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Is poverty a black thing?

The poor performance of African economies and economies where people of color other that whites have prompted people to ask whether poverty is a black thing or a color.

This issue of poverty is a black thing has gained credibility in many circles. This question is also asked about Africa, because it is the poorest continent on earth. It is a continent where for 30 years there has been no concrete economic development compared to the rest of the world. It lags behind all other continents in terms economic and social development. Most, if not all countries in Africa have economic problems of high unemployment knowledge, a strong inflation, higher deficits, poor economic and social infrastructure including roads, ports, education, airports, telecommunications, health systems and sanitation, and rail. Africa is a continent where people die for lack of food, water, and against common preventable diseases. It is a continent full of misery, despair and hopelessness. It is a continent where very few children the age of five years to survive the threat of the six killer diseases. It is a continent where people lack access to basic needs of the life. It is a continent where people walk several miles of water and children have no access to education and medical services. It is continent where rural life is nothing but a sentence to abject poverty. It is a place where people live in mud / thatched houses bamboo leaves with raffia / as roofing sheets. He is a continent full of wars and armed conflicts. It is a continent of dictators and plutocrats, a continent where corruption is rewarded and achievement is avoided, a continent where the entry into public life / service is considered a means of acquiring wealth and a way to get the top spots. It is a continent where life expectancy is very low and corruption high.

Is there a particular color or race thing? I must say that I do not agree or subscribe to the idea that poverty has color in it and deduce that the underdevelopment and poverty that is widespread on the African continent is deeply rooted in centuries of slavery and colonialism, the shots, armed conflict, the brain drain, endemic corruption and mismanagement, dictatorship, Kleptocracy, foreign intervention and the struggle for control of natural resources.

Slavery and colonialism

Centuries of slavery and colonialism on the continent deprived of its human capacity and economic. Men and women were taken as to work in the plantations of the Americas (in all about 30 to 40,000,000 people) and they have helped make America and Europe what they are today. Millions of young Africans have been forced to abandon the continent of their origin and were transported to thousands of miles away to a country where they had no historical connection. They traveled in very poor, without food, water and air. When they reached the so-called new worlds, they have been made to work in the morning sun to set the time only they themselves was Sunday in which they had everything they needed their own planting their crops, repair their homes. It was an experience very unpleasant to have to work for us without pay. Some have even worked until they dropped steeply death. The slave trade has deprived the continent of its energetic men and women a vital resource in any development process and cast the continent in an intellectual nature.

Looting resources

At the same time that slavery has been vigorously pursued, the natural resources including timber, gold, diamonds, tin ore, ivory and many others have been looted in large quantities by the European countries including Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy. After slavery was abolished the plundering of natural resources continued. The irony is that virtually all the income from these resources were used to finance the economic development infrastructure in European countries with little or nothing at all used to develop the various countries where these resources come from. A clear example is the case Democratic Republic of Congo, where King Leopold II of Belgium enslaved Africans, forced them to work without pay, have killed about 10 million and plundered the country of its resources and virtually nothing has been used to invest in the country with the exception of weapons that the army Belgium used to terrorize and kill Africans. Once the DRC has been transferred from Leopold to the Belgian state plunder and killing continued until DRC gained its independence in 1960. In fact, the DRC (the Congo Free State) was the main supplier of rubber material essential materials for the tire industry and all the money from the sale of rubber went to Belgium. King Leopold II was able to transform Belgium as one of the poorest countries in Europe in one of the richest courtesy enslavement and looting of Africans and their resources.

Belgium was not alone in what she did on the continent. Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all looted Africa its gold, diamonds, ivory, timber, cobalt, coltan, tin ore, bauxite, manganese, and minerals you can think of. Africans who resisted the illegal activities have been killed by the millions as happened in the South-West Africa (now Namibia), where the Germans from 1904 to 1907 has committed the first genocide of the 20th century by killing the Herero and Namaqua people. While Europe became richer in Africa has become poorer and the trend continued until the 1950s when African countries began to gain their "independence" starting in 1951 by Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia in 1956 and all Ghana in 1957.

investment with little or no on the continent post-colonial countries have inherited various governments with virtually no infrastructure: roads, railways, ports, telecommunications, education, health and sanitation and airports. The only areas which have seen some little infrastructure investment during the colonial period have been those where the materials materials were heavily mined.'s independence has no money on the Plata. Algeria, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Namibia and to some extent in South Africa all gained independence from their colonial masters by the struggles and arms in most cases, the little infrastructure that existed were destroyed because of conflict.

