Welfare is never a design to set one free. “$50 billion to reducing HIV, malaria and tuberculosis” will not set Africans free from playing a subservient role. It is just crocodile tears from a person who is desperate for a legacy he could not muster and finds it convenient to go to third world countries looking for sympathy and making people to shut up about his misguided policies. It is a capitalistic tool to keep one subservient and a perpetual beggar. Until the politics behind the so-called “aid” is dealt with, there will be no tangible hope for Africans. You are telling us something conscientious Africans already know. To take you seriously, please chew on “donor-recipient relationship” a little more.

It is callled do something for yourself. It takes someone that does do anything to critcize someone else. Barack Obama's kenyan dad did nothing but abandon him, so he did not get anything from Kenya, if he did, he would have never been President of the US. Africans through out the contienent let Western countries as well as China rape you, just like the tribal leaders. What are you talking about. I think you are bitter and hopeless. It is a shame when you know there is no way out.

kwells43 ------ Are you serious? “ I think you are bitter and hopeless.” ----- Little you know about me. You should look at yourself first. Tell us what you do before you unload personal attack on others. You are accusing me of being bitter. Bitter about what? For whom? Hopeless?! Did you see me at your house front porch? Did you see me begging? Attack my argument if you wish. But calling me names does not make you an expert on the issue. Nor does it make you a smart individual. If asking the author of the article to dig deeper into the myth behind “donor-recipient” relationship hurts your feelings, than I perfectly happy with it. Just cower in your corner conscience and wine.

“Africans through out the contienent let Western countries as well as China rape you, just like the tribal leaders.” ------ This statement proves my point. Do you even understand the message in my observation? Do you even know what it means by the word “welfare”? What does foreign aid means to you? Based on your drivel comments you do not deserve an answer from me. It is a waste of time to debate people of your caliber

Perfect knockout.

Visit the Zimbabwe discussion site, and you'll find abundant and nauseating evidence of the rhetorical malady you so poignantly exposed.

This mouthpiece of liberalism in INVADERLANDS in Africa is not concerned about substantive debates on African issues, because it is in BED with the liberal wing of the political landscape in INVADERLANDS.

Anyway, what is the point of debating the obvious: that this entity is a TAIL of INVADERDOM in Africa.

On the substantive issue, Africans should refuse all aid or, as you correctly named it, "welfare" from INVADERDOM, which owes Africans, according to the Russian President, trillions upon trillions of USD for its pre-colonial and colonial pillage of Africa.

Now, you can see with your own eyes the rubbish spouted by Obama in Ghana the other day.

He inanely asked Africans to forget about the pre-colonial and colonial pillage of Africa's resources and peoples (and his wife is a legacy of that pillage). And, the bourgeois Ghanain parliamentarians clapped. Fools.

Moreover, he blamed the woes of Africa on lack of "good governance." The liar. The lack of "good governance" is a factor, and only a factor in the TROUBLES OF AFRICA. He, this Obama, this Chicago politico turned President of the USA, DELIBERATELY conflated a part with the whole.

Good governance my foot: how about some "good governance" at Wall Street Casino; at the State Department, which refused to call the obvious US sponsored coup in Honduras "a coup," and so on indefinitum?

Consequently, this Obama thing, as most denizens in the US are only now belatedly discovering, is much ado about nothing. Same old Bushist policy, wrapped in the snake oil rhetoric of African-American civil rightists, the rhetoric of equality beyond the political zone, an impossibility in the classical theory of Liberalism. And, it needs to be emphasized that "democracy" is only ONE component of the doctrine of LIBERALISM.

When you forget that, then you paste "democracy" on your forehead, and you declare yourself John Locke or Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, even though the named characters would not conflate democracy with LIBERTY and THE EFFICIENT DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC RESOURCES.

INVADERDOM has denied Africa all three moments of LIBERALISM.

Fine, maybe it is time that African youth try to implement a different GRAND NARRATIVE.

Fine too, will be the destruction of the heirs of the fathers of 'independence',

richerson88 ----- “Africans should refuse all aid”. You are the man I would prefer to spend time learning from! I salute you sir! Where at do we find these kinds of discussions? Give me a hint. I want to join.

A “grand narrative” is long overdue. I could not agree more! The tragedy is such that this is the only forum out there to talk about the issue with a different way of looking at it in the African Diasporas. Those who have access to the media are just complacent. They are looking for a salary. The very website we are using is a fraud in itself. It does not frame the issues for the interest of African development. As a result, we get stuck with mind teasers articles like the one I responded to. I am under no illusion about Obama. I did not talk about him in my observation. Much of it was implied in the grand scheme of things. His era is a perfect juncture to expose so many cloaks which blind the majority of many Africans.

The criticism you level at his rhetoric is well known, at least among my friends. Some of us have a much harsher criticism. There is no such a thing as “free lunch” in a capitalistic society. And yet, the West dishes out this “free lunch” mind teaser model and shoves it in our throats. What elected him in the first place was the notion that America was now sane enough to promote development around the world. Bush was his implied campaign manager. He owes him a lot of gratitude or at least a thank you postcard. Obama is the new sheriff in town to advance the cause of African people. His job is to represent or speak for financial institutions in order to exploit or rob with impunity in the form of American interest or aid to third world countries and good governance.

“What is the point of debating the obvious”? You are being too kind and giving many people on this website more credit than they deserve. Remember, these are African intellectuals. They are leaders posing as prostitutes between the west and the African masses that you are talking about. Many of them cannot see the obvious because their conscience has been defeated. Others don’t want to think beyond their own noses. Far more disturbing are those who have a self-imposed ignorance. They refuse to see the obvious. That is, in my view, the dismal picture we are up against. The question is: where do we go from here? Can we find a forum, which encourages discussions you and I are talking about? What would compel people like “kwells43” to think a little harder?

Ghana told more lies, they portrayed stability. Why didn't you?