Iraq: Out of the desert into Mosul (closed)

[JMA]

In Nigeria, where I come from, Western analysts are all over the place about Boko Haram & how poverty and alienation are its root causes - but when you ask them about local Christians who are even poorer and more alienated (because the power structures the British left behind empowered the Muslims in Northern Nigeria) - they are blank.

Good you raise this. Prevalent in the NGO community are the preconceived ideas expats arrive in Africa with. They then go on to screw things up further as they control how and where the money is spent. Many NGOs - certainly the Brit ones - have a far left ideology and use their projects to push their agenda rather than empower the people in the areas they work. It is also true that some of the NGO workers are smart enough to see where they are going wrong but are powerless and are swept along by the ideological aims of their organisation. Most don't care as they live a lifestyle they could not dream of back at home and just go with the flow.

In the military it is much the same, as at a point officers commit to a career and subordinate their intellect to doing what they are told regardless of how ridiculous it may be. In the US this was seen in Vietnam and now again in Afghanistan. A military - with its weapons - operating off-track causes more devastation than all the misguided NGOs together.

I certainly don't forgive the NGOs or foreign militaries that have contributed to screwing Africa up to the extent it is... but the world hears no solutions coming out of Africa itself. Even yourself... much criticism but no solutions offered.

All we get coming out of the recent African leaders summit is this crap:

African leaders vote to give themselves immunity from war crimes prosecutions

This group includes the Arab states in North Africa and together make "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" look like choir boys.