Game Development In the Heart of Africa

Peace Corps Online writes "The Internet has been credited with 'flattening' the world economy, giving anyone anywhere with the requisite skills the opportunity to build a game or create an app on Facebook. Now the Mercury News reports on a new game for the iPhone called iWarrior. It was produced by two 26-year-old developers in Africa, Eyram Tawiah (a Ghanaian) and Wesley Kirinya (a Kenyan), who created every element of their game — the mechanics, the graphics, the music — overcoming considerable obstacles to develop their first product. The game is 'a feed 'em up game, not a shoot 'em up,' says Tawiah, where you 'defend your village by feeding and driving away the animals before they crash it and feed on your livestock and garden!' with threats including thundering elephants, mighty rhinos, swift cheetahs, and crafty hyenas. The developers' company, Leti, which means 'star' in the Ewe language, was nurtured by the philanthropic arm of San Francisco-based Meltwater Group, an Internet business services company, which in 2008 founded the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Accra, Ghana. 'We believe talent is everywhere,' says the Meltwater founder and CEO."

Comments

Please no racist jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

That is all.

Carry on.

The Land of Opportunity

[DarkKnightRadick]

The US is no longer the only place that is a land flowing with opportunity and people willing to take a risk to make something new. This is very good news and probably would not have happened without the advent of the Internet in those countries (or anywhere else that such collaboration takes place). I wish the developers the best of luck (I have no plans on buying an iPhone or purchasing anything from Apple, sorry guys).

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[Jurily]

The US is no longer the only place that is a land flowing with opportunity and people willing to take a risk to make something new.

Yeah, Microsoft stopped buying out their competitors in bulk.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[sopssa]

Another great indie game from countries with a lot less standard living costs is Mount&Blade from a Turkish developer and his wife. I love open sandbox games and had a lot of fun playing it back in 2008, and it seems like they have now published a multiplayer expansion pack. The great thing for the developers in these countries is that they can make significantly more than with an usual job in the country, and it's easier to fund their life as an independent game developer. It doesn't work the same way for those in the US or other countries where living costs are a lot higher.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[the_humeister]

The US is no longer the only place that is a land flowing with opportunity and people willing to take a risk to make something new.

Uhm, the US was never the only place of opportunity! There's most of Europe, much of South America, much of eastern Asia, Australia, etc.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[carlzum]

The US may no longer be the land of opportunity, but it has been the source of a lot of opportunity. Don't get me wrong, the US has not been the lone source of innovation in the world. But for everything bad associated with "free market" ideology, off-shoring, tax shelters, etc., there is an American notion of freedom underlying internationalization. There have been moments of backlash, greed, and economic setbacks, but in general, the US has championed economic development and cooperation.

It's not always pretty or altruistic, but give people a foothold in the global economy and their quality of life, rights, and social mobility improve. Improvement has been slow in China and Russia, but there has been positive change. Africa doesn't need military intervention, charities, documentaries, whatever... they need sustainable industries. Foreign companies strip mining or pumping oil will never foster a middle class, technology, manufacturing, or research will.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[puto]

Please define much of South America. As someone who is a citizen of Colombia and Panama, who lives in Colombia I would like to know that other places other than Chile or Peru that can be defined as the lands of oppurtunity. There is such a seperation of the poor in the rich in these countries that unless you have money, a family name, etc there is nothing. Which is a shame for countries so full of natural resources.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[the_humeister]

Brazil, a country that comprises half the South American GDP, perhaps?

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[Anonymous Coward]

Go read the news! He is talking about Brazil, as everybody else is doing these days. The 65% of the population ascending Lula's medium class that is buying everything from Fridges to Houses, from Cars to Computers. The best of the BRIC. The new ascending star of the new global economy.
Brazil is the new land of opportunity! As an American citizen living in Brazil and working with 100 other US programmers and network engineers I can tell soon Lula will have to close its borders to stop the flowing of people from everywhere in Latin America. Like all those Bolivians and Argentinians that work in Sao Paulo's downtown.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[Anonymous Coward]

Go read the news! He is talking about Brazil, as everybody else is doing these days. The 65% of the population ascending Lula's medium class that is buying everything from Fridges to Houses, from Cars to Computers. The best of the BRIC. The new ascending star of the new global economy.

