Why is Africa poor?

BBC correspondent ,Mark Doyle went on the road to ask this question across the continent. He’s come back with three documentaries. Part one – Africa and The World- airs Monday on the BBC World Service Radio.

Why is Africa poor? Dateline Yekepa, northern Liberia 2

This is Mark Doyle’s second post from northern Liberia
I’ve just had huge fun riding on a pickup truck which miraculously turned into a tiny railway train. The pickup drove towards the railway. Then, by some miracle of engineering, the road tyres were lifted and a set of railway wheels hidden under the chassis were lowered onto the tracks. Then we drove along the rails!

Why is Africa poor? Dateline Yekepa, northern Liberia 1

This is Mark Doyle’s first post from Liberia.

I’m in the mountains of Liberia, west Africa. It’s a place of towering forests and tangled greenery. There are majestic mountains and fast-flowing rivers. I love being here; the air is clean and the views are amazing.

Why is Africa poor? London

In this post Mark is taken by the many responses he’s receiving from you and speaks about blogging for the first time.

I’m finding this a bit weird. It’s the first time I’ve written a blog and its such a different sort of journalism from the style I’m used to.

It’s great to be interacting so directly and quickly with the audience, but who am I interacting with? In the past, in response to TV, radio or BBC Online pieces, people have of course written in with their comments.

Whys is Africa poor? The initial idea.

This is Mark Doyle’s initial post.
About ten years ago I was driving through Ghana – on the road from Accra to Cape Coast – with a Ghanaian journalist. We were putting the world to rights, as one does, as we cruised atop what was – at the time – a nice new tarmac surface.

Our conversation turned to Africa and my travelling companion let forth a litany of woes about poor leadership, corruption, etc etc. Then he put his head in his hands (don’t worry – I was at the wheel doing the driving) and he meboaned; “Oh, what is wrong with us Africans?!”.

On air: Is Libya’s reaction a slap in the face to the world?

This is the video of Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi’s arrival to his homeland Libya (sorry the quality isn’t ideal) and if you were to watch this without knowing any of the background to the story, you would think this is the home coming of a long lost hero. In fact this is what one of the people who watched this video said…
Victory to Al-Megrahi, Victory to the Libyan struggle, victory to all of Libya commented Noorul3ilm.

Are young people becoming addicted to the internet?

Teenagers around the northern hemisphere are coming to the end of their summer holidays. The credit crunch, working parents and other factors will have meant that many of them will have been stuck at home for much of their time off school. And lots of them will have been on the internet. For hour after hour. Some parents feel that it’s safe – they’re at home and all is well. Others are concerned about over-use of the internet. At 1230 GMT this Saturday, Newshour will be asking whether this concern is justified.