January 13, 2006
Poverty Compared
Adamash noticed an article on the Economist, contemplating the difference between poverty in the North and in the South. Is poverty relative? A poor US citizen, Mr Banks is better off financially (even when the difference in the cost of living is taken into account) than Dr. Kabamba in DR Congo, but still feels poorer than the Congolese?
In Autumn, I had a debate about the subject with an American friend of mine. She was offended by my comment that “eventhough there’s poverty in the US, it can not be compared to “real” poverty in the South”. The subject has been in my mind eversince and I’m glad that I found Adamash’s post about it.
…Dr Kabamba earns enough to feed his children, but not as well as he would like. The family eats meat about twice a month; Dr Kabamba calls it “a great luxury”. In America, poor children eat more meat than the well-to-do. In fact, they get twice as much protein as their government says is good for them, which is why the Wal-Mart near Mr Banks sells such enormous jeans…
While reading, remember the fact that nothing lies as much as statistics used in a misleading way. I don’t mean that there are fouls in the article, just that there might be.
…“Poverty” describes two quite different phenomena: utter penury, of the sort experienced by the billion or so souls who subsist on $1 a day or less; and the situation of people in rich countries who are less well off than their compatriots…”
Eventhough the doctor is financially struggling, he is treated with respect by the authorities and doesn’t break his family to fool social security system (the absent one). The poor US man lives in a separate moving-home than his ex-wife to get more support from the government and is considered as typical trailer thrash by the government officials. Is this the much talked about cultural difference? Which one do you prefer?
The article: Adamash: Comparing a mountain man’s poverty in US to a doctor’s poverty in Africa (found via 007 in Africa)
Related reading: Sampsa Daily: Poverty in the US (17/11/05)
January 12, 2006
Thai Travelogue
A paragraph from my Thai travelogue:
“…The day for unit’s workers started 8 o’clock with the national anthem and rising of the Thai flag in front of the office. The first day we walked through different plantation to find the most suitable ones to measure. The mountainous terrain offered beautiful views over the valleys with the highest mountain of Thailand Doi Inthanon looming behind the smoky sky. Only one plantation was chosen for closer measuring. This vast area had parts which had suffered a major forest fire six years ago and another part that hadn’t had a fire during it’s standing age of 26 years. Finally I would get the comparison that I needed. The two workers helping me were fun to be with, older Thai man knew all the plants like his own pockets and was constantly pointing around telling which trees produced something delicious to eat or chewing tobacco. He had a small bag with him where he kept this forest tobacco; fermented and dried leaves, bark and some white glue he called acid. All this would be wrapped inside a leaf and placed under a lip. The result: black teeth. The young Karen guy talked a bit English and worked as a scribe and a translator. He was especially pleased when he heard that there are hill-tribe people living in Finland called Saame people who nowadays use helicopters and snowmotorcycles (snowmobiles) to look after their reindeer. After the last days work (which took 10 hours) we headed to the Hmong village close to the unit grounds to buy couple of beers and a pair of Hmong trousers for my girlfriend. Villagers were playing football in the square while we bargained for the trousers. After half an hour I gave up and paid too much for the pants…”
Read more with pictures: Forest Inventories in Thailand and Then Some
January 9, 2006
China-Africa Trade Increases by 39%
Trade between China and African countries has stepped up since the start of China-Africa Forum in 2000. China has concentrated on buying African oil, but has also invested in Africa. A growing number (15.3 bn dollars) of products are imported from China to Africa.
“…China has scrapped tariffs on 190 kinds of imported goods from 28 of the least developed African countries, and Chinese firms have greatly increased investments in Africa – most notably in the oil sector.”
Today there’s a news about Chinese oil company planning to buy a share of Nigerian oil and gas field for 2 bn dollars.
China-Africa trade jumps by 39% -BBC
CNOOC to buy $2bn stake in Nigerian…-MSNBC
January 8, 2006
The Congo Situation
The Demogratic Republic of Congo, the third largest country in Africa will hold it’s presidential election in April 2006. According to a new survey, the long continued war over rich natural resources, also now as the First World War of Africa, was/is the deadliest one in The World in the last 60 years.
“More people have been killed in the second Congo war than in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur.There are factions from six different countries involved. This along with the loose organisation of the forces make peace keeping and agreements difficult because small militias do as they please, ignoring all truces between the leaders. The origin of the conflict lays in the Rwandan genocyde…”
Read the full post in Sampsa Daily: Situation in Congo
The Taungya System
The traditional forest plantation system, Taungya or Shamba has been critisised in kenya. The critics claim that it leads to destruction of water catchments and loss of biodiversity.In taungya, plantation forest is established on a government owned land by the local farmers. The government provides seedlings and tools as well as instructions and training. In return for their work local people have an opportunity to cultivate the plantation area until the canopy closes, usually this takes from 2 to 4 years.
