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July 15, 2013

In Africa, “only foreigners seem to care about the welfare of Africans.”

He means whites, since the only other non-whites are the Chinese, and they are there only to make money.
They care nothing about and do nothing for the black population—no Western sentimentality for them. It’s the same with the Western corporations looting the place of its natural wealth. The foreign aid workers and development specialists think they care, but Mr. Theroux considers them self-absorbed fools, whose officious meddling only makes things worse, and further entrenches tyranny. Paul Theroux: Africa in Chaos | American Renaissance

Posted by gerardvanderleun at July 15, 2013 8:36 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Way to stay on topic BJ. If two Africans stab each other it means America Sucks, just ask BJ.

The WHO study is a farce. It's heavily weighted by life expectancy at birth. Some nations don't even report statistics for children that die soon after birth. Since the US delivers and cares for so many premature babies, and significant numbers of them die in their first year, the US ranking is distorted. Also, US life-expectancy numbers are distorted by homicide numbers, which are rampant in some groups and almost non-existent in other groups. Homicide is another distorting factor in US ranking. If you are a drug-dealing thug in Detroit you are almost certain to die by homicide, that says zero about healthcare, unless you think any system that can't resurrect thugs is faulty.

The better measure of health care systems is to compare individual conditions among countries, you know apples to apples, and you see how distorted the UN/WHO method is. Another WTF item to note from the WHO, they rank Canada as 30th and Morocco as 29. Still believe they measured anything useful? You can ask any of the thousands of Canadians in FL, AZ & NY paying cash for health care if they know any Canadians that go to Morocco for health care?

Why is it so important Bill that you ALWAYS have something hateful to write about America? Have you ever cross-checked any anti-American "fact" before you repeated it, or is being anti-American sufficient? Why is the opinion of the UN about anything important to you? Our government not wasteful and feckless enough so you want one that beats us on both counts?

Posted by: Scott M at July 16, 2013 1:47 AM

@Scott;

Obviously, for bj being anti-American is sufficient.

Posted by: Dave at July 16, 2013 3:29 AM

To the topic, it isn't western sentimentality, it's Christian cultural bedrock. It's so ingrained as a part of our worldview that we take it for granted. But in no other example of wealth and power in the world has a nation ever sought to heal and help its neighbors in the way that the citizens of the U.S. have. If other nations do so, it is only at the urging of their more powerful allies. Human nature has not much to recommend itself until it remembers itself as God intended.

Posted by: Joan of Argghh at July 16, 2013 4:15 AM

That hasn't been the case in my (limited) experience, Joan.

The individuals and groups I know of, who've been obsessed with "fixing" an Africa that can't be fixed while ignoring many issues right here in their own country, are "progressives" who seem to be atoning for some sort of white guilt issue. They appear keen on being seen as do-gooders - as long as it's in a safe environment where failure is guaranteed (i.e., not their fault) and their "valiant efforts", toward what everyone know is a hopeless cause, are lauded. Nothing to do with Christian ethic, sadly. Clinton Global Initiative, HealthRight International, etc. - they're driven by an agenda, not Christian charity... unless we consider federal grants (i.e., Taxpayers' redistributed wealth) charity.

And Scott, I don't know how much you've had to depend on the medical community of late, but - WHO propaganda aside - it general sucks here now, too. This is not because the technology or the science are lacking, but because the system has been smashed and those working in this field are the same declining caliber as those who work in every other faltering sector in the U.S.

Nurses, staff and administrators are wildly overpaid for what they do (and don't do), while many doctors are seeing so many patients every day that they are no longer actually practicing medicine at all.

All of this is driven by the idiotic way we pay for health care (i.e., abusing an insurance policy). Insurance companies now dictate how medicine is practiced, what reimbursement is assigned to what, how many total visits can be allocated to the treatment of "X", etc. Consideration of the individual and an individual's unique needs have been largely eliminated from the practice of medicine. Treatment is now determined by "evidence-based" criteria, after a 15 minute consult and a few lab tests.

