She must sell sweets to live.

The photograph says it all. This little girl has little to nil hope of improving her mud-brick city. Why? Because it has no infrastructure for her to grown up in and there is nothing there for her to work with, and she must sell sweets to live. She will probably never make great her country of Mali. Why? Because she cannot even get an education, and she must sell sweets to live.

Power brokers, king makers, nation builders, and other powers that be will really have to step up their game to make Mali safe, livable, and profitable. I am embarrassed for the mighty, to see them fiddling around in the world where the work is so easy, in Europe, the Americas, the Orient, and so on. Where is the hero to save Africa? Who will do something so that this little girl does not have to sell sweets to live?

Caption: Malian girl selling sweets instead of getting an education, in Bandiagara, Mali, West Africa—photograph by Annmarie Throckmorton 1980.