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Something I have been wondering for a few years now before the whole DOGE, USAID thing. When the war in Ukraine started I heard Africa was relying on imports f
by sunshine-o 1y ago
Something I have been wondering for a few years now before the whole DOGE, USAID thing.
When the war in Ukraine started I heard Africa was relying on imports for food up to 85%.
There are no word to describe how horrifying this is. To this day I still cannot believe it. 50% would sound intolerable to me.
My question is: do we have reliable data on this ? flow of food to and within Africa?
Also, if this is true, how can we deny the absolute failure of the West but also Russian and Chinese development efforts in Africa over the last 50+ years.
I do understand that wars can disrupt those efforts but the whole continent is not constantly at war.
- thrance 1y agoIt all starts to make sense if you internalize the idea that developing the African continent was never a goal of the imperialist forces of the West (and certainly not of Russia or China either). Mostly, the West kept putting corrupt dictators in place to ensure cheap access to natural resources. The instability of the continent is a feature, not a bug.
- larrled 1y agoSo all in on the DOGE cuts then?
- tim333 1y agoThey also export a lot of food. It partly a free trade thing - it's cheaper to grow grain in Ukraine. see https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unpacking-the-misconceptions-about-africas-food-imports/ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unpacking-the-misconcepti...
- const_cast 1y agoAfrica is effectively still colonized by the west, particularly the US. I don't think people conceptualize just how many resources Africa as a continent has and how willing they are to provide those resources to the West at an extreme discount. The soft imperialism employed in Africa is a major piece of why the West is wealthy. It's not like we're giving food to destabilized and resource-rich countries out of the goodness of our heart.