It is so difficult to resist giving your cat
some special treat, but make sure that
‘people’ food is good for your feline friend.
Keep in mind that your cat should never
have garlic, onion, kelp, raisins, grapes,
caffeinated or alcoholic drinks, sugary treats,
and chocolate, even in small doses! Also
remember that all of these ‘people’ foods
your cat can eat too should be given in
moderation!
1. Eggs
Since eggs are rich in protein, they great for
both people and cats. Cooked eggs, such as
hard-boiled or scrambled, can make a
perfect and nutritious treat for your feline
friend. Since eggs are an allergenic food
make sure you watch for signs of any
allergic reaction in your cat, especially if
you’re feeding your cat eggs for the first
time.
2. Fish
Such canned fish as tuna is good to share
with your cat in a small portion. This will
prevent your cat from eating too much fatty
acids, magnesium and mercury, which can
cause many health problems. It’s also
healthy if you feed your cat a small portion
of fresh tuna or salmon!
3. Broccoli
Although cat’s diet is dependent on protein,
sometimes your cat can get a craving for
vegetables! If your cat chewing on your
house plants feed them a small portion of
steamed broccoli. Just make sure you don’t
add any salt or butter to the broccoli!
Steamed broccoli will satisfy their craving for
greens and keep your cat away from
potentially toxic plants! Grass can also help
them with any digestive problems.
4. Meat
Since cats are carnivores, meat is another
best ‘people’ food to give your cat. Perhaps,
the best choice is cooked poultry. Even if
you prefer giving your kitty raw meat, keep in
mind that uncooked meat can be not good
for them. Also remember your cat shouldn’t
eat too much fat from meat, so give them
only lean cuts.
5. Ginger
If your cat has an upset stomach or car sick
problems, give them ginger, a natural remedy
that can counter nausea. Sure, not every cat
will want to eat ginger cookies or
gingerbread. So try to give your cat a small
taste of no-sugar whipped cream mixed with
some ginger.
6. Cheese
Most cats like cheese, and it’s an excellent
source of protein for them! But it is
important to remember that many adult cats
are lactose intolerant and milk, cheese or
any other dairy can cause diarrhea. If you
want to feed your cat dairy, give them a
small amount of sour cream, cottage
cheese, or natural yogurt and see how your
cat’s body handles it.
7. Pumpkin
Even though cats are not good vegetable
eaters, they seem to like pumpkin! Pumpkins
are high in fiber that works as a good
natural remedy for constipation, diarrhea or
hairballs. Buy canned (plain unflavored)
pumpkin, divide servings into ice cube trays
and freeze. It will be easier to thaw the
amount needed.
8. Baby foods
Cats can eat any kinds of baby food,
especially the meats. Most cats enjoy meat
mixed with vegetables, plain meat and the
toddler meat sticks. If your cat is sick, baby
food is especially helpful. Don’t forget to
check the labels to make sure there are no
minced onions or onion powder in the food,
because they can harm your feline friend!
Never use ‘people’ foods as a main diet for
your kitty since it can be dangerous to their
health. And remember moderation is the key!
Wednesday 28 January 2015
8 ‘ People ’ Foods Your Cat Can Eat Too
Unique Dog Breeds You May Never Come Across
You will see many dog breeds in your life,
but there are some unique breeds you may
never see. While some of these breeds have
similar traits to dogs we are familiar with,
others look more exotic. Regardless of their
sizes and shapes, these unique dog breeds
are so cute. Enjoy reading about and looking
at these pups and don’t hide your smile!
---->>> continue reading
Julius Malema: South Africa's fiery politician mellows
Julius Malema slipped quietly into the room,
looking cheerful, perhaps a little slimmer than
on our last encounter, and quite the opposite of
the rabble-rousing, Mugabe-in-the-making
demagogue that his enemies and critics in South
Africa and abroad still like to portray.
"Marriage," he said by way of an explanation,
and fell onto a sofa with a happy sigh. He
recently married a woman from his
neighbourhood in Limpopo.