As the system is only used in plantation areas, I think the argument about loss of biodiversity is out of place. The main objective of plantation management being a high yield of raw material for forest industry. Of course there are several methods to attain this goal, with monoculture plantation or multiple species plantation. The rule of thumb is that the more you have species the more complex and difficult it’ll be to achive a high output of desired wood. With multiple species the biodiversity might be a bit higher for a decade or two before clear cutting.
The destruction of water catchments by plantation forestry depends mostly on species selection and in some degree on carefull planning of logging (where to place roads etc.) not on plantation forestry itself. With site matching tree species possible negative effects can be reversed so that the site’s water holding capacities actually increase (if that’s the aim).
The protection of biodiversity, in my view, should not alter the livelyhood of local people. Sufficient amount of protected areas and nature reserves are the places where this protection should take place. Of course, one can argue that Taungya could be brought up to date by taking the government off the equation with a land reform that would decentralise the land rights. This would minimise the need of local people to destroy the seedlings in order to prolong the cultivation period, as they would get even higher revenues from the wood crop. But this is a decision that should be made by politicians not by foresters. Today, community or private ownership with appropriate extension work is found to be the most efficient way to manage and protect forests at the same time.
People simply take better care of their own property.
Farmers ‘eat away’ Kenyan mountain forests – article in People and the Planet
Banning shamba system will not replenish forests – open letter in The Standard
Shooting government in the head – Article in The East African Standard
January 4, 2006
Mike Fay’s Megaflyover Images in GoogleEarth
Across Africa, you will see the familiar yellow National Geographic logo. Zoom in to see the title of each feature article or photograph. Click the icon and a pop-up balloon shows a photo and description along with links to the content…The Megaflyover images are stunning. Mike spent more than a year taking 92,000 high resolution photographs of the continent.
more in…GoogleBlog
Maps with a Difference
Mapping Worlds (via Sampsa Daily) provides maps that make it easier to understand the state of the World.
Development and Trade
Referring to yesterday’s post about EU providing aid for Africa, I’d like to explore it a bit further. A well known proverb says that “don’t give hungry man a fish, teach him how to fish”. This could be converted into “don’t let poor countries rely on your aid, give them a chance to make their own money”. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland states it well:
If poor countries could increase their share of world exports by just one percent, they could lift 128 million people out of poverty. In Africa alone, this would generate US$70 billion – more than five times what the continent receives in aid.
As I have understood, the main one of the main problems, or obstacles for development is subsidies. Rich/developed/the North nations pay subsidies for their producers to export their products or just for them to stay in bussiness. This way producers can keep the prizes low and dump the product for example rice to poor countries making it impossible for local farmers to compete thus keeping them poor or even worsening their situation. Edward Gresser gives a good example of this with olive oil:
The olive tree grows all around the Mediterranean, and should bring income and rural employment to Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon – but it doesn’t. Each year the European Union spends $2.5 billion or so to supplement the incomes of growers in Spain, Italy and Greece. The subsidy, at more than two dollars for every dollar of global olive oil trade, keeps Moroccan and Lebanese oil out of American supermarkets, even as tariffs and quotas limit oil sales to Europe.
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has stated:
“By blocking value-added products, our partners in the world kill the following opportunities: ability to earn more foreign currency, employment, enhancing the purchasing power of the population, expanding the tax base for the governments of Africa and the chance to transform African societies from the backward, pre-industrial states – in which they are now – to modern ones by building a middle class and a skilled working class.”
The WTO delegates in Hong Kong last December, were in charge with an agricultural trade reform plan, which was designed to open markets for farmers and in particular to cut the subsidies, tariffs and quotas of the WTO’s wealthy members. They were not able to do this. Export subsidies will continue untill 2013 and after this countries can simply increase the WTO-legal subsidies, domestic subsidies to keep the “bussiness as usual”. Doesn’t sound like free trade that rich nations have been after, does it? Another proverb says: “Don’t talk the talk, if you can’t walk the walk”!
Future plans of rich nations is to pressure developing nations to open their markets in services (finance, telecommunications, distribution, education, postal services, computer and business services etc.). Road side food stalls and small bussiness competing with hypermarkets, right.
Further reading:
Africa Needs Fair Trade, Not Charity
Fate of the Farmers in Balance
QUICK GUIDE: THE DISASTER THAT IS THE HK MINISTERIAL DECLARATION
DECEPTION – EU to Still Provide 55 Billion Euros in Export Supports Even if Export Subsidies are Cut
January 3, 2006
How to use RSS Feeds? Use What?
If you are not familiar with RSS feeds/live bookmarks, have a look at Paul Staminous Guide (via LifeHacker) or a guide by BBC.
These feeds save a lot of time. You don’t have to open sites you visit regurlarly, to see if they have a new posts, as you can see the latests post titles as bookmarks in your browser.
You can find my feed address http://sampsa.wordpress.com/feed/ in the sidebar.
Vietnam’s Road to Capitalism
Very interesting article about The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the reform of the country, launched in 1986. From communism to WTO, how did that happen? -YaleGlobal
