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Old 11-30-2009, 08:01 AM   #81
Cowperson
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Join Date: Oct 2001
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Originally Posted by Agamemnon View Post
Having traveled to about 14 African countries within the past year, I can certainly assure you that this isn't true. Maybe you just need to get out a bit? Do some traveling? It's actually in most parts a basically nice place, like you'd find anywhere else in the world.

And the people? Fully evolved, from what I could tell.
I was in Tanzania last year and was surprised most of the locals seemed to have cell phones and e-mail addresses, through which I still stay in periodic touch with a few, learning of how the economic downturn has been killing tourism while a persistent drought is leaving the Maasai in desperate straights.

But it looked like a tenuous combination of modernism and stagnation in some ways . . . . . and Tanzania is one of the more progressive countries on the continent.

Coincidentally, last night I was reading my new issue of National Geographic and this article (link below) on the Hadza of Tanzania, one of the last pure hunter/gatherer societies on Earth. The article has a different approach, asking the question "What do they know that we've forgotten." Very entertaining and illuminating for those in this debate . . . . .

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/20...za/finkel-text

I also agree that we are getting past the point where colonialism can be blamed for a lot of Africa's problems. The only problem with Africa, in many instances, is Africans.

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