Infrastructure and Trade

One of the longstanding clichés about the African continent is the statement that it is easier to do something (e.g. transportation, phone calls, trade in goods, investment, e.t.c.) between an African country and a European or North American country than it is to do the same thing between that African country and another African country -- even if that other country is right next door.



The report above details the positive changes in the lives of Nigerians and Camerounians attendant upon the completion of the Enugu-Bamenda highway. Our people are entrepreneurs, gifted at figuring out ways to earn a living provided the opportunity to earn a living is not blocked, limited or otherwise distorted in service of the interests of the internal and external powers that be.

These are things we should have started doing as far back as the 1960s, shifting away from the economically distortionary colonial transportation network (particularly railways) designed to move our raw materials to the ports and onwards to Europe, and shifting towards a new transportation structure that allows for intra-African comparative advantages to define new patterns of economic activity. Unfortunately, we spent the 1960s fighting each other, and have spent the decades since then in simmering distrust.

The Insidiousness of Propaganda (3) - Another Example

You've probably seen this video. It is almost 2 years old.



This type of example is easy to "reveal" or "expose".  What bothers me are the adjustments and edits made to information reported as "news", that none of us as viewers/readers/listeners are in a position to detect.

For the record, this isn't a rant against the "mainstream media". To be honest, critics of the media are as apt to "adjust" and "edit" as the news outlets are. And don't get me started on politicians, and on the people who are very adamantly attached to politicians, political parties and political ideologies.