The Rift Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Rift

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Zusammenfassung von The Rift

Name: The Rift
Rating: 4.2 (56 reviews)
Author: Alex Perry

Alex Perry

A New Africa Breaks Free

4.2 (56 Bewertungen)

17 Min.

Themen

Alternative Perspektiven Wandel & Evolution Afrikas Geschichte

Inhaltsübersicht

The Rift
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What’s in it for me? A powerful and controversial look at how the West gets Africa wrong.

From a Eurocentric perspective, Africa often gets a bad rap. Western media, when it mentions Africa at all, brings reports of war and famine, of political corruption and distress. But is this all the massive continent has to offer?

Well, the simple answer is no. Africa is not a continent that can or needs to be saved by the West. Instead, Africa, with its wealth of resources and innovative approaches, could actually be the solution to the problems faced by the rest of the world.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how Africa has enough arable land to feed the whole world;
why mobile technology is making a radical change to banking in Africa; and
how renewable energy is providing the power Africa needs to prosper.

The West’s own political interests get in the way when it comes to helping Africa.

Anyone who pays close attention to international news and history knows that Africa has seen more than its fair share of war and famine. But even if you’re aware of the turmoil in Africa, you might have missed the news reports in July, 2011, when southern Somalia suffered one of the worst famines in its history.

That month, nearly three million starving refugees poured into Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, hoping to receive emergency aid from the UN. Over the course of the year, 300,000 of them died; the majority of the casualties were children and elderly people.

Many didn’t even survive the journey: Khalima Adan, a 38-year-old woman, lost three of her nine children during the long trip to Mogadishu from the countryside. When the author met Khalima, her 7-year-old son Umar had just died in her arms, and she didn’t even have the strength to cry or grieve.

Given that efficient foreign aid could have saved thousands of lives, you might be wondering how we can allow tragedies like this to occur.

Sadly, the West, occupied with its own political interests and the war on terror, often fails to help Africa.

In fact, according to Tony Burns, an Australian aid worker on site in Mogadishu, the United States deliberately blocked all aid to southern Somalia during the famine, despite the pleas coming from humanitarian agencies.

The United States denied aid in large part because of a group known as Al-Shabab, which is regarded as an enemy in the war on terror. Al-Shabab was active in the area and they had been known to intercept, tax and steal some of the incoming aid money.

However, by being more concerned with Al-Shabab and the war on terror, the United States ushered thousands of Somalis to their graves.

Even influential, wealthy humanitarians in the West cannot really make a difference to Africa.

You probably only know George Clooney as a handsome Hollywood star. There’s a bit more to the guy than that, however.

Indeed, George Clooney is actually one of the most influential Western humanitarians trying to help the people in Sudan.

Africa’s budding agriculture industry has the potential to eradicate poverty and feed the world.

In the previous blinks, we’ve seen how effective solutions to Africa’s troubles can be hard to come by. But there is one area with great potential: farming. Indeed, it may be the key not only to ending poverty in Africa but to world hunger.

After all, when we look back at history, farming is the best way for a country to develop wealth.

A new urban Africa is emerging as slums are being transformed into planned cities.

If you’ve looked at photos taken in urban African communities, you might have seen images of children rummaging through enormous piles of garbage, looking for something to eat or sell. These images can give you the impression that the situation in Africa is beyond hope.

Although Africa is home to some of the poorest, most run-down cities in the world, change is taking place.

Not all African leaders are uneducated criminals; some are groundbreaking innovators.

With news, media and films focusing primarily on the negative aspects of Africa, it’s easy to picture African leaders as a corrupt and vicious bunch of despots. This, however, is far from a complete picture.

Some African leaders have more in common with the Queen of England than with criminal thugs.

Cell phones are connecting Africans to the world and making a new form of mobile banking possible.

When the first radios appeared in remote areas of the world, people previously cut off from civilization suddenly had access to the music and voices coming from nearby urban populations. But this is a minor development compared to the impact mobile phones are having in Africa.

Cell-phone technology is providing Africans with a direct connection to the entire world.

The lack of electricity has long acted as a poverty trap in Africa, but solar panels are solving the problem.

It’s easy to take the benefit of a working light bulb for granted. But for many rural and poverty-stricken Africans, living without electricity is an everyday problem, and only recently are people starting to see the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel.

In fact, a lack of electricity can act as a poverty trap, preventing the poor from escaping their situation.

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Worum geht es in The Rift?

The Rift (2015) is a revealing look at Africa’s emergence as a continent no longer defined by poverty, war, corruption and dependence on the West. Find out how modern farming methods, solar and mobile technologies and new leadership are creating a brighter future for Africa.

Bestes Zitat aus The Rift

US policy is no food or resources to southern Somalia. The famine is proof of their success. - Tony Burns

—Alex Perry

Wer The Rift lesen sollte

Investors looking for new opportunities in Africa
Those dubious of the idea that Africa is only about war and famine

Über den Autor

Alex Perry, a reporter for Time and Newsweek, has traveled extensively in Africa and Asia for the past 15 years. He shares his specialized knowledge about lesser-known parts of the world in his books, which include Falling Off the Edge and Lifeblood.

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