everything will change in a matter of years.
Neutral Observer,
Before I forget, welcome to bigWOWO!
I do agree with you to a certain extent. The only question (and it’s more a question than an argument) is whether it would be possible for Africa to get ahead if it were trying to do so in isolation, without the flow of knowledge and imported goods and without aid (though, of course, right now the aid usually goes to the governments rather than the people). China was isolated for a long time, and it also struggled to get ahead afterwards. Would Africa have the same issues?
AIDS is a good example. The West can donate vaccines to Africa. If we didn’t, they’d have to invent it from scratch. With some countries at a 25% adult infection rate or greater, can Africa afford to be isolated at this time?
Nice to be here BTW.
First of all I better apologize for how long this reply is.
Now that I got that out of the way…
All the things you’ve mentioned have happened SINCE Africa allowed foreign influence in, not before. AIDS didn’t even exist in Africa before the 1980′s. The western media says the AIDS virus came from africa, so why hadn’t the African’s encountered it before 30 years ago? Funny how that works.
Anyway, before I get off track, AIDS isn’t the issue.
Africa’s biggest single issue is economics. Fix that business situation over there and the militias, poverty and political instability will be gone.
The IMF and World Bank have turned out to be nothing more than western colonial scheming under another name. I can’t think of one country or person who has been helped by the IMF/WB.
So the solution will have to be TOTALLY internal.
The only viable option for Africa to get back on it’s feet economically is the Japanese model. Yeah, Admiral Perry forced them open, but the Japanese took it as a teachable moment. They wanted to make sure it could never happen again.
So they studied their invaders to find out what they could learn in order to fight back. They sent their children to Britain to study naval warfare then they brought those children back home to establish EtaJima, the Japanese Naval academy. They studied shipbuilding, automotive engineering, aircraft manufacture.
After World War II the Japanese did all of this again. This time they sent their children to America’s business schools. Again, the learned what technical info they needed, and rejected the rest.
China’s rapid rise (with a FAR greater population) has been based on a model that was different in form but not in character than Japan’s. At the end of the day East Asian countries have an OVERWHELMING communal ethos deeply rooted in their culture. Tiennamen Square made it clear that the group was displeased. Their culture couldn’t allow this. So the Chinese leaders have made gradual changes. And China has prospered for it.
But the MOST important personal ingredient that Japan/China has had is that they sent their young people abroad and then BROUGHT THEM BACK HOME AGAIN. They didn’t do what Pakistan and India did –allow a steady brain drain. They impressed upon their young people that Japan/China could be as great any anything the west had –if the Japanese/Chinese dedicated themselves to it.
Their children were taught that they owed a debt to their home country. Japan/China never lost their pride, Africa did.
Africans who can get a job overseas do that and never go back home for any reason.
If an african learns to become a nurse in the US, they NEVER return to Africa to open a clinic. If somebody becomes a small farmer in Britain they NEVER try to set up an agribusiness venture in Africa.
If someone becomes an IT pro or a PC refurbisher, or goes to work for a clothing distributor in Canada they NEVER try to set up similar operations in Africa.
They’ll do it in America, Britain, Canada, but they never even think to take the knowledge home. Yes, corrupt governments are to blame –as are the foreign countries who hand-picked these thugs and protect them/prop them up– but since these outsiders won’t stop meddling the Africans will have to take it upon themselves to oust the crooks and stand their countries on their feet.
So far they haven’t mustered the cooperation and group vision to do so.
Look, there’s no silver bullet for Africa’s problems. Their maladies are owing to a variety of factors. Having lost their pride and understanding of who/what they are is only one of them. However, the biggest single hindrance they face is outside interference. Because you have the biggest and richest companies/countries on earth bribing, coercing and in many cases murdering –or getting a proxy to do it!– the poorest people on the planet. If the U.S. did to Japan what it’s done to Africa –starting with slavery and ending with neocolonialism– we wouldn’t be talking about Japan’s greatness at all, much less the Asian Economic Miracle.
I’m not making a call for “isolationism” rather I was stating –in passing– that there’s nothing wrong with africa that what’s right with it couldn’t solve, if unhindered by outside interference from ANY quarter.
So I am Nigerian, which means that I’m fortunate to be from one of the African countries where education is a big ass deal (The education of Nigerian children is carried out like a planned military operation – No excuses, no whining, no quitting, no losing) but at the same time my country got it desperately wrong and I can totally relate to the Japanese/Chinese model.
