On Aug 24, 12:46 pm, Kessy wrote:
Kessy saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you should see it.
** Why is the African continent poor? **
The BBC’s Mark Doyle travels Africa to try and answer the question, “Why is Africa poor?”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8215083.stm
On Aug 26, 5:21 pm, Rehema Kikwete wrote:
If you look closely, you would notice that smaller African countries are actually doing really well when you consider what they have to work with. Countries like Benin Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast (even with their mini civil war) are all able to provide constant electricity, access to water and decent education to their populous. However, if you look closely, the so called African Giants, such as Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (is it even a Democratic nation? Lies!), and Sudan are all in terrible state of affairs. In fact, the only big African nation in sub-saharen Africa that is not a complete failure is South Africa.
Now, we can all come up with reason as to why this is so, but I think we can all agree that sensible measures must be taken to relieve the fears of internal domination that lead these “Giants” to act in ways that are against the interests of the nation as a whole. Take for instance Nigeria, ethnic clashes (religious issues are very closely related to this) over control of resources, are in the short term interest of the ethnic group on the offensive, but in the long run, both the aggressor and the victim suffer for it.
From: Abdalah Hamis
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 3:26:56 PM
Subject: Re: BBC E-mail: Why is the African continent poor?
Africa is developing _____ Unfortunately, they are developing Europe.
Europeans got rich from Africa, African labor and African innovation.
And this continues. In trade and merchandise and even in human beings. Europe gets all the good ones from Africa, those with half a brain run away and get out of Africa. So there is the brain drain.
At the same time Europe refuses to share with Africa.
Modern technology is generally not shared with Africa.
Africa is forced to sell generally only RAW GOODS to Europe.
Nigeria gives out oil and then must buy back refined.
Raw goods are the low end of the process. So Europe pays pennies for what they will make billions off of.
Africa’s got the goods. Europeans make the money.
If any African nation tries to leave this system, he will have sanctions put on him and thus effectively block him from the refining and processing of the higher priced goods and selling them to Europe.
Europe continues to force African countries and all third world countries to bow to this system.
Europeans play one third world country against the other.
If some African country refuses to give banana’s, Europe says so what, I will get them from South American country.
If some African country says, my banana’s must be sold for higher price. Europeans say, nope. We will just get them cheaper from south American country or Asian country.
If Africans say the Kwacha is worth more than this amount, the Europeans say: You take our price for your money, or we will not let your money enter our system.
Europeans control the total and complete economic and thus the development of Africa.
Whether you want to believe that the guy at the store or the politicians at the top are Black.
Those who really control Africa are white and sitting in a nice bank or business in Europe/America.
from Charles Makakala Jr
date Aug 26, 2009 1:56 PM
subject Re: Why is the African continent poor?
Please let us not play jokes with serious questions!
‘Europeans got rich because of African labor and African innovation’! Really, and what made Africans fail to become rich themselves even though they possessed such prestigious innovative minds and labor?
Let us not flatter ourselves- in all fields of human endevour, from Biology to Mathematics, Architecture to Astronomy, one can observe many great contributions from all great civilizations: Chinese, Indian, Arabic/Islamic, Greek, Roman, European, etc- EXCEPT Africa and Americas. Barring some isolated achievements by the Mayans and Incas, the rest of America and Africa was one big blackout in the flow of history, before colonialism and even after colonialism.
It is not Europe that underdeveloped Africa. George Hegel observed early on in his book in the time before colonialism took pace in Africa: Africa has had nothing to contribute in world history- Africa has been covered by one dark mantle…! As outrageous as this may sound: I agree!
Understanding the source of your weakness is a major step towards eliminating it. Africa is not weak because the rest of the world is strong. For those of you who have had the pleasure of travelling around the world you have probably witnessed what other peoples did in ancient times. Great civilizations, great centres of learning, great architecture, etc. What does Africa has to show?
I really wish Egypt was not there to cloud Africans’ thinking- even the most prominent black scholars are not sure whether the Pyramids were built under black rulers. The first certain Black Pharaoh is a Nubian king, several centuries after the pyramids were built. I will gladly accept the fact that some Semitic, or any other race initiated the rise of Egypt so that the rest of Africa can clearly see its history: one big blank of time.
One can go home today and enjoy Sun Tzu’s Art of War. What is the African equivalent? Even 1000 years after its publication- if Africans had anything worthwhile to write, they couldn’t- because they didn’t know how to write.
I am sorry for hurting anybody’s feelings, let me stick to the question: why is Africa poor? That is a million dollars question. But one can say that this schizophrenic, paranoic culture of denial of responsibility is a point that one can start to find the real answer… (I read another post where the contributor even questions whether Africa is really poor because no African country has zero or negative GDP growth! And we wonder why we are poor when we cannot even trust our eyes?)
Charles.
from: Mimi Mwenyewe
date Aug 26, 2009 4:43 PM
subject Re: Why is the African continent poor?
AHARLES MAKAKALA (JR)
you may need to do a little bit more research as to your historical facts. That africans did not contribute to world civilization is so outdated that I am surprised someone is still insuniating that.
