The Mainstream Image of Africa

[paidmonk]

Anyone notice how in the 1980s and up to the 90s, most aid commercials and announcements threw in southeast asian and latin american states. But since those countries leaders have matured and slowly began to reject aid, corrupt fat ass African dictators continued eating that shit up to fatten their pockets and Africa is now the main focus in aid.

The only reason we see this image of Africa as a shit hole, which is looking worse and worse on TV, is because of an ad campaign by aid groups. When the travel channel visits these African countries we begin to see the ghettos start to look more normal and less decrepit and miserable as they're so brutally portrayed in NGO ads. We begin to see that in these travel shows that the locals in these slums talk and are normal and even healthy, some even middle class.

Africa's average GDP is the same as southeast asia and latin america yet even stats by certain survey groups abuse this to the advantage of NGOs. Really, aside from Thailand, no southeast Asian country even matches Ethiopia whose capital Addis Ababa is an international hub and easily has more financial power than probably the whole f-king economies of Cambodia and Laos. Yet Ethiopia is just a massive shit hole in pop culture, which is so overrated. Aside from government starvation in the Ogaden in a country whose politics aren't even mentioned, Ethiopians aren't starving en mass as we're told.

How is it that no one is catching onto this?

[gurey25]

dude did you conpare Addis ababa to Bangkok?
its like comparing compton and south central to beverly hills.

maybe in the 60's you could have got away with it, but not now, asia and even south america have left africa behind ages ago.

in the 1950's Ghana had a higher per capita income than some most south american coutries and countries like romania , better literacy, and its income was even higher than Thailand, South korea and Taiwan
imagine that.
even fuked up nigeria was prosperous, most of the high rise buildings, briges and other infrastructure i saw over there were from the 60's.

Basically africa was fukked over by thier own grossly incompetant leaders.

[gurey25]

GDP per capita from the 1950's

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_g ... apita-1950


1973

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_g ... apita-1973

Today


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... per_capita

[paidmonk]

I doubt it Gurey.

Its a bit late for me now but in the morning I will bring some RPG's (no Hawiye pun) for sure.