Medicine in the U.S. is now driven by the goal of maximizing billing, not maximizing health. The old guard health professionals are leaving the system. The "new school" types, lugging their iPads and their Starbucks, delegate practically everything to APRNs, PAs, various techs, etc., and only appear when it's time to feed the pharmaceutical companies by writing prescriptions for things like "pre-diabetes", "pre-hypertension", "high cholesterol", "sleep aids", "depression", etc. In fact, we now have nurses actually prescribing a lot of this stuff in many States. All of that will only get worse with ACA, and even without it, things won't improve until we eliminate comprehensive health care insurance as a mechanism for funding all of our health care needs.

Posted by: AGoyAndHisBLog at July 16, 2013 6:03 AM

Joan: You are absolutely right.

Posted by: Leslie at July 16, 2013 8:35 AM

Africans keep telling us "please stop giving us things, its ruining our economy and propping up dictators" but the west won't listen.

Christian charity is one thing, but thoughtless handing out of goods Africans can make to sell to each other is another.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 16, 2013 9:10 AM

Some of the comments on that website are eye-openers. The more things change...

Posted by: Kerry at July 16, 2013 10:01 AM

I've long admired Paul Theroux's travel books. "Black Star Safari" was a great read.

I've been to Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) and find it to be beautiful, full of promise, and very depressing. It's a continent with all the natural resources to become wealthy. Unfortunately, (except for the European colonial period)it has never developed a system of secure private property laws backed by courts, reasonably honest representative governments, and a rejection of tribalism. The problem in Africa is not starvation, not bad healthcare, not a lack of religion, or any of the things that the UN, Bill Gates, and so many churches try to fix. The problem is kleptocratic governments that follow tribal lines in determining who gets what. That must change before the African people will ever be able to capitalize on the wealth of their great country. It will not change under the auspices of foreign aid and missionary work that ignore the real elephant on the savannah - kleptocracy.

Posted by: Jimmy J. at July 16, 2013 12:30 PM

Can't "heal" kleptocracy. It is supported by tribalism. Our own country has purtier names for tribalism: RNC, DNC, political machines, PACs,"working families party",community organizers, etc.

Sure, the body rots from the head, but as long as the heart keeps pumping fresh resources to it, kleptocracy will outlive any attempt to dislodge it by any means other than overthrow.

Liberal do-gooders don't even recognize where their drive to "do good" comes from,so inured are they to their surrounding culture. They believe they came up with it after a great night of sex and drugs. So of course they act out of misguided inspiration or guilt, choosing to ignore the blueprint for civil law: God's law.

It's why we can't have nice things anymore.

Posted by: Joan of Argghh at July 16, 2013 3:57 PM

As the "Great Kim" once wrote, "Let Africa Sink".

Posted by: Lazarus Long at July 16, 2013 4:31 PM

I think it was Mark Steyn or VDH, but I may be wrong, that I heard ask the question why was the contact between Europe and Africa European ships arriving in Africa and exploring? Why not African ships arriving in England and they explore? Not all groups value the same things, work for the same things, organize as well, etc., etc., etc..

There is a reason why there are more institutions in The West dedicated to preserving dying languages than in the land where the languages are dying. The proof that the differences between people and groups are not genetic is that Westerners have been adopting children from around the world. Those adopted babies wind up a lot more like their adoptive parents and the culture they moved into than the people and places they came from.

If you look at persistently poor people in the US, individual or groups, they behave very differently than people that aren't persistently poor. Once again it's not racial. Look at the UK where the once proud Scots are very much an underclass and their cousins to the south are not. If you sit around a council house and drink and fight you will not succeed. The fact some people are surrounded by success and some surrounded by poverty, some are further along toward success and other starting from behind, it's mostly up to your effort. If one values fitting in with the group, a group destined for prison, you volunteered for your future. Whether you are a white-trash redneck endeavoring never to put on airs or a Future Felon of America keepin' it real. In Victorian past it was well-understood you ought to at least try to imitate the more successful so you could gain some of their success. Fake it til you make it. Now it's just smash and grab.

Posted by: Scott M at July 16, 2013 11:04 PM

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Posted by: Jared Sprott at February 2, 2014 9:34 AM

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