The Myth of African Poverty, page 1

I speak under correction, but this sounds awfully like Thabo Mbeki, our former fruitcake president, who waxed lyrically on an "African Renaissance" while public health virtually collapsed, and xenophobic violence from local blacks against foreign black immigrants became so bad that the UN had to build refugee camps.

But yes, parts of Africa were very fruitful, and it has the potential to enrich all its people.
Sadly, instead of learning from success stories like Rhodesia or South Africa, the ANC are going the Marxist path, and a growing reverse apartheid.
We will not see that Eden under them.

However, that hasn't stopped a new immensely wealthy black class from developing.
While Western liberals strain their pockets to help the "poor blacks" from their poverty (rather paradoxically their traditional lifestyle is now called "poverty" in SA, but not in Lesotho or Swaziland), the wealth amongst some blacks is astounding.

One way for the "born-free" black youth today to gain status is to buy designer clothing - and then to burn it.
They have competitions to see who will burn the most expensive shoes, or clothing.

In its early days, in 2008, the craze was simply a South African version of the "dance battles", popular among young, urban black people in the United States. But there is nothing playful about i'khothane's latest incarnation.
These days, such gatherings often culminate in the burning of expensive designer clothes -- and even money. It is about standing out from the crowd: proving to your mates that you are so rich that expensive possessions mean nothing. It does not stop at clothing or R50 notes. Sometimes i'khothane also involves the destruction of "party" food such as KFC, which the dancers stamp into the ground as other kids look on. According to i'khothane legend, in Pimville someone once bought a bucket of KFC chicken and stepped on it. Then he took off his Carvela shoes, set them alight and declared: "They [the shoes] have finished eating and now they are full!" I'khothane "battles" are usually held at a local park or other open space. The news of the gatherings is spread by word of mouth and the crews are mobbed by hundreds of admiring children and teenagers as they arrive. It is instant celebrity.

mg.co.za...

What is going on is shocking - the lust for instant wealth and the widespread corruption.
The only thing keeping masses of Africans poor is other Africans.
A whole class of them have loads of money - how much do they contribute to uplift their people?

edit on 21-2-2012 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)