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

Getting rid of the dictator is only a first step in establishing a free society. The dictatorship must also be disassembled.

There's a belief that since Africa got a raw deal from the colonial West, then the Chinese must be Africa's best friend. But the evidence doesn't show that, and the main criticism is that they are building infrastructure in exchange for Africa's resources in deals that are structured to favor China.

Across Africa there is what I call a colonialist mentality or orthodoxy. Orthodoxy in the sense that a lot of things have gone wrong in Africa in the post-colonial period. And time and time again, any time something went wrong, the leadership claims that it was never their fault.

African history is filled with experiences of people shooting their way to power and then splintering into factions, like in Somalia and Liberia.

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

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