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Senor P. posted:Angola I grew up in SA and Angola just never featured. I never met anyone from there and I never heard anything about it. Someone told me a few years ago that Angola is "basically owned by the USA". Is that true?
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Oct 7, 2014 20:39
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Anyone read Tram 83 yet? I've heard its very good.
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Oct 8, 2014 00:11
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redreader posted:I grew up in SA and Angola just never featured. I never met anyone from there and I never heard anything about it. Someone told me a few years ago that Angola is "basically owned by the USA". Is that true? We were essential in stopping the war between UNITA rebels and the government and we're their principal benefactors. Not quite certain what we're getting out of it, but I know that Angola has a strong mining industry.
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Oct 8, 2014 00:43
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redreader posted:I grew up in SA and Angola just never featured. I never met anyone from there and I never heard anything about it. Someone told me a few years ago that Angola is "basically owned by the USA". Is that true? I would not call Angola owned by the U.S. All of the major oil conglomerates, make money here. French, Dutch, American, and Chinese are here. The attitude of the government is that it does not really want anyone in the country, unless you're here to work for oil or mining industries. In which case the government makes sure to get their cut. As for the U.S. involvement in their civil war,I don't think we were involved as much or as directly as some people think. Compared to the direct interventions of Cuba or South Africa. Additionally you have 2 other major wars. (The war of Namibian independence and also the South African conflicts with Angola.) To me as an outsider it is somewhat difficult to differentiate between these 3 conflicts.
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Oct 12, 2014 17:20
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Senor P. posted:I work in a compound in one of the north west provinces by the coast, we are typically not allowed to leave except for a few hours on weekends. We can leave for a trip to beach, church, or one of the restaraunts nearby. This is really interesting to me, because I know a Chinese guy currently working in one of those locked-down Chinese communities in Angola. It sounds very similar to your experience. The community is Chinese nationals only, and all food and entertainment are Chinese. Heading into town requires scheduling, groups, and a security escort. The internet connection sucks and the computers are heavily monitored. I don't really know much else about it. The pay is fantastic by Chinese standards, but it's basically like being paid to stay in a decent prison.
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Oct 14, 2014 04:45
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Zeroisanumber posted:We were essential in stopping the war between UNITA rebels and the government and we're their principal benefactors. Not quite certain what we're getting out of it, but I know that Angola has a strong mining industry. Three guesses. First two don't count.
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Oct 14, 2014 17:50
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Senor P. posted:As for the U.S. involvement in their civil war,I don't think we were involved as much or as directly as some people think. Compared to the direct interventions of Cuba or South Africa. edit: And the CIA and KGB were all over UNITA and the MPLA, of course. Grey Area fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 18:08
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The U.S. doesn't get that much oil from Angola, 1.7% isn't what I would call a lot. (I know Wikipedia says 7%, but the figures from EIA seem to dispute that.) http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_m.htm Do the American oil companies (Chevron and Exxon) make a lot? Sure. So does France (Total), Italy (Eni), Britain (BP), Norway (Statoil), and a handful of others. As for who does get Angola's oil... China, see below. http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=ao LentThem posted:This is really interesting to me, because I know a Chinese guy currently working in one of those locked-down Chinese communities in Angola. It sounds very similar to your experience. The community is Chinese nationals only, and all food and entertainment are Chinese. Heading into town requires scheduling, groups, and a security escort. The internet connection sucks and the computers are heavily monitored. It could be worse though, at least I'm not working off shore on a rig. (Although I hear they work one month on one month off, which is pretty nice.) Our internet got upgraded, so I can at least check emails more regularly now. Someone asked me about Kilamba, like I said I'm not in Luanda. However from what I've read units are around 100k which is well out of normal people's pay range out here. Senor P. fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 20:09
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Does anyone have any book recommendations on Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, focusing on their economies and development, primarily in agriculture but general is good too. I'm looking for something covering the present and last 5-10 years; the important part is how current it is, not necessarily how far back it goes. General book recommendations covering these countries are also welcome, and admittedly probably easier to find.
