i know a lot of people in this country both black and white and asian see africa as some sort of desperate hell hole where its crime ridden and no economy.

well i come from an african country called ghana and i was born and grew up there, i only came here when i was 15. any way growing up in ghana there was hardly any crime, i dont remmember anyone getting mugged or killed, there was no gun crime, i had never seen a gun in my life till i came to this country, hardly any armed robbery and definetely no war. my education was one of the best, we had all the textbooks needed, the students were focused and very clever, and there was supermarkets nice houses, lots of people driving nice cars and such.

all i'm saying is coming to this country my standard of living here compared to ghanawas no different. admittedely there was poverty in ghana as i occasionally saw youngsters selling items just to survive. but generally people were happy and you could go anywhere you wanted in ghana without looking at your back that someone was going to rob you or shoot you. ghanaians and i think africans are some of the most frindliest people you will ever meet.

i'm not saying africa is perfect and every country is paradise like mine, but i still thinkmost african countries are just like mine, and yes there is sudan and zimbabwe and congo but arent these exceptions?, dont we have trouble even worsein other parts of the world? its really about time african govts began selling themselves and trying to eradicate the image o africa, cos there is more to it than just lions and safari.

Hi, yes we've heard of this place called Ghana, it's the best place to live in Africa at the moment.

Ihave a few off topic questions... you went to school in Ghana, right? Ok what language did they teach you in? what other languages did you learn, what subjects did you study? Also which country are you currently living in, and why have you decided to move?

Africa is a very big and diverse continent. There are nice places and there are troubled places. We must look at and play up the positives in Africa... I agree that its a beautiful place and not everywhere has the issues you describe

but

You cant overemphasise the problems in Africa either. They wont go away if we cant even acknowledge them. People ARE suffering and its OUR people...

DrunkMonkey is right on point. Africa is a massive continent and the way you hear people (particularly Europeans/Westerners) refer to 'Africa' as if talking about Brighton or Great Yarmouth overlooks the fact that you can be in one part that is so very different from another youcould you forget you are in the same continent.

Africa is not just all about the 'negative' things that Western propaganda would have youbelieve when they come with their condescending ads seeking donations from kind hearted Europeans/Westerners who are so benevolent in their giving to help the 'poor and starving of Africa'.......conveniently overlooking the fact that Western/European countries enjoy the standard of living their do at the expense of a people their stole and pillaged from and continue to do so.

What CANNOT be overemphasised, in fact is not emphasised enough, is the part that Europe/Westerners/Whiteman played inthe'UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA' as a whole. If not for their greed, selfishness and savagery there would be no need to have those damn condescending adverts showing poor and starving children in a way which suggests that Africa did it to itself.

Also if you look behind the veil and see past the big sky scrapers and fast cars of America, the so called dream country, has many areas where poverty is worse than many places in Africa.

Except you don't see it. Our eyes are shielded. In America we see big rich people and in Africa we see very poor people living with no food under a small piece of cloth.