This happens to Africa because Africans tend to be short-term thinkers without any inclination to build networks of trust and co-operation beyond blood or tribal ties. The corruption and general lack of trust(worthiness) in Africa is hard to believe unless one experiences it oneself or hears about it from those who've experienced it first hand. I've heard all kinds of stories from a cousin of mine, a geographer who spent a year as an exchange student in Namibia, a minister of the church who baptized my older nephew who spent years as a missionary in Tanzania, and some friends who've traveled in Africa.
All I can say is that the continent is utterly hopeless except for little one thing offering a glimmer of hope: cryptographically secured distributed ledger technology. Digitalization is also a fact in Africa. Smartphone proliferation is remarkable. Decentralize everything possible and use rules enforced by protocol as a trust prosthetic. This won't do any good in the physical realm, of course, but as economic activities increasingly migrated to the digital realm the benefits of this approach will become increasingly apparent.
@tarazkp and others, what's your take on this?
The stupid Authoritarian rulers will still find ways to frustrate decentralization. It is a sad case indeed
I wouldn't expect all smooth sailing to a happy conclusion but decentralization could still be of great help. Also, authoritarian rulers are far from being the only problem. Let me illustrate the depth of the lack of trust(worthiness) that I'm talking about with a couple of anecdotes. The minister who christened my nephew had worked as a missionary in Tanzania for years. He told me that in a Tanzanian state hospital injection needles had to be reused because of a lack of funds. Sterilizing the needles was absolutely vital but it wasn't done because the nurses whose job it was were too lazy to do their job. In Namibia, where a cousin of mine spent a year as an exchange student the distance between the university campus and the town centre of the capital was one kilometer. Walking it was out of the question because the very high probability of being mugged in broad daylight. The campus had armed guards. During night time, it was advisable to stay in one's room because, there was a high risk of being mugged by the guards. If you lent a pen to a fellow student at the university, there was virtually zero chance of ever seeing it again.
Blaming the rulers is nothing but a cop out. When the people themselves are like that as in demonstrating precisely zero concern over what happens to other people unless they are your own family, decentralization is the only hope. When the people are like that, the government will inevitably be but a criminal organization masquerading as a government. I'm sure the people wouldn't fuck over their own family or extended family like that. But strangers are nothing but prey to them. There is no society except in name only in those two countries and very likely anywhere else in Sub-Saharan Africa, either.
Africa as a whole is guaranteed to fall pray to actual nations on other continents like China now or European powers 150 years ago. It will be fucked up beyond all recognition by the Chinese if it doesn't get its act together.
Hi markku. Thought I would dig deeper. You are 100 percent right and it is too late. Post coming now and it is bad.