Fixing Africa

[mel<3]

One point of my thread was to determine how concerned people are about Africa. The other was deciding how far out people look when considering an issue and what their considerations are based on. Until AIRAB runs its course, I don't see much good in store for most of Africa. And little interest in this subject by neocons.

[Lea E]

Blacks are governed by blacks all over Africa, except northern Africa,as I said we should consider the racial element, it might not be but...

[TV Casualty]

But that`s not fair, is it? I want to enjoy the fruits (accumulated capital) of my ancestors pillaging, stealing, oppressing and sacking other cultures and people...

(The truly scary part is that there is a kernel of truth in this)

As for African chances.

I would say that Africa is a large, large continent. And while it is fruitful to talk about the african crisis, I don`t think we`ll see the entire continent being lifted out of poverty in any time soon. But certain parts and countries are bound to rise. Economic growth is quick in many parts of Africa. Eventually this will spawn an educated and politicly aware middle class (if it`s not allready there).

But then again, I consider myself to be an optimist.

[Orandaman]

But you didn't answer my question about why the Chinese were poor for so long.

[Carinne B]

Did Chile actually do this ?

Well this tells us a lot about the behaviour of Chileans.
You can take a Chilean out of Chile but you can never take the Chilean out of a Chilean !

[lexiieluu]

I don't believe that's the case. Although certain gooRAB now produced in the west would certainly be then produced in Africa, imports must in the long run be paid for in exports of equivalent market value. The impact on workers' wages appears to be indeterminant, but the consumer is a clear winner.

Of course this assumes that what you mean by "fair" trade is free trade, and not some half-assed scheme cooked up by the WTO or some do-gooders plan of quotas, subsidies and handouts.

Even so, international trade alone will not be enough to lift a continent out of poverty, and the most important changes will have to be internal.

[Italian Smile]

Wez, If the dictators were removed, and good governance and the rule of law were enforced in Africa, Africa will be a much better place and most of its problems will be solved. Look at Asia, most of the countries were ex-colonies too, but they are not basket cases like most of Africa and in fact quite a few of them are prospering.


P.S. Are you still stalking me ?

[passenbij]

If we take at your example of Asia, one of the most prominent Nations on Earth is a Communist Dictatorship. If you look at South Korea, most of its Economic Development was during a time when it was ruled by a Nationalist Dictator. So I don't think Good Governance is the main problem.

If that was the case you would see that the Democracies in Africa would be doing much better Economically than the Dictatorships. I haven't seen any evidence to support that assumption.

The Asia success was done to having a very skilled work force that worked very cheaply. This meant that they produced high quality gooRAB at a very low cost.*


*NB (might be an oversimplification)

[angeleyes33_1970]

I'm not exagerating. Look at the amount of jobs that are going to India and China right now.

[penny m]

When you used that phrase "ignorance is bliss" I bet you had no idea how appropriate it was for you.

Winston, there are certain cultural and socio economic factors you may not be aware of :
(1) cultures where emphasis is not generally put on education. Children get very little help or support from parents with school work. Lack of parental involvement in children's education. It is just a cultural thing but it has consequences.

(2) Breakdown of the family - poor parenting due to many reasons which leaRAB to neglect of children . When children are neglected , no motivation to excel in education but more likely leaRAB to anti-social behaviours.

I want to say that I am generalising, but this is a complicated issue and cannot be reduced to IQ level . IQ has nothing to do with it, for example take the US, where 56% -60% of the black population is classified as middle class . After centuries of facing discrimination, they clumbed up to the middle class once they were given the opportunity and also because generally they came from families where emphasis was put on education. Remember this took about five decades to achieve this, but you never hear about it because the media only likes bad news. But it is a whole diiferent story for blacks in lower income groups, the remaining 40% where due to many reasons such neglect, poor parenting and lack of emphasis on education, children are failing at school.

This can happen to any ethnic group. In california, hispanics have a much higher drop out rate at school than the norm. Mainly mexican immigrant's children. This is in large part because they came from the lower scio-economic backgrounRAB where generally there is very little emphasis put on education or because the parents are unable to get involved in their children's education due to their own lack of education . Again I am generalizing.

The key seems to be the lack of emphasis put on education either by cultural factors or scio-economic factors but certainly not IQ