
Africa's Amazing Rise and What it Can Teach the World - brianbreslin
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/africas-amazing-rise-and-what-it-can-teach-the-world/253587/
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maxklein
One core difference that I notice between Africa and the West, irrespective of
the current development stage, is that people in Africa are mostly optimistic
that things are better than the were, and they are expecting things to get
much better. So they see the future as being bright and full of opportunities.

People in the west seem to have the opposite viewpoint - the see the past as
having been better, and the future bringing doom and gloom. So their outlook
is pessimistic.

So there is much more of this lets-work-forward energy in Africa.

~~~
yardie
And they would both be right. Both cultures are approaching the future from
very different socioeconomic positions. In the past (30-40 years ago), things
were bad in Africa. At any point 3-5 countries were engaged in civil war,
despotic rule or famine. At the same time the west were doing incredible
scientific achievements, building wealth and living longer lives.

If you're at the bottom you can only go up. Now that Africa is getting into
the resources business in a major way the infusion of cash can only accelerate
this.

On the other hand, many western countries are now trying to figure out how to
survive in a world they have largely built. The price for information has
fallen but the price for most goods have gone up (especially food and oil).
There are many that grew up with what their parents had and realized they
might not be able to have that lifestyle, and it scares them.

Edit: I'd also like to add that Africa's economy has been growing for years.
There are 49-50 countries all moving very quickly but all the western news
wants to report about is the few problem areas with wars, dictators and
famine. Hardly anything was spoken about the farming commodities market in
west Kenya going fully computerized in '05.

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simonh
I used to work for Mo Ibrahim at his first company, MSI in London, and I'm
full of admiration for what he's been doing.

I know China better than Africa, but there are parallels and interesting
differences. My wife is Chinese and I've been visiting the country since 2001.
Her home city has doubled in size in that time. Back then the few cars you saw
on the road were either government owned or taxis, now the streets are choked
with traffic. I've been to the countryside in China, and Africa. There are
good reasons people queue up for those Foxcon jobs, believe me. I'm not saying
their labour practices are perfect, I don't know, but the risks they run there
have got to be a world apart from the risks they run from the privation and
squalour of country life in China. It's interesting that rural Africa is doing
well, but the system in China stacks things against country people too much
though.

These countries are going through industrial revolution at fast-forward
speeds. That creates risks, but that doesn't mean anyone over there thinks
putting on the brakes is a good idea, because the very real costs of doing
that are even greater.

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ChrisNorstrom
After everything that continent has been through they really do deserve a lot.
I don't mean to lump 50 or so countries all together, there are African
countries that have a lower crime rate than the USA does. And many African
countries are just as modern as anywhere else.

But the continent as a whole has been through a lot. The African Holocaust
alone has killed 9 million Africans. After all the Colonization, Aids, famine,
civil wars, malaria, 2007 land grabs, and slave trade; Africa's puberty is
finally coming to an end. America, Europe, and Asia's puberty periods (wars,
massive deaths, black plagues, civil conflict, endless conquering and
takeovers) ended a while back and our continents achieved stability. Now it's
Africa's turn for nationwide stability and growth. And from the looks of it,
it's going to be a massive investment opportunity.

The African continent itself has more land than the USA, China, and India
combined. Which actually worries me because environmentally their growth is
going to come at a high price. I just hope they don't follow in the footsteps
of the west and build a dependence on cars, gas, and long distances.

I just wish Africa were united under one currency, one language, and a federal
government. Being fragmented like Europe is terrible for growth and business.

Overall, this is great news. The continent where humanity came from and the
people whom we're all related to is finally getting the peace and prosperity
it deserves.

~~~
jacques_chester
Having multiple currencies is a good thing; it allows the various nations to
offset internal dynamics through the stabilisation of currency movements.

Uniform currencies come at a high cost. Just ask Greece. Or the Australian
manufacturing industry, believe it or not.

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DanBC
A baffling article. There are many articles celebrating African success and
progress. This article does a poor job, mentioning mostly mobile telephony and
natural resources.

Sure, some parts of Africa are developed and some people in Africa are wealthy
and there are interesting business models in Africa.

But this article fails to mention some existing severe problems:

Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho have almost one in four people over 15 living
with AIDs/HIV.

South Africa has the highest population of people living with AIDs/HIV - about
17% or 5.6 million people.

Kenya has about 1.2 million children orphaned by AIDs.

Uganda - an African AIDs/HIV success story, has about 1.2 million people
living with AIDs/HIV ( several hundred thousand of whom are children) and
about another 1.2million children orphaned by AIDs.

Zambia has received millions of dollars of funding for HIV/AIDs programmes,
but prevalence has not dropped and rates are stable; as high as 25% in some
rural areas. Life expectancy at birth is about 40 years.

There are currently fifteen African countries involved in wars, or with post-
war tensions and conflicts.

Africa has the only regional treaty in the world against the use of child
soldiers (The 1999 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child);
yet most child soldiers are in Africa.

The article mentions Zambia - Zambia exports much copper, so should be
reasonably wealthy. It's not at war. Yet poverty is rife and it has a very low
life expectancy. There are human rights abuses associated with the Chinese
owned copper mines.

The article also mentions Sudan. Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the
world.

(<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94858>)

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stoolpigeon
I wrapped up a week of meetings in Addis Ababa last Thursday. Attendees were
from all over the world - but some of the African presentations were the most
impressive. One of the guys from Zimbabwe began with "Internet access is no
longer a problem for our staff."

While I was there the hotel internet basically tanked. We just bought sim
cards with data for a bunch of phones and turned them into hot spots. It
wasn't as fast as I get at home - but that it was even possible was huge in my
mind.

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ig1
Five years ago if someone was writing this article they would talk about the
success of capitalism, now using the same evidence the atlantic talks about
the success of "wealth equality". This article is as much about changes in
American culture as it is about changes in African culture.

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ilitirit
A lot of what is happening now in Africa is because of trade with China and
Chinese immigrants (textile, construction, manufacturing... even farming). I'm
not sure what the long term impact is going to be but I am cautiously
optimistic for now.

