economy « Africa is a Country

Africa and the global recession

April 13, 2009 by Sean Leave a Comment

“… Once hailed as crisis proof, African consumers are feeling the pinch, and hopes they can cushion shrinking company profits in the rich world by shopping their way through a global recession are evaporating. Six months ago, Africa outside South Africa looked virtually immune from the financial crisis, with sound banks and emerging middle classes hungry for cell phones, branded beer and fridges … But as the credit crunch spirals into a full-blown global recession, mining firms hit by a commodity downturn are slashing African jobs, remittances from abroad are shrinking and tourists are delaying trips to the continent’s beaches and safari parks. Like shoppers in the West and Asia, Africans have less cash to spare, and bullish forecasts about consumer-driven growth look naive…”

Read the rest of the story

Filed under economy Tagged with economy, Africa and the World, global economic recession

Spike Lee speaks his mind on Obama (and the Clintons)

April 8, 2008 by Sean 6 Comments

What do you think of Obama?

I’m riding my man Obama. I think he’s a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was Do the Right Thing. I said, “Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to Soul Man. Michelle would have been like, ‘What’s wrong with this brother?’ ”

Does this mean you’re down on the Clintons?

The Clintons, man, they would lie on a stack of Bibles. Snipers? That’s not misspeaking; that’s some pure bullshit. I voted for Clinton twice, but that’s over with. These old black politicians say, “Ooh, Massuh Clinton was good to us, massuh hired a lot of us, massuh was good!” Hoo! Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins—they have to understand this is a new day. People ain’t feelin’ that stuff. It’s like a tide, and the people who get in the way are just gonna get swept out into the ocean.

Full interview here.

Filed under Hillary Clinton, New York City, economy, film, politics Tagged with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Do the Right Thing, Hillary Clinton, Spike Lee

‘Blacks should not be ashamed to be filthy rich’*

March 28, 2008 by Sean 3 Comments

Patrice Motsepe, the new generation South African capitalist, is on the cover of Forbes’ ‘Richest People’ issue (he’s worth $2,4 billion; the richest man is the American investment guru Warren Buffett at $62 billion).Full story here.

* BTW, the quote referenced in the my title is from a statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, currently South Africa’s Deputy President. She made this statement when she was still Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs. She was responding to criticism about the government’s ‘Black Economic Empowerment’ policy aimed at creating a black middle class, but which has instead contributed to growing class disparities among blacks.

Filed under Not just about Africa, economy, journalism, money, politics Tagged with Billionaires, Black economic empowerment, Forbes, money, Patrice Motsepe, Richest People in the World, South Africa, Wabenzi, Warren Buffett, wealth

Michael Massing on ‘Darwin’s Nightmare’

March 27, 2008 by Sean Leave a Comment

I’ve seen Hubert Sauper’s Darwin’s Nightmare a few times now and I like it (in fact, another public screening of the film I was partly hosting on Wednesday on the campus where I teach fell through because of a graduate student strike — a strike, btw, which I supported).

Darwin’s Nightmare is hardcore filmmaking. That it was nominated for an Oscar does not take away from its impact or importance. (It’s about the brutal politics and economics of globalization on Lake Victoria in East Africa; at the heart of the film is the arms trade and the export of nile perch to Europe.) But I have always had that nagging feeling about it.

Michael Massing (he’s the one writing those long, thoughtful pieces on US stenographer ‘journalism’ in the New York Review of Books), unpacked the film this week as part of a larger rant on what’s wrong with documentary film-making in the US currently.

Full piece in the Columbia Journalism Review here. (Its about a 3rd into the piece).

Filed under documentary films, economy, food and drink Tagged with Darwin's Nightmare, documentary, film, globalization, Michael Massing

The Champ

March 20, 2008 by Sean Leave a Comment

No comment.

Filed under Not just about Africa, US presidential elections 2008, economy, photography, politics, politics and sports Tagged with Barack Obama, Muhammed Ali., No Comment, photography, pictures, US Presidential Elections

‘Brand Mandela’

March 14, 2008 by Sean 1 Comment

… [A] label that a Mandela attorney once estimated was second only to Coca Cola in global recognition.

The ‘old man’ is 90 (!) this year. Full story here

Filed under Nelson Mandela, Not just about Africa, South Africa, economy, politics Tagged with apartheid, birthdays, Branding, Christian Science Monitor, Nelson Mandela, new South Africa, South Africa, Stephanie Hanes

The photography of Peter McKenzie

February 10, 2008 by Sean Leave a Comment

Interview with the South African photographer Peter McKenzie by Sean O’Toole and images from an exhibition at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa here.

(For more background on McKenzie, see also Africultures).

Filed under South Africa, economy, photography, politics Tagged with Center for Civil Society, Durban, Peter McKenzie, photography, politics, South Africa

Where Brooklyn At?

February 5, 2008 by Sean Leave a Comment

I am new to the borough of kings, but am already aware of all the fights over who owns its — its past, present and future, as this review of a new book of fiction about Brooklyn proves.

So I am not sure what to make of the descriptions of my neighborhood, Fort Greene, in, first, the Times’ Metro section, in a story about a young filmmaker stumping for Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama in Brooklyn:

‘… Fort Greene, an artsy, racially mixed neighborhood that he said was a natural fit for [Barack] Obama.’

and in the Style section this past Sunday in a story about a new bar that serves $300 bottles of Krug (and stocks only one kind of beer):

Fort Greene, a laid-back neighborhood whose main attractions include proximity to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, more French restaurants than some neighborhoods in Paris, and a farmer’s market.

As Don Cherry asked a while ago: Where is Brooklyn?

* By the way, there is a lot of good journalism (see Suzy Hansen’s reporting for the Observer here, for example) and other kinds of creative writing (like Colin Channer, Colson Whitehead and Carl Hancock Rux, among others) about Fort Greene that gets beyond the bottles of Krug and color pieces for presidential primaries.

The image above is one of my own.

Filed under New York City, economy Tagged with Barack Obama, Brooklyn, Carl Hancock Rux, class, Colin Channer, Colson Whitehead, culture, Don Cherry, economy, Fort Greene, writers

Radio Freedom

February 4, 2008 by Sean 1 Comment

In 1990 when the small West African country Benin made the transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, one of the byproducts of the new regime was community radio. Today there are about forty community radio stations in the country, the largest in the region. Owned and operated by local people, these stations play a central role in local political and community life, and as Radio Bani Ganse, a new documentary — in French with Dutch subtitles and produced by the Dutch TV station VPRO — illustrates, community radio also has direct impacts on communities’ economic survival.

For more about the film (if you can read Dutch) and to see the documentary, go here.

BTW, see also the ‘Africa‘ page of VPRO to view more films focusing on the continent.

Hat Tip: Wendy Willems.

Filed under documentary films, economy, radio, technology Tagged with Benin, communication, documentary films, radio, Radio Bani Ganse, VPRO, Wendy Willems