Did Lula give you a job at the gov't too?
If you write such crap here, some people outside Brazil may even believe it.

First of all, the economy got stable thanks to the former president (that is: not Lula) and his economic reform. That economic reform was heavily bashed by Lula _until_ he got elected, tell me about hypocrisy!
Lula is a populist of the worst kind, who buys votes distributing free money to the poor (literally, see that "bolsa familia"). He also has as friends thugs like Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro etc.

Brazil is the new land of opportunity! As an American citizen living in Brazil and working with 100 other US programmers and network engineers I can tell soon Lula will have to close its borders to stop the flowing of people from everywhere in Latin America. Like all those Bolivians and Argentinians that work in Sao Paulo's downtown.

You make it sound like wonderland, while in fact it isn't.
Even Russia has its own illegal immigrants (from caucasus, Vietnam etc). That doesn't mean the place is heaven on earth.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[LingNoi]

Except it was an american foundation that funded the whole thing. There's no way anyone in africa could do this alone with iPhone development's huge barrier to entry.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[sznupi]

The US as a shining beacon of opportunity seems to be, for some time, a convenient lie that's fed to you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility#Social_system
Despite this formal opportunity for social mobility, recent research suggests that Britain and particularly the United States have less social mobility than the Nordic countries and Canada.[6][7] These authors state that "the idea of the US as the land of opportunity persists; and clearly seems misplaced."
[6] http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/apr/25/socialexclusion.accesstouniversity

Though I guess the myth will persist..."nanny states" leading as the Land of Opportunity?! Can't be...

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[DarkKnightRadick]

True, but with more and more of this sort of entrepreneurship going on in Africa, sooner or later African companies will start to rise up to take the lead in funding African businesses. I firmly believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. It may not happen overnight (and that's a good, 90% possibility) but it will happen.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[DarkKnightRadick]

I'll have to read those citations later on today. Thanks for the links. (:

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[Elektroschock]

Oh, wasn't there also open source in Sub-Saharan Africa? There is this Open Source guy Guido Sohne who worked for Microsoft.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[sirlatrom]

Please read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" before continuing your praise of the US championing 'economic development and cooperation.'

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[sznupi]

No problem; but, funny thing, look at the moderation of that post of mine above - seems somebody indeed likes to cling to old myths and doesn't like what was pretty much, well...a citation ;p

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[carlzum]

"Shock Doctrine" is proof that US economic policy is neither pretty or altruistic, assuming you buy into it. To me, her argument is borderline conspiracy theory at worst and a collection of philosophical musings at best.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[ottothecow]

Honestly, the rise in micro-priced apps (and ad-supported stuff) has got to be a boon for developers in lower cost of living countries.

If you can code and operate with rather clear english (or get someone to help you with translation), even a moderately successful iphone app or facebook game could generate pretty significant revenues. IIRC, Scrabulous was made by a pair of coders in India--while it was a dubious rip of scrabble, I would imagine that the ad commissions translated into a fortune by Indian standards. Now that there are platforms like facebook or the various app stores, you really do not need the kind of reach and marketing that would have been very difficult to accomplish for a group of coders in the middle of Africa--the distribution platform is already good to go and if you make something interesting, word of mouth will take care of a lot of the advertising. Thousands of sales of a 99c app don't amount to much in the US...but there are lots of places where a few thousand USD a year would be great to cover living expenses or provide working capital for something more ambitious.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[DarkKnightRadick]

the moderators are fickle. I had one comment go from +5 interesting all the way to -1 flamebait in the span of a week.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[Anonymous Coward]

Costa Rica

Promo BS

[dcollins]

"The game is 'a feed 'em up game, not a shoot 'em up' says Tawiah where you 'defend your village by feeding and driving away the animals before they crash it and feed on your livestock and garden!'"

Gotta call BS on this one. The gameplay is fundamentally the same as Galaga or Centipede; hostile stuff comes down the screen and you shoot it. On some levels here the backstory is "throw stones to frighten", on others it's "throw hay to distract", but the mechanics are identical. It's a shoot-em-up.

Re:Promo BS

[BearRanger]

Perhaps, but without the blood and severed limbs I'm more likely to allow my kids to play it. I say good for them for transforming their arms into ploughshares.

Re:Promo BS

[Anonymous Coward]

Because games like Galaga and Centipede are way too r-rated to be in the hands of children!