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Oct 20, 2014 07:37
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Blaise Compaoré is a big deal in Western Africa. He is the president of Burkina Faso ever since the last guy, Thomas Sankara, staunch opponent of imperialism and colonialism, was "mysteriously" overthrown and assassinated in 1987. Compaoré has been a crucial dealmaker with the west; (he also introduced to each other his friends Muammar Gadhafi and Charles Taylor of Liberia); he is also the diplomatic kingpin of his neighborhood, negotiating an end to the last war in Mali. In 2000, he added presidential term limits to the constitution (two five-year mandates max.). It was not retroactive: his 13-year presidency as of then din't count. He got... elected in 2005 (80,35%) and 2010 (80,2%). So to speak. He would be ineligible to stand in the election next year. So his party called on him to save the nation of this terrible fate by abolishing that term limit. A constitutional amendment on the subject was presented to Parliament. So what then? Burkina Faso parliament set ablaze by protesters As it happened: http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-29831591 ...Oh.  Oooooooh.So basically the mostly peaceful protest in the capital was met by riot police, who proceeded to [try to] clear the streets, got their asses kicked and left the Parliament to be invested, the ministers' houses to be burned and the public broadcaster to be ransacked. Since then, soldiers have been seen fraternizing with protesters, Compaoré is rumored to be in Sénégal, France and the US said they looked de-favorably upon any attempts to change the constitution abusively, the government was dissolved, a state of emergency was decreed and the amendment was annulled. At least three deaths, 61 injured, according to http://www.lefaso.net/. An old stalwart of the region is looking mighty vulnerable right now. If he goes, that's gonna leave a mark, so anyone interested in Africa should be paying attention. Comedy from Compaoré's twitter: https://twitter.com/PF_Compaore/status/527795875373133825 [Zambia has a white president!*] [*Acting only, until the next election within 90 days]
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Oct 31, 2014 03:06
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BBC is saying that Compaore wants to stay on for a year for a "transitional government" to form. I doubt that this will happen– based on the rumors ecureuilmatrix posted above either he stays for good, or he's going out in less than a year.
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Oct 31, 2014 03:55
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Spiderfist Island posted:BBC is saying that Compaore wants to stay on for a year for a "transitional government" to form. I doubt that this will happen– based on the rumors ecureuilmatrix posted above either he stays for good, or he's going out in less than a year. Depends whether its Compaore's proposal or the French proposal. I'm going to guess the outcome is "temporary management" until after elections by someone installed by France through "constitutional processes."
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Oct 31, 2014 04:11
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Seems the exile rumors are not true -yet-, and now it's confused whether the army has taken over or not. The C-in-C said nothing much beyond "the gov and assembly are dissolved", which was already in Compaoré's message. He did confirm he was abandoning the term limit elimination. Hospital bill now up to 30 dead, 100 injured.
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Oct 31, 2014 04:35
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If there's one person in Africa who deserves to die of ebola, it's Compaoré.
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Oct 31, 2014 11:34
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Compaoré just announced he’s stepping down, according to the Breaking News ticker.
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Oct 31, 2014 14:29
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So it would appear there is a power grab in the works for Rwanda in the styling of Burkina Faso. It would appear that President Kagame's allies are debating a constitutional amendment to allow him a third term.
My Imaginary GF fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Nov 4, 2014 |
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Nov 3, 2014 02:20
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redreader posted:I grew up in SA and Angola just never featured. I never met anyone from there and I never heard anything about it.
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Nov 4, 2014 16:57
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My Imaginary GF posted:So it would appear there is a power grab in the works for Rwanda in the styling of Burkina Faso. It would appear that President Kagame's allies are debating a constitutional amendment to allow him a third term.
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Nov 4, 2014 17:53
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Tom Smykowski posted:Whats up with Rwanda anyways? The Rwandans I met all talked up Kagame bigtime. Well, thats a bit of a broad question. Rwanda has a shitload of energy resources and a less-corrupt political system, given its region. Tribal tensions still occur; there are issues with refugees like in most of East Africa. Kagame wants a third term as a power grab. Nothing unusual, and hes one of the better leaders in a Kwame Nkrumah style. He's sort of the bridge for OCHA-EA's draw-down in the region and positioning himself as a third-way for private-public development and humanitarian goal attainment. That's my understanding of Kagame, from the basis of the Kigali expat business and academic community.
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Nov 4, 2014 18:02
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Whys he a Kwame Nkrumah style leader? Is he well liked? Now that I think of it, all the Rwandans I met were government sponsored students in China, so they might have been a bit biased.
