zambia in the NYT

so there's a multimedia feature in the NYT about "Africa's children."

couple reactions--

-- the hospital they show in Lesotho is much more well-equipped than the health clinic I'm working at. At least that place has ARV drugs and a full-time doctor. My health clinic is always out of drugs and doctors visit 2 times a week or so while people die from HIV/AIDS, cholera, etc. in the wards.

-- that child, Alone, from Lusaka, Zambia is relatively lucky in that he at least has a job. Many children don't and they starve. And at least he goes to school. And at least Alone isn't a street child. Street children make money by having sex with older men and begging. They have no schooling.

Well, I don't mean to be a downer or anything.

I just don't like the way the NYT and other Western media only portray specific poverty in Africa while not making as much of an effort to explain context, history, and possible causes of poverty.