But as the "commander-in-chief" of South
Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party
began our interview, two things soon struck me.
The first is that Mr Malema has evolved from a
hectoring, skittish, "rough-diamond" of a
politician into something much more polished
and impressive.
The second thing - which grew on me over the
course of perhaps half an hour of talking - was
quite how imprudent South Africa's governing
ANC were to lose hold of him, and let him break
off to form the EFF.
"The ANC is not only threatened [by us], it
repeats us. Everything we say, the ANC comes
after us to repeat. We're fighting the issue of
the land, we're saying economic freedom in our
lifetime, they're saying the same," he declared.
And he has a point. The EFF won only 6.3% of
the national vote last year, but they behave - and
rattle the ANC - as if they were the official
opposition, routinely setting the agenda.
"I know for a fact that the EFF is listed as a
threat to the state by the intelligence
[agencies]... The instruction is 'find anything
wrong so we can nail him down,'" said Mr
Malema, while admitting he had no proof.
#PayBackTheMoney
Mr Malema still calls himself a socialist, anti-
imperialist revolutionary, determined to destroy
the system from within. "I'm not a member of
the establishment," he told me vehemently, when
I mentioned his MP's perks and salary.
But he's found a way to merge that rhetoric with
a more aspirational, individualistic message
about getting ahead that borrows from figures
like Hugo Chavez.
I suggested that his approach was riddled with
hypocrisy - a claim he batted away with his usual
confidence. "We are finding a way of living with
capitalism while fighting it. Our struggle is not to
stay in the shacks - it is not a struggle of
sameness."
For months, Mr Malema and his fellow MPs have
managed to energise South Africa's parliament
with their red uniforms, heckling and demanding
furiously for President Jacob Zuma to
#PayBackTheMoney - as the online campaign
has it - from the state-funded renovations of his
Nkandla homestead.
Now, Mr Malema told me he is planning to
disrupt the president's State of the Nation
address to parliament next month.
"First he must answer questions," said Mr
Malema.
"And if he does not?" I asked.
"We are going to insist... we will make him
answer. We will put more pressure on him. There
is no need for publicity stunts - there is a need
for political principles. We have taken a decision
to fight and confront corruption - and the face of
corruption, which is President Zuma."
Apartheid strategy
Julius Malema is currently facing his own
charges of racketeering and fraud, which should
come to trial this August. He blithely rejected
the case against him, insisting he is "the victim
of a [political] witch-hunt".
Next on the EFF's agenda is a nationwide
escalation of the "land occupation" activities it
has already begun around Pretoria - which the
city's mayor has condemned as "perpetuating
anarchy".
Pretoria "is just the start. We are not going to
stop now. We are putting the necessary
pressure. Let the people have land", said Mr
Malema, of the crowds brought in to seize
unoccupied plots.
I asked him about a comment he had made this
week to another journalist, where he appeared to
be welcoming the possibility of violence.
"Sending in police works very well in favour of
the EFF because you [are] going to shoot
innocent people... and the next thing you have
mobilized them into the EFF," he had told the
SAPA news agency.
Was that not, I suggested, a politician using the
poor as cannon fodder for his own ends?
"No. [The police] are using the apartheid
strategy. Using apartheid tactics will work
against you. We are sending our own members...
the EFF is just joining the people's struggle. The
land occupation is not Julius Malema's idea," he
said.
"We are in a struggle to liberate our people.
We're not in the business of impressing the
middle class... I know what I believe in, and what
I am pursuing. Rural women continue to be the
subject of exploitation by white monopoly
capital.
"Those are the people, 21 years into democracy,
who still live in the shacks, who still do not have
water, who still do not have electricity. I come
from that background. That is why I fight to
liberate them from the chains of poverty,
inequality and unemployment. What other people
say really does not matter to me," he continued.
Mr Malema's tone was smooth and confident
throughout. People have always under-estimated
him - the boorish youth with no education. But
not any longer.