Business Participation Foreign

As if slavery, colonialism and the looting of Africa's resources are not enough of the continent has become a field of battle during the Cold War as both superpowers and their allies fought for the control and influence on the continent mostly for its resources. In Following numerous African governments who have been deemed to pro-Russia or America have been reversed with the army. A example was the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana on February 24, 1966. Another example is the overthrow and assassination of Patrice Lumumba of the Congo on January 17 1961.Other leaders such as Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for two Advocating independence or improve conditions for Africans. CIA and Western intelligence community have been blamed for engineering the assassination and overthrow of elected leaders of Africa. For example, Larry Devlin, Chief of the CIA station in Congo Patrice Lumumba during day spoke to the Washington Post in December 2008 saying he refused an order to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, but his refusal did not prevent the CIA to overthrow the government of Belgium and murder. The murder attempt to Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt October 24, 1954 and the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 have been advanced as the work of Great Britain M16 because of their refusal to hand over the administration of the Suez Canal for the British.

The CIA, KGB and its allies have encouraged and funded wars and political instability throughout the continent. Angola became the battleground for the CIA, KGB and the Chinese have tried to take control the country, its people and resources. The civil war that ravaged Angola in 1975, only ended in 1991 after 26 years of conflict. When the war ended little infrastructure who stayed after the war of independence (1961-1974) have disappeared.

On March 7, 2004 a British citizen Simon Mann, a veteran officer of mercenaries and former Great Britain elite special forces (SAS), and 69 other mercenaries were arrested at an airport military outside Harare, Zimbabwe. Their destination was the Equatorial Guinea in West Africa. Their mission was to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a country of 600,000 people. In his defense, he mentioned some influential members the British establishment and its financial donors, including the UK, Jack Straw, Justice Minister, Peter Mandelson, former European EU Trade Commissioner and now Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, Sir Mark Thatcher, a businessman and son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Jeffrey Archer a key member of the conservatives who were convicted of perjury and Ely Calil a Smelly Lebanese trader accused of funding the oil field. Mark Thatcher was arrested in South Africa and responsible for supplying the aircraft Simon Mann in Harare carried. Thatcher pleaded guilty in South Africa and was then made to pay £ 300,000 in exchange for a prison sentence. The coup were made Severo Moto, an opposition leader living in Spain over the country. The coup was to give both the conspirators and their supporters doubt free access to oil resources in the nation. If the coup had succeeded Mann and his cronies have transformed Equatorial Guinea in one of the usual sad stories in Africa, blood, corruption, mismanagement, poverty and what you have. The governments of Spain, South Africa and others in the west have been severely challenged to be aware of the plot. Thank you to the vigilance of the scheme Robert Mugabe was once the nip in the bud. Unfortunately, most resource-rich countries on the continent have not been all that lucky.

Among those mercenaries who sought to return to Africa to their former colonial masters was Bob Denard. In fact, Mann is just a small fish compared to Bob Denard, a French national who made a career of overthrowing the leaders of mercenaries in Africa. When Bob Denard dies In 2007, he had more than a dozen blows to his credit. Four of these moves took place in the Comoros Island. The French writer Jean Guisnes, which followed Denard career and written extensively on the French government, "said Denard has done nothing that was contrary to French interests – and he would have acted in close cooperation with intelligence services. Denard, mercenary career took place between 1950 and 1980. During this period he was involved in independence after Nigeria, Benin in 1977, Angola, Zaire – now DRC and the former Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe. The registration of frustration and lack of justice for the Comoros, Abdou Soule Elbak, former president of Grande Comore said: "This man sullied our history, "referring to Denard." I regret that it has not been made to meet all the crimes he has committed in our country, murder and torture to which he was guilty of, "said Said Moustoifa Sheikh, leader of the Democratic Party opened. All these mercenary activity has taken place on the continent because of natural resources.

The product of all it was the instability Political and destruction of lives and property that will have ravaged Africa to today. As the elected leaders of the continent have been assassinated, overthrown and subjected to all forms of tactics of the Cold War, including bribery, blackmail and arm-twisting of the continent degenerated and faulted on all aspects of human activity. The new crop of leaders who replaced the post-colonial independence leaders and have been largely puppets of U.S. and European governments became increasingly authoritarian and corrupt. Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko, who became the choice of Americans after helping assassinate Lumumba ruled Congo for 32 years and in those years, the country became poorer than Mobutu and his cronies have become more rich Western countries, including the United States and its allies had their hands free for looting minerals largest cobalt mineral is very important necessary for the development of missiles. Little development work has been performed by Mobutu. As a result of Congo today only accessible by boats and canoes mainly by the Congo River.

