Niger crisis
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- ********0
and how come do we in the western world have lower fertility and more cancer than the developing world??
Water supply.
- ********0
how come that we in the western world still use it? and don't die. i'm not aggresive or anything i'm just wondering.
Ludde
(Aug 2 05, 05:21)You might not die straight away but all that shit could cause all kinds of horrid cancers, not to mention pollute rivers and damage what is a delicate eco-system.
And it's money. For supermarkets spraying is cheaper and has less loss than organic methods.
- ********0
Africa, which has abundant human and natural resources, and more farmable land than anywhere else in the world, ought to be able to take care of herself without desperately depending on outside help. Yet she has received an estimated $1 trillion in foreign aid in the past 50 years.
So what is the problem that causes Africa to slide into deeper poverty when Asia and Latin America that used to be part of the Third World, have become richer since the past three decades?
Many people are quick to attribute Africa’s predicaments to colonialism and its ramifications. To some extent this is true. Colonial masters designed African economies to suit their needs and not those of the local people. For example main roads and railways were built to convey minerals and crops for export and not to develop the internal economies.
In addition, Africa was segmented into units with in some cases friends and allies separated and enemies placed in the same countries. This is the situation that now gives rise to most postcolonial tribal, civil and nation wars that do not only destroy existing economies but also discourage potential investors.
But then, colonial experience should not still be an obstacle to African development. Colonialism ended some three decades ago. More to that, not only African countries were colonised. In countries like India, New Zealand and Australia that were equally colonised and exploited, successive leaders have been able to fashion out of the colonial legacy, political and socio-economic structures that have ensured economic prosperity.
Today people point to trade imbalances as a reason why African countries especially those south of the Sahara are unable to get above the poverty level. This claim is supported by the fact that within the last 20 years, sub-Saharan African share of global trade has declined from 6 to 2 per cent.
This is however just part of the problem. Today, the main constraint to African recovery is the role of post-independent and contemporary African leadership. This crop of leaders do not seem to care about the situation of the continent were 30,000 children die everyday and while a further 100,000 do not go to school. For how can one justify the fact that even though African countries have been losing potential revenue because of unfair international trading systems and external debt service payments, greedy and visionless leaders still conspire with their cronies to steal and squander vast amounts of their countries wealth on misguided projects.
How can Africa develop when her elite does not only steal the country’s wealth but are unwilling to invest in their own countries. In corrupt societies in Asia, such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan the citizens still prosper because the corrupt elite keep their money at home. They invest in new mobile phone network, build private hospitals and tourist hotels.
On the contrary, in Africa corrupt leaders steal money from the system and make matters worst by extracting the money from their countries. Mobutu is reputed to have amassed a fortune equal to Zaire’s national debt. The rate of capital flight in Africa is more than in any other continent. It is estimated that $20 billion is taken out of Africa annually by corrupt regimes. According to President Olusegun Obasanjo, corrupt African leaders have stolen at least $140 billion from their country’s wealth since independence. And it is believed that 40 per cent of wealth created in Africa is invested overseas.
Even money used within the country is often spent on ceremonies, activities or goods and services that hardly benefit the economy or those in dire need of government assistance. Lavish palaces like Cameroon’s Unity Palace, fleet of cars and jet planes have become status symbols for African regimes.
Former Emperor Bokassa of Central African Republic for example, squandered over $20 million of his country’s wealth on worthless and unpopular coronation. King Mswati III has spent £8 million on palaces for his 13 wives, £500,000 on eight Mercedes cars with gold-plated numbers, and £330,000 on his 36th birthday while 700,000 of his people live in poverty.
Recently the Cameroon government spent over FCFA30 billion of the country’s money on a new presidential plane even though Cameroon Postal Service customers are currently being owed over FCFA 54 billion of their savings, and several teachers recruited by government have had no salary for a year.
African leaders are not only motivated by greed for wealth, but also by power to crush their opponents. This explains why in many sub-Saharan African countries’ annual military expenditure increase by about 14 per cent when its economic growth increase only by about 1 per cent. More than $15 is spent annually by the region on arms that bring nothing in return but destruction of the economy and refugee crises.
Another reason why African economies have failed to take off is that African leaders have failed to create institutions and systems that would enable their citizens to develop. In some instances they even destroy or abandon existing ones especially if such structures do not happen to be in the region of preference.