Many South Africans clearly reject the radical
policy solutions - land seizures without
compensation, across-the-board nationalisation -
that the EFF is offering for the country's
economic woes. But few now dismiss - and even
his critics seem to quietly enjoy - Mr Malema's
piercing diagnosis of the governing party's flaws
and failures.
Towards the end of our meeting we discussed
the red workers uniforms his MPs wear in
parliament, and Mr Malema - as if to prove that
he wasn't an entirely polished diamond these
days - showed a flash of the old fire.
"I wear what I like, and if you are not happy with
it look for the nearest river and jump into it," he
said. Then smiled.
John Cena appears to acknowledge Fans' anger with Royal Rumble
WWE fans are still livid after Sunday's
Royal Rumble pay-per-view show.
People in attendance booed mercilessly as
Roman Reigns won the event and a spot in
the WrestleMania main event match on
March 29 against Brock Lesnar, despite
the appearance of The Rock, who came
out and helped Reigns fend off some
heels.
Most of the WWE universe wanted the
immensely popular Daniel Bryan to come
out victorious after he missed most of the
past year with a neck injury, but he was
eliminated fairly early in the match. This
surprised even some WWE superstars.
WHAT?? @WWEDanielBryan is out
already!!!??? He was one of my two
picks….. #WWERoyalRumble
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho)
January 26, 2015
However, that wasn't in the WWE's plans,
so fans began to cancel their WWE
Network subscriptions . As of this writing,
#CancelWWENetwork was still trending on
Twitter.
In a pretty surprising turn of events
Monday morning, the company's biggest
star, John Cena, appeared to acknowledge
the fans' unhappiness via Twitter.
Sometimes we hit, sometimes we
miss, all you can do is do all you can
— John Cena (@JohnCena) January
26, 2015
It's highly unusual that a wrestler would
respond about a weak event to unhappy
fans. There are a lot of ways this tweet
can be interpreted. Was Cena's tweet a
shot at the WWE creative team for their
terrible booking? Was it an indirect shot at
Roman Reigns, who doesn't seem to be
ready for the big time? Or was Cena just
trying to be a fan-friendly guy?
No matter the answer, it's clear that the
WWE knows their paying customers are
angry. Will this cause a change?
Libya gunmen attack Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli
Militants have attacked a hotel widely known with
foreigners in Libya's capital, killing at least
three people and injuring 12 others, officials
say.
Several gunmen stormed the Corinthia Hotel in
Tripoli and opened fire in the reception area. A
car bomb also exploded outside the hotel.
Unconfirmed reports say some of the assailants
have blown themselves up and that foreigners
are among the dead.
A Twitter account linked to Islamic State said it
carried out the attack.
The claim could not be verified, and
correspondents say it is not clear if the group
has a presence in Libya.
Operation 'over'
A civilian who witnessed the attack told the
BBC: "I suddenly heard shots and saw people
running towards me, and we all escaped from
the back [of the hotel] through the underground
garage. The hotel did a lockdown after that."
The total number of attackers is not clear.
Different sources at the scene said there were
between three and five - one said that several of
the attackers have blown themselves up.
A security source told the BBC that one gunman
had been arrested.
There were also conflicting reports about the
number of fatalities.
Officials initially said three security guards had
been killed by the car bomb blast.
But a local official was later quoted by the
Reuters news agency as telling local TV that at
least eight people, including five foreigners, had
been killed in the attack.
The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says interior
ministry officials have declared that the
operation against the attackers has come to an
end, but that this cannot be confirmed.
A number of foreign companies have makeshift
offices in the hotel, our correspondent adds.
One hotel employee told the Associated Press
news agency that the hotel was mostly empty at
the time of the attack.
Meanwhile, a hotel security source told the BBC
that the hotel had received a threat "a few days
ago" warning managers "to empty the building".
'Reprehensible act'
The Corinthia Hotel is popular with foreign
diplomats and government officials. The United
Nations Support Mission in Libya (Unsmil) has
hosted several workshops at the hotel.
