Admittedly, many Western journalists do write like this. It sells to the overworked editor and the local audience. It also destroys any semblance of progress that African states are making. I’d like to say we can do better. Of course, a bit of disillusion will slip in there every once and a while – just as it does when I think about the drug and prostitution problems in Vancouver.
Also. I just started reading Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid. If she wants her thesis to be agreed with and, consequently, acted upon (weaning African countries off aid), then she will have to take a permanent hold of the media and reverse the long ingrained trend of neo-colonial aid and development discourse.