Re:Promo BS

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you some kind of fag?

Awesome!

[Scutter]

I don't even have an iPhone and I'm tempted to buy it just to support their effort!

Re:Awesome!

[Anonymous Coward]

You sound white.

I hope the players...

[Anonymous Coward]

Won't get fed too!

YEAH

future promise

[scout-247]

This is a refreshingly positive piece of news for me. It leads me to believe that yes, truly anything is possible. If we all just go ahead and do our best, eventually our world will recover from the imminent destruction it is currently facing.

Ignorance.

[the_raptor]

Do people really think Africa is only peopled by savage tribesmen running around with grass skirts and spears? They have cities with computers and nearly everyone has a cell phone (copper landlines tend to get stolen).

Africa's problem over the last several decades has been loss of intellectual and managerial power in the transition from white colonial rule to self-rule. The continent had a fair bit of light industry and a decent agricultural industry but those have largely failed due to the previous white owners either fleeing or being thrown out*. As the Soviets showed in the 20's and 30's you can't just kick out upper management and expect the shop floor worker to do as good a job. African countries needs non-corrupt leadership and properly trained upper and middle managers to create self-sustaining economies based on agriculture and light and heavy industry. Not fickle industries like tourism or app development. The latter produces money but the former produces wealth.

Training thousands of Africans in western management styles would help them more than all the food and monetary aid we currently give them.

It is a a travesty that African countries are leasing huge swathes of land for foreign countries to farm, and sells mineral rights to foreign corporations to plunder and pollute.

* Which is why Zimbabwe is a joke and South Africa is teetering on the precipice.

Re:Ignorance.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Soviet experience showed no such thing.

It showed that when you have a revolution, you need to make sure that Stalin doesn't rise up through the ranks of your party, take over everything and kill dissenters, then implement disastrous policies that look on the surface like things you might do but are really just the same old same old historians have come to expect from new emperors.

Re:Ignorance.

[AHuxley]

The problem with 'properly trained upper and middle managers' is that they will charge their white colonial importers market prices for rare, expensive raw materials.
They will then seek and buy "heavy industry" on the open market and not from " white colonial" powers.
If your a " white colonial" power, much of Africa is just fine as it is now, divided, at war, exporting low cost pure raw wealth and importing generational debt.

Re:Ignorance.

[Reservoir Penguin]

If anything the 20s and 30s showed that forced industrialization can work, at least for a short time. Under Stalin Russia went from an agrarian country that did not produce it's own artillery shells during WWI to an industrial powerhouse that was beginning to outproduce Germany by the the late 30s. If you consider forced labour and starvation of the countryside acceptable of course.

Re:Ignorance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do people really think Africa is only peopled by savage tribesmen running around with grass skirts and spears? They have cities with computers and nearly everyone has a cell phone (copper landlines tend to get stolen).

That's funny....you start out stating they aren't savages but then proceed to explain why they are exactly that (in a sense) even suggesting a civilized Western approach to surviving.......I am not saying you are wrong, just found it hilarious your entire post contradicts the point you are trying to make ;-)

Carry on!

Re:Ignorance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or they're being taken advantage of by us fucking pathetic evil peoples who value self power and money over all. Fucking kill ourselves or teh greed will not stop!

Re:Ignorance.

[Vintermann]

> Do people really think Africa is only peopled by savage tribesmen running around with grass skirts and spears?

No, but I have read the Ubuntu Cola blog, from rural Malawi. I recommend it, it's plenty exotic enough!

Re:Ignorance.

[thaig]

The GP is a racist but to be fair the "fucking pathetic evil peoples" are 99.98% "indigenous", to use the reverse-racist term that from my homeland, Zimbabwe.

Re:Ignorance.

[the_raptor]

And what Stalin and his cronies did was to kill off upper management for being "class enemies" or "counter revolutionaries" and then put peasants and street sweepers with little to no technical or managerial skills in charge. I wasn't attacking communism but the specific policies that caused disasters for the Soviets early on, and which got repeated in Zimbabwe.

Re:Ignorance.

[the_raptor]

The starvation wouldn't have happened if Stalin's cronies hadn't killed off the guys who are capable of running large organisations and trying to make reality match their dogma instead of allowing it to guide their dogma. If it hadn't been for the Nazi invasion which forced the Soviets to pull their heads out of their asses (and start being pragmatic) they would probably have collapsed in a few decades.

