Here's a lesson for Africa:

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Moral of the story? (Warning: contains the S-word)

• Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy


• Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend


• And when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

The western world must stop trying to help Africa out of its shit; here are some other do-gooders that are getting their come-uppance:

CNN,
30 Oct 2007,
Aid group faces kidnapping charges

Authorities in Chad have charged nine French nationals with kidnapping after they attempted to fly out of Chad with more than 100 children the group claimed were orphans from Sudan.

Air crew from the Spanish charter company Sirjet have also been detained by Chadian authorities.
2 of 2 The charges were confirmed by Leonard Vincent, who heads the Africa desk at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. Three French journalists are among those charged.

In addition, Vincent said, seven crew members of a Spanish charter company were charged with complicity.

The 16 were being held in the eastern Chadian city of Abeche and were expected to be transferred to the capital, N'Djamena, later in the week, Vincent said.

The group was arrested last week as they tried to put 103 children on a plane to France. The "rescue mission" was organized by L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark), a Paris-based charity which said the children were orphans from the Darfur crisis and were being taken to foster families in France.

The Chadian government disputed that, and a spokeswoman for the UNHCR said that based on preliminary interviews with the children, they "most probably" are from Chad.

Here's the video of the aid workers paraded in handcuffs.

Related Blogs:

Diary of an Anxious Black Woman,
29 Oct 2007,
Trouble at Mama Oprah's School for Girls

I was one of those critics who disapproved of Oprah's "neocolonialist" fantasy of building her "dream" school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa.
...
Not sure what to think, especially since the academy has been plagued with so much criticism and complaints from the get go- including from parents who bitterly complained that they were not allowed to keep in touch with their daughters (to which Oprah haughtily replied that if these parents didn't like the rules that were set up, they can take their daughters out of the school since there were many other girls who would willingly take their place).

Still, concerns that the school was run like a "prison," and "cultural differences" that led two students to quit the school, all seem to read like one of the worst offenses in colonial history. Why, oh why, do these stories sound so much like the kind of abuses that Native American children suffered when they were forced to attend boarding schools run by missionaries and scary officials who did treat boarding schools like a "prison" or military training camp?

Problems were surfacing almost half a year ago:

News24,
11 Mar 2007,
Oprah's school 'too strict'

The rules at Oprah Winfrey's ultra-posh school at Henley-on-Klip near Johannesburg are apparently so strict they make a reformatory look like a holiday resort.

That's the word from upset parents, who say the school rules make it difficult for them to keep contact with their children.

They would have aired their concerns during a satellite link-up with the chat show queen a week ago, but that was cancelled at short notice by the school's management body.

Meanwhile the school seems to have made the rules even stricter. Until now, the girls could receive visitors every fortnight, but parents can now only visit them once a month.

Of course, if Oprah spent a few minutes on the web she would have found out that South Africa is one of the most violent, barbaric nations on earth, see AfricanCrisis, it makes Iraq look like Disneyworld. Not really a good place to put a school or factory or anything modern. Liberals have a hard time accepting the fact that Africa is lost. Billions of dollars in good intentions litter the continent with useless and unutilized gifts.

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