Federica Mogherini, the European Union's foreign
affairs chief, condemned the attack as "another
reprehensible act of terrorism which deals a
blow to efforts to bring peace and stability to
Libya".
The Twitter account linked to IS said that the
group had carried out the attack in revenge for
the death of Abu Anas al-Liby, a Libyan jihadist
who was suspected of involvement in the
bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in
1998.
Liby died in a US hospital on 2 January, days
before he was due to stand trial.
Correspondents say it is difficult to assess
whether IS has a presence in Libya.
A number of attacks in the country have been
claimed by social media accounts that say they
represent the jihadist group, however it is hard to
verify their claims.
Libya has been hit by instability since the
overthrow of long-time ruler Col Muammar
Gaddafi in October 2011.
Numerous militias govern their own patches of
territory, with successive governments struggling
to exercise control.
Tuesday 27 January 2015
P. Reign Confirms Drake Is Releasing a Mixtape
Late last year, Toronto Raptors forward DeMar
DeRozan surprised fans when he out-of-the-blue
announced that Drake was working on a mixtape.
Since then, Drizzy and the OVO camp have
remained silent on their plans, though it's clear
that he's been in the studio , as well as shooting
videos around Toronto. Tonight, OVO and Reps
Up member P. Reign gave fans a little more
excitement, as he revealed to Karen Civil that
Drake is indeed working on a new mixtape.
“I know Drake’s dropping a mixtape that I’ve
already heard a lot of and it’s crazy,” P. Reign
said. “I think it's some of the best I’ve heard
from him in my life and I already know off
Drake’s mixtape the world is going to shake." No
word yet on when we can expect to hear the
project, but Drake is also known to be working
on his next studio album, Views From the 6,
which is also slated to drop at some point this
year.
Monday 19 January 2015
Boko Haram strikes in Cameroon as foreign troops arrive from Chad
Boko Haram from Nigeria kidnaps 80 people
after attacks on villages in Cameroon
The attacks come as troops from neighboring
Chad arrive in Cameroon to help fight the
terrorist group
World paying attention to Boko Haram atrocities
04:11
Yaounde, Cameroon (CNN)— Boko Haram
insurgents have kidnapped 80 people in northern
Cameroon, officials said, an attack that comes
as troops from neighboring Chad entered
Cameroon to join the fight against the terrorist
group.
The attacks happened in the villages of Mabass
and Makxy in the Mayo-Tsanaga Division of the
Far North Region of Cameroon on Sunday
morning, Saiid Abdulkarim, a journalist for the
state broadcaster, told CNN.
Three of those kidnapped were found dead,
Abdulkarim said.
The Cameroonian government did not
immediately comment.
Meanwhile, thousands of Chadian troops arrived
in Cameroon to join that country's soldiers in
the fight against Boko Haram.
The governor of Cameroon's Far North Region,
Mijiyawa Bakary, told CNN that the first
contingent of Chadian troops arrived in a convoy
of more than 400 vehicles, and a second wave
of soldiers were expected to arrive soon.
The Chadian soldiers "are coming in with dozens
of tanks, armored vehicles and other military
equipment," Cameroon defense ministry
spokesman Col. Didier Badjeck said.
The Chadian parliament unanimously voted
Friday to send troops to Cameroon and Nigeria
to join in the fight against Boko Haram.
The move comes after Cameroon's President,
Paul Biya, made a strong call for international
cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram.
Biya told diplomats recently that Boko Haram
was "a global threat" that calls "for a global
response."
"Such should be the response of the
international community, including the African
Union and our regional organizations," he said.
Chadian officials concluded that Boko Haram
also poses a danger to Chad.
Chadian President Idriss Deby said attacks on
Cameroon by the terrorist group could destroy
Chad's economy.
"We can't remain indifferent to what is
happening to our neighbors," Deby said.
"Cameroon is the entry and exit point for Chad
economically."
