This grab-you-by-the-throat speech by Ghanaian economist George Ayittey unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. These "Hippos" (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile "Cheetah Generation," a "new breed of Africans" taking their futures into their own hands.
Greg Laden's Blog
Evolution, Life Sciences, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff
Recent Comments
- Stephanie Z on Dear public school principals everywhere
- mario on The next document I put together will be done with LyX
- becca on Dear public school principals everywhere
- Lou Doench on How to cook a turkey
- Stephanie Z on How to cook a turkey
- catgirl on How do you explain evolution?
- Wowbagger on How to cook a turkey
- Dacks on How to cook a turkey
- Jon on How do you explain evolution?
- A Reader on How do you explain evolution?
Profile
Welcome to Greg Laden's Blog.
Search
Blogroll
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
Recent Posts
- Happy Birthday Carl Sagan
- How to cook a turkey
- w00t!!!! Rebecca and her book written up in Publishers Weekly
- Has swine flu peaked, and it if has, what does that mean?
- New mouse for OpenOffice and other OpenSource apps
- How do you explain evolution?
- You said one thing wrong, therefore everything you ever said is also wrong
- Dear public school principals everywhere
- Managing your References
- Noachian Flood Reconstructed
« The Pope is a Dope, says Rome U | Main | Critical duck bouncing back »
George Ayittey: Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa's future
Category: Politics
Posted on: January 18, 2008 5:59 PM, by Greg Laden
Find more posts in: 
Humanities & Social Science
Politics
Share this: Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Reddit Email + More
TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/60393
Comments
Cheetahs are not really doing so well. The populations are barely stable even in protected areas. Despite their speed they can only kill a small percentage of antelopes, and are easily chased off it by lions or hyenas. Hippos by contrast are thriving...
Sorry, unnecessary analogy.
There are many good points in that speech, but one basic flaw. Why the emphasis on "postcolonial" Africa ... pre-colonial Africa was no utopia despite his cherry-picked example. And surely his argument that so much wealth was expatriated to Europe was definitely even more true in colonial Africa.
So the fundamental problem, as he talks about later in the speech after the initial headline phrases, is the centralization of the land and resources in just a few hands. His justified criticism of "swiss bank socialism" merges into a generic (unjustified?) attack onto any general socialist principles that may be a valid part of the first steps in reducing poverty and redistributing stolen resources.
Posted by: R N B | January 18, 2008 6:52 PM