Re:Ignorance.

[the_raptor]

There is no contradiction. Large swathes of Africa is populated by dirt farmers who have less technology than the Amish. But Africa still has cities and modern technology so some Africans writing a game is hardly surprising (Nigerian spammers don't use carry pigeon). The problem is that due to incompetent leaders and continuing western exploitation the continent isn't really progressing like China or India is. Africa has too many people for them to survive without western agricultural technology, which is why nearly every year there is a famine threatening millions of Africans. The obscenity is while hundreds of thousands starve huge tracts of land are farmed by foreign corporations and the food shipped out of Africa.

Re:Ignorance.

[Thing 1]

(copper landlines tend to get stolen)

I think your parenthetical quote explains a lot about the actual environment there -- and is also likely why people hold those views.

Re:Ignorance.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's bullshit. Is that the story in Chile or Australia or Canada or any other developed resource exporter? I doubt any big international mining company would rather work in Africa than these places: the lower costs are more than overshadowed by the insecurity and uncertainty of working in a corrupt, violent shithole. And many of these commodities are sold at market rates, a country becoming less corrupt is not going to change how much that country can sell its resources for on that market, not unless they dominate any particular resource (which none of them do, not even for diamonds).
And as far as buying heavy industry on the open market, what do you think happens now? Do you think the Chinese aren't up to their elbows in this sort of work, that shifty Western corporations are somehow unfairly elbowing their way into heavy industry contracts?

In the big picture, nobody outside of these countries want the corruption and ineptitude in Africa's ruling classes to continue, it's just bad for business.

Re:Ignorance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Be fair now, it's not just the west that's exploiting Africa. China is the new kid on the exploitation block - watch them in Africa to see that.

Re:Ignorance.

[Retiefdv]

Africa's problem over the last several decades has been loss of intellectual and managerial power in the transition from white colonial rule to self-rule. The continent had a fair bit of light industry and a decent agricultural industry but those have largely failed due to the previous white owners either fleeing or being thrown out*.

* Which is why Zimbabwe is a joke and South Africa is teetering on the precipice.

As a born and bred ZImbabwean and now resident and citizen of South Africa, I think I am qualified to comment on these statements.

In Zimbabwe, the failure and collapse of that country was caused by abuse of power and corruption. No amount of transfer of

intellectual and managerial power

would have prevented that from happening against the background of a despotic government desparately clinging to power and using whatever means (election fraud, destruction of the independence of the judiciary, abolishment of free press, etc.) to achieve that.

In spite of what right-wing newsmongers might want you to believe, South Africa is not even vaguely near to

teetering on the precipice.

Yes, we have challenges with respect to crime, unemployment, corruption, education and I am under no illusion as to the scale of these challenges. We still have a very free press, the judiciary is still widely respected (recent court decisions having been made against the wishes of the ruling party) and the economy has been relatively stable through the global recession.

We will be hosting the world's largest sporting spectacle this year, the FIFA World Cup, in less than three months time. Expect to be pleasantly surprised at what Africa will showcase to the world.

Buffalo Soldier

[IrritableBeing]

Stolen from African.. Brought to America

Nice story

[BarryNorton]

People from Ghana are Ghanaian though

respect please

[Anonymous Coward]

as a Kenyan, inasmuch as I acknowledge the game is crap, most of the racial hatred I see here is uncalled for. I'm black, but in no way am I inferior. I love slashdot, please respect us.

Re:respect please

[chilvence]

Don't take it too personally, all the racist stuff here, just a bunch of geeks showing everyone how socially retarded they are. None of them would say it to anyone's face because that would earn them the swift kick in the teeth they deserve! As it happens, they are so ashamed they won't even say what they think using their USERNAMES... on the INTERNET!

Re:respect please

[Anonymous Coward]

I've just heard about bolivia in an interview with jean ziegler. they were exploited by shell and other oil companies, who only paid minor amounts for concessions/licenses. the country was the second poorest in latin america.

evo morales became president, and he got help form norway: they told him that he couldn't just nationalize the oil industry, because the experience and know-how was missing. what they did: they recalculated the business (norway has experience with oil) on behalf of bolivia and transormed shell etc. into mere service companies. now, shell etc. have to pay about 80 % in concessions. and bolivia has enough money for development, sanitation, education, e.g. reading literacy levels are getting better and better.

