The book is explains mostly the political and economical situation in africa which made the countries worse by giving them aid
359565
I bought this book to do my research on aid but while I was reading the book, I felt that I am having a conversation with the authour and the auther answered my questions as I had before about foreign aid. The book is explains mostly the political and economical situation in africa which made the countries worse by giving them aid. The author did write what I had in my mind about both the donors and poor countries behaiver as working in the same side to make poor people poorer and rich people richer.
915230
This product was in excellent condition when it arrived.  The delivery was timely and well packaged.  The book is a compelling documentary written from a personal and realistic point of view.  The author expertly details the devastating effects of foreign aid to the countries in Africa and why alternative measures, i.e., self-sustaining government rule, would provide more positive, long-lasting outcomes.
596263
learned a lot about Europe, the eu is in more trouble than we realize.
4621021
Paul Henze was a Political Counsellor at the US Embassy from 1968 to 1972 and has been a Resident at the RAND Corporation since 1982.  He has spent most of his adult life involved, one way or another, with Ethiopia.  He has written a very comprehensive history of that country going back into the mist of time and bringing it forward to the twenty-first century.  For most of the book he does a good job of keeping his opinions to himself but this becomes very difficult when he writes about the trouble of Ethiopia in the twentieth century and especially the last twenty-five years.  To his credit, most of Henze's opinions are easy to pick-out and are mostly confined to footnotes.

Little of pre-20th century Ethiopia is known to most of us, even though it was the only territory (beside Liberia) to be 'colonized' at the end of the nineteenth century.  It was able to remain independent (minus the Eritrean coastal plain) because Britain, France and Italy couldn't agree on who should take it over, and therefore like Afghanistan it was never swallowed up in the 'Scramble for Africa'.  Though it was 'conquered' by Mussolini's Fascist Empire, it was never pacified and caused more trouble than it worth during the five years that it was 'officially' colonized.  The Italians never held more than ten percent of the country during any time.

For anyone who wants to understand the basis for many of the problems of the 'Horn of Africa', this book is essential.

Zeb Kantrowitz
2609930
Ever since I first read THE OLD PATAGONIAN EXPRESS over twenty years ago, I have enjoyed Paul Theroux's travel books and regarded them as the best of their genre -- at least among contemporary authors.
Africa presents a particular challenge for travelers. If you read the papers, you will find virtually no good news from the Dark Continent. Instead, there are stories of genocidal massacres (Ruanda and Burundi), slavery (Sudan), tribal violence (most countries), rampant AIDS (everywhere), child prostitution (Djibouti and Mozambique), terrorism (Egypt and Sudan), civil unrest (Zimbabwe), rampant crime (South Africa), and so on ad infinitum. Fortunately, Theroux had spent some time in Africa in his youth and still possessed a smattering of the local languages. And he had an incredible amount of courage and fortitude.
(One of Theroux's forebears along much of the route was Michael Palin of Monty Python fame in his entertaining "Pole to Pole" series of documentaries. But then, he went along with a large film crew and could afford to pay the baksheesh required to satisfy the ravenous officialdom along the route.)
Theroux traveled by ferry boat, canoe, train, bus, taxi, truck, van, foot -- in fact everything but bicycle or airplane -- from Cairo through the Great Rift Valley to South Africa, with a few interesting detours. Except for a foiled hold-up attempt in Kenya, he managed to avoid most problems by asking the locals he met questions about the road ahead. Whenever his informants said "there are bad people there," he made whatever adjustments he could; but most times he just relied on his considerable street smarts and managed to get by unscathed.
In addition to the "bad people" one expects, there were a surprisingly large number of good-hearted people who helped Theroux without any expectation of return. In fact, the only group of people he unilaterally slams are the international aid workers with their bright new Land Rovers -- refusing all eye contact and associating only with one another. Even the missionaries prove to be more helpful. His comments in this area were quite an eye-opener to me: I had not realized what a failure five decades of international aid had proven to be.
I devoured this book in three sittings and was greatly saddened when it came to end. Theroux has changed forever my view of Africa. Although there is no bibliography, I appreciated the author's frequent references interspersed throughout the text to other background works on the subject.
1019989
Very interesting book that tells of the struggles of albino people face in Africa.
1009301
I didn't like what Richberg had to say about Africa.  In fact much of it made me sick.  Being a student of Africa and having spent a considerable time on the continent I must say that I wish I could disagree with him though.  The overwhelming majority of Africans are good and kind people who search, like everyone, for a better life.  Richberg points this out.  With this being said how in the hell can we explain Rwanda, Somalia, or Liberia not to mention the corruption rampant in every single African country I've had the privalege of visiting?  It puzzles me just like it did Keith Richberg.
4651301
China Achebe goes into a first-person account of the events that led to the Biafran War 1967-1970: The corruption, and ethnic bigotry and ills of a newfound nation, with rigged elections from the independence to establish puppet government that served the needs of the former colonial masters; The individualism and uprise of the Igbo, their resulting domination in higher roles of civil service, and the beginnings of perpetuation of ethnic violence; Newfound comparison between the genocide of the Jews during the holocaust and the Igbos during the starvation, caused by landlocked state embargo that led to the death of 2-3 million, mostly the young - kwashiokor and such. He paves the way with intelligent thought and questioning that will help uplift Nigeria in the coming years and generations, learning from past mistakes.
1350353
This book was included in the list of "100 Best Non-Fiction Books Translated into English in the 20th century." and it certainly belong on that list of 100..  The book was published in 1983.  Two French citizens who feel complicity in the sufferings of Fench colonial Africa present the record of western indifference + silly models of development designed (Ha! Ha!) to make the  ormer colonies prosperous and independent. "The place is swarming with experts, commissions and international agencies, all of them travelling at vast expense with suitcases bulging with charms, knick-knacks, grandeoise miracle schemes and other forms of eyewash.  All these different bureaucracies [including UN committes] live off the ThirdWorld and would findthemselves out of work if underdevelopment came to an end."