Much of what is imported to Chad comes
through the Cameroonian seaport of Douala, and
Chad's crude oil is transported through a
pipeline that runs from southern Chad to a
floating facility 11 kilometers (almost 7 miles)
off the Cameroon coast.
The presence of Chadian troops on the front
could be key to reversing the gains so far made
by the terrorist group.
Trained in desert combat, Chadian forces played
a critical role in fighting jihadists in northern
Mali, where they became major allies to French
troops in the fight against terrorists there. In
fact, they were instrumental in the killing of
some high-profile jihadists.
The involvement of Chadian troops marks a
major shift in Cameroon-Chad anti-terrorism
cooperation. In the past year, it focused mostly
on securing individual borders.
While Chad is the first country to put boots on
the ground in Cameroon, the international
community and regional bodies are also
expressing concern.
On Friday, the Russian ambassador to
Cameroon, Nicolay Ratsiborinski, said his
country will supply Cameroon with modern and
sophisticated military weapons.
He said the equipment will include heavy
artillery, armored cars and missiles.
Michael Stephen Hoza, U.S. ambassador to
Cameroon, also said his country would help
train Cameroon soldiers and offer equipment for
the fight.
Boko Haram has been staging cross-border
raids on Cameroon, the latest being the attempt
by the insurgents to take over a Cameroon
military base in Kolofata. Cameroonian troops
killed 143 of them, and lost one soldier.
On January 3, Boko Haram fighters briefly took
over control of a military base in Achigashia,
forcing Cameroonian soldiers to retreat and then
for the first time use airstrikes against the
insurgents.
Attacks on military installations mark a big shift
in Boko Haram operations in Cameroon.
Initially,they would cross the border and either
attack to steal food or kidnap nationals and
expatriates in exchange for ransoms.
Cameroon has already deployed about 7,000
troops across the Far North, where Boko Haram
has scaled up attacks over the past six months.
BBC launches award to honour Komla Dumor
The BBC is launching an award in honour of its
presenter, Komla Dumor, a year after his
unexpected death aged 41.
Komla Dumor was an exceptional Ghanaian
broadcaster who in his short life made an
extraordinary impact - in Ghana, in Africa and
around the world.
He represented a confident, savvy and
entrepreneurial side of Africa.
Through his tenacious journalism and compelling
storytelling, Komla worked tirelessly to bring a
more nuanced African narrative to the world.
The BBC is committed to continuing Komla's
legacy.
We are proud to announce the launch of the
BBC World News Komla Dumor Award.
The award will be given to an outstanding
individual living and working in Africa, who
combines strong journalism skills and an
exceptional talent in telling African stories, with
the ambition and potential to become a star of
the future.
Through the award, we will invest in the future
of African journalism by offering the winner the
chance to come to the BBC and share Africa's
stories with the world.
The winner will be given an opportunity to gain
recognition and experience, working with teams
across BBC News during a three month
placement in London. The winner will also have
the chance to broadcast on TV, radio and online
to the BBC's audiences of 265 million across the
world.
Find out more about the award and if you are
eligible to enter.
Practical advice from the BBC on developing
your journalism skills in areas such as writing,
reporting and presenting.
The BBC is also grateful for the support of other
donors.
Ebola issues: Mali says it has no more cases
Mali's health minister says the country is now
free of the Ebola virus, after 42 days without a
new case of the disease.
"I declare this day... the end of the epidemic of
the Ebola virus in Mali," said Ousmane Kone.
The last Ebola-infected patient in Mali recovered
and left hospital in early December.
Latest figures show the three West African
countries worst affected have all seen a decline
in new Ebola cases.
Sierra Leone and Guinea both recorded the
lowest weekly total of confirmed Ebola cases
since August, according to UN figures on
Thursday.
Liberia, which reported no new cases on two
days last week, had its lowest weekly total since
June.
The overall death toll has reached 8,429 with
21,296 cases so far.
Mali recorded its first case of Ebola in October,
when a two-year-old from Guinea fell ill and died.
