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Most of your answerers have a grasp of the problem. European colonialism built cities, and started to educate the natives in their ways. Before the education and experiences were complete, Africa was handed back to ill prepared natives. The result in most of Africa, has been anarchy. Now they have the worst of both worlds. Self rule without competent rulers.

It goes all the way back to the days of European colonialism. The continent was exploited for every thing it had, including it's people. Combine that with tribalism and religious sectarianism and you come up with some idea of the continuing conflicts there. The civil wars and rampant corruption of government leaders prevent Africa from becoming more than third world backwaters. The droughts and disease have also decimated the continent. My Son and Daughter-in-law went there a few years ago to work with aids babies in South Africa among the Zulus. Twenty-five percent of the children there are orphans because of the aids epidemic. It's just a terribly sad situation in most of Africa.

The obvious answer that no one got. There is no economic infrastructure rural Africa. There are no roads, no factories, no crops of food, its all been destroyed by years of wars and in-fighting The parts of Africa that are really poor, this is the reason why No Aid project, economic project or ANY other relief project will EVER be successful on a large scale in Africa until this has been fixed.

Government that is corrupt....now I ask U this...Why is it Americans are becoming poorer? Maybe the same answer applies. Not to mention we always see the worse of other countries, ever looked at Detroit...it was compared to Vietnam and Nam looked better, what is the excuse for the so called richest country in the world? We like to hide our poor...and our sick...we call them the homeless, the insane, or don't go in that neighborhood....yes this hits a nerve with me...time we clean our own back yard....what do we call the multitude of American who have lost their jobs and their homes??? Time we all wake up...if our street are paved in gold, how come we have none....but we accept illegals, give them benefits, people who have not worked 1 day here...we have real problems, be a legal citizen, and work here and buy from here, or get the hell out of the USA...They sing..We give our money away...have you been given any? Me either. We sold all our technology to other countries, who now have all our jobs....funny we taught them, now we want only to buy from them....or is it that the big companies are so greedy they are in every country but this one...guess in 50 yrs the schools will have us in the book of poor and ignorant.

Thanks venting felt good. P.S. 2 all I am not a racist etc. my family came here from Italy, but 1. became citizens...2. Spoke English...3. Worked..no hand outs..4. Raised their children to get a education and love this country...no one spoke Italian for them either...I am sick of the entire political mess we are in!

Lack of potable water is a big problem. The industrial revolution passed them by. They are overrun by revolutions. All of the above and more. The missionaries I read letters from were so busy trying to stay alive that they didn't have time to teach anyone anything. When attacks by revolutionaries came to them they had to hide their computers and any valuables so they wouldn't take them. They had to sometimes run and hide for days at a time. These are just a few of the problems.

Not preparing the inhabitants of a country for self-rule when colonists leave sets them up for failure as does the colonists setting a bad example with corruption and bad politics. Zimbabwe's land reforms failed, only 10% of the farms are now fully functional after the land reforms. That leaves less food available for the nation. The farmers who took control of those farms lacked preparation and resources to run them. Problems such as corruption, tribal politics, religious division, tropical diseases, droughts and famine often wipe out any progress that has been made.

when we send food their leaders won't let the food into those that are hungry. The leaders want to keep them in poverty because that's how they can control them. And they are so poor that when the poor people try to fight the system there is war and a lot of bloodshed and rapes to teach them a lesson. The poor have now stripped parts of the continent of trees and that now makes it prone to flooding, dust storms, and more poverty and loss.

The rest of the world has sent so much money to help Africa that we could have built a completely new, livable country on the moon with it. Government officials and the rich people there have pocketed most of the aid money....and looted their countries with an abandon usually only seen in bad neighborhoods following natural disasters.

It continues to happen and will continue until the countries themselves decide to clean up their own countries and make them better places.

Our own country is a good place to live because of all the generations of American citizens who worked very hard to make it so. We have fought, died, paid dearly to have a great country. The others will have to do the same in their own countries....no one can do it for them.

Mexico and the African nations remain bad places to live because their citizenry lacks the desire to better their own countries. They have every natural resource that we have ....and it is only that their citizenry won't take the bit between their own teeth and make their countries better that they remain roach hole places to live.

@ It is the natural propensity of anyone to try to flee a country filled with problems and go live in another country that the citizenry has already done all the heavy lifting to make a decent place to live. When more countries stop allowing immigration, then people who live in roach hole countries won't have the option to abandon them.....they will HAVE to clean them up and make them decent places to live because the other countries finally take a stand against taking in someone who was such a poor citizen of his own country that he abandoned it rather than loved it enough to clean it up, use his skills, education, personal resources to make his own country a great place to live.

As long as people in poor nations have the option of leaving their own country and go live somewhere else....their countries are always going to be roach hole places to live. Only by them having to remain there will they finally realize they have to go to school, and use all their own resources to clean up their own countries.

Graft and corruption in their political systems has hindered their evolution into a capitalist society from tribal culture. The European countries that established and maintained colonies on the continent didn't expedite matters, either.

I think it has mostly to do with the corrupt government officials. Just like in Haiti. I believe half of the money and supplies that went there after the hurricane were flat out stolen.