Africa: what is the value of outside help?

Paul Theroux, in a provocative, compelling, and generative op-ed in The New York Times writes about the danger (and futility) of saving Africa with outside help. Theroux articulates something that I've been thinking about for some time and wrote a brief note about last year.

I don't want to minimize how hard it is to solve my own problems. I look the other way often. And I hope for some outside magic just as often. I do wish it were simpler and I could be a disinterested participant. Unhappily, but fortunately, none of that really works.

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