Economics basics global misunderstanding: example Africa
* It is unbelievable how good and clever people misunderstand still in
2008, the basics of economics
... fear it will last some more decades, you said centuries
* Simple facts: during humanity evolution, economics have been roughly said
: 1. picking thousands of years ago
: 2. agriculture hundreds of years ago
: 3. industry last centuries
* Today it is no more from these 3 activities that comes wealth... it
is from high value service
: That is wealth comes today from intellectual added value man made
* Consequences
: natural resources are NOT big source of wealth... that's picking activity
: big area of land are NOT big source of wealth... that's for
agriculture, when possible
: manufacturing is NO MORE big source of wealth... that's industry
* Now look of these comments about Africa that came to my friendfeed account
: general level of misunderstanding is so high
: ... still hope comes from some rare clever comments
- JFA
* AND YOU... which comment would have you made alone ?
Original text and friendfeed comments
35 - The Size of Africa « Strange Maps
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/35-the-size-of-africa/
"It shows how Africa (30,3 million km²) is larger than the combination
of China (9,6 million km²), the US (9,4 million km²), Western Europe
(4,9 million km²), India (3,2 million km²) and Argentina (2,8 million
km²), three Scandinavian countries and the British Isles" - Paul
Buchheit via Bookmarklet
The comments there are a treasure too! :) - Alex
It's as big as all the countries of Africa combined! - Gabe
hotbed of innovation and manufacture within 30 years - Gregory Lent
Alex: spot on. lol reading these comments. A dash of pedantry, a
little bit of bigotry, some serious lack of geographical knowledge: so
much fun! :) - Mathieu Ayel
beg to differ somewhat with Gregory. It might become hotbed of
innovation but not any time soon. Conflicts, political instability,
lack of decent governance and underlying infrastructures and
institutions will not allow it to resonate in a way to become a hotbed
of innovation. In small pockets though, it happens even now,
especially in countries like Kenya and Ghana in everything from
innovative approaches to private education to inventing incredible
devices for water cleaning. - Hayk
Moreover, the size and comparison of African continent with other
continents and countries is little more than a nice figure
illustrative of geography. - Hayk
30 years, hyak, things will move fast, but i know what you are saying,
seems nearly hopeless, impossible .. but the world "vibration" will
make it happen faster than is logical (my opinion) - Gregory Lent
Gregory, i did not mean logic. Living on this continent since 1.5
years and seeing their mentality and their potential, I believe that
nothing short of dramatic consciousness change, to borrow your term,
will turn people on this continent into economic machines of
production. I generalize, apparently. - Hayk
me too :-) ... i really have nothing to base this on .. except two
things .. the creativity they have with basically nothing, even bricks
are rare sometimes .. the way they are doing the cellphone thing is a
hopeful sign .. and the other is from african art, every culture made
masks with some sort of design feature where the third eye is .. there
is an innate plugged-in-ness there, so that when it gets a bit stable,
it will flow .. and the gates foundation should only do education,
malaria will then take - Gregory Lent
care of itself - Gregory Lent
Also, Africa had this "misfortune" of being on top of all kinds of
natural resources which became valued at one point or another. As it
said in Blood Diamonds, "every time a precious resource is found on
this continent,innocent people die, country is plundered." Pouring
money only to sustain lives without any solid self-sustainable
policies in education or infrastructure is sort of a band-aid.
Tackling malaria is what appeals the most to inner sensitivities of
Gates :) - Hayk
Africa is the cradle of our species.. says a lot about how out of
touch we have become when we treat our birthplace with such distain.
No wonder we're raping and pillaging everything we can. Makes you
wonder if the attempts at keeping the African nations as undeveloped
as possible is to turn the place into the next middle east when the
rest of our resources have been spent. - alphaxion
+1 Gabe - Rebecca Sun
