Traditionally, Africans hate governments. They hate tyranny.

Dictators are allergic to reform, and they are cunning survivors. They will do whatever it takes to preserve their power and wealth, no matter how much blood ends up on their hands. They are master deceivers and talented manipulators who cannot be trusted to change.

In the West, the basic economic and social unit is the individual; in Africa, it is the extended family or the collective.

Traditionally, Africans hate governments. They hate tyranny.

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

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

Back in the 1960s Africa not only fed itself, it also exported food. Not anymore.