Journalists, as Hans Rosling, the late Swedish health expert and statistician, noted, are better at capturing fast-moving catastrophes than slow-moving improvements. An Ebola outbreak makes headlines. The slow success of a vaccination campaign does not.
Partly as a result, public perception of countries or regions often lags reality. So it was with China in the early 2000s when many continued to think of the country as poor and backwards. So it is with Africa today.
It is impossible to generalise about the 54 countries that make up the vast continent. Some nations, such as Somalia, Central African Republic and Burundi, are locked in seemingly never-ending civil strife. Meanwhile, Nigeria, South Africa and Angola — the should-be motors of the continent — have been stuck in economic slow motion. Yet, notwithstanding widespread poverty and huge social problems, Africa in general is doing better than many imagine.