Like tyrants and dictators has the support of Western governments and did what they wanted with their savings, without question their people impoverished and hopelessness and despair are the hallmarks of their lives. As the little money that the government came in boxes were taken by corrupt officials and civil servants, there was almost no money to carry out infrastructure development and poverty has increased. Poverty, hopelessness and despair visited the people and coupled with their inability to change their leaders democratically, differing views have been sown among the people that serve as breeding for more coups, civil wars and civil society disturbances. This was proof in Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Algeria, Gabon, Togo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sierra Leone all experienced strokes in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and even in the early 1990s. These waves of shots were followed by civil wars that hit Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Congo, Chad, CAR, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Angola, Niger and Guinea. These wars Apart from her human cost has also contributed to the destruction of roads, ports, airports, railways, telecommunications, hospitals, schools and livelihoods of the people. In the absence of infrastructure in the country were unable to make any progress in terms of development economy.

World Bank, IMF and the role of foreign companies

The The World Bank and the IMF (Bretton Woods) and foreign companies have also played their part in making poverty endemic on the continent. Most African countries billions of debt incurred through borrowing from the Bank and the IMF. Most of these loans were conditional been used for debt already held by these poor countries. Loans have also been used to pay for foreign expatriates who came to the continent as "technical experts".

Some of these loans have also been used to undertake projects and programs that have benefited the rich. Again part of the loan has been hijacked by corrupt politicians and officials.

The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAPs) imposed on poor African countries by the Bank and the IMF have forced governments to abandon their support for various public sector with serious consequences. The removal of agricultural subsidies in particular, has made it difficult for farmers to compete with their Western counterparts who receive millions of dollars in government subsidies each year. The troubles and disturbances on the food shortage and prices High food that took place in Egypt, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mauritania, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone in 2008 were the direct result of the Bank and the IMF prescribes bitter pills these poor countries.

With SAP and other policies of the Bank and Fund investment in education, health, transport and other sectors of the economy decreased considerably. Governments have also been forced to privatize public enterprises. The sad aspect of this exercise was that almost all the companies went to foreigners and the product used to settle debts already held by these poor countries. Unable to pay their debts and Money caught up in these poor countries turned to the Bank and the IMF over loans and the Bank's response to open your markets to foreign goods and embrace globalization. Consequently, the continent has become a dumping ground for foreign goods. Unable to compete with the influx of cheap products Foreign companies have the most local no other choice but to close, lay off millions of workers and devastating families many. Mr. John Jenkins, the author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" has written extensively on how the Bank the IMF and the major cartels and various companies have conspired to keep African and developing countries in the state they are today. Please watch John Jenkins on youtube where he tells his extraordinary story on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8

The presence of companies such as Shell, Mobil, Chevron, BP, Total, Rio Tinto, Texaco, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and other have contributed to high levels of poverty on the continent. These companies are usually the extraction of resources in nature have destroyed formerly rich soils of Africa, forcing many farmers to abandon their farms and loosing their livelihoods. Rivers, wells and streams used by people for their daily activities, such as washing and drinking have been contaminated by these companies to profit. Fishing communities in most mining and oil drilling has ceased the pollution killed the fish stocks in these rivers and lagoons make fishermen unemployed. Communities that were once radiant life communities are now ghost land, rivers, lagoons and wells were destroyed. Breathing, nausea and diseases related to other mining are increasing in many communities where mining and oil drilling took place, but profit companies have abandoned their corporate social responsibilities which they owe to the population. In August 2006, a Dutch company called Trafigura, dumped highly toxic waste in Abidjan, Ivory Coast killing 17 people and sickening thousands. These inhuman acts byTrafigura is just a tip of the iceberg.

