F*cking stupid scammers, why do they bother?

Fucking fine, I am participating, but only because you're successfully trying to wind me up.

Firstly you said that I'm a 'bleeding heart that let the people who really need help go without'. Basically you've said that I've made myself out to be a morally good character without having done anything. Considering what I've done, if that's not hypocrisy, I don't know what is. It's also a personal fucking insult, don't you think? And then when I show that I'm not the hypocrite you've made me out to be, you ridicule the charity work that I've done! Fuck me that's low!

Here's what I originally had issues with anyway, since I'm apparently missing the point:
You said of any problems in Africa, "is it my problem? No". Here's a question for you - do you eschew the western lifestyle then? Because if you don't, it most definitely it your problem. Learn history, in general. Even if it's somehow not your problem, do you just not care?

You also said that " Anyone anywhere has choices". You think it's that easy? Lets just let these people 'choose' not to be in poverty any more? If it's a choice between working incredibly hard in a completely corrupt state just to see your money getting taken off of you, or scamming a few easy dollars off of someone so that you can pay for your kids to go to school, I know which one I'd choose.

"I don't believe unless you've lived in those circumstances you have much of a better idea than I do of what those choices might be. And scamming seems to be a fairly shit choice"

I haven't lived but I have seen the kind of places where scamming is notorious. You're right in saying that it's a shit choice, but surely doesn't that tell you that the people have no alternative? They aren't stupid or particularly greedy, it's just how their culture works and how desperate they are. It's not good vs evil for fuck's sake, it's systemic! If you live in a corrupt society, you act corrupt yourself. Anyone would. I'm not saying it's commendable or even tolerable, but to say that someone simply has a choice not to act the way that they do is really bloody simplistic.

"It's also true that some parts of Africa increasingly look to the west for handouts because we're mug enough to weave musli and have the spare cash and middle-class sensibilities to 'care'. What's this doing to those parts of Africa apart from turning them into bigger victims than they already are? And isn't scamming just a crafty way of milking a little more from the 'affluent' west?"

I don't think people scam with that in mind! We're lucky in that we've got the education and the free time to think about the morality of scamming and whether it'll help the continent as a whole in the long term. It's a different story if you're unemployed in a corrupt state thinking about how you're gonna repay your massive debts.

"No it's not nice but neither is some twat coming up to you on the interwebz"
I think one is very much preferable to the other. Once again, do you just not care?

"The thing that personally offends me about it the most is the insult to my intelligence"
Do you think anybody cares about that?

"How do you deal with a culture in Nigeria (for example, but the same is true in other African countries) where ripping people off is seen as commendable, in fact it's seen as good business."
On a personal level you can help through NGOs, which will increase education and living standards. If you want to help on a governmental scale, I guess you'd have to do a politics or philosophy degree or something similar, then go into it from there. Or, yno, you can just say 'fuck 'em it's no skin off my nose'.

"
What has the epidemic spread of AIDS in many African countries, despite free condoms and many efforts to educate, got to do with historical history? How does the burden of the repercussions of such a dreadful illness not dramatically effect a country's economy? Knowing all this why won't more African men wear condoms beyond cultural reasons and are cultural reasons really good enough considering the damage the epidemic is doing?"

Errrrr. It's very much the opposite. There is massive opposition to condoms in Africa. Famously so. Why else do you think AIDs is such a problem there?

"Yes the west screwed many parts of Africa but don't try telling me that it would now be a global beacon of civil rights, equality, and civilisation"
Whatever it would be, it would certainly be better than being the beacon of poverty, injustice and intolerance than it is today. Besides, that doesn't change the fact that it's pretty shit there now, and we should try to do something about it, however small.

"It's like the old slavery argument, too many people forget that historically slavery was going on in Africa long before England, France, Portugal and Holland turned it into a global business. And it goes without saying that this was a terrible, terrible, thing. However, don't forget that there were many indigenous African people who also became extremely rich from slavery. It cuts both ways."
It cuts so massively in the favour of the west that it's barely worth considering the very few black men who profited from it.

"If the current way of trying to help were working why have so many African countries been in such a mess for so long?"
Close to facepalming you here, but the West screwing over Africa isn't just history, it's very much the current system. We're the fucking scammers!