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Did he mention that the FIRST thing Singapore did was institute universal, complete education, raising the literacy rate to near 100% and educating virtually every child at least to the age of 16, in English. Yes, Africa can learn quite a lot from Singapore.
That, and other social improvements, will not be all that hard to do in any African country that consists entirely of one urban city, with no rural peasants or villagers in far flung areas that are days of travel away from the nearest school, medical facillity, etc. But I can't think of any African countries that have that huge advantage.
Give me an African country with 98% literacy in English and 2/3 secondary diploma attainment rate, and I'll make it produce whatever you want.
Zimbabwe was pretty literate at the time of Independence. Yes human capital is important but solid economic systems are also needed. As our resident pro-Leftist what are your thoughts on this article?
No it isn't,, although that might be a factor, it is not the biggest one. The biggest factor is that the IQ of East Asians is about 20 points higher than Africans. The post-colonial period in Asia had thousands of years of intellectual and technological culture to fall back on, with a literate population already in place that had generations of experience in systematic science and philosophy.
Today's population of East Asia ia a product of peoples whose cultural survival was subject to the selection of those with the intellectual skills of technology, philosophy and literature, and the present day makeup of Africans was not. This does not say that Africans are "inferior", but only that thousands of years of evolution have not placed pressure on Africans to evolve through natural selection the skillsets that are currently found useful in the industrialized world. It was easier to survive in Africa without solving complex struggles against the environment, so more people did survive and carry on the gene pool without those talents. Which is why cold barren climates selected for more techno-genes than hot lush ones.
Before you start to scream that only a racist could think that, why would American "racists" devise and norm IQ tests so that East Asians would perform so much better than the biased and racially-preferred Caucasians? Geographically isolated cultures evolved different intellectualities according to the exigencies faced for survival , and a couple of centuries of colonialism is not enough to undo that-- it's not about race.
Interesting a Leftist that notices things, very rare these days.
South Korea in the 1950s was poorer than North Korea and one of the worlds poorest countries. Now it economy is on par with some European countries.
Heck South Korea was poorer than Ghana. I could be wrong about this but I believe Ghana and Nigeria had more college graduates than South Korea at independence. South Korea is also another example how democracy is not a necessary prerequisite for development.
No it isn't,, although that might be a factor, it is not the biggest one. The biggest factor is that the IQ of East Asians is about 20 points higher than Africans. The post-colonial period in Asia had thousands of years of intellectual and technological culture to fall back on, with a literate population already in place that had generations of experience in systematic science and philosophy.
Today's population of East Asia ia a product of peoples whose cultural survival was subject to the selection of those with the intellectual skills of technology, philosophy and literature, and the present day makeup of Africans was not. This does not say that Africans are "inferior", but only that thousands of years of evolution have not placed pressure on Africans to evolve through natural selection the skillsets that are currently found useful in the industrialized world. It was easier to survive in Africa without solving complex struggles against the environment, so more people did survive and carry on the gene pool without those talents. Which is why cold barren climates selected for more techno-genes than hot lush ones.
Before you start to scream that only a racist could think that, why would American "racists" devise and norm IQ tests so that East Asians would perform so much better than the biased and racially-preferred Caucasians? Geographically isolated cultures evolved different intellectualities according to the exigencies faced for survival , and a couple of centuries of colonialism is not enough to undo that-- it's not about race.
You are correct about culture. Incorrect about genetics. Asia was more culturally advanced than Africa prior to colonialism and this is in fact a large part of why they were able to excel faster. In fact this connects to my prior point about leadership. One of the primary reasons African nations had so consistently poor leadership was indeed that they had a less advanced cultural & philisophical heritage.
Your nonsense about climates and evolution and genetics is just a load of 19th century tripe that you have foolishly fallen for and is currently being proven wrong even as you type.
Zimbabwe was pretty literate at the time of Independence. Yes human capital is important but solid economic systems are also needed. As our resident pro-Leftist what are your thoughts on this article?
Maybe that says something about the Ian Smith regime that preceded independence of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's literacy rate would also reflect the presence of a non-African population that enjoyed compete literacy.
As for your article, that single anecdotal example only proves that anything is possible for a single individual, like Sam Walton who amassed the largest fortune in history selling plastic junk out of a storefront in Arkansas. The economics of Arkansas and Congo reward exactly the same ethics and endeavors, and there is nothing wonderful or miraculous about the USA that would defend our economic health or commonweal from people like Mrs. Dos Santos.
As a "resident pro leftist" , it never surprises me when a capitalist devises ways to take as much as possible of a nation's wealth for himself. That's what capitalists are programmed to do (it's not their fault, Ayn Rand made them do it). Let's put dos Santos in perspective. She has $3-billion in a country where people live on $2 a day. Multiply by 30 -- The Walton family has $90 billion in a country where people live on $60 a day ($90K a year for a family of four). How does that translate into a different, more favorable result in a nation with American instead of Congolese economic institutions to protect them?
Learning from the Americans to redefine the economic indicators in order to give the appearance of an economy that best suits the interests of the entrenched oligarchy.
Singapore has a larger population than several African states and has significant ethnic diversity and tensions.
I think the point is that it is an apples to oranges comparison to compare Singapore to a whole continent the size of Africa.
Also, I think the point made about colonial borders for African countries is one that people tend to overlook, as they essentially cut up ethnic lands and may have included groups that have been at odds for a long time.
I understand that you can't make a simple comparison between Singapore and Africa as a whole. But certain fundamental things are common to most developed countries that are lacking in many African countries. For example most developed countries(Singapore included)have both a mixed economy and a legal system that supports their country's economic activity.
Many of Africa's legal/judicial systems are under developed. In many African countries you can find many disputes over land and property because it's not clear from a legal standpoint who owns what. I saw a video where a Ugandan lawyer was trying to get more property there titled because about 80% of property in Uganda had no clear owner. This lack of clear property ownership makes it difficult to know who should be benefiting from the use of land and other property.
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