Dictators cause the world’s worst problems: all the collapsed states, and all the devastated economies. All the vapid cases of corruption, grand theft, and naked plunder of the treasury are caused by dictators, leaving in their wake trails of wanton destruction, horrendous carnage and human debris.

The richest persons in Africa are heads of state, governors and ministers. So every ‘educated’ African who wants to be rich – and there is nothing wrong with wanting to be rich – heads straight into government or politics.

The election of Senator Barack Obama brought jubilation across Africa, where millions celebrated him as ‘one of their own.’

If NATO goes in and solves the crisis in Darfur, when the next one comes along Africa’s leaders will just sit back.

In a banana republic, one might slip on a banana peel but things do work – now and then for the people, albeit inefficiently and unreliably.

Virtually all of Africa’s civil wars were started by politically marginalized or excluded groups.

Personally, I regard myself as an intellectual ‘rebel,’ kicking against the ‘old colonialism-imperialism paradigm’ which has landed Africa in a conundrum.

You have to separate the humanitarian impulse from the record of aid itself. We all want to help. Many people would say that it’s the moral impulse of the rich to help the poor, but the record of aid has been terrible.

The solutions to Africa’s problems lie in Africa, not in Live Aid concerts.

Africa’s salvation doesn’t lie in begging and begging for more aid, and as an African, I find it very, very humiliating.