Topic: Does a place called Africa really Exist in the world Economy - page 2. (Read 520 times)

Simple question, let's see:
How many people drown in the Mediterranean and in the straight and suffocate in trucks to get to England?
How many people move from England to Africa? Even by plane?

This again, the same narrative, Europe is bad, Europe has no chance, and the rest is way better, yet in reality, nobody sees that this way!
Why are no migrant problems caused by Europeans, why I don't see anyone saying we don't want you anymore while millions flock to Europe?

The reality is that everyone sees as only hope not a life between his own citizens but far away, a life on the principles he criticizes when talking to others but in real life he wishes for!


Again wrong!
The CFA is pegged to the euro since the birth of the euro in January 1999.

Denmark is also in the same situation, do you see Danish people complaining? Weird, isn't it?

Sometimes its not by being the most populated or how endowed one is with abundance of some of these natural resources, some countries doesn't know yet how they can maximize the whole potential in what they were being blessed with, all these are happening because of the absence of the visionary leaders who could see beyond the ordinary things eyes can see and engage in the means to make an effective utility of these minerals in abundance in making life better for the people.

You have made some very good points. I remember hearing a story a long time ago from someone who had contact with an individual from an african nation who said that in his country, when one tribe developed more than another, had a good harvest, or was doing something more efficiently than its neighboor tribes, the ones around came to their tribe and burned things down. That is, they envied the thriving tribe and didn't allow its success to remain, and as consequence everyone was "forced" to live in misery and ignorance.

From this man's perspective, it was like working and improving yourself were reasons for punishment in Africa, accordingly to common sense. And I can perfectly understand this could be very true, because it's also a phenomenon I face in the third world country where I live, even though it happens in a much inferior scale when compared to african continent. When people envy their neighboors and don't want them to thrive, the whole society suffers and gets stagnant on time and space.

Africa is a continent and there are some small and large exceptions but backwards is still the first term associated with word Africa.
Africa still has many problems, most of them man made. They do keep blaming the colonizers and that surely is one reason for where they are but not the major one. Conflict religious or ethnic, corruption, and politics is what hurting them most. The militant culture have not let them try democracy for long. The money doesn't improve the situation either. African needs to learn to co-exist in order to prosper within and among different nations. The enemy of people is lack of education and poverty. 

People who underestimate Africa are people who have never checked world economy ever. You have absolutely no idea how economy works neither, because growth is the only thing that matters. Imagine being a person who is given a chance to live wherever he wants, any nation he wants, would you prefer a place like London where you have absolutely no way of finding a job that will pay enough to even cover rent let alone anything else, just to look like you earn a lot, when in reality the amount is bubbled up and yet everything costs more than your salary?

Or would you rather live in a place where things are built in a much faster pace where you have a lot more chance to be in the ground level earning a lot more because your amount may look smaller, but you spend less and you have a lot more chances to earn from almost anything?

It's not that Africans can't progress, it's that politicians sell Africa to outsiders and divisions easily occur among Africans themselves. You can see how much influence France, England and other colonial countries had in Africa and it even got to the point where these countries could pit African people against each other for their own interests. In fact, it is very possible for Africa to progress and be equal to other continents, but what is happening now is that the people are not very united and only think about themselves, so that makes Africa's progress very slow and its economy is not that big.

Is it also possible that this was the result of a constant
increase of capitalism. Nowadays, people just put money over
everything. It does not matter whether it is ethical or unethical,
the important thing is to always gain money.

Because money is king. Money gives you power and a place
in the world. People used to have a spine and stand up for what
is right but now the government is littered by people who are selfish

Correct, financial colonization is the way to go, war is no longer needed in most cases:

https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/china-s-debt-diplomacy-threatens-african-countries-natural-assets-123041000009_1.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-trap_diplomacy

Africa is a less developed economy/continent, so it makes sense to have cheaper currencies to attract investors...

US farmers have tractors, while African farmers use cattle to plough their fields. That's why an African farmer has to work more hours and earn less. The productivity is just not the same (capital-intensive vs labor-intensive economy). AI and robots will further widen the productivity gap...