Dumont demonstrates that the real harvest of well-intentioned reform programs has increased the savage expoitation of both the rural and urban African poor and these ravages are now even more widespread than during the colonial era.  The only salvation, he believes, is a new determination to lessen their dependence on maladroit overseas aid (UN, IMF & World Bank) and to turn toward indigenous resources and their own people.

Many multi-million dollar "grand solutions" with untold millions spent have actually worsened crisis areas.  Existential hunger is worsening despite costly UN food aid programs.  Giant dams designed to get food production moving are not usable & affordable as the years pass.  Instead of GNP and western indices, Dumont pinpoints and urges the reduction of shanty towns as the prime index of progress, giving priority to making backward villages more vital and thus shutting off the spigot to shanty towns with their predictable chaos, gangs, drugs, crime and no-exit worsening.

Independent of the authors' recommendations, the non-strident & non-ideological profile here presented of an Africa blood-drained by post-colonial & well meant illusions, qualifies the book as one of the most important non-fiction to be translated into Emglish in the 20th century.

It's significant of First world indifference that this platinum quality book hasn't received even one Amazon review of any kind since its publication in 1983.
4837995
a great book which details the effects of AIDS & HIV on sub-shahara africa esp zimbabwee which had the added burden of their incompetent dictator, mugabe seen through the eyes of an international reporter for a detroit newspaper who is white & marries a black women; they try to adopt an abandon baby in mugabe's country who almost dies but is saved by them; a very touching story but can be depressing due to the reality of what was happening in africa in the last two or so decades; i recommend this book highly
840649
Europe will forever be in debited to Africa from saving it from itself, after the fall of Rome which also owes Africa much for its rise (another story altogether) Europe was a starved for resources and knowledge Africa and Middle East were her only sources of reclamation.  Europe's Kings and Queens were illiterate and living in Barns and shacks when Africa and middle east invaded Europe and they cultivated Europe out of the dark ages only to be ousted and humiliated once Europe got back on its feet and entered the world stage as a new player.  If it was not for Africa Europe may not be in the position it is in today and needs to sincerely return the favor ans stop usurping Africa's resources and hiding Africa's greatness in the Vatican like it has been for a millennium and beyond.  This DVD alothough ok drops the ball in that it gives "Islam" all the credit for bringing Europe out of the dark ages when it is Africa and Africans via Islam that deserves the true credit, Africa was rich in culture and knowledge without Islam it was more of a vessel than the reason for how Africa saved Europe.
930805
Book was in Horrible condition, pages were all stuck together not even as initially described.
This is very bad business for a bookstore whom intends on making their profit off of offering educational material to customers in conditions that are not even as described by the seller!

The Book brand new is great and if you don't mind buying a book with all the pages stuck together and you can get through all that: the material in this book offers some great educational insight drawing parallels between the Cold War and the Peloponnesian War. The author of this Book, Richard K. Betts, has served on the Senate Armed Forces Committee and is currently an associate professor at Columbia University. There Betts is in charge of an International Public Policy Security program that seems to be interrelated with his work as a CIA security coordinator, on active call offering "his advice" on security measures and tactical approaches in combat and war overseas with "terrorists."

