1914 Reader

The final entry to the read-along of Joe Studwell's How Africa Works 1914reader.com/p/how-africa-w…

A line that stood out to me from this terrific piece by @PatrickMcGee_ giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/ac…

@adam_tooze's post about Nigeria sparked some curiosity—had Claude scatter regional income dispersion vs GDP per capita. Poor countries tend to have more income inequality between regions, though the negative relationship isn't super strong. Nigeria is also far from the worst! Data from Gennaioli et al 2013.

“Across 23 African countries, annual US health assistance has declined from approximately $16 billion under previous programmes to just under $3 billion under the new health arrangements, a reduction of roughly 82 percent.”

1. I have taken to a term: "low-info elitism", to describe what I see often in Ghana. 2. I am not being disrespectful. Just factual. The burden of having a middle class education is to go beyond the surface in national/international debates. Using bigger English alone is not enough. 3. So many middle class folks talking about UN General Assembly votes on slavery & reparations as if some new controversy has broken out. 4. Yet the 1st UN resolution on slavery dates to 1949 (the so-called "problem of slavery" text). And since the Durban declaration (2001), we have had ~10 on reparations. 5. Every year or so, we have a follow up resolution on the "Durban framework" regarding slavery, and sometimes reparations, more or less repeating the same stuff with different wording. 6. Over the last 2.5 decades, consensus has fallen, positions have hardened between the so-called Global "South" & "North" (or "West"), and no new ideas have emerged on how to close the gap. 7. Here is a sampling of such resolutions: 71/181, 72/157, 73/262, 74/137, 76/226, 77/205, 78/234, 79/161, & 75/237. 8. Attached is a chart of the trend of voting, which shows the widening Gulf. As well as extracts from two seminal resolutions. 9. In a debate over such an issue, you would expect some awareness of this beaten path and some fresh ideas about how leverage can be built for any serious activism. 10. No such luck. Just grammar vs grammar. I am not even sure, scanning my feed, that folks who should know such stuff are aware of the Durban process and the annual votes. 🤔

One of the saddest things for me is seeing people say this kind of thing in a country that has produced two cement dollar billionaires. Cement is humanity’s greatest invention that has made a habitable civilisation possible. It allows us ward off hostile elements and survive inhospitable environments. It is endlessly malleable and works in every type of weather. There is nothing special about Nigerian weather or heat that is beyond cement as a solution. The only thing that can make someone think this is a good idea is if they have been denied its benefits (due to all of it being captured at source by the “manufacturers”) A Chinese person who has grown up in the last 40yrs seeing cement transform their environment and make it so much more liveable will not say stuff like this. Please don’t internalise it

Enjoy this week's selection of stories about Nigeria and Nigerians everywhere 1914reader.com/p/below-the-he…

Nigerians believe any thing of value you offer, regardless of the cost, is a net positive. It's such a stupid way to view things. Sadly, it's pervasive. We are stuck with billionaires extracting more value than they create.

As @DoubleEph says "A complete lack of technological learning, upgrading or mastery after 20yrs of govt protection" is pretty much par for the course in every single conglomerate in Asia and Africa (excl the E. Asians). These are Studwell's 'Godfathers' - they are not manufacturers; they’re 'political entrepreneurs.' Although they covet the title of, and play-act the 'industrialist' role. But Tony Stark or Howard Hughes or James Dyson or Elon they are not. The returns and size and wealth of these tycoons - the India 'double-A' Adani & Ambani's, the Dangotes etc - are not from industrial innovation, but from the state-granted 'franchise' or monopoly that ensures no one else can compete in that space. All you see across Asia and Africa are these gargantuan business's - its all car agencies, banks, SKD (semi-knockdown assembly of Chinese stuff), or marketing of chinese OEM stuff. Its the colonial industrial version of Victiorian 'piece working'. Weak states are bullied by every wealthier and powerful oligarchs into licenses and protection. And the wealth allows global reputation laundering at The Economist and Davos. The real test - is export discipline. Can any of then sell a product which competes on world markets. Samsung and LG and TSMC have. Which oligarchic products from India, Pakistan, SL, B'Desh, Nigeria etc have done that? But yet they are billionaires and fêted like entrepreneurs by The Economist.

New Frontier Matters episode: Don Robotham on Bridging The Atlantic Divide 1914reader.com/p/don-robotham…. You can also listen on Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/1DA5Pc…

This - from The Economist - is the first time this specific topic has been brought up in any major media in relation to Dangote. A complete lack of technological learning, upgrading or mastery after 20yrs of govt protection. Every other criticism I make of Dangote you can hang it on this one. It is utterly utterly shameful.

The FT asked me for an opinion piece (but not *that* opinion) on the Dangote Refinery. Gift link below

This is quite the profile archive.is/hZrSU

Feels surreal to say that I’ve completed my Doctor of Public Health degree @LSHTM, analysing Nigeria’s vaccine manufacturing ambition Ten years after my BSc & while building a career I love I wish there were more stories like this when I was starting. Hopefully it inspires❤️

Movement of The People @DoubleEph connects the dots between the upheaval of the 19th century, ‘heterogeneous’ nature of the Akoko region, and the underdevelopment it faces today. Superb work 👏🏾 open.substack.com/pub/1914reader…

New essay: @DoubleEph on the hollowing out of rural communities in Southwestern Nigeria 1914reader.com/p/movement-of-…

Imagine you're the government of say, Bangladesh, and you closed your your universities and your state-run fertiliser firms this week because of the energy crisis, and you get the call to say the US is launching a fresh trade probe to get you tariffed up again

Urea shortages = fertiliser shortages = global food price hikes and people aren’t taking this seriously enough, is becoming a common theme. Fertiliser is v important, but isn’t vital every year. The one year impact can be low Also global stocks of food are pretty high

The great Daniel Yergin on today's global oil market

Final entry to conclude our read-along. We wanted to be thorough *and* fair and I hope we managed to do that