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

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

To be sure, dictators are crafty, evil geniuses with awesome firepower at their disposal. They are also brutally efficient at intimidation, terrorism, and mass slaughter. However, a force is able to dominate because the counterforce is either nonexistent or weak.

Radio is the death and life of Africa.

Socialism is always wrong.

There was free trade in Africa. There was free enterprise in Africa before the colonialists came.

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.