Part 1
a.
The “cheetah’ and the “hippo” generations in Africa are essentially the clash of Ideals; the battle between those who want justice and those who control it.
The “Cheetahs” are the younger generations of Africans who are pushing for change. They are progressive and want a democracy and social equality. They push against the hippos and push for rapid change.
The “hippos” are those who currently hold power in Africa: They are the ruling elites and they are the ones who benefit from the status quo. They want to keep Africa the way it is and push against the motives of the “cheetahs”.
For one to see the differences, it is as clear as day. Many of the “hippos” view a democracy and civil society as the way it is now because they are the ones benefiting from it. The “Cheetahs” see today’s governmental systems as oppressive and as only benefiting the rich few. For these reasons, the “Cheetahs” want change and the “hippos” do not.
b.
In Steve Radelets “Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries are Leading the Way”, he explains that, due to the introduction of technology in Africa, there are greater economic opportunities, more jobs, greater financial networking, and increasing transparency and accountability. Technology is improving the African economy in every aspect: agriculture, manufacturing, immigration, banking, and tourism.
Perhaps the even more beneficial part of the introduction of technology in Africa is that is sustainable:
“They (technologies) clearly were not major contributing factors to the economic and political turnaround that swept across the emerging African countries in the early and mid-1990s. But they have had a huge impact in sustaining the progress in recent years. Most important, they are critical for continuing to expand economic opportunities, information flows, and political accountability in the future,” Radelet said.
Challenges still lay ahead, however, because the cost of coverage is still high. The cost of Internet is 20 to 40 times higher in Africa than it is in the United States. However, Radelet explains there are projects being done; such as installing undersea cables on the east coast of Africa. Therefore, if these projects are completed and the cost of coverage is lowered to a sustainable amount, I believe it has the change to make a long-term impact.
Part 2
In the book “Poor Economics”, the authors Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo describe a poverty trap as “Poor countries that are poor because they are got, infertile, malaria-infested, often landlocked; this makes it hard for them to be productive without an initial large investment to help them deal with these endemic problems. But they cannot pay for the investments precisely because they are poor- they are in what economists call a ‘Poverty Trap’”.
There is a huge debate about whether poverty traps exist or not, but it originally roots from the problem that a free market does not serve the poor. Since a free market economy does not give the opportunity to those who didn’t have it in the first place, there will be no way for them to rise above poverty and those “trapped” will fall further and further behind.
Some experts say that if there were tiny investments made each year by the poor citizens towards, for example, agriculture, it would lead to a larger investment and continue to eventually lead the farmer out of poverty. However, other experts who believe there is a poverty trap believe that maybe if there was an investment of, for example, fertilizer, to improve the yield of a farmer’s crop, the fertilizer might only be sold in bulk. If that is so, there would be no opportunity for an initial small investment and therefore there would exist a poverty trap.
On a smaller scale, I was given Malawi as my country to analyze for this blog post. The poverty traps in my given country are poverty, AIDs, and hunger.
On the World Bank’s site, in regard to the first goal of SDG, there seems to be little data. However, as recorded in 2010, the poverty headcount ratio was at 50.7. Meaning that 50.7 percent of the population is living in poverty.
Human Capital in Malawi still needs work: It has the “same portion of the total population in elementary school as it did in 1911.”, according to the World Bank. On top of that, there are not efficient school supplies to educate Malawi students, as the average Malawi student has half the level of reading skills as a student in North America. One of the main causes of this divide is due to the constant health issues that lead to low attendance; over half of the students report having Malaria, one in four with Bilharzia and one in ten with hookworm. Because of this, a Malawi student’s chance of reaching secondary school is three out of one-hundred. (Source:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/210611468773058337/The-evaluation-of-human-capital-in-Malawi)
Peace Beyond Borders 