Tale of the Sahara.


I know nothing about Africa really. But then, when I wrote about Starbucks in the last two posts, a friend told me about what happens in Africa. He said that Starbucks are exploiting Africans cheap labour. He said, and I quote “These people are earning less than 5 dollars per month.” I do not know how true this statement is. I tried to look it up but I have not found anything yet and maybe because I am too ignorant when it comes to this. If any of you have any information about this, please, by all means, inform me. Now, back to the poorest continent that is Africa. I read these few things from the internet and The Economists. Here are some of them.

GEOGRAPHY

  • Africa is the second largest continent in the world. Only Asia is bigger.
  • Because it has very few jagged coasts and bays, Africa has the shortest coastline of all the other continents.
  • Three-fourths of Africa is in the tropics.
  • Africa is almost an island. Its only connection to the other land is the tiny Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
  • Africa is four times the size of the United States.
  • Africa includes Madagascar, which is the fourth largest island in the world (Greenland is the largest).
  • Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s largest mountains, is actually a volcano.
PEOPLE

  • Africa is so large that a full population census has never been made. Estimates say that the continent and its nearby islands may be home to as many as 748 million people.
  • There are over 1000 different languages in Africa.
  • Some African languages are spoken by millions of people, while others are spoken by only a few hundred. Some are on the verge of extinction and are only spoken by a few elderly people.
  • The topmost part of Africa has several countries that are actually considered to be part of the Middle East, such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
  • Africans have more physical variations than on any other continent in the world.
  • Africa has some of the shortest and the tallest people in the world.
  • Africa is the home of the Human species, which developed there about 5 million years ago.


PROBLEMS
  • Average income per head in Africa is lower now than it was 30 years ago.
  • 20 million Africans died from AIDS.
  • 4 out of 10 people are infected by AIDS.
  • Life expectancy is less than 30 years old.
  • 2 million people died in Sudan North-South conflict which lasted for over 21 years.
  • 1 in 6 Africans children died before reaching their 5th birthday.
LIGHTS OF HOPE
  • According to World Bank, governance has been improving faster in Africa than in many other areas of the developing world.
  • Mozambique, a country brought to its knees by vicious fighting, has cut its levels of poverty by a third since peace.
  • In the 1990s, 15 countries in Africa have average growth of 4%.
  • By 2001, half of the countries in the continent recorded an average growth of 5.9%


Africa might be the poorest region in the world but they are certainly developing, at least for some countries there. Given time and proper aid, they will be able to stand at par with other countries as another emerging economy after Asia. And when they do, they will pose a great threat to China in economy terms. Africa has the potential to become the world biggest untapped market and resources. But for now, they still have a long way to go before they can join the rest of the world. We just have to wait and see.

REFERENCE

Guilford College (no date) Interesting Facts About Africa. [Online] Available from:
http://www.guilford.edu/academics/index.cfm?ID=100002790 [Accessed: 26th January 2006]

Tony Blair (2005) The Economists. A Year of Huge Challenge. 374(8407) 22-24.


Hopefully you will enjoy reading about Africa as much as I enjoyed writing about it. Tomorrow, I have Statistics Test at 10 a.m. Thank you for the feedback given on my Starbucks case study. Ciao ciao.






Comments

kaicito said…
i tend to think a comment like "these people earn less than 5 $ a month" is meaningless, unless you factor in the purchasing power of that payment. for all i know, someone with 5$/month may be a big earner in his country.
Friday, January 27, 2006 3:49:00 PM
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