Monday, November 23, 2009

Africa to (Latin) America

Today, NPR had an interesting segment on the increasing number of Africans immigrating to Latin America--specifically to Brazil and Argentina. This is a phenomenon I had no idea about. I'm so used to hearing about immigration in the US context--a divisive and polarizing issue--so it's surprising and disorienting to think that immigrants would emigrate to countries other than the US and Europe. But it makes sense. Lusane and Mundra say that many African immigrants are drawn to Latin America by economic factors--seeking better jobs. Considering Brazil's economy grew by nearly 6% in 2008 this makes sense. They also mention Argentina and Brazil's relatively lax immigration laws and the fact that a large portion of Brazil's population is of African descent as further incentives for African immigrants.

Immigration and the movement of people in the world really interests me. The idea of Somalis refugees dhow-boating to Dubai or educated Congolese seeking jobs in Brazil are fascinating vectors I've never thought about.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Pirate Oasis and Mswati III

Interesting article on Baraawe, Somalia: Pirate Oasis.

Just watched, Without the King, about the Africa's last monarch, King Mswati III of Swaziland. I was excited for the subject matter, but the movie itself was nothing special. Highlighted and repeated same points for an hour and a half. King Mswati has an exorbitant amount of wealth in a nation that has the highest AIDS prevalence rate in the world and where the majority of people live in extreme poverty. Film contrasted this poverty with Mswati's fleet of luxury cars, and the high AIDS rate with Mswati's 13 wives (poor tone to set when your AIDS prevention policy is abstinence). Sad stuff.

Monday, November 9, 2009

News links

Here are some links from yesterday. At least one construction project is behind schedule in South Africa's plans for the World Cup next summer. An air-tram taking visitors from the airport to the city/stadium/hotels will be not be finished until (at least) 2 weeks after the World Cup's start. With so many other construction projects rushing to get done, having one not finish on time isn't a huge deal. It's a bit disappointing because I want to hear that everything is on schedule, and will run like a dream. But that's unrealistic. I hope, however, that this is not indicative of other projects; one setback shouldn't accrete into many. The ANC briefly considered paying their contractors to rush the air-tram construction so it would be done in time, but in the end the price tag for doing this was too high. Understandable. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if this gets pushed back further--seems like contractors always later than they predict in construction.

Big news in Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai ends his government boycott. Derek Catsam is right on the mark arguing that maintaining the status quo benefits Mugabe. There is now a new deadline on the agreeing and implementing some of the details of the GNU (government of national unity). Mugabe wants Tsvangirai to act as the PR person to aid-donors in the west. And Tsvangirai wants formative change in the government structure so that he is a legitimate partner.

I'm working on a post with some quick thoughts on China's role in Africa (in light of China's summit with African leaders this week).

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Cope-ing with bad news

As part of an effort to keep up with current affairs in Sub-Saharan Africa, I'm trying to read an article or two in the Jo'burg-based Mail & Guardian every day. I know this gives a somewhat narrow look at African current affairs since it focuses mostly on South African domestic issues. But, M&G follows the Zimbabwean crisis very well, and continental affairs quite well too. Plus I like reading the comments that South African readers posts, and there ain't many other English-text newspapers in Africa.

The big news in SA right now is the resignation of Allan Boesak from the Congress of the People party. Cope emerged with a big bang last fall when ANC dissidents formed it. I for one thought this was the inevitable finally happening: the emergence of a strong and competitive opposition party to the ANC. (I thought that at the very least Cope would supplant the DA as the main opposition party.)

Boy was I wrong. And with Boesak's resignation, Cope's really does seem like an empty party--both in its dwindling membership and ambiguous ideology. It seems that their strength was just a mirage built on the wishful thinking of those craving a multi-party democracy. Infighting and opportunism have further weakened their weak political core.

I'm interested in whether this means yet another opposition party will emerge before the 2013 elections? Or will this act as an example, tempering the possible departure of disgruntled ANC members?

And if a different opposition party emerges, will they share Cope's moderately-conservative right-of-ANC ideology? Or will they be an independent SACP-Cosatu party that many have predicted emerging for years?