Undoubtedly Africa is filled with well meaning intelligent citizens who want to do the right thing. Sadly Africa is also filled with mind numbingly corrupt and incompetent leaders Who rob their citizens, the NGOs, development banks and other nation’s foreign aid accounts blind. People around the world have been bombarded for decades with words and horrific images of Africans powerless to effect change suffering and dying while their elites enrich themselves. Doctors, nurses, engineers, pilots, students, retirees, missionaries and others with a “savior complex” see themselves as bypassing all that corruption and personally trying to help the disenfranchised.

Yes I know they’re clueless. Yes I know they’ll be there for a few months and then disappear. Personally I’d put the “villagers” putting on a show for tourists and trying to squeeze a dollar from their pockets in the same class as the Hula shows in Hawaii, the costumed Roman soldiers in Rome or the German bands at Ocktoberfests everywhere. They’re just trying to make a buck where two dollars a day can feed a family. Do you really want to malign the clueless? Would you, and Africa be better off harnessing their labor and directing their spending while you race to build a market economy before the gravy train runs dry? All those outsiders are treating symptoms. Curing the disease that causes those symptoms is most definitely a task for Africans. I can tell you people around the world wish you the best in that endeavor.