Brain drain

The poverty on the continent has sprung up in the wake of the serious brain drain that has hit the continent in recent times. The flight of physicians, engineers, architects, lawyers, judges, bankers, accountants, teachers, nurses, planners, agricultural experts and others have limited our ability to implement projects and programs. The theft of these intellectuals has made many agencies very low. In some communities, there are hospitals without doctors and nurses. In others there are universities and without college professors and teachers. Countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia have lost much of their professionals to countries rich of Europe and America so much so that many of their industries have resorted to hiring outside expertise to cope. For example there are more Malawian doctors in Manchester City alone than in Malawi combined. The irony is that governments use scarce resources to train these intellectuals only for them to leave the country for greener pastures abroad. Great Britain and the United States the main beneficiaries of brain drain and even if they are aware of the extremely negative effect it had on those developing countries poor, they did nothing to discourage it, in most cases, they encouraged it.

Corruption and mismanagement

Corruption is another cancer that has tragically impoverished continent. South Africa to Egypt there is no country where corruption is not endemic. According to African Union (AU) around 148 billion dollars are stolen from continent through its ERS lead and officials. In 2006 Forbes list of most corrupt countries had 9 of 16 countries from Africa. Since oil was discovered in Nigeria 50 years ago, billions of dollars have been made from her but Today, the population continue to live in poverty and the country has nothing to show for it. Following the men and women are capable facing dangerous sea comes to enter Europe and try their luck. Others have allowed 419 people to a scam used to get people to give their money and valuables. Those who appear to have benefited from the oil are corrupt politicians, officials and companies oil such as Shell, Mobil, BP and their American counterparts. In fact, Nigeria has always been in the top 1% of the nation's most corrupt countries on the planet. Between 2005 and 2007 several state governors and their immediate family were arrested by London Scotlandyard on corruption and money laundering loads. Among them, James Ibori of Delta state rich in oil and his wife Theresa who had their 35 million dollars in assets frozen by the court of England. Mr Ibori earns about a thousand dollars a month, but during his eight years as governor of the state, he managed to acquire wealth up 35 million dollars and has been a key contributor to the financial year the current president of Nigeria. It has a private jet and lavish London home. Another is corrupt governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of the oil-rich state of Bayelsa, who was also arrested London for alleged money laundering. Alamieyeseigha broken conditions of his bail and evaded capture Great Britain by disguising himself as a woman. When police conducted a search at his home in London, they found a value of one million pounds silver in his house. Another governor, who was arrested in England was Joshua Dariye of Plateau State. He was arrested in a London hotel for stealing money intended for the development of his condition. In South Africa Jacob Zuma is still battling with the Court its role in the case of multi-billion arms in 2001 in South Africa. He was forced to resign as vice-president of Africa South. The end of Mobutu in his 32 years as President of Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo amassed billions of dollars belonging the people of Congo. In 2006, former President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi has been arrested for pocketing $ 12 million paid to his poor countries by foreign governments. Again the former president Frederick Chiluba in Zambia was arrested along with two businessmen Aaron Chungu and Faustin Kabwe and charged with 11 counts of stealing money intended for the development of Zambia. In Equatorial Guinea, where Oil export has won the country billions of dollars, the 600,000 people living in the country continue to live in poverty while Teodoro Obiang Nguema and his cronies continue to siphon off oil revenues without accountability. Gabon and Angola both oil-exporting countries are no different. In fact, the governments of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea can best be described as a kleptocracy that is the government by thieves. In countries like Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Gambia, Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Tunisia kleptocracy class people have replaced whatever democracy. In these countries, very few people continue to stay in power and the people have nothing to say about the way their country is governed or run. For example Gaddafi of Libya has been in power for 39 years now. Omar Bongo of Gabon for 31 years, Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea 28 years, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe 28 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt 27 years, Paul Biya of Cameroon for 26 years, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for 22 years, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan 19 years Iddriss Derby of Chad for 17 years, Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia 14 years, and the list is endless. It is clear that these unelected leaders continue to amass wealth at the expense of poor countries and continue to mismanagement what remains of their acts of corruption. Because most leaders are former military and former rebels, without understanding the economics and management, they are unable to make any sound economic policies that will make their economies grow so poverty became part of the population, but their leaders do not know what poverty is. A visit to the region of the Niger Delta shows that majority of the population unemployed. Years of oil spills have made the soil unfit for any agricultural activity. Their streams and wells are polluted and the people lack access to basic necessities of life, even if billions of dollars is realized by the sale of oil from the region each year. In the economic difficulties of the 1990s abject poverty, and environmental destruction forced the people to demand Ogoniland say in which Shell operates, but the military regime headed by General Sani Abacha arrested environmentalists led by Ken and Sorowiwa executed them. These are funds for the development of states that these governors have been caught below the Bank in Europe. All efforts to get the government of Nigeria to develop the oil-rich areas fell on death ears until the young unemployed took up arms against the Federal Government. They have kidnapped foreign oil workers and demanded a ransom before their victims have been released. They have disrupted oil production forcing oil companies to move several miles off the coast for their own safety, but they were not sure either. Finally, companies had to reduce their production by 25% in 2007-8. These supply disruptions affected of oil in the world forcing to skyrocket the price to 140 dollars a barrel in the summer of 2008.

