Africa leads way with recovery from global recession

[tabatha]

Ten years ago the Economist pulled no punches in a cover story about Africa with its headline: "The hopeless continent." Now Africa is leading the way with a "spectacular" recovery from the global recession thanks to decades of market reform and strong trade ties with China, the African Development Bank's (ADB) chief economist said last week.

Mthuli Ncube, predicted a growth rate of 4,5% for the continent's economies this year. The bank expects more than 5% growth next year, then a return to the average of about 6% Africa enjoyed between 2003 and 2008 before the recession bit.

"Africa is leading, believe it or not, global economic recovery in the sense of being such a strongly recovering zone compared, for instance, to Europe or the US," Ncube told the Observer. "If you look at the ranking, it's China, India, then Africa and then Brazil. That is the untold story about Africa."

He predicted that China will double its investment in Africa in the next few years, with the establishment of manufacturing parks likely to be the next big development: "At the moment East Africa is the shining zone: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania. These are countries that basically rely on agriculture and services."

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-11-africa-leads-way-with-recovery-from-global-recession

[Kringle]

1. I don't see the connection to sports venues built to host 8 games ...

and then sit idle

[tabatha]

7. World Cup investment paid off, says Zuma

President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday the billions South Africa had spent on the World Cup had paid off with improvements to the country's infrastructure as well as "priceless" social benefits.

"We have had a most successful and exciting time three weeks," he said

"It has been a gruelling emotional rollercoaster for all 32 nations that have been participating. And the fun, the colour and the glory have never stopped since the beginning."

"Economically, the tournament has been a success. We can safely say that we have good returns on our investment, which includes R33-billion spent on transport infrastructure, telecommunications and stadiums," Zuma said.

"The investment in stadiums created an estimated 66 000 new construction jobs. The R1,3-billion spent on safety and security includes a permanent addition of 40 000 new policemen and women," he told an investment conference in Cape Town.

Zuma also praised the sense of national unity fostered by the tournament, which has brought fans of all races to the stadiums, 16 years after the first all-race elections ended white-minority rule.

"The social benefits are priceless. We have seen remarkable unity, patriotism and solidarity being displayed by South Africans, which has never been witnessed before," Zuma said.

"This augurs well for the consolidation of reconciliation and friendship for this young nation. We intend to build on this achievement."

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-06-world-cup-investment-paid-off-says-zuma

[Hutzpa]

11. South Africa is one country

your heading is miss leading, it's not Africa, it is SOUTH AFRICA.

I would restructure your heading.

[tabatha]

12. You are confusing two things.

The article that is in the OP is about Africa and says "Africa".

In my comment later on, I was responding to the comment about the stadiums, which are in South Africa.

Read more carefully.

[Kringle]

2. dupe .nt

[Hannah Bell]

3. the next low-wage manufacturing platform --

[tabatha]

6. Nonsense

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8724859&mesg_id=8725397

[Hannah Bell]

8. no idea what the point of your post or link is. half of south africans live below the poverty line.

and not all south africans are black, and south africa is not the whole of africa either.

nothing you posted has anything to do with whether or not africa is being positioned as the next low-wage export platform.

as for your "black middle class," they're the ones who are going to run the low-wage production facilities.

The problem is that while solid economic policies have led to the rich getting richer, the poor have stayed the same or become even poorer. A new economic divide has supplanted the racial divide. Last year South Africa overtook Brazil as the country with the biggest gap between rich and poor.

Soweto, the township whose name became synonymous with the anti-apartheid struggle, encapsulates the changes. A place where once angry rock-throwing youths manned barricades, it now enjoys a somewhat trendy bohemian reputation. A five-minute walk from the squalid squatter camp is the Maponya Mall, named after the black entrepreneur Richard Maponya, who built it. Inside, the new black middle class hang out in trendy coffee bars and restaurants. These “black diamonds” are the most visible sign of progress.

“They are the new generation. They look down on us. We were just foot soldiers in the liberation struggle and have not really benefited, but that does not in itself mean it was not worth it,” Benjamin Mabala, an unemployed musician and tour guide, said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7022682.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7022682.ece

[tabatha]

13. I am well aware of the poverty in South Africa

that has become worse, mostly because of the libertarianism and "Thatherism" followed by Mbeki.

However, Zuma is very different and intends to follow a more socialistic agenda.

President Jacob Zuma’s first state of the nation address to Parliament marks a shift towards a socialist agenda, said Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Athol Trollip.

[tabatha]

14. and not all south africans are black, and south africa is not the whole of africa either.

You do make arrogant assumptions, btw.

I was born in South Africa, still have family there, and have visited every country south of latitude 15 00 S .

[Hannah Bell]

18. what arrogant assumptions are those? & what your being born in south africa has to do

with the fact that africa is being positioned as the next low-wage export platform, i have no clue.


i made that statement, which i can back up, & you put up a link about the existence of a black middle class in south africa.

so the hell what? irrelevant. there was a middle class in the us during industrialization, & in england during the same phase. there was a middle class in china in the 1980s, and in japan in the 1950s-60s.

there was also mass poverty, & the existence of a middle class didn't stop any of them from being low-wage export platforms.

i have no idea what your point is.

