suppose I parachute into mainland Africa, could I help the people with my Hacker skills?
mechanical_fish: A short answer: Politics. That's where your hacker skills have leverage: Education, research, documentation, analysis, logistics, fundraising, diplomacy.Of course, we can't discuss many details here, because politics is anathema on news.yc unless IP law is involved. :)[And that, BTW, is why we see all these posts lamenting that hackers "never do enough to solve the world's big problems" -- most of the world's big problems are intensely political, and politics is to news.yc as sex was to Victorian England. Of course, just because we don't talk about political issues here doesn't mean we don't work on them, off camera.]Actually, though, IP law is relevant: If you can successfully lobby to reduce the patent lifetime for AIDS drugs you will save an order of magnitude more lives in Africa than you could ever do with your own two hands.Another source of leverage is, obviously, invention. Hackers are good at inventing things, much of which you can do in your own shop (where you are most productive).None of this should stop you from traveling to Africa, but the most useful thing you can do there is learn: Once you have a first-hand look at the life and problems of an African person you may have a better idea of how to apply your leverage.