At its worst, there were 300 contact cases under
investigation in the country.
But the country has now "come out" of the
epidemic, said Ibrahima Soce Fall, the head of
the Malian office of the United Nations Mission
for Ebola Emergency Response (UMEER).
The incubation period for Ebola is 21 days, and
countries must be free of new cases for two
consecutive incubation periods, 42 days, to be
declared free of the virus.
Friday 16 January 2015
What US intelligence predicted about Africa today 15 years ago, and how terribly wrong they were
In 2005, another meeting convened by the National Intelligence Council this time focused on sub-Saharan Africa, to discuss the major drivers that would shape Africa into 2020, including demography, globalization, conflict, terrorism and HIV/Aids, their report was called Mapping Sub-Saharan Africa’s Future.
We look at some projection about Africa from both reports, and see what they got wrong:
“Over the next 15 years, Sub-Saharan Africa will become less important to the international economy.”
The CIA predicted that the high growth rate projected for the global economy from 2005 to 2020 would not be matched by African countries, which would fall far below the rates projected for the fast-growing East Asian nations.
In actual fact, the region’s economic growth has been faster than that of the world average since 2000, and even faster that East Asia until 2008. In 2013, seven of the ten fastest growing economies were African, and the region’s business opportunities are firmly on the international radar.
“Africa is unlikely to become a major supplier of international terrorists.”
The experts said that Africa was unlikely to become a major supplier of international terrorists due to the “profound differences” between Islam practiced in Africa and in the Middle East. They envisaged Africa as only being a sanctuary for foreign terrorists, providing them with safe haven and a place to hide weapons and assets.
But history has shown that African terrorists have by no means been left behind in making their mark on the international stage. The head of Al-Qaeda today is Ayman al-Zawhiri, an Egyptian citizen and founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
One of the biggest attacks was the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi when Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militants killed 67, the attack was seen as a strike on a “Western” target. The infamous “underwear bomber” who tried to detonate plastic explosives while on board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, was a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
What the experts did get right is that the overwhelming majority of terrorist activity in Africa would be caused by indigenous groups waging war against local governments and populations. It has held true for extremist groups all over the continent, from Boko Haram to Al-Shabaab where local populations suffer the most.
“The end of Francafrique.”
The experts predicted that some of the traditional powers that have engaged Africa were likely to leave the scene gradually, in particular, France. “The generation of French leaders who saw their country’s destiny intertwined with Africa has now retired and their successors see their future in Asia and Central Europe,” they said.
But Africa is more important to France today than it has been in decades. France has about 10,000 troops stationed in Africa, with its forces active in at least 10 countries. Although the official line is that France is co-operating with Africa to stabilise weak countries that have a low capacity to control their own territories, Africa is key to France’s economic and political interests.
The French economy is in the doldrums, while African economies are mostly healthy and growing. France has extensive interests in Africa, in oil, minerals, infrastructure projects, telecoms, utilities, banking and insurance; a quarter of France’s electricity is generated with uranium from Niger.
Moreover, continued influence in Africa would bolster France’s declining status as a world power, says this story by Newsweek. And with the Charlie Hebdo massacre, France’s Muslim population will increasingly be on the agenda, most of whom are second- and third-generation immigrants from North Africa.
“Democracy has gone as far as it can.”
The reports said that democratic progress would happen in those countries where democracy was already fairly entrenched, and at the time, the urban-based elite demanding democratisation in most countries had already exercised whatever power that it could.
But in Kenya, one of Africa’s most progressive constitutions was adopted in 2010, and even though today the country is grappling with its implementation, the constitution nonetheless is a watershed moment in the country’s history, and it makes Kenya one of the few countries where constitutional overhaul was achieved without war.
It was expected that a certain inertia had been reached in Africa, where non-democratic countries would invariably remain so; the “plateauing” of African states—that is, the difficulty states confront in changing their relative democratic performance over the next 15 years—would largely be due to structural factors that determine the size of the urban-based elite demanding democratisation.
