Well I think I can respond to that one too, since my french is
not as good as my english (i'm a white Swiss German married to
a Malian woman)
> I can understand his frustration, but not his self-hatred.
> Africa problems are human problems. Every people in human history
> went
> through this agony.
> African mentality has to change before Africa can change.
Right. I happen to try to work with senegalese and malian friends
in informatics and i can tell you after 3 years we haven't gotten
anywhere. while we invest, nothing comes back and goes to "the
families" instead. ever seen someone in africa who really invests
instead of buying a TV or a car for his home with the first money he
gets ??
> Unfortunately we
> are not as a people, ready to take our destiny into our own hands.
> There are
> internal and external forces that contribute to that; but I would
> rather
> focus on the internal obtacles within ourselves.
thanks for not blaming the "colonialists" alone. there's a lot of
us young (well i'm 44....) whites that don't care about race, origin or
background but see the one world we all live in.
Unfortunately we are
> very
> efficient at eliminating any potential good leader.
first of all a new leader has to bribe so many people who helped him to
get into power that the state is poor afterwards :)
but think about who gets the power: it all rests in the family or
in the caste, no matter what education (well forgive me not mentioning
Bush....). tradition is what blocks. tradition has a lot of good values
to it, but as it is everywhere: first the family, then the ethnie. But
this is normal since in Africa societies are based on the family, and
the "state" or "country" is for many people an unreal imagination,
something too abstract. here in switzerland my wife tells me:
"why should i pay taxes to the swiss government while my family in
bamako suffers" ? well frankly spoken i agree.
> So in short, we are not psychologically ready to move forward.
i wouldn't say that. forward to where ? if you're talking into
our direction (i.e. like Europe or the US) - ok. first of all Africans
and us have different ways of thinking. even if the Africans like
to copy our behavior, our clothes etc. inside they stay as they are
and that's good. take me for example. Im Bamako, I can live without TV,
car or whatever entertainment - i chat with people, sit in fromt of the
house and drink "the baro". I lack none of this. But here i need it.
Our societies are too different and are not at all compatible. Since
the 1800's we have changed society to a ever more faster pace. We work,
consume, produce, work consume produce. Try to stop one of these
components - society doesn't work anymore. Right now here in Europe a
deflation is beginning. But we can't turn back unless we stop and start
thinking about what we're doing. It's us that have to think, not
Africa.
But my wife says: "You had it all already (Cars, TV's, Stereos etc) and
have become anti-materialist, now let me make my own experience". what
can I say ??
> Reality must
> first take shape in the mind. I am confident that our time will come;
> but
> how soon?
what do you mean by reality ? everbody has it's own....;)
lassana
=====
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S W @ X E (Swiss-African Axe Communications)
Development for a better understanding
Dakar : P.O.Badji / papaoumar.badji@swaxe.com
Zurich: L. J.Friedli / jurg.friedli@swaxe.com
Homepage: www.swaxe.com
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