If every country had 1:1 peg with the USD, then what's the point of investing in less developed economies? Everyone would invest in the US due to safety and advanced infrastructure.

So far there is no conspiracy... just simple economics.

What's not OK is to have an externally imposed, non-sovereign currency (CFA). That's another form of financial colonization:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/zvlzb4/togolese_human_rights_activist_explains_french/

It also happens in Eurozone... strong countries control smaller ones via financial means.

Btw, France never used CFA. They had a different currency (FRF) before the euro.

Indeed most African African countries are blessed with numerous natural minerals resources. It wasn't only blessed with the naturally resources but also at the course services to manpowers and also creativities to entrepreneurship resources.
The honest about the African countries being answerable to the foreign countries are being so low self-esteemed to themselves that they can't do the development to its way forward by themselves if not leaning on the foreigns and they're being awkward believing the foreigners are the stakeholders to their political geographical systems.

The most questionable issues about why African countries are being so undeveloped despites their revenue is why are the Africans being so in fond of neglecting their own potentials but chooses to embrace the foreigners?
Why have the Africans chosen to insight the whiteners to be goddess of praises while I he blacks remains being pointed with the evil hands?
Why don't the African leaders bring in developments Invented on their own instead of cherishing that of the foreigners?
Behold, Africans are the problems of their selves because they devotes and dedicates their righteousnesses to the foreign beings instead of finding potentials of evaluations within themselves.

African leaders have left their people in the hand of white men like USA, up til now united state of America is still feeling superior over most of countries in the world especially African countries,
Any country that refuse to dance to their tune will face different kind threat from united state of America.
whereby we claim to have been freed from colonial masters, we claim to have gotten independence but it has not shown significant difference in our life and economy of our countries which are some of the things that are contributing to the economy of our continent Africa, because they will never allow any African country's economy to be more than theirs'.
Am still surprising what the work of AU, ECOWAS is. But since they are corrupt and they don't have the interest of their people in mind, they seem to have ignored any kind of positive thought that would bring about good development to their people and continent at large.

If African leaders can all be like Gaddafi of Libya, Mugabe, Idris Ali of Uganda and sani abacha of Nigeria, I think things will be more better than they are now.
for example sani abacha of Nigeria in his time, he was preparing to have country that is independent of united state of America and other Britain, but you know sometime in life, you don't always get all what you want, death over took him before he could have his mission complete. Nigeria up til today, is still suffering in the hand of USA.  Their currency is depreciating every day.
Nigeria claim to have crude oil, but the citizens of this country are complaining of high price of fuel because even this crude oil seem as if it's useless. there is not functioning refinery in a country like Nigeria that claim to have crude oil.

ever if they have good leaders their economy will never grow until they break away from their colonial masters. it's only then this 2024 that 3 nations in Saheel namely Malim, Niger and Burkina Faso kicked French and start to use their own African dollar.

but since the 1940s, they have been using CFA French money til 2023. using the money of the French while the French themselves abandoned this currency. forcing them to use the French money is economic slavery and this is why these countries will remain poor. you can imagine how much manipulation can be done to their economy while using other governments' money.

Until the times when African electoral system will be free and fair then it won't start having leaders who are devoid of European mentality and colouration. The worse is that the foreign bodies hang on to support corrupt election that has brought in corrupt leadership because of what they stand to gain which is nepotism, favouritism and mediocre government and the people suffer because the economy will further be plunder into quagmire and dependency.

Electionery is the bane to Africa leadership problem. Their election never produce good leaders and leadership is a priority for an economy to grow because of the policy that will be introduced into the system.

Shipping costs in distance are quite irrelevant when it comes to bulk carriers, the infrastructure to bring that to the port is what matters and that is...


Nope, it doesn't:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lithium-reserves-country-top-15-184450553.html

Out of top 15 countries the one from Africa:
15. Republic of Mali 840,000 metric tons
8. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): 3,000,000 metric tons

have just as much lithium as Germany!


