tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435580068422997209.post3292587575128111982..comments2023-04-09T04:01:24.705-04:00Comments on Reeds in the Wind: The Global Poverty IndustryThe Reeds in the Windhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861913317985600596noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435580068422997209.post-58098041302189920982015-11-23T20:45:34.069-05:002015-11-23T20:45:34.069-05:00Dear Renita, thanks for an illuminating post. I wo...Dear Renita, thanks for an illuminating post. I would like to add something. (Perhaps this is a bit much as a blog comment!)<br />Recently I have tried to support two young people with little qualification in their search for a job, almost any job. We are in a big city (Johannesburg, South Africa) but there are droves of people queueing for the smallest opportunity - high unemployment; tough times. Encouragement, prayers, printing CVs, etc. can only go so far. They'll eventually find something but there are aspects of this problem that extend beyond the details of their efforts. Our government's bumbling and inept ways with the economy, for one. But there are also aspects to how business happens globally and trade regulations made elsewhere that have huge impacts. The rules of international business where pretty much made by a small group of influential nations. Man do they hurt. I can't get too technical in a post like this, but one very important part of helping us help ourselves and our orphaned/semi-orphaned children is to watch how your businesses operate here, and how the trade rules policed by the powerful (and which businesses in wealthy countries often have sophisticated ways of bending) affect the ability of our businesses to in fact do business. <br /><br />Competing with product effectively dumped here - prayers help little with that. The US has kindly allowed South Africa to benefit from AGOA, a special dispensation which allows poorer nations in Africa better access to US markets. This has been helpful. South Africa will now lose access to these benefits if we do not allow chicken from the US into our market. Yes, really. And since US chickens are fed on subsidised corn, and producers there benefit from other aspects of operating in a developed economy, they will be able to undercut quite a bit of our own production. Forcing our farmers out of the market, with attendant loss of jobs. Since our corn is not subsidised, I'm not sure that any amount of marketplace ministry will help the South African farmers. <br /><br />Another example: My husband provides support for business making mining machinery. Seems obvious in a country with lots of mines BUT a zero-rate import tariff for such products put in place under Apartheid, and now almost impossible to shift under WTO rules, makes it very hard for these smaller businesses to compete with imports from large established multinationals. OK, too technical.<br /><br />These may not be best examples, and I am not the best person to explain this. But Africa is a net exporter of value, in other words, through various mechanisms, in our dealings with the rest of the world - whether what we sell, often raw materials, or buy - the rest of the world gets the better end of the deal. Through trade rules and hidden subsidies and crooked deals and corrupt ways of foreign businesses and incorrect financial reporting, value/money is bled OUT of Africa every year. Much more than all the aid that does reach here.(If you read about 'illicit financial flows' you'll get a better idea of some of the issues.) <br /><br />This is more difficult to address than feeding some hungry orphans, but our governments represent us, our interests and our wishes. Pushing for a more fair global trade dispensation is something that needs to be done, or big business will just keep pushing things the other way. In the meantime, some forms of aid are helpful, but if Africans could do business on a more level playing field, they could pull themselves up by their bootstraps (and take good care of their children) so much faster. Quite likely they'd have been there by now.Elizabethnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435580068422997209.post-16757982633327736232015-11-09T11:29:18.935-05:002015-11-09T11:29:18.935-05:00Thank you Renita! Excellent!Thank you Renita! Excellent!Susan VandePolhttp://www.mattersoflifeandbreath.comnoreply@blogger.com