Newsweek (November 13)
“Poor vision is not a life-threatening condition,” but it affects 4.3 billion people worldwide and “is having a seismic impact on the economic and social development of countries around the world. A landmark report by Access Economics recently demonstrated that current rates of poor vision are costing the global economy an estimated $3 trillion a year—roughly equal to the gross domestic product of Africa.”
Tags: Access Economics, Africa, Economic and social development, GDP, Global economy, Life-threatening condition, Vision
Financial Times (January 29)
Though the Zika virus has been present in Africa since at least 1947, it only “arrived in South and Central America over the past two years and is now proliferating rapidly.” In addition to alarming the World Health Organization with its explosive growth, Zika has investors worried. “Shares in cruise operators and airlines took a hit on Thursday amid growing concerns that the virus could dissuade tourists from heading to the Caribbean.”
Tags: Africa, Airlines, Caribbean, Cruise operators, Investors, Proliferating, South America, Tourists, WHO, Zika
New York Times (October 15)
“India is a vigorous democracy that has sent an orbiter to Mars. Yet its children are more likely to starve than children in far poorer nations in Africa. In a remarkable failure of democracy, India is the epicenter of global malnutrition: 39 percent of Indian children are stunted from poor nutrition.”
Washington Post (July 27)
After great devastation, the Ebola crisis appears to be winding down in Africa. “Now it is time to confront another hard problem: addressing the weaknesses in global response that allowed the virus to spread so rapidly. Without the urgency of another outbreak, national governments and the World Health Organization will be disinclined to change the way they do business. But change they must, or there will be another wave of disease, panic and unnecessary death.”
Tags: Africa, Change, Death, Devastation, Disease, Ebola, Global response, Outbreak, Panic, Urgency, WHO
New York Times (April 20)
“The high season of migration from Africa to Europe has begun, bringing with it a new wave of tragic drownings in the Mediterranean…. Unless Europe acts to reform its policy on migration, 2015 could be the deadliest year yet for the thousands of people who fled to Libya from conflict-torn regions across the Middle East and Africa, only to find Libya equally dangerous.”
Tags: Africa, Conflict, Dangerous, Deadliest, Drownings, Europe, Libya, Mediterranean, Middle East, Migration
Washington Post (January 24, 2014)
“France’s counterterrorism operations in Africa deserve U.S. support.” Though the U.S. is now largely disengaged from the area, West Africa continues to be a hot bed of al-Quaeda activity. Fortunately, France has moved to fill the vacuum and will likely have 3,000 troops stationed in the region by year end. “For the government of François Hollande, this is a costly and risky initiative, and it deserves strong support from the United States.”
Tags: Africa, Al-Quaeda, Costly, Counterterrorism, Disengagement, France, Initiative, Risky, Support, Troops François Hollande, U.S., Vacuum, West Africa
Euromoney (March Issue)
“Investors are probably being too bullish about the size and buying power of Africa’s middle class.” Following a 2011 African Development Bank (ADB) report which pegged the middle class at 313 million, “it has become commonplace to hear wonderful things about the rise of Africa’s middle class.” The ADB’s figure, however, is misleading as it includes individuals making between $2-5 per day. Using a more conservative definition of those making $10-20 per day, Africa’s middle class would probably number less than a quarter of the ADB’s estimate. “Africa has vast potential, but investor sentiment today is pricing in a level of progress towards it that is not yet backed up by facts.”
Tags: ADB, Africa, Investors, Middle class, Misleading, Potential, Sentiment
The Economist (March 2)
Africa has achieved a dramatic transformation. “Never in the half-century since it won independence from the colonial powers has Africa been in such good shape.” The credit belongs to the Africans themselves. “The continent’s main saviours are its own people. They are embracing modern technology, voting in ever more elections and pressing their leaders to do better. A sense of hope abounds.” The transformation is laudable, but “still incomplete. The danger is that Africa settles for today’s pace of change. Only if Africans raise their ambitions still further will they reach their full potential. If aspiring Africa wants a new dream, it should be creating a common market from the Med to the Cape. That would be a boon to trade, enterprise and manufacturing: it would also get rid of much of the petty corruption and save lives.”
Tags: Africa, Common market, Corruption, Elections, Leaders, Manufacturing, Technology, Trade, Transformation
The Economist (November 10)
“Greece will remain a disaster until it gets the treatment given to heavily indebted poor countries in the past.” Short-term rescue loans won’t work. “The experience of dozens of debt-ridden countries in Latin America and Africa holds lessons that Greece’s rescuers ought to heed…. The most indebted started to recover only when their debts, including those owed to official creditors, were slashed.”
Washington Post (March 20)
“Our long economic winter is a pleasant summer in distant places.” Developed nations have battled economic insecurity over the past several years, but things have actually gotten better in much of the world. Extreme poverty “has been declining in every developing region” and, for the first time since 1981, the rate of extreme poverty is less than 50% in Africa. The UN’s first Millennium Development Goal was to halve the global rate of extreme poverty by 2015. That goal was accomplished in 2010. With these achievements in mind, things aren’t as bad as they might otherwise seem.
Tags: Africa, Developed nations, Developing nations, Extreme poverty, Millennium Development Goal, UN
