Surrender or Starve
I just got through Robert Kaplan’s book called Surrender or Starve which focused on the horn of Africa where millions have died over the years due to human wrought famine. Well extremely well written, there is only so much human misery you can deal with in multiple reading sessions. Nevertheless, I have to admit, I was completely ignorant of the Mengistu and the Dergue and I have a much stronger respect for Eritreans.

Mengistu Haile Mariam along with Hitler, Pol Pot, Saddam & Charles Taylor
Five people you will NOT meet in heaven

On the topic of politics and famine, here are two particular passages I found so poignant I thought I would share.

During the famine in the Ukraine, according to Robert Conquest in The Harvest of Sorrow, the Kremlin kept figures for livestock mortality but not for human mortality. p29

and

In reference to the 1985 “We are the World” Ethiopian Famine

The famine was good business for the Dergue. A port fee of $12.60 was charged for each ton of donated grain. The United States paid $5 million just to hae its first 400,000 tons pass customs inspection. It appeared far from coincidental that the costliest ever offensive against the Eritrean guerrillas was launched in July 1985, on the heels of the massive influx of relief supplies from the West.

Simply amazing, huh?

Nascar, coming soon to Dakar?
Living in Africa is wonderful in that nearly everyday provides an experience that just makes you really appreciate life. Take the other day, when I was coming home from a long day at Sandaga. My cab driver pulls into Shell hands the gas pumper (self-service and Senegal’s unemployment rates do not mix) a 1000 CFA note ($2) we fill up an off we go. After spending nearly a decade as a poor student, I can attest that I too at times have only had $2 to put in the tank. But never did I manage to do it with the car running, in a slow roll, in under 20 seconds!

One Campaign Update
You probably have heard the wonderful news, that the G8 has agreed in principle to eliminating te debt of 18 of the poorest countries in the world (many in Africa including Senegal). However, the One Campaign still needs your support to ensure that our voice is heard.

It looks like the Zim government has finally lost it. The government just burned down 6 miles (6 miles!) of curio stands. Of course, I’m sure these people were a public nuisance and deserved it especially since there are so many jobs in the formal sector with the economy doing so well and all.

Here’s a couple of articles on this debacle:

• CNN: Zimbabwe police burn 6-mile line of vendors’ stalls — Kudo’s for CNN for deciding this was newsworthy
• Zimbabwe Police Torch Vendors’ Shacks - Washington Post
• BBC: Depression in the Streets — Another depressing article on the current state of Zimbabwe.

For those who don’t know, I spent almost a year in 1999 in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe once the bread basket of Africa is such an incredible place. It hurts me deeply to see what African leaders can do to their own people. It’s hard not to be jaded.

Here is a particularly upsetting excerpt:

Driven to tears

I am suffering even more than before now.

A looted supermarket in Harare after hundreds of residents rioted after police destroyed street stalls in an ongoing crackdown on vendors and other illegals in the capital (AFP/Getty Images)
Edwell fears his problems will affect his son’s future

My family is suffering because I am not doing anything.

I am not very busy, sure.

I charge Z$15,000 ($0.26) to fix heels and for soles it is about Z$35,000 ($0.60) and now that I am hardly doing anything I am crying.

I recently had to buy my 15-year-old son some things for school. All I could afford was his books, a new pair of shoes and socks and some short trousers and it came to over Z$200,000 ($3.60).

I still have to pay his school fees for this term which come to Z$350,000 ($6.20).

I don't know how I will be able to.


Editors note: When I was in Zimbabwe, the Zim dollar was 50-1 to the US.

The Africa You Never See
After posting the links about Zimbabwe, I thought it may be good to also post this article about business in Africa. Did you know Botswana has an A+ credit rating with some of the highest per capita savings rates in the world or that the Ghanian Stock market returned on average 144% last year (highest in the world!)? Neither did I. If you get the chance please also read this great article.

The Africa You Never See — By Carol Pineau

Related Website: AfricaOpenforBusiness.com