(paraphrased. my english is bad and i'm otherwise hampered as well.)

Re:respect please

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't take it too personally, all the racist stuff here, just a bunch of geeks showing everyone how socially retarded they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zov6Ir76DI

Re:respect please

[Anonymous Coward]

The world can't handle the truth. They skirt around it, for the sake of political correctness, or out of fear. Those that do dare speak their real opinion on the matter, are immediately labeled racist and dismissed, without any consideration of what they are saying.

 

swift kick in the teeth they deserve

I find that anyone that advocates that sort of behavior is worse than a racist. That holds regardless of what opinion the person that "kick in the teeth" is directed towards has. And it is precisely because of people like you that no one dares say what they really believe in, in public. Shame on you.

Run-up for outsourcing . . . ?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The developers' company, Leti, which means 'star' in the Ewe language, was nurtured by the philanthropic arm of San Francisco-based Meltwater Group, an Internet business services company, which in 2008 founded the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Accra, Ghana. 'We believe talent is everywhere,' says the Meltwater founder and CEO."

I just wonder if Meltwater has more than philanthropic motives here. Will we seen a Meltwater Ghanaian Computer Services Center, real soon?

Anyone know how wages in Africa compare to China and India . . . ?

Maybe a group of Nigerian programmers could finally finish Duke Nukem Forever . . . if they get a small fee in advance to cover some start up costs . . . ?

Re:Run-up for outsourcing . . . ?

[crossmr]

Maybe a group of Nigerian programmers could finally finish Duke Nukem Forever . . . if they get a small fee in advance to cover some start up costs . . . ?

I represent CEO John Mundabi. Our software firm was just taken over by rebels. We had were preparing the gold master of Duke Nukem Forever to be shipped only moments before half of our team was brutally slaughtered. The rebels are holding our building and assets hostage, however for a small fee of just $5000 (five thousand) US dollars, they've agreed to allow us access to some of the equipment for a short period of time. If we secure access to this disc we would be able to release it. We expect revenues in excess of $40,000,000 (forty million) and would be willing to offer you $2,000,000 (two million) for your help. I think the color of one's skin and the distance do not matter, we can all help one another.
with god
Celia Rundabar

Re:Run-up for outsourcing . . . ?

[Anonymous Coward]

so social engineering has found its way into our daily lives and you're acting like this is something new? none of the people here would fall for this because we practically invented it. now that's it's getting some publicity and attention, we're distancing ourselves and pretending to have nothing to do with it.

Re:Run-up for outsourcing . . . ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd pay money to see programmers in Bangalore lining up for unemployment after the Africans stole all their entry-level IT jobs. Not so funny now, is it curry-heads?

Re:Run-up for outsourcing . . . ?

[Anonymous Coward]

More racism...

Yes there is a hidden truth there.

[SmallFurryCreature]

Culture. It is very important and you can see it very clearly in game.

Try this for an exercise: Compare a Japanese, eastern European, American or British game with each other.

• Japanese games, typical Japanese games tend to be rather unforgiving. Hard to the point of impossible with no such concept as levels.
• Eastern European games tend to push the edge in some areas, but fail horribly as well rounded games. Tend to have their difficulty all over the place. Take the old Nival Interactive game Silent Storm. Great game, but hopelessly flawed with unclear mission objectives and a dis-jointed structure and even pulling a Jagged Alliance 2 but add unwanted, hated and despised sci-fi elements that totally upset the game balance. We haven't see the kind of fully destructible environment as in Silent Storm since, but also not the "lets switch from one era to another without putting it on the box".
• American games tend to be more rounded. They push the edge less perhaps, but they are a more finished product. There is a reason Hollywood dominates the movies. No other nation could have produced Star Wars. The brits would have shot it all in a powerplant and a quary because that is where you shoot Sci-fi. The sweeds would have filled it with personal reflection. The koreans would have swung widely from comedy to ultra-violence for no particular reason. Indians would have added dance.
• British games? Tend to be quirky. The odd ball games that you didn't think would work but do. The moment a British developer has enough money, he becomes an American developer.

