I know a girl from Nigeria that was going to college here in the States for a while. Beautiful girl, and a devout Catholic, and more than a little intelligent.
She had little good to say about her home country. She spent a great deal of time telling me about the problems with local warlords that the government was either unable or unwilling to put down, about fighting between muslims and Christians, about the extreme poverty and lack of education, and about how, in her view, the current government of the country is run by "thugs". She used the word "barbaric" to describe the state of her own country, more than once.
And she lived in the city, where most of the time they had electricity, running water, public transportation, and the internet. I imagine in rural areas, it was even worse.
So, "quarter-civilized", while a rather rough and rude description, may not necessarily be a bad one. At least, for Zona's experience of Nigeria, anyway. (She is back there now, and stuck, due to problems with extending her Student Visa.)
Re: I'll leave you and <lj user = kulibali> to argue this out
She had little good to say about her home country. She spent a great deal of time telling me about the problems with local warlords that the government was either unable or unwilling to put down, about fighting between muslims and Christians, about the extreme poverty and lack of education, and about how, in her view, the current government of the country is run by "thugs". She used the word "barbaric" to describe the state of her own country, more than once.
And she lived in the city, where most of the time they had electricity, running water, public transportation, and the internet. I imagine in rural areas, it was even worse.
So, "quarter-civilized", while a rather rough and rude description, may not necessarily be a bad one. At least, for Zona's experience of Nigeria, anyway. (She is back there now, and stuck, due to problems with extending her Student Visa.)