George,
I don't know the nationality of Anver Versi but it matters. If he/she is a
westerner, the chances are that his/her message will be accepted and given
credibility. However, if he is African or a Third Worlder, I am afraid that
he/she will not be taken seriously. Most Africans in the development field
have been saying the same thing for years without much success. I have had
several exchanges on a private basis with some members of the L on this
topic and I hope that some of us Africans will realise sooner, I hope,
rather than later, that the African condition is reversable. Thank you for
the posting.
  Sidi Sanneh


>From: 1Cool Dude <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fwd: Praise Africa, dont bury it
>Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 01:30:06 GMT
>
>Africans are justifiably angry over the blanket slandering of their
>continent. Over the last few months, Africa has been pilloried by the
>western press over events in Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, and the whole
>of Africa has been termed a ‘basket case’, a ‘hopeless continent’.
>
>This loaded reporting is not simply an unacceptable blow to an
>African’s pride and self-esteem, it threatens to wreck African
>economies. Who would want to invest in a hopeless continent? Who will spend
>holidays in a basket case Africa?
>
>But even if others are not, let us be rational. Is there any justification
>to these claims? Let us examine the facts.
>
>There are 53 states in Africa which is the second greatest land mass
>on earth. Sudan alone is larger than the whole of Western Europe; the
>DRC is larger than all the European member states combined. If you
>could place all European, North American and Latin American states
>into Africa, you would still have room to fit the Gulf states.
>
>If Europe has problems dealing with its minuscule states, imagine the
>challenge that governing countries the size of Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan,
>the DRC, South Africa poses. If Europe has still come to terms with
>its ethnic diversity - despite two world wars in the last century -
>imagine the challenges facing leaders of a continent which has a far
>greater ethnic diversity in one country, Nigeria, than all of Europe,
>North America, South America, the Middle East and some Asian countries
>put together.
>
>If Europe still has economic and employment problems after three
>centuries of the colonial era,industrialisation, and trade monopolies,
>image the task facing Africa which at independence had practically no
>industries, few schools, the worst of possible terms in overseas
>trade, and a population that had no opportunity to accumulate
>meaningful capital.
>
>Add to this a burden of debt for loans which many countries were
>forced to takeout, the structural adjustment programmes which the IMF
>now admits led to increased poverty, and the destructive impact of the
>Cold War whose legacy is still being felt in the on-going conflicts in
>Angola, Sudan and the DRC.
>
>Then look at the all the problems that confronted African states at
>independence in the 1960s and compare them to the problems Western and
>even East European states faced at the same time, you would be
>forgiven for thinking that Africa had no chance. It would be like
>asking the driver of a beaten-up taxi to enter a Grand Prix contest
>against a million pound state-of-the-art Ferrari. No contest
>
>Yet, incredibly, a surprising number of African states have and are
>succeeding against the odds. They may not be in a position to
>challenge for the Grand Prix, but the cars they have concocted with
>their own means are still on the circuit and registering ever faster
>times.
>
>Botswana and Tunisia have recorded the fastest growth rates in the
>world this year. Africa, according to the African Development Bank,
>will grow by between 4% and 5% this year. This figure is greater than
>for any other region of the world.
>
>The vast majority of African countries now have democratically elected
>governments. African stock markets, despite their modest size, were
>the most profitable last year. The return on investment is higher
>in Africa than anywhere else in the world.
>
>Is this the profile of a basket case continent?
>
>But there is more. Even taking into account African countries in the
>slow lane, never has so much formal education been spread so fast to
>so many people as in Africa., despite structural adjustment programmes
>that have slashed spending on education. Can this really be the
>hopeless continent that the critics would have us believe?
>
>If the Afro-pessimists in the media and elsewhere were to tour Africa
>and look at what has been realised instead of what is yet to be
>achieved, they might have to eat their words. Since independence,
>millions of new class-rooms, housing units, offices and clinics have
>been built. Air and seaports have been developed and hundreds of
>thousands of kilometres of new roads have been laid.
>
>Starting from point zero, several African countries, Mauritius and
>Tunisia to name just two, have become among the most competitive
>industrial centres in the world.
>
>Are we still talking about ‘basket case’ Africa?
>
>But the most surprising statistic is still to come. We are told that a
>tiny country like Belgium has a greater GDP than scores of African
>countries. True, but this is a false comparison. It would be like
>comparising the per capita income in Belgium with the per capita
>income of Brunei. Using this yardstick, the Belgians would come out as
>poor as church-mice!
>
>Belgium, like many other Western countries has a long history of
>industrialisation. In fact, Belgium’s current wealth was founded on
>rubber from the Congo. The majority of the working population in
>Belgium, over 90%, is engaged in industry or services. This forms the
>country’s GDP.
>
>There is one irreducible economic fact of life. You do not become
>wealthy by simply producing primary raw materials. You become wealthy
>by working on primary commodities and producing a wide range of  products,
>i.e. industrialisation.
