Comments on: The Anger

By: 53_3

53_3 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:09:12 +0000

Ever see how a brick house stands up to an earthquake? I’m not talking much, just a 5, maybe…

By: leahomar

leahomar — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:14:54 +0000

So well said. Keep being angry. . . Maybe if enough of us get angry, something will change. ANYTHING.

By: scienkoptic

scienkoptic — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:21:13 +0000

AA- Amen!
It’s just some people’s ideas about helping are just perpetuating the long term misery.

By: Coffeewallah

Coffeewallah — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:22:49 +0000

You know, sometimes I get sick of the Western World trying to find attach their solutions to other people’s problems instead of making the people part of the solution. It is always the big bwana who think they know more or know better and yet, look at what’s going on in the “First World”. More of the same.

When we destroy people’s cultural values so that we can make them consumers we also take the chance that we will always be responsible for them. Suck it up and deal with it or be a part of the solution.

So AA, keep being angry, keep talking and don’t be afraid to not let us off the hook.

By: skuttlefish

skuttlefish — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:47:14 +0000

AA-Very sensible response. I’d love to read that post, or hear about it round that camp fire next year.

By: angryafrican

angryafrican — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:18:09 +0000

@scienkoptic – No worries boet! In fairness though… The food that goes to Africa (mostly) doesn’t go to communities in the desert. They are actually pretty well off as they have survived their for ages and there aren’t too many of them. The food goes to places like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Congo and those places where people are removed from their livelihood through wars and bad governance. Financial aid doesn’t work because the people at the top just takes it. So the food goes to the people who are stuck in the middle and had nothing to do with the wars going on around them. They would love to get out, but they are stuck. My problem comes when we try to tell an Ethiopian farmer on how to be more “sustainable” and then we fuck it up. And the problems come in when in post-war areas we bring in Western solutions to the problems. Take another example: housing. You know that all these aid agencies and governments go in and build brick houses. Great… Guess what? The traditional way of building houses in many areas of Africa is round houses made of clay and hay (or hay type materials). It sounds pretty primitive right? But there is a reason why these round houses work. It is much more effective in dealing with the climate and weather. And so much easier to fix up. That’s my problem. Not the desert guys. They know how to deal with it. But the farmers and businessmen. We bring “solutions” that actually pulls them even further down. So Sam had the right idea, just the wrong target group.

By: scienkoptic

scienkoptic — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:00:44 +0000

I second Skuttlefish.

AA, Don’t hate me….

I don’t know why, but everytime I think about the suffering of people in other parts of the world, I keep thinking of Sam Kinison. I’m sure this will strike most as offensive, but oh well, there is a small part of me that feels this way:

“You want to help world hunger? Stop sending them food. Don’t send them another bite, send them U-Hauls. Send them a guy that says, “You know, we’ve been coming here giving you food for about 35 years now and we were driving through the desert, and we realized there wouldn’t BE world hunger if you people would live where the FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!! UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!! NOTHING GROWS HERE! NOTHING’S GONNA GROW HERE! Come here, you see this? This is sand. You know what it’s gonna be 100 years from now? IT’S GONNA BE SAND!! YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT! We have deserts in America, we just don’t live in them, assholes!”

By: angryafrican

angryafrican — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:16:57 +0000

@FreetoBe – A bit of anger never hurt anyone…

@Sherry – Thank you for that!

@Amber – Yep. I know what you mean. My anger isn’t about what is going on, but rather about the fact that it is taking my time away from my family and things I like to do.

@ilovemylife – Someone has to care hey…

@India J – Just beautiful. Thank you!

@skuttlefish – No need to crucify you! I agree with you 100%! One of the things I work hard on is to not provide people with the “answers”. The answer lies with those who has the “problem”. I should really write more about this. But in short, my work is about bringing out the answer instead of just “telling” people what I think. That is how we fix problems instead of symptoms. We are so on the same page on this. I should really write about this…

By: skuttlefish

skuttlefish — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:42:12 +0000

There needs to be balance. You should turn off the telly and throw it away. Recycle it and I don’t mean give it to someone else. The time spent in front of that thing is what corrupts. So many people use it as an escape not unlike a good book, except that with a book there is room to think.
I know that you work hard to improve situations in your native country, but sometimes I wonder if it isn’t that same mentality that has gotten so many natives pulled into “CIVILIZATION?” The idea that we know what is good for them, the spreading of our values and trying to make them live like we do. Every time I pick up a National Geographic and see a new native tribe, from where ever in the world. They are no longer costumed in their native gear. They are costumed like US as in us. Cheap knock off crap from China. They have lost their values and replaced them with ours.
How are you going to change the way others think when their own are a lot of times the ones that are exploiting them?
You’re Angry because of your helplessness. You’re attempting to fix symptoms and not problems, throwing sand on a fire.
Don’t crucify me for I’m am just the devils advocate.

By: India J

India J — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:09:05 +0000

Nobody says it better, brother AA..!

I was waiting a little longer, but planning to post the following poem very soon on my blog -

~Let’s Help Africa~

Don’t offer me, Luxury suites with
Queenly beds to lay my head,
‘Else I will show you mud huts
In Africa with bamboo beds.

Don’t tell me, ‘Bout the latest fashion,
You think are pretty sweet,
I care more, for children in Africa,
With no shoes on their little feet.

Don’t show me Breaking news on Television,
And make me cry,
Just give your hand,
Let’s help Africa,
Then you can watch me smile.

Sita Madu Wynn

As the Christmas “frenzy” gets under way I become less and less comfortable here and just want to jump on the next plane heading south to my beloved African continent and retrieve my smile..:)