Yes, not all Nigerian children get to go to school, but of those that do abroad, very few of us are ever motivated to go back and develop the country. Rather some Nigerians take pride in the fact that they have been able to escape the country and its hardships rather than rebuild so that noone would ever need to leave in the first place.
True there is no silver bullet for Africa’s problems but there are a number of steps that we can take to drastically change our situation, and WE must take those steps. The world cannot do it for us. Education is crucial and not just the kind of narrow minded education that is drilled into us in Nigeria (they basically tell you that you must be one of the following and nothing else: Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant, Engineer, Architect) We need African children to know that they really can be anything and we need them to pursue a broad range of careers and most importantly APPLY that knowledge to their home countries.
It makes me MAD every time the IMF and the World Bank decide to dole out aid (again). We do not need aid. (Okay granted, SOME countries do, but Nigeria DOES NOT). Giving aid mindlessly has bred dependency in so many African countries. It’s not even funny. Seriously it’s like:
Year One: The rains fall, you have a great harvest, life is good.
Year Two: Ditto.
Year Three: No rain, everything shrivels up, some people die, life is terrible
Year Four: The rains fall.
Year Five: No rain. And the people appear on TV all dusty and hungry looking with big sad eyes pleading with the camera man to tell their country to help them.
Do you know what I think? Maybe I’m just wicked but I think that when the drought came in Year Three they should have realised that if it can happen once it might happen again, and when the rains came in Year Four, they should have had the huge water drums ready. They should have dug out a water reservoir. You don’t need money to do that. You have the land. All you need is your own physical strength and some cement to waterproof it. But no, because we’re so used to Western governments jumping in and saving the day we sit on our asses and let very preventable problems escalate into life-threatening disasters.
I am sick of it. Africans do not need handouts. As far as I am concerned if it is not a war-torn country their leaders should not DARE show their faces at the world bank to ask for money. For every dollar of foreign aid that enters Africa about ten dollars of stolen money goes out. Heck, WE’RE the ones propping up YOUR governments with all the stolen money that’s going back into your countries from us.
I live in Nigeria and we import everything. We even import our own damn fuel. Enough is enough. Nigerians and Africans in general need to stop using the excuse that imperfect conditions are keeping them away. If we don’t face our problems squarely we’ll never go back home.
Good points, guys. Sugabelly, I like your blog! I’ve met quite a few Nigerians living in the States, in talking to them, I can attest to the fact that education is a HUGE deal over there.
I’m not the first to say this, but when it comes to globablization, natural resources and commodities can be a curse. When a country doesn’t have natural resources, there’s more pressure to develop human capital because they have nothing else, and trade partners aren’t interested in trading unless there is something else. Conversely, when a country has natural resources, nothing else gets developed. This is one reason (though not the only reason) a place like Brunei or Saudi Arabia gets stuck on oil and never moves beyond oil. In such a system, those who “own” the oil get rich and become too busy or too corrupt to help those who don’t. I think much of Africa, like the oil rich countries of the world, faces this natural resource curse.
As Sugabelly says though, it’s not just imperfect conditions. Logically speaking, it should be possible to get around this with changes at the government or cultural level. Of course it won’t be easy.
A lot of people around the world kind of almost fall into the stereotype of low class.
It is probably better to leave alone for a while, its like watching a civil war; it needs to happen on its own otherwise it will be a Vietnam situation. US should salvage the orphanages of the US. better institutions for homeless, workfare not welfare; option of joining army? Maybe Africa’s situation is propped up by warlords and weapons trafficking.
I read way back in a newspaper article, around 2003 2 men unrelated in any way of german descent, known to be immune to AIDS. And also, HIV was recorded in military records back as far as 1944. There are people immune to AIDS, sadly, the 2 known people are gay. I wonder if CDC have samples of their blood.
Africa have three things against them now, AIDS, Hunger, Education. There was that international crime syndicate committing Identity Theft on the web. Still, rape, hunger, and AIDS repeat themselves. AID sent in the form of bags of wheat are reused as pillows, or you might be a Somoli kid recruited to be a pirate.
Food for Diamonds, trade relations with South Africa. Guns and more Guns. Nothing wrong with being doctors and lawyers and such, be artist part time, dental work is essential to overall health. More power to them if they can do more than one job, develop true leadership. developing nations need a solid foundation before they can consider things like Hollywood star; this is a luxury.