Monday, November 9, 2009

The African Quagmire

Some interesting statistics from the newspaper this morning:
"China's poverty rate fell from more than 50 percent in 1981 to about 20 percent in 1991 and 5 percent in 2005.  In 1981 China's poor outnumbered Africa's by almost 4:1 yet by 1996 sub-Saharan Africa had more poor people than China.  Between 1991 and 2004, 500 million Chinese moved above the poverty line whilst 130 million more Africans moved below the poverty line."
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"In the 1960's, Uganda was one of the most promising economies in sub-Saharan Africa.  It is now among the 20 poorest countries in the world with per capita GNP of $279 compared to $724 for India and $1,736 for China."

Quagmire indeed.

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