[tabatha]

19. I am puzzled.

You preached to me that "not all South Africans are black" making the arrogant assumption that I did not know better. My being a white South African has everything to do with refuting you arrogant assumption that I did not know that.

You don't get that?

[Hannah Bell]

23. i didn't preach a damn thing at you except that your link about the existence of a black middle

class in south africa has no relevance whatsoever to my post about the continent of africa being positioned as the next low-wage export platform.

you don't get that?

i have no idea what you imagine the relevance of that link to be.

[tabatha]

25. I was extracting the sentence about your stating that

not all South Africans were black, thinking that I did not know that. That was all.

However, here is an answer as to why South Africa has been ruined by Thatcherism.

Mbeki's 'Thatcherism' has dumped South Africa into wrack and ruin - Canadian author
Date Posted: Friday 21-Sep-2007

Naomi Klein, an award-winning Canadian journalist, has just published the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" that explodes the myth of "free market" democracy.

She writes about how 'the shock doctrine' was used in many countries. In South Africa it was used as follows:

Klein quotes Nelson Mandela in January, 1990 (two weeks before he was freed) in a note to his supporters from prison saying:

- "The nationalisation of the mines, banks and monopoly industries is the policy of the ANC (and changing) our views....is inconceivable. Black economic empowerment is a goal we fully support and encourage, but in our situation state control of certain sectors of the economy is unavoidable."

That belief became ANC policy in 1955 in its Freedom Charter. The liberation struggle wasn't just about a political system but an economic one as well.
White workers in mines earned 10 times more than blacks, and large industrialists worked with the military to enforce order and disrupt dissenters.


http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=17939&

I think Zuma is aware of that.

[Hannah Bell]

28. in response to my remark that AFRICA was being positioned as the next low-wage export platform,

you posted a link about the BLACK middle class in SOUTH AFRICA.

so you really don't understand why i noted that:

1. half of south africans live below the poverty line
2. not all south africans are black (nor are blacks the only ones living in poverty, i should have added)
3. there is more to africa than south africa.

?


i have no idea what the point of your comment & link was. no idea at all, if you didn't mean that the existence of a black middle class in south africa somehow precludes africa becoming a low-wage export platform - with the underlying assumptions being:

1. south africa = africa
2. being as there is a south african black middle class, there's no remaining large pool of labor to work low-paid jobs in such export factories/industries
3. any such low-paid workers would necessarily be black

but of course, these underlying assumptions are invalid.

the existence of a middle class is in fact almost a prerequisite for such an export platform. being as it's this class who will be the middle managers overseeing the low-paid workers.

[Better Today]

4. Aren't most African countries well known for their slave labor? I don't see this as

a good thing. It will just be used to reaffirm the concept that recovery will only occur when Americans learn to accept slave wages and general poverty.

[tabatha]

5. How did you get slave labor from that article?

"These are your consumers and they want the same things. They want mobile phones, they want to travel, they want to send their children to the best schools. The issue now is capacity to live out and achieve those aspirations."

The end of Apartheid in South Africa was easier to achieve because there was a growing Black Middle Class by 1994, where most of the service industry jobs were being performed by Africans. There were no White tellers in banks anymore, similarly with other jobs of that nature. Many Blacks have now moved into the management of businesses and the founding of their own businesses. How on earth is that slave labor?

Check this out:
http://www.sekunjalo.com/directorate.php

I think you have been left in the twentieth century in some of your concepts.

[Uzybone]

17. LOL. Slave labor?

Ignorance is not just limited to the RW.

[Brickbat]

9. If China is making "manufacturing parks" in Africa instead of China, I think that sums it up quite

nicely right there. Not necessarily a good thing in the long-term.

[tabatha]

15. They are doing so in countries that they do not rule.

[Brickbat]

16. Yes, I know.

[Greyhound]

20. And provides the means for another conquering of that hapless continent.

While these "parks" are being built, there will be a "need for security" and since the African nations themselves have proved to be inadequate, this will "necessitate a vigorous, international effort to bring order".

[tabatha]

22. South Africa has just proven it is not inadequate.

Your prejudice is showing.

[Greyhound]

24. Right... because this time it's different.

And just where do you think these Chinese "parks" are going to get the obedient workers that will suffer the conditions imposed by the global parasites? Where are the wages that will support this miraculous South African Middle Class going to come from?

[tabatha]

26. I thought it was the Americans in China

employing Chinese people below living wage conditions.

[Hannah Bell]

29. it is. also mainland chinese, hong kong chinese, taiwanese, japanese, british, germans, etc.

top 10 fdi:

Hong Kong
Taiwan
Japan
Singapore
United States
South Korea
United Kingdom
Germany
Macao
Canada

http://www.uschina.org/statistics/fdi_cumulative.html

[NNN0LHI]

10. Vuvuzela sales?

:shrug:

[tabatha]

21. Vuvuzela sales

in South Africa have followed the outsourcing example practiced in the USA.

The Vuvuzela are made in China and an Afrikaans business man has made all the money.

[Posteritatis]

27. Lot of people who'd probably rather they remain broke and broken, I suppose. (nt)