The financial meltdown of 2008-09 has reduced the money available to provide aid to Africa during this time of drought, economic and political uncertainty.
Euvin Naidoo gave his very optimistic speech before events on Wall Street boiled over into financial markets worldwide. The spirit of the speech remains true it is a couple of years old and the economic numbers he cited are in need of updating. Bankers say the World is leaving behind the worst of the recession and the G20 economies appear to be recovering. Africa represents many great opportunities in developing infrastructures and diversifying its 53 economies. Global Investors have gained confidence enough to allocate funds there to diversify country risks in thier portfolios.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Africa is not a Country
Euvin Naidoo, an Investment Banker, is a leading advocate for Western Investment into Africa. He provides a convincing argument for a positive outlook for some of the counties(53) that comprise the Dark Continent. When Africa is first mentioned we immediately think of famine, war, genocide, hunger, corruption, AIDES, slavery and other horrors.
Mr. Naidoo presents the other side of the argument by pointing out that problems can be seen as opportunities for profitable investments,, that Africa is on a path to recovery and a turnaround in its economic fortunes.
He envisions a transformation of fortunes on the Continent as greater offshore investment makes its ways to individual economies, diversification away from cursed commodity based economies,. stable inflation, currency stability and continued strong performances in the many African Bourses.
Mr. Naidoo presents the other side of the argument by pointing out that problems can be seen as opportunities for profitable investments,, that Africa is on a path to recovery and a turnaround in its economic fortunes.
He envisions a transformation of fortunes on the Continent as greater offshore investment makes its ways to individual economies, diversification away from cursed commodity based economies,. stable inflation, currency stability and continued strong performances in the many African Bourses.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Sudan may face Civil War again.
Khartoum's Islamist government the northern National Congress Party and SLPA, in January 2005, signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement after years of talks brokered by the U.S. and a bloc of East African countries.
The Islamist north and the country's animist and Christian south are approaching war again, the two sides were at war almost continuously from 1955 to 2005. Between 1983 and 2005, war killed an estimated 2 million civilians—more than six times the number thought to have been killed in Darfur over the past six years.
The 2005 peace agreement that stopped north and south fighting is now on the brink of collapse, and both sides are rearming in advance of an independence referendum in southern Sudan scheduled for January 2011.
If the referendum does fail to take place, the war will almost certainly begin again as the South trys:
-to break free of economic and political domination by the north and
- to get control of Sudan's vast oil resources, much of which lie in the south.
The two sides signed a deal meant to do two things:
- promote democratic reforms and the creation of a unity government over a period of six years—during which time the two sides would split revenues from the south's oilfields.
- at the end of the period, the southerners would be allowed to vote on whether they wanted formal independence.
There's mounting evidence that Khartoum in the north has been cheating the south out of oil revenues while arming rival ethnic groups to foment chaos in the south ahead of the independence referendum.
Khartoum is openly seeking to undermine the referendum, for example, demanding a 50 percent share of the south's oil for 50 years. These underhanded tactics by the north may lead the south unilaterally to declare independence leading to war again.
The U.S.-backed Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has been unable to deliver schools, clinics, or even stability to many parts of the region under its control. Widespread corruption and the failure of the former rebel army to govern effectively has helped Khartoum sell the idea that southern Sudan will morph into a lawless state like Somalia if allowed to separate.
Sudan's civilians are now caught between a heavily armed northern government bent on maintaining control and an angry southern rebel army because petrodollars over the past five years have financed defense spending on both sides.
Getting Khartoum to carry out its obligations under the 2005 deal is probably the only way to stop war but time is running out. Analysts say that, without a breakthrough from the Obama administration and new pressure from Sudan's African neighbors, military action will begin.
Source: Jason McLure
Newsweek Web Exclusive
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