I'm certainly not suggesting throwing money at them, Ake, and I can't quite figure out what part of my posts gave you the impression that I was.

I guess what I am trying to express is my distaste for the idea of loaning money to people who cannot afford to pay the interest, let alone the capital, and then sitting back smugly and raking in the profits from what they do manage to pay, knowing all the while that this is a never ending drain on their lives.

Africa is largely an agrarian part of the world, and could probably feed itself with the right kind of practical help from the West. This is not likely to turn it to sweat shop capitalism.

In view of the fact that the industrial resources of that continent (gold, diamonds etc.) are owned and exploited by outsiders from the capitalist West, would you not say that we owe them something in return? Something better than watching them starve while we profit from what, morally, belongs to them?

Don T.