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The main issue anywhere is the foresight and tenacity of the political (ruling) class. They have to do things which are long term by cutting back on short term
by achow 6y ago
The main issue anywhere is the foresight and tenacity of the political (ruling) class. They have to do things which are long term by cutting back on short term and populist decisions.
That is one thing that is holding even India back. In democratic setup it is very difficult to take a long term view particularly when that comes with short term pain - the govt would be out in next election.
Africa should learn both from countries like China, Singapore and also from countries like India.
Otherwise I do agree that Africa is well placed to be the next manufacturing hub due to its cheap labor, mineral resources, coastlines etc.
- imnewtohn 6y ago> That is one thing that is holding even India back. In democratic setup it is very difficult to take a long term view particularly when that comes with short term pain - the govt would be out in next election. Africa should learn both from countries like China, Singapore... What do you mean, become autocratic/centralized/...or whatever other word you want to choose. That's a quick one way ticket to getting invaded and thrown out by the US government.
- monocasa 6y agoThe US doesn't care if you're autocratic; they've propped up and outright installed plenty of dictators.
- atlasunshrugged 6y agoYou're right, but it's an awfully useful pretense for America to invade you if you're not "democratic"
- monocasa 6y agoThat's just been completely orthogonal. Autocrats that toe the line get to stay in power; democracies that don't get military coups.
- uedue828e 6y agoYeah it's totally black and white like that.
- scarface74 6y agoBut, I thought that the destroying property and violence doesn’t bring about democratic changes? Or is that only when the US is tsk tsking about how other countries treats its citizens....
- HeadsUpHigh 6y ago>What do you mean, become autocratic/centralized/...or whatever other word you want to choose. That's a quick one way ticket to getting invaded and thrown out by the US government. The US government has no problems with autocratic governments, in fact they have propped many in the past. No, if you don't agree with them in economic terms they will invade. And there are plenty of excuses to go around, not that anyone cares anymore really. Iraq was supposed to have chemical weapons and everyone disliked Bush for that, but with Obama the US is at war in multiple countries with no visible excuse.
- pankajdoharey 6y agoI am a capitalist and I think politicians just reflect the situation on the ground. If the conditions are right Market will automatically take the lead. If it hasn't happened in India yet probably the market conditions are not right and there may be few one can explore but the bottomline is mineral availability.
- MrsPeaches 6y agoJust FYI, Africa is not a country. It’s the second largest continent on earth.
- Scramblejams 6y agoachow did not state that Africa was a country. achow stated that Africa should learn from countries. Nothing factually incorrect about suggesting that a continent’s worth of countries could learn something from other countries.
- hyperbovine 6y agoActually Africa only has as much coastline as Europe despite being much larger. It has a high proportion of landlocked countries.
- shalmanese 6y agoTechnically, according to Cantor, every stretch of coastline has exactly as much as every other stretch of coastline ever.
- ralusek 6y agoSome infinities are larger than others.
- imtringued 6y agoThis wouldn't be such a big deal if the landlocked countries joined an African Union or something like that.
- godelmachine 6y ago>>That is one thing that is holding even India back. In democratic setup it is very difficult to take a long term view particularly when that comes with short term pain - the govt would be out in next election. The one thing you can count India on is that democracy will prevail. Any government which comes to power will always appease industrialists and investors albeit their electioneering manifesto may have been on the upliftment of the proletariat and bourgeois