Ethiopia’s Meles Warns Crisis May Cause Half of the African States to Fail

[tekisui]

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Half of Africa’s nations may become failed or failing states over the next decade if their governments don’t address the global financial crisis and climate change, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

African leaders should unite to demand a financial recovery package for the continent, Meles said in a speech at the African Union heads-of-state summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, today. Compensation should also be sought from industrialized nations for the effects of global warming.

“It’s likely that the coming decade or so will be very dark indeed for Africa,” Meles said. “Our prospects are not bright at all.”

Economic growth in Africa may slow to 3.4 percent this year, from 5.2 percent last year, amid expectations that economies such as the U.S., Japan and the U.K. will suffer their deepest recessions since World War II, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Rising global temperatures have intensified the effects of droughts, floods and storms in Africa, scientists say. Soil damage partly caused by climate change may plunge the continent, home to 1 billion people, into chaos as food production declines, according to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

“We have to recognize the dire consequences of what is unfolding before our eyes,” said Meles. “Our continental organizations should be seized with this matter in a much more effective and serious matter.”

more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=arVTvMS1CA0g&refer=africa

[ThomWV]

1. Half of Africa's states are already failed

[Marrah_G]

2. Sadly the money NEVER gets to the people

It always end up in the hands of some asshole who needs more stuff while his people murder each other with machetes for scraps.

[KharmaTrain]

3. So Let's Now Bailout Corrupt Dictators...

To paraphrase the old Jesee Jacksonism..."when the US sneezes, the third world gets a cold". Right now the US is suffering from pneumonia...just imagine how this is rippling down.

Sadly many African nations haven't built infrastructures that are self sufficient thus when the western economies slow down, they feel it first and worst. Prices of their precious materials and cheap labor fall as demand drops and with less money coming in, their debts rise and people go hungry. The only real infrastructure is when the UN or an outside force comes in and then it's only temporal.

Africa has come a long way in the past 20 years...there are some promises for the future, but years of warfare, internal strife, corrupt rulers and repressive World Bank policies will make them extremely vulnerable is this economic mess keeps going.

[ThomWV]

4. Isn't that what we are already doing in this country?