"We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community" -Haile Selassie

Now that I've officially memorized (no joke) all of the countries in Africa thanks to www.sporcle.com and my steadily increasing social-less life, I came across this thought-provoking and informative image...for real, test me...Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Gambia...anyway...

This image really gives you perspective on the enormity of their social, governmental, and economic struggles in a more literal sense:

AIDS/HIV Epidemic: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Nigeria may have the highest number of citizens with HIV but Africa as a whole outnumbers all countries with home to 88% of all HIV sufferers. (www.joinred.com)

Child Soldiers: About a third of the world's child soldiers are from Africa. (www.invisiblechildren.com)

Gender Inequality: FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) is a disgraceful, absurd practice that continues in 25 countries within Africa's borders. (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/)

Human Rights Violations: Zimbabwe (under the authority of President Robert Mugabe) torture, beat, and force their villagers to labor over the diamond fields of the Marange district. Although the fighting has decreased, the diamond smuggling continues to exist. (www.stopbloogdiamonds.org)

Government Corruption:  TheMatadorNetwork.com states "The international community needs to use December 9th, Anti Corruption Day, to listen to Transparency International and their call for African countries to focus on the core elements of fighting corruption: access to information, increased visibility of spending, a corruption-free judiciary, and working on stronger communication in education." (www.transparency.org)


..Now enjoy some Nneka :)