Common Myths

"aid programmes would fail in Africa”

pessimism about Africans ability to utilise aid is very deep, reflecting an amazing reservoir of deep prejudices... 

"nothing prepared me for the amazing statement made by the new administrator of the USAID, Andrew Natsios,... 

'Africans,' he said, 'don't know what Western time is. You have to take these [anti-Aids] drugs a certain number of hours each day, or they don't work. Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or watch their entire lives. If you say 1 o'clock in the afternoon, they do not know what you are talking about. They know morning, they know noon, they know evening, they know the darkness of night' "...