The African "rising" is a payoff of the commodity boom. The west utilizes manpower theft (green cards) and financial theft (havens) to reap us off; the Chinese have been scraping raw materials for their factories.
It is not a smart strategy (or "steps") but a byproduct of the state of the world that is helping Africa.
Africa should be taking steps, not waiting for accidental byproducts.
The latest "commodities boom" was just another peak in the same sort of exploitation that we have submitted ourselves to for the last 50+ years. Not only is it now over, but it will turn out that it did not do much for Africa: many borrowed on the assumptions that prices would remain the same or increase, and falling prices can mean only plenty of pain.
A couple of interesting articles that I got last week from an economist friend:
Africa comes to the end of its commodities boom
The decline in world commodity prices has taken with it African economic growth rates. This shows the need for African nations to pursue industrialisation
http://www.worldfinance.com/markets/africa-comes-to-the-end-of-its-commodities-boomand
End of commodities boom hits African countries
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/the-end-of-the-commodities-boom-hits-africa-2016-05-13/rep_id:3650We shall remain in deep sh*t as long as we continue to do what we have always done: get stuff out of the ground, sell it to strangers, spend more in buying back "value-added" products.
Consider these two cases:
(1) Nigeria is a leading exporter of crude oil. But it spends billions of dollars in buying refined oil, and petrol queues in Nigerian cities are something else.
(2) Singapore doesn't produce a single drop of oil but each year exports $50-60 billion (more than the GDP of most African countries, including Kenya) of refined oil: it buys crude oil, refines it, sells back to the producers.
Red: Last night I attended an "African networking" event where I live; we have these regularly to work out ways to help each other, especially given unfriendly attitudes toward any sort of dark skin. In one group, I listened to all sorts of complaints against the West, heard stories of Africa Rising, etc. I asked them this question:
All of you are intelligent, educated, and accomplished professionals. So why aren't you back there?
That proved to be an awkward question, because numerous introductions before that had consisted of "when did you move here"?, "why?", etc. The answers were the usual stories: dictator gone mad, lack of opportunities as a result of lack of anything resembling meritocracy (tribe etc. being key), and so on.
People are fleeing, by plane or boat or whatever, with many literally dying in the process. So,
manpower theft? That's almost like complaining that someone stole the rubbish that was put out for the garbage-collector. On the contrary, one of the things I most admire of the US----and why I believe it will be No. 1 for a long time---is its brilliant schemes for self-rejuvenation: in addition to schemes that welcome the "best and brightest", there are schemes (Diversity Visa aka Green-Card Lottery) that simply recognize that a mixed, bubbling pot is actually good, etc.
Blue: I'll skip the standard bit of how our own "leaders" (sometimes elected!) are busy looting and stashing overseas. That's because a greater part of the heist is actually multinational companies illegally siphoning off money. And they can do that because of lax laws, corruption, etc.
A person is repeatedly careless with his wallet in a dodgy nightclub. He certainly does have a right to keep complaining about the fact that it always gets stolen---after all, theft is illegal---but if he really wants a solution ....?
Green: I spend quite a bit of "professional time" in China. They have nothing but contempt for us---they think we are lazy, clueless, and completely unable to make any use of our natural resources----and I am always puzzled by this idea that China is somehow better for Africa than the West.
If a sheep volunteers to be shorn, should it then complain that it feels cold at night?
It's a bad world out there. We can, should, and must complain about how we are getting shafted. But we must also look how we facilitate that and what we need to change.
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