|
|
 Book Info |  | | 
enlarge picture
| The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives | | | Author: | Robert Guest | | ISBN: | 158834214X | | Format: | Handover | | Publish Date: | June, 2005 | | |  |  |  | | | | | | | Book Review | | | |
From Publishers Weekly
Guest, African editor of Economist, tackles the vexing issue of Africa’s continuing poverty, and offers a surprising blunt answer. Africa is a shackled continent because of the abuse of power by "vampire states": authoritarian governments that have failed their people comprehensively. Guest details their abuses thoroughly. An emphasis on exploiting mineral resources neglects other aspects of economic development. Property rights are rarely secure in law or practice. AIDS ravages entire populations. Tribal loyalties overshadow state identities. Western aid is siphoned off by thugs and bureaucrats, or displaces the private investment that is the only basis for long-term economic growth. Comprehensive corruption discourages the mutual trust required for complex systems to function effectively. Technological innovation is discouraged by government micromanagement. A particularly scathing chapter focusing on Zimbabwe and South Africa describes how post-liberation governments and their supporting elites take the short cut of expropriating assets instead of developing their own. As a cure, Guest recommends "simple ideas, rigorously applied." Governments must concentrate on providing basics: primary education, essential health care, piped water. Elites must stop spending other people’s money on limousines, mansions and first-class flights to conferences. Finally, Africans must stop arguing that Africa’s problems are someone else’s fault. Guest recognizes that the economic modernization he advocates comes with a price, but he is nonetheless optimistic. Readers may be moved enough to find ways of being so, too.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
A scathing critique of Africa's governments by the Africa editor at The Economist. Why is Africa so poor? Why are so many of its nations at war? Why is AIDS devastating Africa like nowhere else? And why do African entrepreneurs find it so hard to borrow money? In this provocative and thoughtful book, Guest argues that the continent remains poor primarily because it is badly governed. Since the colonial powers pulled out, the autocrats who largely replaced them have struggled to keep order, let alone create an atmosphere conducive to economic development. The results have been devastating: Two-fifths of African nations are at war, AIDS has lowered life expectancy to as young as 40 years, lack of collateral makes investment almost impossible, and foreign aid has had very little effect on the daily lives of the poor. The Shackled Continent provides a persuasive look into the persistent problems of modern Africa and offers some possible solutions. What Africa needs is peace, the rule of law, and greater freedom for individuals to pursue prosperity without hindrance from their rulers. The prescription may sound simple, but it is tough to administer, as Guest's investigations from Angola to Zimbabwe reveal.
About the Author
Robert Guest is the Africa editor of The Economist. In 2003, he won both the Queen's English Society's and Foreign Press Association's award for Best Economic Story of the Year. He lives in London.
The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives FROM THE PUBLISHER The Shackled Continent addresses Africa's thorniest problems: war, AIDS, and above all, poverty. Robert Guest, Africa editor for the Economist, has spentsix years reporting from the world's poorest continent and writes about its troubles with passion and clarity. This book is engrossing, highly readable, and as entertaining as it is tragic. With a keen eye for detail and an easy way with stories, Guest pulls the veil off the corruption and intrigue that cripple so many African nations. His firsthand accounts illuminate a wealth of original ideas. Guest's provocative theory is that Africans have been impoverished largely by their own leaders. In the postcolonial era, Africa's rulers -- a group he calls the "thugocracy" -- have shackled their people's entrepreneurial talents and driven the brightest and most honest to emigrate. From the minefields of Angola to the newly barren wheat fields of Zimbabwe, Guest gathers startling evidence of the misery African leaders have inflicted on their people. But he finds elusive success stories, too, and from them draws hope. With less predatory and more pragmatic government, he argues, the continent will eventually prosper, and there is a chance that the spread of rough-and-ready democracy over the past decade will deliver just that. Beyond its valuable insights, The Shackled Continent is also a tribute to the resilience, creativity, and resourcefulness of individual Africans. Guest offers choices both commonsense and controversial for Africans and for those in the West who wish Africa well.
| |
|
Art & Photography