But Africa’s democratic fate is not written in stone. The Tunisian uprising in 2011 sparked the Arab Spring, that had mixed success across North Africa – Tunisia is doing fairly decently, Libya seems to be spiraling into an all-out war, while Egypt had the most promise for a new beginning but has essentially entrenched a militarised democracy. Elsewhere, last year, long-serving dictator Blaise Compaore was forced out of office in Burkina Faso after 27 years in power.
“Africa is depopulated by HIV/Aids.”
The experts said that some countries in Africa with high rates of HIV/Aids would experience reduced population growth or even declining populations despite relatively high birthrates. In South Africa, for example, the population was projected to drop from 43.4 million in 2000 to 38.7 million in 2015.
But the doomsday predictions did not materialise. South Africa’s population is estimated at 52 million today. There was a 25% reduction in the annual number of new HIV infections in Africa between 2001 and 2011.
The experts had a dim view of antiretroviral therapy making a dent on HIV’s advance in the continent, envisaging that African countries would not have the medical systems to deliver the medicines effectively, nor, in some cases, the political will to roll these out.
But from a mere 50,000 Africans on ARVs in 2003, today, more than 8 million are, and more than 9 million years have been added to African lives between 1995 and 2011 with the scale up in HIV treatment.
Donors stepped in to fill the ARV distribution challenge, and for some time, ARV programmes in countries like Kenya and Zambia were almost entirely funded by donors.
In recent years, some countries have been reducingtheir dependency on external funding. Public sector AIDS spending in South Africa increased five-fold from 2006 to 2011, Kenya doubled its AIDS investments from 2008 to 2010, Togo did the same between 2007 and 2010, and Zambia increased its health spending by 45% in 2012.
“The outright collapse of Nigeria.”
Nigeria becoming an officially failed state was the most chilling prediction, that would drag down a large swathe of West Africa; history had shown that state failure even in a small country like Liberia had the effect of destabilising entire neighbourhoods.
If millions were to flee a collapsed Nigeria, the surrounding countries, up to and including Ghana, would be destabilised. Further, a failed Nigeria probably could not be reconstituted for many years—if ever—and not without massive international assistance.
Today, Nigeria is gripped by the Boko Haram insurgency in the north, where the militants now control an area of 52,000 square km. – bigger than Rwanda, the Gambia and Comoros combined.
And although more than 13,000 people have been killed in the insurgency since 2011, the experts acknowledge that states with high levels of violence will not automatically be failed states; “indeed, the ability of African countries to continue to muddle along despite high levels of violence should not be underestimated.”
For instance, 20,000 people were killed in Nigeria in the early 2000s in sectarian violence while that country has maintained its democratic façade and still managed to grow into Africa’s biggest economy.
“Most technological advances of the next 15 years will not have a substantial positive impact on the African economies.”
The experts predicted that Africa would miss out on the IT revolution that was unfolding in the world at the time, given its many problems. They foresaw South Africa as best positioned to make rapid progress in IT.
But they all didn’t see mobile coming. Africa’s terrible communications infrastructure was the opportunity to leap-frog landlines into mobiles, and even the most optimistic projections couldn’t have seen how fast the uptake would be – in 2003, Kenyan telecom Safaricom’s business plan was to have 500,000 subscribers by 2013, says this storyby Wired. In 2013, they had 21 million - 42 times the target.
And although South Africa’s MTN is Africa’s biggest multinational telecom, South Africa itself hasn’t made the rapid progress that was envisaged. Africa’s hot tech hubs are places like Nairobi and Lagos, where a large unbanked population – unlike that in South Africa – meant there was huge demand for mobile money, thus sparking all kinds of IT innovations.
Senegal and Kenya lead the continent in their ICT sector’s contribution to GDP, at 3.3 -2.9%, a level comparable to France and Germany, while in Nigeria and South Africa, it’s 0.8 - 1.4%, just around the African average of 1.1%.
If this tells us anything it is that betting on, and against, Africa is very tricky business.
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