- ********0
- nicko0
Nice piece jazx, clearly you have much more knowledge than me. Clearly something has to be done in terms of 'helping' Africa in the long term with enabling people to look after themselves and in the short term with helping however
Niger facts and figures:
- Landlocked country in West Africa
- One of poorest nations in world
- Population of 11.5m
- 60% of population live on $1 a day
- 50% of population under 15
- 82% of population depend on subsistence farming
Source: UNDP
- nicko0
...with helping however we can
darn!
- ********0
OMG are you serious? The people of Niger are starving? I did not know this.
//
What do you think Live 8 was for? So the MTV suck ass VJs could have more meaningless chatter to spew over the fucking reunion of Pink Floyd after an ungodly amount of years?!? HEY MTV!!!... SHUT THE FUCK UP WHEN PINK FLOYD IS PLAYING!
- ********0
nicko, I copied and pasted that, but it's true
- lowimpakt0
Jaz what's your source? you're really good at C+Ping right wing articles and commentators. :) :)
i have been reading Jeffery Sachs a lot recently (not hugely liked by the right) and he has some interesting views on corruption and economic growth. He turns the conventional wisdom of political corruption and poverty on its head. i.e. governance is poor when a country is poor and this poverty is greatly influenced by external actors. he talks alot about increased, targeted, well regulated and effective aid. He also clarifies the geographic issues etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef…
and as a friend of mine said to me recently Europe and the US developed into economic powerhouses in a climate of corruption with a powerful elite shitting on the majority.
but this could go on all day...
- ********0
Shut up garett.
You're like white noise.
- Dancer0
lol
- sajets_v20
Humans have created this mess and we must clear it up one way or another. But not at the expense of mother nature. I prefer humans dying than watching our earth being poisoned with more chemicals and shit.
It is one big circle and it comes all down to us.
I know what i said might sound very cruel to most of you but if you stop for a moment then you should understand that world doesn't revolve around humans and their wellbeing. There are too many of us for earth to feed and protect us. And thats why we have such problems like new diseases, famine, pollution, toxicated air. There are 6 times more people on this planet that it's recourses can give good life, And we must accept it.
- lowimpakt0
can you provide a source on this 6 times more people than resources point please? thanks
- ********0
can you provide a source on this 6 times more people than resources point please? thanks
lowimpakt
(Aug 3 05, 01:32)I saw some good programs on Open University (BBC2 - like 4am) that quoted this statistic. Basically - the earths population is expected to double within 100 years throwing the ratio of people to resources bang out of sync.
This is already happening to Energy (Oil) and will simply result in more famine on the food front.
- ********0
blame europe
- sajets_v20
Why blame Europe whos population is predicted to shrink in next 50 years. It's Africa and Asia that are putting it off balance. And of course the useless destroing of nature just to make more goods that last as long as one year and end up in dumpster near you.
If we want to continue to live our lives like we are use to and think that everyone should have those (warm clean water, electicity, food to throw around, big cars to pollute our air, then the number of humans on this planet have to be around 1 billion or even less. Forest shold be allowed to grow and clean the air etc.
I hoipe you get my point.
- lowimpakt0
i get your point about lifestyles - some countries have people dying because they eat too much food and import food from countries while the exporting countries endure famine and starvation and all that.
but i disagree with your ecological picking order. it is a fact that the wealthy live in ecological buffer zones and so the picking order of survival comes down to geo-politics which is corrupt.
- sajets_v20
of course eco-politics is corrupted but to you in all honesty belive that more than 6 billion people, even if they have best interest of nature in their mind, can live with basic comforts and not ruining earth. I wont belie it. I belive there are too many humans and less animals, less nature.
- ********0
Jaz what's your source? you're really good at C+Ping right wing articles and commentators. :) :)
lowimpakt
(Aug 3 05, 00:39)Actually, from a British gent, written for a Cameroon newspaper.
- ********0
African countries especially those south of the Sahara are not destined to remain poor. Botswana’s success story is there for all to see and copy. Today Botswana has succeeded in managing its diamond revenues to the extent that she now has reserves instead of debt like all others nations in the region.
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Excellent, Botswana is a top notch country because they don't take sh*t and they are stable.
I agree with this gentleman 1000%