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Haydn W

South Africa at 20: Storms behind the rainbow - Opinion - Al Jazeera English - 1 views

www.aljazeera.com/...-behi-2014320155339545752.html

Aggregate Supply South Africa GDP Mandela

shared by Haydn W on 30 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • April 27 marks the 20th anniversary of South Africa's first democratic elections.
  • Many things have improved in South Africa since 1994, to be sure. State racism has ended, and the country now boasts what some have described as the most progressive constitution in the world. People have rights, and they know that there are institutions designed to protect and uphold those rights. Still, everyday life for most South Africans remains a struggle - a struggle that is infinitely compounded by the sense of disappointment that accompanies it, given the gap between the expectations of liberation and the state of abjection that the majority continues to inhabit.
  • South Africa's unemployment rate in 1994 was 13 percent - so bad that most were convinced it could only get better. Yet today it is double that, at about 25 percent.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • And that's according to official statistics; a more reasonable figure, according to most analysts, is probably closer to 37 percent. The situation is particularly bad for young people. The Economist recently reported that "half of South Africans under 24 looking for work have none. Of those who have jobs, a third earn less than $2 a day."
  • South Africa also boasts a reputation for being one of the most unequal countries in the world. Not only has aggregate income inequality worsened since the end of apartheid, income inequality between racial groups has worsened as well.
  • According to the 2011 census, black households earn only 16 percent of that which white households earn. About 62 percent of all black people live below the poverty line, while in the rural areas of the former homelands this figure rises to a shocking 79 percent.
  • The ANC's Black Economic Empowerment programme has succeeded in minting new black millionaires (South Africa has 7,800 of them now), but can't seem to manage the much more basic goal of eliminating poverty.
  • during the negotiated transition of the 1980s and early 1990s. The apartheid National Party was determined that the transition would not undermine key corporate interests in South Africa, specifically finance and mining. They were willing to bargain away political power so long as they could retain control over the economy. And so they did.
  • The ANC was forced to retreat from its position on nationalisation and an IMF deal signed just before the transition deregulated the financial sector and clamped down on wage increases.
  • Still, when the ANC assumed power in 1994 it implemented a progressive policy initiative known as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The RDP was designed to promote equitable development and poverty reduction
  • Despite its successes, this policy framework was abandoned a mere two years later. Mbeki and then Finance Minister Trevor Manuel held clandestine discussions with World Bank advisors toward drafting a new economic policy known as GEAR (Growth, Employment, and Redistribution, even though it accomplished precious little of the latter).
  • Given these contradictions, it's no wonder that South Africa is ablaze with discontent, earning it the title of "protest capital of the world".
  • Early this year some 3,000 protests occurred over a 90-day period, involving more than a million people. South Africans are taking to the streets, as they give up on electoral politics. This is particularly true for the young: Nearly 75 percent of voters aged 20-29 did not participate in the 2011 local elections.
  • The government's response has been a mix of police repression - including the recent massacre of 44 striking miners at Marikana - and the continued rollout of welfare grants, which now provide a vital lifeline to some 15 million people.
  • So far the protests have been focused on issues like access to housing, water, electricity, and other basic services, but it won't be long before they coalesce into something much more powerful
  • as they did during the last decade of apartheid. There are already signs that this is beginning to happen. The Economic Freedom Fighters, recently founded by Julius Malema, the unsavory former leader of the ANC Youth League, is successfully mobilising discontented youth and making a strong push to nationalise the mines and the banks.
  • It seems that the ANC's legitimacy is beginning to unravel and consent among the governed has begun to thin. It is still too early to tell, but the death of Mandela may further widen this crack in the edifice of the ruling regime, as the ANC scrambles to shore up its symbolic connection to the liberation struggle.
  • In short, the situation in South Africa over the past 20 years opens up interesting questions about the meaning of democracy. What is democracy if it doesn't allow people to determine their own economic destiny or benefit from the vast wealth of the commons? What is freedom if it serves only the capital interests of the country's elite? The revolution that brought us the end of apartheid has accomplished a great deal, to be sure, but it has not yet reached its goal. Liberation is not yet at hand.
  • Haydn W on 30 Mar 14
     
    From Al Jazeera I chose this article about the poor state of the economy in South Africa, 20 years after Nelson Mandela and the ANC came to power, ending the system of political, social and economic segregation, Apartheid. Despite reforms in the 90's the majority of wealth and power is still held by rich whites. With around 30% unemployment rate and young people struggling to find work many feel only anger and resentment to the current ANC government led by Jacob Zuma. Economically speaking South Africa's imports are up and exports down, reducing GDP as AS is shifted left. This is especially evident in industries like mining and banking which many are now calling for to be nationalised. 20 years on from Nelson Mandela's historic victory in the 1994 general election, South Africa, despite being free of the shackles of segregation is not in the boom many predict. The ANC must be careful in there actions, should they, following the death of Madiba lose contact with his legacy and what he stood for.
Marenne M

Ebola Brings West Africa Economic Development to Screeching Halt - 0 views

www.voanews.com/...2597874.html

economic development

shared by Marenne M on 10 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • United Nations Development Program finds the Ebola epidemic is dramatically setting back prospects for economic development in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
  • impact of Ebola has caused a breakdown in trust between these governments and their people.
  • “For instance, Liberia is going to record its first negative growth trend in 2014, which we estimate to be something as high as minus 1.8 percent negative growth, which is very serious,"
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  • fragility of the countries' health systems, a lack of health care workers, and cultural practices that often accelerate the spread of Ebola.
  • Ebola crisis in West Africa has resulted in job losses, rising food prices, and agricultural disruption.
  • harp drops in the use of health and education services are likely to increase poverty, child and maternal mortality, and facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, particularly for the rural poor.
  • Marenne M on 10 Feb 15
     