  • The above could also be done with movies of course. You can see this very clearly with the change in Jacky Chan movies as he switches countries. His asian movies often haven't got an ending. He bad guy is finished, cut to credits. He doesn't "get the girl", often "the girl" ain't even a love intrest. Unheard of in American movies, and his American productions added the epilogue. The bad guy is defeated, now go get the girl.

    It will be intresting to see what African games bring. Just so I can labelled a racist, it is intresting to see russian developers develop games on hardware I dumped out the door. Cutting edge games, on cheapo CRT's. An iPhone game when your neighbour is dying from hunger... well that has to come from a certain mindset. Somehow I don't think ethics are going to be a strong element, anything to survive motto perhaps? Or not.

    I have been to Africa and while they do indeed have cities, and there are areas were it almost looks western, there are also huge differences. It is as simple as going from the EU to the US. There may be areas that look the same, and then you see someone walking with a gun and you know it is not.

    And the biggest danger? Westerners going all mushy and falling into "well ain't you a clever little african, you can code too, ain't they almost human" mode. Like the article. Wow, two people coded a simple game. In Africa. That this is news, is in a way disturbing.

    Think about what is worse racist statement: "Blacks can't hold a steady job" vs "Blacks are really good at dancing".

    The second is worse, it sounds like compliment but while you can fight the first stereo-type, there is no getting rid of the second one and its hidden "that is all they are good at" message.

    There aren't a lot of games coming from Belgium. Would a game coming from there merit the same attention?

Re:Yes there is a hidden truth there.

[Threni]

> Think about what is worse racist statement: "Blacks can't hold a steady job" vs "Blacks are really good at dancing".

One is incorrect. If it's correct then it's not racist. If there are correct, racist statements then racism isn't always bad. You're going to have to decide.

Re:Yes there is a hidden truth there.

[hipp5]

Which one is correct? Some black people are good at dancing. Some white people are good at dancing. Maybe more black people are good at dancing. I don't know. The racist implication of making a statement like "blacks are really good at dancing" is the suggestion that they, as a group, being good at something is surprising and needs to be pointed out.

Re:Yes there is a hidden truth there.

[jonadab]

> It is as simple as going from the EU to the US. There may
> be areas that look the same, and then you see someone
> walking with a gun and you know it is not.

Umm, yeah. Gullible foreigners who have never been here think Americans carry guns everywhere all the time. As best I can tell, this idea comes from the movies. Here's a free tip: the movies are fiction.

I've lived in the US for more than three decades, in five towns in three different states, and in all that time I saw a firearm in person *once*. It was an antique rifle (WWI-era IIRC) that the owner wanted to identify in order to establish whether it would have any monetary value to a collector if he were to sell it. I've never seen a loaded firearm, except in movies.

Police offiers don't even carry weapons under normal circumstances. They carry flashlights and/or walkie-talkies. They have access to firearms, I'm sure, if they should happen to need them for some reason, but they don't carry them when they're doing normal day-to-day things like issuing speeding tickets. (I suppose in the big cities they probably carry them more often. But most of the population of the US lives in small towns. The big cities are, if anything, more similar to Europe, culturally.)

Yes, I've known plenty of people who own hunting rifles, but they generally only get them out when they go hunting, and I've never had the inclination to go, so I've never had occasion to see the guns.

While we're at it, Americans aren't all so skinny you can see their ribs, either.

Exactly!

[silverdr]

African countries needs non-corrupt leadership

Exactly! We have that for ages, so we know what it is like!

Not a particularly big deal...

[baffo]

amazing news, guys: two of the most developed countries in Africa can also do software! I bet that soon they will find out that not only Ghanians and Kenyans can do software, they also

  - do not live on trees
  - do not believe the Earth is flat
  - occasionally have PhDs!

Re:Not a particularly big deal...

[mjwx]

amazing news, guys: two of the most developed countries in Africa can also do software! I bet that soon they will find out that not only Ghanians and Kenyans can do software, they also

- do not live on trees
- do not believe the Earth is flat
- occasionally have PhDs!
- kick arse in track and feild events

You missed one.

Whoa

[SmallFurryCreature]

ONE IS CORRECT? My god, I didn't think racism like that survived in this day and age.

If you can't see that both statements are racist, then there really is no hope for you.

Plenty of blacks who can't dance but do hold a steady job. And plenty of whites who can dance, but ain't got a job.

Re:Whoa

[Threni]

Learn to read, then to think. Then post publicly.