This book has to be read with a keen eye and proper lens in order to fully understand the authors position when describing theoretical approaches to Global Politics and ideologue that influence world leaders and actors in society, past and present.
The author may have hidden motives that will not be discussed in an academic setting, such as: a Zionist stance and positions on world politics while explaining differing theories referring to: Conservatism, Liberalism, Realism and Neo-Realism. So far I find it ironic that Zionism has not been discussed, since fluctuations in oil prices and GDP play a major role in our domestic economy along with the Israeli's isolating themselves from the changing region of the Middle-East. It's very conspicuous that the author would leave these issues out of the text when describing what key theories have major impacts to Global politics.

The author jumps to the current economic crisis while un-digging the past of the Cold War and that of Liberalism in our modern society. Leaving the readers to suggest that liberalism and democracy is a failed solution to world politics as a successful society like ours may suggest in moderate terms. It is ironic that the author fails to suggest the role that U.S. tax paying citizens money has currently on financing the Zionist regime of Israel, as they receive the most international aid of all nations in the world from the U.S., and dictators in neighboring countries who received similar aid to oppress their people before and after the Arab Spring occurred. There is also much left to debate about the War in Iraq and Afghanistan that the author leaves open for explanation.
1794807
I can only imagine what information I will find in this book. America has a long history of destabilizing South American popular political movements. Sadly Americans are ignorant and oblivious to the brutality and greed espoused by the elites that rule this country and steer foreign policy.
3680285
The Graves are not yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa

  Atlantic Monthly correspondent Bill Berkeley has written a thorough and provocative account of the relationship among racial, tribal, and ethnic interests in African culture.

Drawing on the Rwanda genocide and the recent famine and mass starvation in Darfur, Berkeley says these developments are not so much the result of "age old hatreds" as they are the consequence of a history of tyranny going back to Leopold II of Belgium and the failure of the international community to focus on Africa except as an extension of the Cold War.

 "For four decades U.S. policy toward Africa was driven almost entirely by our competition with the Soviet Union.  Africans scarcely existed except as strategic pawns in the great global game.  Democratic and Republican administrations alike defined their options narrowly: they seldom gave priority to initiatives that did not serve U.S.

Strategic interests.  They often overlooked, excused, rationalized ---and bankrolled-- wanton repression, injustice, corruption and economic mismanagement by unelected

Leaders who were willing to oppose Moscow."  (Berkeley, P. 78)

The CIA bears responsibility for much of Africa's problems, Berkeley says, and the media is to blame as well.  "The press bears a measure of responsibility for this attitude. There is a school of thought that the overwhelming emphasis on bad news creates an unrepresentative image of Africa. There may be some merit in this. My own view is that a more serious, and sinister problem is not the quantity of bad news but the quality." (Berkeley, P.88)

Finally, he says, Africans bear responsibility for their actions.  He says there is a culture of Corruption where everything is for sale and everybody has his price.

In all a gloomy, but well-researched, look at the problems of a continent which one ninth of the world's population calls home.

Four Stars: ****
2132122
In his book Lords of Poverty, Mr. Graham Hancock offers a very detailed account of the so-called Aid Industry.  Unfortunately, the case study he presents is completely out of date (the 80's).  This is the year 2000 and,  hence, fresh figures, new dates and new names are needed.
The other  flaw of his book is that, like every one else who has written on the  subject of foreign aid, Mr. Hancock bases his account on his experiences in  India and in some other regions of Africa.  But what about the rest of the  world.  What we need is a much broader and deeper look of the foreign aid  industry as the self perpetuating industry that it actually is,  particularly with regard to the secret internal modus operandi of  bureaucratic institutions such as the UN, World Bank, OAS, USIAD, etc, etc.  In other words, we want the true inside story.  It is the only way to  really know what's going on.
Few people are aware that these  organizations are ran mainly by "political rejects" who after  having been thrown out from their own countries accused of becoming  political trouble makers, or misfits, they find "haven" in those  international aid organizations.  Sort of like "dying and going to  haven".
The fact that the head of the World Bank or the Secretary  General of the UN might have been a head of state before he was rewarded  with the current top job does not mean in any way that he is fit for the  job that he is holding now.  Those top positions and other of lesser  importance, are usually regarded as political favors.  The same holds true  of those professionals who are looking for a place to land a good paying  job that requires little or no work at all.  To keep a good paying job with  private industry, professionals would be required to work very hard,  something that many of them don't have to do at the UN or any other  international aid organization.  These are the "technicians", the  "experts" who come to poor third world countries to  "straighten things out", as they say, when in fact all they are  doing is enjoying officially sponsored vacations with all their expenses  paid for with taxpayers money from the industrialized nations.  That, I  believe, is one of the reasons for the high rate of failure of such  organizations: bureaucratic incompetence.  It is for this reason that I  also believe that some form of tight government control and public scrutiny  should be implemented in order to make foreign aid agencies fully  accountable for every dime they spend.  Otherwise they will continue to  function as international clubs of free-loaders.
I guarantee that any  American taxpayer would be infuriated to know that the great majority of  the employees of these international aid organizations headquartered in the  U.S.A. do not, I repeat, do not pay any form of local and/or federal income  tax because these organizations (UN, OAS, PAHO, IDB, etc.) are not required  by law to report salaries paid to their employees.  Therefore, the IRS does  not have any way to know who's earning what and who owes what.  But even  those employees who, by some special circumstance, must file a tax return  will do so with the understanding that the organization will not only  compute their own taxes, but will also issue them a check for taxes owed on  their income.  Oh yes,  no matter how you cut it, "working" in  any of those international organizations is like dying and going to haven;  or almost like wining the lottery.
V.P.Reyna Guatemala, Guatemala  Mepolly@xela.net.gt
588833
With his 60th birthday approaching, Paul Theroux decided to give up the comforts of his home in Hawaii and take a trip overland from Cairo to Capetown.  He travels through some of the most forbidding locales in some of the world's poorest countries; and he travels alone, without a cell phone or internet connection, and without a plan.