DR Congo, it is estimated that gold and diamond deposits alone could fetch the country 23 billion dollars without counting the abundance of Wood and several other minerals found in large quantities such as coltan (coltan) and cassiterite (tin ore), but years of corruption, mismanagement, conflicts and foreign participation have made this a resource rich nation the poorest in the world. Coltan example, is used in all mobile phones and a number of electronic devices in the world. Cassiterite used in electronic circuits is the most traded metal on the London Stock Exchange. It is often said that Western nations can not not maintain their current lifestyle without Congo and most companies in the West can easily go bankrupt without Congo. question is whether the Congo is the blood line of the west and west is rich because of the Congo, then why is so poor Congo? And where are the billions of dollars from the sale of those minerals? The answer lies in the history of the nation is corruption, slavery, colonialism, murder, armed conflicts and foreign participation. Since its independence from Belgium in 1960, he has not been peace in the country. Several million Congolese died nearly four million of them over the last eight years alone, and most of the dead are civilians. The conflict in Congo is largely about who controls vast resources, he country. The vastness of the country has done his administration very difficult. And the problem is exacerbated by the weakness poorly trained, undisciplined and very corrupt Congolese army who kidnap, terrorize, rape and kill people instead of protecting them.

The various militias operating in eastern Canada have made life very difficult and unbearable for the civilian population. These groups armed with the support of Rwanda and Uganda have largely operated in the region with impunity – the kidnapping, rape, killing and theft of these poor people. Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is now facing war crimes at The Hague was a notorious warlord whose activities do not escaped the International Criminal Court (ICC). Another notorious warlord who is still active with impunity is Laurent Nkunda. A visit to the city Walikale in the east of the country explains in vivid terms why people are so desperately poor. People have abandoned their farms and moved to the mines, but everything is made from mining is abducted by the Congolese army and the ever present predators namely groups armed. These armed groups forcing people to mine minerals without paying. Unable to farm and not paid for their work, most of them have the credit for food to survive. Every day Walikale about 16 planes fly out of town with loads of minerals related to Rwanda. These minerals stolen still find their way in the minerals market in West London and Switzerland. Revenues are shared by the warlords in Congo, generals, politicians and businessmen in Rwanda and the rest is used to acquire weapons that are used to terrorize the population and prolong the war. Please click on the link below to watch a video of the Congo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io8c81xHLmw

Recommendations and Conclusion

It is clear that many forces inside and outside the continent have contributed to the poorest continent on earth. But it is not the time to look back, but a time to look forward and get our acts together, get organized and start doing something. Progress has been made by China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Gulf countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia and Qatar over the past 30-50 years shows that poverty has nothing to do with color or race. Nations to become poor because their leaders fail to formulate policies and programs that meet their problems.

To reverse the negative impact of centuries of slavery and colonialism on the one hand and decades coups, civil wars, corruption, mismanagement and foreign interventions, on the other hand, governments should focus their attention on the reform of democratic institutions and allow free and fair elections to be organized. They should do more to fight against corruption and mismanagement, to establish a watchdog against corruption, independent, strengthening judicial and is accountable to the people.

They should limit the power of the army and embark on concrete, the sound and the result of policy engine and provide more incentives to discourage the brain drain.

Governments should commit to strengthening economic and social infrastructure – schools, hospitals, roads railways, telecommunications, airports, ports, markets, which will lay the foundations for sustainable economic and social development. They should creating research institutions to learn how to best utilize the various natural resources to benefit the people. As the saying goes "the resources are not, but they become "that is to say that you can have all the natural resources in the world but if you do not have the capacity convert them into useful products / supplies for the benefit of the people, they are nothing.

The African Union should be more concerned about the fight against poverty not only been a forum for discussion of corrupt dictators and plutocrats.

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Innovation and the Transformation of the Global Energy System