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Nov 4, 2014 18:09
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I have a slightly more negative opinion of Kagame based on Rwanda's unabashed and continuing interference in the DRC, his ready use of Rwanda's post-genocide legislation to imprison/intimidate opponents and the Rwandan security apparatus' rather cavalier use of assassination to deal with opponents (from within Kagame's own party) in exile. From an economic/development perspective he's all rosy but his autocratic tendencies are pretty pronounced, the third term move is not surprising. He's pretty secure though and it will probably go down in much the same way Museveni's third term did (international harrumphing, limited street protest). In saying that Kagame has always struck me as being a lot more brittle and combative personality wise, he's been talking up building on the Chinese relationship after he got a telling off for assisting M23
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Nov 4, 2014 18:16
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SS Africa is not really horrible- that's the way humans have lived for most of our existence. It is only in contrast with prosperous cultures that it seems so. Miserable, cold, sick, perpetually on the brink of starvation,most of our children dying, always at the risk of predators (of whatever species- including other humans). Only under such misery does the Hand of Darwin harden and strengthen us.* Cruel but true. So go complain to God. * Therefore prosperity weakens us and will lead to our failure. Refute my reasoning. How else do you explain such phenomena as Honey Boo-Boo? There's a genetic cull candidate for you. ... Give it twenty centuries after Western culture has withered and died, and Africans will be the new improved Man: producing the New Human Renaissance. They will go to the stars. Darwin never lies. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 5, 2014 18:10
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Don't really know if this qualifies as Sub-Saharan, but kind of freaky. China decided to use the Comoros to test out a malaria drug on the entire population: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinas-test-malaria-drug-artequick-experiment-on-population-of-comoros/ Glad things seem to be turning out all right, but a lot of this sounds like the kind of behavior that France and Belgium aren't willing to engage in as regards Africa anymore. If a Chinese pharmaceutical company decided to use the state of West Virginia to test a drug Americans would be flipping out.
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Nov 11, 2014 21:02
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benito posted:Don't really know if this qualifies as Sub-Saharan, but kind of freaky. China decided to use the Comoros to test out a malaria drug on the entire population: Yeah this is terrifying. I applaud them wanting to help people stay safe from malaria but loving mass testing of a drug is not it. 
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Nov 11, 2014 22:12
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Given that it's overseen by Chinese authorities the data and result are also suspect.
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Nov 11, 2014 22:22
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I'm a little confused by that article. Malaria isn't spread human to human, so why does eliminating human hosts eliminate malaria? edit: Oh, that's kind of interesting quote:Female Anopheles mosquitoes pick up the parasite from infected people when they bite to obtain blood needed to nurture their eggs. Xandu fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 23:31
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benito posted:Don't really know if this qualifies as Sub-Saharan, but kind of freaky. China decided to use the Comoros to test out a malaria drug on the entire population: Its behavior like this which resulted in the global HIV pandemic. I really don't trust Chinese researchers, and really don't trust their ability to control for and prevent unintended nosocomial transmissions resulting from this.
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Nov 11, 2014 23:35
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Xandu posted:I'm a little confused by that article. Malaria isn't spread human to human, so why does eliminating human hosts eliminate malaria? As it explains there, its because malaria is in a cycle with mosquitoes. The parasite gets put into human bodies, where it reproduces heavily. When a mosquitoe drinks that person's blood, it switches into a different form for travel, and then back to the reproductive form in humans. So you can kill off malaria by either killing the mosquitoes (and thus making sure it can't find new hosts) or kill off all of the malaria in humans (meaning it can't reproduce once the mosquitoes with it all die in 2-3 weeks).
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Nov 12, 2014 00:20
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My Imaginary GF posted:Its behavior like this which resulted in the global HIV pandemic. Wait, I thought you said that was down to Che Guevera being a player?
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Nov 12, 2014 01:50
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Captain_Maclaine posted:Wait, I thought you said that was down to Che Guevera being a player? The re-use of unclean needles during vaccination campaigns colonial Africa resulted in the emergence of HIV-1 as endemic to the human population, rather a localized disease that would burn itself out within an isolated population. The re-use of unclean needles also resulted in the emergence of Ebola at the Yambuku Mission, as another example of why its necessary to provide hygenic healthcare and how focus upon elimination of a disease within a population without appropriate infection prevention procedures could serve to amplify an existing, and heretofore unknown, infection within the target population. Frankly, I'm not confident in the conpetency of Chinese infection prevention procedures, and I doubt they use the same best-practices that are now essential for IRB approval in the West as their first and foremost consideration during program design and implementation. My Imaginary GF fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Nov 12, 2014 |
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Nov 12, 2014 01:56
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