To start off; Africans had a writng system’ it was called hyerogliphics. The Ford foundation has funded Dr. Jack Habib Sy to work on the manuscripts at Timbuktu in West Africa; one of the oldest libraries .Egypt has been proven beyond a doubt that it was an African civilization; Read Cheik anta Diop’s reseach.
Read Dr. Ivan sertimas excellent research on “They came before Columbus”…. and it goes on and on and on.
hegel???? Please the man constructed race and racism.
Study and understand my brother so you do not become a victim of your own self hate and destruction.
peace be still,
Anna
On Aug 26, 5:29 pm, Ulanga Ally wrote:
Unless there is one village in the middle of the antartic called africa, this question does not make sense.
Not this Africa that I’m in. Equatorial Guinea just became the second richest country per capita. nigeria now manufactures its own brand of computers, south africa, Egypt, Tunisia and Senegal are leaping forward with economic, technological and social development so I’m not aware of the Africa you all are refering to.
How many African countries have a growth rate of zero or a negative figure?
Maybe your question was meant to be “why hasn’t Africa caught up to the level of development of the rest of the world?”
from: Khadija AbdulRazak
date Aug 28, 2009 3:58 AM
subject Re: Why is the African continent poor?
Ivory-Coast and Ghana are number one and two in the world in production of cocoa. In fact, 75% of the world cocoa comes from West Africa. Meanwhile, a tiny country such as Switzerland which doesn’t produce cocoa, has the “best” chocolate in the world and has a multinational packaged food company like Nestlé.
One of the biggest problem Africa has, is the general lack of know-how to create wealth, produced manufactured goods, and export. Part of the problem comes fromt the fact that most of the smartest Africans, those with the qualifications and skills to make a huge difference, work in the West for Western Corporations and institutions. The finest African professors are either in Belgium, France, Britain, Canada or USA etc. and so are the best doctors and engineers etc.
There’s a brain drain of the African continent and all the Africans are tempted by the high paying jobs the West has to offer. So if you add in the corrupted African government factors, you get an idea and the results we know. Doctors in Congo make $300 to $800 per month while anywhere in the West, they would make that much money in a week.
Africa is just a continent of paradox. You have the richest continent as far as natural ressources and minerals is concerned, but where the poorest people on earth live. France has no oil, but it’s economy is larger than the entire continent. Angola and Nigeria have plenty of oil, but their not as rich as Poland
When you have 15 million Dutch that can produce nearly as much wealth as an entire continent composed of 900 million people, we have a serious problem
On Aug 28, 11:14 am, Juma Mzuri wrote:
Well unfortunately the African continent is behind Europe,Asia,South America,North America and Oceania.But i see North Africa (Marocco,Tunisia, Egypt) and South Africa has potential.North african countries have huge advantage comparing to Middle African Countries,because they are on the border to Europe and sharing the Mediterranean Sea with them.Because of this geostrategic location they attract western tourists and can do trade over the mediterran sea with european countries.And also North africans are arabs.Rich gulf states (which are also arabs) like Dubai investing there a lot and building there mega projects.But South Africa is the best example to be developed without having rich neighbours and a good geostrategic location.South Africa is using his natural resources (gold),but i
don´t understand how a country like NIGERA (which has big oil reserves ) , Tanzania with Minerals can´t use this advantage, Or Tanzania with Minerals .The problem is first their leaders and second their uneducated population.Uneducation is the biggest problem in Africa.Without Know- How,knowledge,education a country can´t produce anything to export.Japan has one of the most educated population of the word,so they can handle HIGH-TEC.The same with West Europe like United Kingdom, France and Germany.They produce industrial stuff (High-Tec) like machines, cars, planes, electronics etc.
60 Years ago only West Europe was rich (especially United Kingdom, France, Germany). Countries like Spain,Greece,Portugal and whole East Europe were poor.The reason why all these countries developed themselves is the EUROPEN UNION.Countries like Spain,Greece joined the European Union.This means : Western European countries have given these countries money for free.They all joined a common economical market.With western european money countries like Spain, Greece, Portugal could develop their infrastructure,
from: Fakhi Karume
date Oct 17, 2009 2:32 PM
subject Why is the African continent poor?
There are no simple solutions to Africa’s problems. But a few clear themes stand out. Africans must continue to strive to improve the quality of their political governance. The industrial countries can help with increased aid and debt relief but they cannot create the preconditions for growth unless African governments offer the rule of law, good regulation, and reasonable stability. The impact of China on world trade and commodity prices offers African countries a far more benign environment for improving terms of trade and bolstering growth than at any time during the past half century. In fact, the IMF is projecting 5.8% output growth in Africa during 2006, the highest level in over 30 years.
But the commodity boom can only produce a cyclical opportunity for growth. Africa’s truly unique position is the fact that it will have the world’s youngest population during the21st Century and a potentially much lower tax burden than Europe, Asia or North America. The challenge will be to match an abundance of youth and raw materials with coherent and credible policies to create the high quality of political governance which has eluded Africa since independence.