>
>So, for Belgium to have a high GDP is nothing unusual. To find our how
>well it is doing, you have to compare it to other indusrialised
>countries, not to countries in which there is little or no
>industrialisation.
>
>In Africa, the vast majority, some 80%, live a rural life. Most are
>subsistence farmers. Their income does not come into the calculations
>of national GDP. On average only one percent of Africa’s  population
>in engaged in industry, compared to 90% of Belgium’s. Thus, Belgium’s
>GDP should be 90% higher than Africa’s - but it isn’t. So either
>Belgium is performing well below par or Africa is performing exceptionally
>well.
>
>Those Africans who do pay taxes live in the urban areas but on
>average, they do not form more than 11% of the population. The
>national income derives mainly from commodities whose prices continue
>to decline. The only jobs to be found are in the few industries and in
>government. It is estimated that fewer than 5% of Africans pay taxes.
>The cost of collecting taxes from the further 6% or 7% probably eligible to
>pay tax would certainly exceed the amount of tax collected.
>
>Tiny tax base :
>
>From this tiny tax base, the government has to finance its budget. A
>quarter to a third of national income goes to paying interest on debt.
>No wonder African professionals and civil servants are so poorly paid.
>Yet they expect and aspire to better lifestyles. No wonder parallel,
>corrupt systems develope.
>
>Africa has few industries because there is no capital base for
>industrial growth. Prior to independence Africans were not allowed, by
>law in many countries, to accumulate capital. Even today, in countries
>like Zimbabwe, the majority are locked out of the mainstream economy
>because they cannot obtain title-deeds to the only form of collateral
>they have - land.
>
>Without capital, or the means to accumulate capital, because most
>businesses and property were and still are held by expatriate settlers
>or commercial communities, the only route out of poverty is through
>employment in government. This was the closest most Africans could get
>to the commercial flow of their own country. It is hardly surprising
>that some used their positions to accumulate capital corruptly.
>
>Since the government is the main employer, getting yourself or your
>party into government becomes a matter of survival. This is why
>elections in Africa are such passionate affairs. In other parts of the
>world, countries have gone to war over matters of economic survival.
>The Gulf war is a case in point.
>
>But this does not change the basic fact that for most African
>countries, income from commodities is declining while their
>expenditure, particularly in view of high population growth rates, is
>increasing.
>
>Africa’s problem is making the transition from a suppressed peasant
>economy into a modern industrial based one. This involves massive
>social, cultural and psychological changes. No continent, not even
>Asia, has had to make such sweeping changes, with so little resources
>and in such a short time, as Africa.
>
>To expect this to happen without social and political turmoil is to
>expect more than a miracle. Yet, considering the furies that were
>unleashed when similar massive changes were made following the Russian
>and French revolutions or the World Wars, Africa has come off lightly
>by comparison.
>
>Under such circumstances, it should not have been be possible for
>Africa to register any growth at all. To produce more tea, coffee or
>cocoa would only drive the price down and make income even worse.
>Yet incredibly, African countries have been growing. Of course, growth
>is not even but on average, there is real growth. This growth has been
>achieved despite Africa having one of the narrowest industrial bases
>in the world. It has been also been achieved despite the fact that the
>bulk of Africa’s population is still shut out from the world’s
>economic mainstream.
>
>If Africa has been able to achieve so much despite the terrible start
>it got at independence, imagine what it will be able to do when the
>majority of its citizens are able to join the economic mainstream.
>
>But the farmer will not abandon his fields to go and look for
>non-existent jobs in the city. Jobs will only  be created with greater
>industrialisation. Industries will only be set up if markets can be
>accessed. And markets can only be accessed if the trade barriers on
>Africa’s industrial goods are lifted.
>
>South Africa and other African countries are fighting tooth and nail
>to get a bigger share of the global market. They are being fiercely
>opposed by some industrialised countries but have the support of
>others.
>
>We believe that sooner rather than later, Africa will win and get the
>markets. In the meanwhile, it needs investments to add value to its
>products and gear itself up to enter the industrial mainstream.
>
>Despite its problems, including endemic diseases, wars and famine in
>some parts, outright looting of national resources in others, Africa’s
>performance from less than a standing start 40 years ago has been
>exemplary. Many nations, including the US, are now prepared to invest
>substantially in Africa. Some voices, such as those of Jesse Jackson
>and even President Clinton, are calling for a Marshal Plan for Africa.
>They want to see an end to the sticking-plaster approach to Africa’s
>problems. They want to see Africa given a fair opportunity to stand as
>an equal in the community of nations.
>
>Other voices, unfortunately equally powerful, can see nothing good
>emerging from Africa. It is therefore our duty, and that of others
>with a voice that can be heard, to make sure that Africa’s many
>achievements are trumpeted at least as loudly as its shortcomings.
>
>                                                    By Anver Versi
>
>________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
>Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------