Africa

a continent with so much tragedy, so much evil, many think of as doomed and hopeless,some wonder why they should even bother thinking on this issue. Some don't even think about this issue at all. But how many of them realise the West or developed world is as much to blame as the locals for the tragedies that enfold this continent?

For hundreds of years, black Africans were enslaved, shipped and sold like commoditites to whites, not to mention that over the last few centuries, almost all of Africa was colonised by Europeans.
Why blame the former masters when African countries are now independent and run their own destiny? The fact is that a large part of the structure of many (especially African) countries is based on their former masters' influence, control and practices.
For example: Hong Kong had been occupied by England for just a hundred years and a large part of its (civil structure) culture and society is based on British customs and practises like government, law, business and education.

How then can the developed world not take major blame and responsibility for Africa? A large (part) of the terror and unrest in Africa, from Liberia to Congo to Zimbabwe is a result of Western policies during their rule, most notably that of 'tribal favoritism'.
Africa has been occupied for hundreds of years up to the middle of the last century by the English, Portuguese, French, Belgian, Italians, Spanish and Dutch, all of whom in one way or another carried out great injustices and oppressions on native Africans.
The number of African countries that were NOT ever occupied or ruled by Europeans can be counted on one hand.
Basically Africa served as a treasure chest for Europeans, with its peoples, natural resources, wildlife, land all subjugated, looted and taken over, in the process killing off large numbers of Africans, destroying tribal cultures (ways of life), and imposing their own systems including exacerbating and encouraging ethnic animosity ( as in the founding of Liberia, where returning slaves from America became the elite of the new country, lording it over original inhabitants acting same as the masters who they were freed from).

Here's a few sources of good information on the tragedies in Africa:
-this is a website of an individual freelance journalist who's done a lot of work on troubled areas.

-Zmag has a comprehensive section on African affairs and news , scroll down to near the bottom on the articles under "Africa and the world" to find out more on the relationship between Africa and the western world