Prose Before Hos

Life After Berlusconi

Posted on December 9, 2011 in Articles

The Article: Too Late To Celebrate by Eli S. Evans and Michele Monina in n+1.

The Text: Strange days here in Italy. In the newspapers and on television, they tell us that an era is ending. On the streets, as though hardly believing it ourselves, we tell each other that the dawn is finally breaking on this long, black night. Berlusconi and his empire of decadence have fallen, and we all hope that a glorious Renaissance will follow the Dark Ages to which his reign returned us.

But if we are indeed witnessing the end, it is an ending that appears as though directed by some sort of reincarnated Kurosawa. Berlusconi’s fall has been imminent—torturously, impossibly imminent—for as long as many of us care to remember. Some, and in particular those for whom the Caimán has incarnated political power for the greater part of their lives, insist that this has been for the best; that changes of such magnitude do not happen often in politics, and that history must be granted the time it needs to unfold properly. The rest of us can hardly wait for the impact. During the past seventeen years we have seen our democracy crumble, piece by piece, under Berlusconi’s thumb, and with it our reputation and our self-esteem. The age of Berlusconismo has witnessed the humiliating substitution of our democratic values for those of a smug, vainglorious emperor. In place of knowledge and merit, fame and cheap success; in place of the representative ideals of the Republic, a regime of profit run according to the ruthless logic of the marketplace.

The Hidden Growth Of Africa

Posted on December 8, 2011 in Articles

The Article: Africa rising – After decades of slow growth, Africa has a real chance to follow in the footsteps of Asia in the Economist.

The Text: The shops are stacked six feet high with goods, the streets outside are jammed with customers and salespeople are sweating profusely under the onslaught. But this is not a high street during the Christmas-shopping season in the rich world. It is the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria, every day of the year. Many call it the world’s biggest. Up to 3m people go there daily to buy rice and soap, computers and construction equipment. It is a hub for traders from the Gulf of Guinea, a region blighted by corruption, piracy, poverty and disease but also home to millions of highly motivated entrepreneurs and increasingly prosperous consumers.

Over the past decade six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were African. In eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the knock-on effect of the northern hemisphere’s slowdown, the IMF expects Africa to grow by 6% this year and nearly 6% in 2012, about the same as Asia.

The commodities boom is partly responsible. In 2000-08 around a quarter of Africa’s growth came from higher revenues from natural resources. Favourable demography is another cause. With fertility rates crashing in Asia and Latin America, half of the increase in population over the next 40 years will be in Africa. But the growth also has a lot to do with the manufacturing and service economies that African countries are beginning to develop. The big question is whether Africa can keep that up if demand for commodities drops.

Copper, gold, oil—and a pinch of salt

Optimism about Africa needs to be taken in fairly small doses, for things are still exceedingly bleak in much of the continent. Most Africans live on less than two dollars a day. Food production per person has slumped since independence in the 1960s. The average lifespan in some countries is under 50. Drought and famine persist. The climate is worsening, with deforestation and desertification still on the march.