sail 445 - I do not believe I am contradicting myself at all.

Firstly, I am not BLAMING the former colonial powers. I am saying that what they left for the famished man was a plate with half-eaten scraps on the side. It was you who wrote that they had created their own circumstances. I am pointing out to you that they did not create their own circumstances on their own, that their circumstances were "nourished" by what they inherited. Certainly they have had much input. But they did not "create".

Secondly, there is a huge difference between -

1. The people are very poor. A very small number of them commit crimes

2. The people are very poor. Poor people commit crimes