The English

We English, probably have much to be proud of, but we also have more in our history that we should be ashamed of. There are few nations that look up to the Brits anymore, if ever they did in the first place, and many nations despise us and for good reason.

Robert Mugabe is one example of a man who has a real hatred for Britain. We are seen as a nation who wish to return Zimbabwe to British rule, to suppress his people and turn back the clock to a time when the country was at least stable.

Africa has for centuries been colonised, recolonised, fought over, and intrinsically ruined by non Africans. It has become a huge and desperate money pit with aid pouring in from all over the world to try to support a desperate and impoverished people. Nothing ever changes, and the probably reason for that is the inherent corruption that enables those in power to syphon off the wealth of their people in order to fill their own bank accounts. Africans want to govern themselves, quite rightly, but so few of the countries seem able to do that.

Paul Theroux in one of his books, describes his return journey from Cairo to Capetown, and in that he makes the point that giving money to Africa has been a total failure, and that all that it achieves is providing arms to the many tribes that still make up that Nation, so that they can kill each other with increasing efficiency. Hospitals and schools that were built using aid have declined and crumbled because the people fail to maintain them properly, or because the educated minorities move away in order to escape the burgeoning chaos of a country that is trying to grow, but lacks the direction to do so. He infers that aid should be stopped, and that the hand out expectations of many Africans should no longer be met.

Africa has been forced through western exploitation, to attempt to grow up too fast. It is still a tribal society and if the west were to withdraw totally, which it won't because of vested interests, the whole country would probably revert to what it is at heart. Maybe then the countries would support themselves and the land would be able to sustain a more realistic population.

Robert Mugabe is at best a thug who has no interest in his own people. The country is a mess, their inflation rate is like that of pre-war Germany, he has been defeated in an election and refuses to budge. I wonder why the Americans are keeping out of this one?

I guess that we can hold our hands up and admit that many of Africa's problems date back to colonial times when the world map was mainly pink. We tried to exploit the Africans, through slavery and by stealing their land, and then we try to suppress their people, the way that the British people were suppressed, by indoctrination with Christianity, and then we wonder why nothing seems to have worked.

I must confess that all that I say is opinion and that I have never been to Africa, nor do i want to.