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South Africa
Since emigrating, I have come across numerous 'educated' people in the developed world who seem to think they know exactly why South Africa is in the pitiful state it is in today - ie. purely due to colonialism and exploitation.

Here are some insightful and significant viewpoints that are often ignored due to obsessive political correctness

Africa 'better in colonial times'

BBC NEWS
2004/09/22

The average African is worse off now than during the colonial era, the brother of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has said.

Moeletsi Mbeki accused African elites of stealing money and keeping it abroad, while colonial rulers planted crops and built roads and cities.

"This is one of the depressing features of Africa," he said.


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Moeletsi Mbeki also said that South Africa should support democracy in Zimbabwe, and not tolerate violence.

President Thabo Mbeki has been accused of being too soft on his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe.

South Africa should "not tolerate use of violence, torture and rigging of elections and, if necessary, we should support the opposition," Moeletsi Mbeki said.

Downward spiral

He said that while China had lifted some 400,000 people out of poverty in the past 20 years, Nigeria had pushed 71 million people below the poverty line.

"The average African is poorer than during the age of colonialism. In the 1960s African elites/rulers, instead of focusing on development, took surplus for their own enormous entourages of civil servants without ploughing anything back into the country," he said.

In July, a United Nations report said that Africa was the only continent where poverty had increased in the past 20 years.

Moeletsi Mbeki was addressing a meeting of the South African Institute of International Affairs, which he heads.

He has frequently taken different political positions to his brother.

He has business interests across Africa.


From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3679706.stm

"A further complication [for many South Africans] is the individual nature of scholarship as distinct from team sport. Scholarly work is lonely work even if one is a member of a research team. The intensity of intellectual work demands space for individuality to enhance the creativity of the team as a whole. As a society we are yet to make peace with individuality. Collectivism remains part of our heritage.

[Additionally] there is a large sector of the population which does not value intellectual work as work. There is a strong anti-intellectual ethos amongst a significant proportion of South Africans. Taking time off to reflect, read, discuss and debate matters, particularly if such matters are not of immediate practical value, is seen as an indulgence."

- Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, August 1997

 

Ignore the knowledge-based global economy, refuse to perform 'intense intellectual work', and this is all you can expect, unfortunately:
 
 

Africa's Sad Reality


Humour


47.4 murders per 100 000 people: