04 May 2005

Life in Africa Sucks -- Women and Children Hardest Hit

This information is such a departure from everything I've heard before about the tremendous opportunities and general quality of life in Africa that I'm having trouble comprehending it all. A study by an international aid organization has discovered that life in famine-prone, war-torn, poverty-stricken, backward and unindustrialized Africa is no picnic for women or children:
Africa is the worst continent to be a mother or child, and Mali is one of the worst countries, where one in eight children will die before seeing a first birthday, according to a study published Tuesday.

The State of the World's Mothers 2005, a report by Save The Children USA, studied 110 countries and details health and educational opportunities for mothers and their children.

"Conditions for children and mothers in the bottom-ranked countries are devastating," said Charles MacCormack, president of Save the Children. "Many children are fortunate just to survive the first five years of life and have a chance to go to school."

In Burkina Faso, fewer than one in 10 women can read and write. In Ethiopia just 25 percent of the population has access to clean water.

Scandinavian countries sweep the top rankings for the best places to be a mother, while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominate the bottom tier, the report said. Out of the 10 worst countries to be a mother or child, seven are in Africa.

In Sweden, which tops the list, nearly all women are literate. In Ethiopia, only 34 percent of women are literate. A mother in Ethiopia is 37 times more likely to see her child die in the first year of life than a mother in Sweden.

. . . .

"The Mothers' Index clearly shows that the quality of children's lives is inextricably linked to the health and education of their mothers," MacCormack added. "In countries where mothers fare well, children fare well; in countries where mothers do poorly, children do poorly."

If the men in Africa were living well, perhaps the poor health of and lack of educational opportunities for African women and children would be newsworthy.

I think it was Aristotle who wrote that, "No matter how thin you slice it, baloney is still baloney." Thus, unless your African survey's sample population consists entirely of oil-rich, politically-connected warlords, it's going to paint a picture of a place that is a cautionary tale straight from Hobbes' Leviathan -- "No arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

Life in Africa sucks whether you're an impoverished and uneducated father, a mother without access to modern medicines, a malnourished child, or an aspiring mime with a compelling message to convey about being trapped in an invisible box. It's tragic, but it's not news to anyone at this point.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

if africans took the time from killing each other and raping monkeys, they might realize they have the worlds largest supply of gold and diamonds and use it to their advantage.

Anonymous said...

This is an awesome post. Africans have inhabited the continent of Africa longer than any known peoples and yet they STILL live in mud huts, mutilate their women, and remain largely illiterate and uneducated. I am sick of being PC and not talking about the white elephant in the room - AFRICA SUCKS. Blacks in the U.S. are taking over our cities and, wouldn't you know it, the cities they take over turn into violent, depressed ghettos! This is not a coincidence! Black people are inherently less intelligent and more violent! The ones that have half a brain are leaving that cesspool of destruction and living abroad. Let's just ignore Africa and let themselves kill each other off. It's going to happen inevitably anyway. If they don't do it with guns, nature will do it with the AIDS they are spreading so efficiently! The only thing I feel bad for in Africa is the poor wild animals that endure poaching by these idiots. If only we could get the animals out of there then nuke the place...

Anonymous said...

To the first "Anonymous" poster who wrote:

"africa doesnt suck, you do! i am part north african ( and yes, hell i dont look north african)"

You obviously AREN'T at all proud to be "North African" if you say you are "part North African" but you "Don't look North African". You are obviously glad NOT to look North African and I guess you would be ashamed if you DID look North African? You want people to know you are North African but at the same time, you DON'T want people to know you are North African? What a hypocrite you are. If you were REALLY proud of your heritage, you wouldn't be glad you didn't look like a North African, even though you are. Go crawl back into your hole.

Anonymous said...

http://www.resist.com/CARTOON%20GALLERY/NIGGERS/nig_image01.jpg

Anonymous said...

If you do decide to ignore Africa, would you kindly please give visums to the whites who tried all their might to make something of Africa, and now get kicked in the teeth by Africans? Let me tell you, Apartheid provided better for the Africans in South Africa than any African government could ever provide for their people.