Along the way he makes many literary references, mostly to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which he reads over and over again.  There are also some entertaining encounters with Nobel laureates, Naguib Mafouz at the beginning of his journey and Nadine Gordimer at the end.

Theroux describes the poverty and depravation of what he sees, which he claims is worse now than it was 40 years ago when he was a Peace Corps volunteer.  Over the past 40 years, Africa has undergone urbanization just like the rest of the world.  Today about 75% of Africa's population live in urban areas, many in squatter settlements on the outskirts of cities.  Theroux writes: "Even at their best, African cities seemed to me miserable impoverished anthills, attracting the poor and desparate from the bush and turning them into theives and devisers of cruel scams."

As people leave the villages, the civil society of the tribal life disappears altogether.  And since there are no jobs in the city, scamming and theivery become the only means of survival.  The only thing standing in their way are the local police, who Theroux claims are no more than "licensed theives" themselves.

Theroux has some very uncharitable opinions about much of what he sees in Africa, many other writers have described these conditions as well.  However, he unleashes most of his vitriol at the foreign aid workers.  He refers to them as "in general oafish self-dramatizing pigs, and often complete bastards."

It is not off the mark to criticize the foreign aid bureaucracy as it exits today in Africa.  It is true that aid corrupts both donors and recipients.  Aid programs have turned African problems into permanent conditions.  If the streets were lined with beggars before, the beggars now expect such aid with a sense of entitlement.  I think, however, that Theroux goes overboard in attributing most of Africa's problems to foreign aid, especially when he writes that the sharpest lesson foreign aid workers could teach is to turn their backs and go home.

Abandoning Africa as Theroux suggests is not the answer.  A more hopeful, but controversial, approach is outlined in Jeffrey Sach's "The End of Poverty."  Africa will need more aid in the future, not less.  Africa needs economic development so that they can reach "the first rung of the economic ladder."  This means going beyond the subsistence level of the village, which Theroux romanticizes, and producing goods for export which will allow them to participate in the current wave of globalization.  Only when they reach this level of development should anyone speak realistically about reducing foreign aid.

The way aid is currently administered it constitutes a large portion of revenue for many African governments.  And when governments get their revenues from abroad, and do not draw their revenues from the commerce and industry of their citizens, they usually take little interest in their citizens.  The result is always corrupt a government and an impoverish citizenry.  Many of the Arab countries in the Middle East that derive most of their revenue from oil are facing similar problems.

Although it is true that aid has not accomplished much in Africa in the last 40 years, it would be a tragedy to withdraw it at this point.  Aid must be administered in a way that would enable Africans to participate in the global economy rather than being its victims.  This is no small task, outsiders have thus far been unable to change things no matter how good their intentions.  Even with aid, Theroux is correct when he says that only Africans are capable of making a difference in Africa.
2445567
When the Crocodile Eats the Sun, by native-born Zimbabwean Peter Godwin who has lived on several continents and has an international perspective, is very good. It just goes on a bit too long, becomes repetitive, and feels too journalistic in several places. It traces the simultaneous aging and death of Godwin's father in Zimbabwe (where the family has lived for 2-3 generations) alongside the country's rape by Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of Africa, and now the Zimbabwean currency is so valueless that it would take several wheelbarrows of paper money to buy a cup of coffee; the now use the US dollar for currency. Unemployment hovers around 85%
Life expectancy: 34-37 years (primarily due to the AIDS pandemic)
Yet, oddly, the literacy rate is one of the highest in Africa.
Fascinating book.