The thing is "WHO CARES" That part of the world has been one gigantic slum for centuries.. Mud hut villages, Tribal Warfare, Disease, Hunger, the only difference is now they can get more publicity... I am sure the UN will try to get the USA to give them a few billion dollars to waste on the "problem" People will live as they want to live. and in africia, that seems to be at the bottom of the heap.

Many Africans have gone back to subsistence farming. The fortunes we spend to "Help" only help the do-gooder organizations, their CEO"s and employees. STOP wasting your money.

This kind of makes my complaints about pot holed streets seem trivial.

The Economist magazine does an excellent job of unbiased reporting on issues that rarely appear in American publications, or, if they do, never achieve such depth of detail. The complexity of the issue of city slums - tolerant, powerless poor; indifferent or greedy politicians and business men; the need for cheap labor; the tragic hopelessness in rural areas which drive the poor into the cities; the well-meaning but ineffectual aid groups; and the sheer massiveness of the problem means there is almost no way to make it better. Top to bottom, no one wants to risk changing the status quo.

Easy now

I never said anything like what you imply, the need to help others is a good human condition,,,, but help with assurance that the help gets where it needs to go, to help elevate those that need it to help themselves and be self reliant.

What many that live in the US forget is that how fortunate they are to have been born here instead of some third or fourth world country. We get despondent when gas goes to $3 PG. We freak when the stock market falls a few points. We have it pretty good here for the most part and have the ability help others. This means helping not only by just throwing money at the problem but trying to help with solutions to build economic wealth in other places. The Chinese proverb about fishing comes to mind.

The planet is vast yet small, as someone said here; a Pandemic could be a possible threat from the squalor. If nothing more, thank your lucky stars if you are on this site and live in one of the better countries on the planet. Remember you were born there more out of chance than having some sort of 'right' to so deserve.

I think All nations should chip in and help with this cause though not just the US, this is the worlds problem as a whole.

This is just so sad. These people need help. They are just trying to band togeather in the slums for support. If you have never gone without, and most Americans haen't no matter what they think, you don't know how alone you can feel, hungry cold nd alone. Birth control pills are not the answer any more than some free food. They need to be taught how to support themselves and how to raise theri own food etc. We are so lucky because it is a given that we at least have a chance to get something in this country. Try to see what they are living.

i wonder how many of the corrupt governments in the African continent were put in place or supported by the American government? America has a long history of silently supporting corrupt governments that will allow American interests and corporations into these countries to plunder the natural resources there, leaving the citizens of the countries in the dust. And no, I'm not saying ALL of the African countries that have an overwhelming amount of poor and/or diseased citizens are the result of American foreign policy... just most of them. :-) I wonder when the last time a big American oil company that draws oil from these countries spent some of their billions of dollars in profits on programs for citizens of the country to educate and better themselves?