    This article describes the impact of the Ebola virus on the economic development in Western Africa. The lack in health infrastructure has not only lead to negative economic growth, however it has also led to the decreased use of education and healthcare services, increased job losses, rising food prices, agricultural disruption, increased poverty, increased child and maternal mortality, and increased the spread of HIV/AIDS. The initially poor infrastructure in Western Africa has led to negative development.
Daniel B

Little to fear but fear itself - 0 views

www.economist.com/...-african-economies-little-fear

demand goods commodities Africa China Brazil India

shared by Daniel B on 25 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Daniel B on 25 Sep 13
     
    Africa is or rather used to be the biggest exporter of raw materials. The demand on their commodities come mostly from China, Brazil as well as India. The cooling in economy of China causes drop in demand for oil, wood etc.
  • Yassine G on 27 Sep 13
     
    I think Africa is one of the richest continents, if not the the richest, however, unfortunately its people are amongst the poorest and least developed in the world.
Haydn W

Structural Adjustment Policies and Africa - A Reply to Shantayanan Devarajan - 0 views

thinkafricapress.com/...ca-reply-shantanayan-devarajan

Market Failure Intervention Negative Externalities Externalities of Production Africa Government Intervention

shared by Haydn W on 26 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Haydn W on 26 Nov 13
     
    This article explains how the utilisation of Structural Adjustment Policies in developing African countries is failing to bring about the growth they are claimed to achieve. SAP's were designed to achieve economic diversification and reduce poverty among other things but the author of this article argues that they have not achieved any of these any of these aims. SAP's are an example of government intervention in a market to prevent negative externalities.
Clemence Lafeuille

Does Debt Forgiveness Work? Ask Africa - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...forgiveness-wor_b_5318764.html

foreign debt debt forgiveness Africa

shared by Clemence Lafeuille on 21 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Clemence Lafeuille on 21 Mar 15
     
    This article discusses the debt problems in Africa, and how these could potentially be solved. It explains how the loans were misused through issues such as corruption, and then it explains how African economies could still potentially manage to pay them off, through getting involved more in the global community
Clemence Lafeuille

East African trade bloc approves monetary union deal - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...aryunion-idUSBRE9AT08O20131130

trade bloc monetary union EAC

shared by Clemence Lafeuille on 19 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Clemence Lafeuille on 20 Jan 15
     
    This article discusses the possibility of a further step in the trade liberalisation of East Africa. The EAC (already a common market) now wants to go further and create an economic and monetary union within 10 years. This would greatly help the trading in that region.
John B

CNN - GalapagosQuest: Water Scarcity in the Galapagos - March 9, 1999 - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

Scarcity of Water

shared by John B on 13 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Water is a scarce and valuable resource in the Galapagos and always has been. Only a few of the islands have regular springs where people can find water. The presence of water depends mostly on rainfall, which happens only between January and June, the wet season. The amount of rainfall is different from year to year and from island to island. But the greatest variation is a result of altitude. The highlands receive a lot more rain than the coastal areas and are a better place for most plants, animals, and people to live. Most of the underground pools and springs are found only on the older islands, like San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, and Santa María. Here, thousands of years of erosion created pockets and caverns deep underground where rain water and dew could pool and be collected. Patrick Watkins figured this out pretty quickly and managed to survive here for years. Others weren't so smart, or so lucky.
  • Back home we take water for granted, even though we know we shouldn't. People here on Santa María know what it's like to not have water for days, to go without showers and to settle for just one glass of water a day. That trickling rock where pirates filled their water casks still keeps Santa María alive. Rubber hoses carry water over four miles downhill to town, irrigating gardens and watering cattle along the way.
  • John B on 13 Sep 13
     
    I think that this article has a very important aspect on the water scarcity in the world. It's about a person visiting the Galapagos where water is seen as a very valuable resource. It can pass days before the people living on the Galapagos can drink water again. This made me think about how we (in Sweden) even flush down clean water in the toilet, and then there are people who does not even have clean water to drink every day. Though the article was posted in 1999, which was a while ago, but there is still water scarcity in parts of the world that we need to consider in our daily life. To perhaps donate money to organizations that help these people who have a lack of clean water.
  • Jakub B on 16 Sep 13
     
    Yes, indeed. There are few people from Western countries who notice that problem because they do not face with it. Of course there are still many other locations (especially in Africa), in which the residents' strongest desire is connected with scarcity of water.
  • Yassine G on 23 Sep 13
     
    In order for people to realize something is to go through it. I think that if governments around the world start supplying a limited amount of water to every house, depending on how many people live in it. this would make people realise how scarce water is and eventually start using it efficiently.
Clemence Lafeuille

Africa's Free Trade Hangover - 2 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...africas_free_trade_hangover

free trade

shared by Clemence Lafeuille on 20 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Clemence Lafeuille on 20 Oct 14
     
    After 30 years in which the virtues of the free market went largely unchallenged, a quiet revolution is making its way across Africa. Many governments are increasingly ready to toss out the orthodoxy and rethink the importance of the role of the state in national development. The article also discusses the negatives of free trade
Pip Dop

Exposed: The Africans named in the HSBC Swiss Leaks - 0 views

asmarino.com/...-named-in-the-hsbc-swiss-leaks

human development index inequality income distribution Africa

shared by Pip Dop on 14 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Pip Dop on 14 Feb 15
     
    This is an interesting article that exposes some African clients involved in the HSBC Swiss leaks. It is a striking real life example of how inequal distribution of income is still an issue; Eritrea, ranked 182nd out of 187 in the HDI report has the client banking the most substantial sum of all Africans considered.
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