I'm sorry, lady, but people in Africa really do lack access to clean water and basic sanitation.
More people really do have AIDS in Africa than anywhere else. Millions of children really are orphans because their parents died of AIDS.
It is literally a DARK place - that's not some arbitrary insult. If you look at one of those satellite images of the world at night, Africa is a dark continent. No electricity means less business, less economic development, and thus less economic vitality. Compare the lights in the U.S. or Europe to the darkness in Africa.The Save Darfur campaign paints Africa in a bad light? It should! Genocide is occurring. Should we not give Sudan negative media coverage?
No one is denying that Africa is all the things you say in the last paragraph - beautiful, strong, rhythmic, hopeful. But if true caring is a glossing over of the quote-unquote true problems that exist, then I guess I just don't care.
The fact that she even puts the word Africa in quotations throughout the article shows how freakishly paranoid she has become about the whole thing. Africa is indeed a place! It's an actual land mass. It's not a myth. It's not a political construction. It's a real mixing bowl of thousands of vibrant cultures that have some strengths and some weaknesses in common. No need for quotations.