Again, no, Africa has 1/50 of the lithium Australia can export, and China is importing, as per your own article:

You've had coups for 60 years already on the whole continent, if that was supposed to fix something you would have interstellar travel by now, not being stuck in the same crisis.

Unfortunately Africa seems to suffer from a bit of a climate problem compared to many other countries, it has a huge population but rivers and land that can be effectively farmed are limited in comparison. It also has a large part of desert areas which have gotten worse over time as people have constantly removed the ever dwindling habits for things like wood. It was exploited many decades ago by foreign powers, but never really stood a chance after more technologically advanced countries encountered the locals of the era. Even now foreign powers are constantly meddling, but even when they are not - local leaders are often corrupt and only seeking to enrich themselves and their families once in power, it's extremely hard to break out of this cycle.

This argument is more crucial than what the op wrote, talking about the colonialism of Africa and the economy, I will blame the European cause the colonialism really affect the nation greatly, I never read history but definitely during the time of the slave trade our forefathers do exchange their children, wife for non valuable materials but although during the time of the slave trade materials like such were highly valued. If I could trace more Africans still engage in such, exporting all kinds of organs and definitely this is not right. From my view it looks like foolishness cause why make same mistakes our forefathers did, Africans still betray their fellow blood in such act, a nation needs unity, peace, team work to progress. Even if we blame our leaders today and forever some certain mistakes should be pointed out or let's talk about the human trafficking still going on presently?. A borrowed language was never the problem but rather the mindset, the mindset literally controls our thought and if Africans never had a chance to build and grow during the past I don't think we will see a change soon. What op never indicated was the aspect of being productive, being productive is another form that can help Africa to grow, reduction of the population also, from my opinion an underdeveloped country should be given a child birth limit.

One important thing to note is that Africa is a continent of multiple countries are different stages in their development, you don't get to lump them up into the same economic bracket, cause that ignores the countries that are actually doing very good and are catching up fast to the rest if the world.

For the other parts of the continent which unfortunately makes up the majority, corruption has made them retrogressive. For all the minerals and resources which are available in the continent, they have been grossly mismanaged and does not reflect in the standard of living available for the populace.

Neo colonialism exists cause corruption does.

There has been a series of coup in Africa which shows that there is still hope for the continent in the near future. The new generation know that a major cause of their problems are their old politicians who are too corrupt, and then their parents who were too selfish to challenge the corrupt politicians, so that there can be a better tomorrow. With that awareness, there is hope for a better continent, there is hope for Africa.

I believe it's very unfortunate that Africa was not allowed to naturally grow and develop as a continent. It got divided by the European empires and became a source of people (slaves) and natural resources, and then when they left, they abruptly drew borders of new states that just didn't match the loyalties, cultural and ethnic rough borders that existed there. So now it's a place of a lot of failed states, a lot of violence and poverty. I believe that high-income countries which are directly responsible for colonization have an obligation to help Africa become prosperous. It's not a charity, it's more like reparations to me. I hope we'll get to see Africa really being put on the map, really getting noticed in all of its diversity.

Slave trade must have ended many years ago but we are still enslaved by the west. Africa has a very rich soil and bright minds but we also have corrupt and power hungry leaders that will do all it takes to get into power. Sometimes, it might involve getting in bed with the "devil" to get into power. Some of the chaos in some african countries were sponsored and financed by the west to loot the resources of the land. There are many facets to this discussion but I just want to say that we are the architects of our own misfortune. When we start thinking right and doing right, then we'll begin to see changes.

Africa remains the best location to mine lithium for Europe. This is why China, the US and some European companies are scrambling to invest in the mining of lithium in Africa. Maybe it might be because of the following reasons.

1. Africa is closer to Europe than other major producers which will make these European mining firms save money from shipping costs.
2. You will always get better deals in Africa since the government can easily be influenced by corrupt businessmen.
3. Africa has high-grade deposits and most economic in the world, as well as presenting the least impact to the climate and lowest greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Africa is important to reduce the reliance on China for lithium.
5. Cheap labour and less concern about the effect of mining on the environment.