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Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

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Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#21

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

GDP per capita change for 2018 was negative for sub-saharan Africa:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG?locat...

Be careful what you wish for: economic growth in Africa is going to come directly at the expense of the local and international environment, in the form of land clearance and coal and oil emissions.

Africa desperately needs to stabilise its population, so that it can focus on infrastructure and capital deepening. The West can help by redirecting all food aid instead towards education, contraception and abortion for women.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#22

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

China is exploiting them. They're not doing it out of kindness, or for some moral self-aggrandizing.

Unfortunately this may prove to be way more effective than “doing it out of kindness” like we do.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#23
post #6

Ethiopia's GDP growth has been on a tear since 2000. [1] If you visit the capital, you can't miss the Chinese influence. Last time I was there, a huge Chinese bank building was going up kiddy corner to the Airport in Addis. BTW, if you haven't visited Ethiopia, put it on your list. It's an amazingly beautiful country. [1] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

The GDP growth rate per capita is a better measure in my opinion. The population of Ethiopia is growing very fast and despite the high GDP growth rate there is still serious concern about the job market for the nation's under 18 population about to hit the labour market.

In this case, it’s about the capability to finance a satellite, so absolute GDP is more relevant.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#24

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

The Western influences weren't exactly positive: https://africanarguments.org/2017/06/21/ethiopia-was-colonis...

The food sent over via charity often had a religious conversion implied.

China's belt and road initiative has specific goals in Africa that require something closer to real economic development. With a tether of course, but real development.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#25

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

The progress after 2000 does not really look too different from the time before. GDP per capita is a bit of an exception though.

GDP per capita: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-real-gdp-per-capi...

Literacy rate: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-ra...

Life expectancy: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?time=1950...

Hunger and undernourishment: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernouris...

(I removed the HDI as there was only data from 2000 on.)

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#26
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just spent three years driving around Africa. I visited 35 different countries all around the continent. [1] The Chiense influence is staggering . I'm writing a book about it now. Many, many parts of Africa are developing faster than any of us can comprehend, because we've never seen it. In the last ~20 years cities like LA and Vancouver have gotten bigger, but they're more or less what they were - there were skysc…

> hundreds of cities with subways No, there aren't. There is exactly one (1) city in sub-Saharan Africa with a modern urban rail system, and it's Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the rest of the continent's megacities (Nairobi, Lagos, etc) decent urban transit remains a dream. China has funded a bunch of long-distance rail, but that's primarily for trade (read: exporting raw materials). But I still tip my pith helmet at you…

Sorry, you're right, there aren't that many subways, but I stand by everything else I said

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#27
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just spent three years driving around Africa. I visited 35 different countries all around the continent. [1] The Chiense influence is staggering . I'm writing a book about it now. Many, many parts of Africa are developing faster than any of us can comprehend, because we've never seen it. In the last ~20 years cities like LA and Vancouver have gotten bigger, but they're more or less what they were - there were skysc…

so who owns all that brand new infrastructure - China?

Depends on the deal the government of whatever country made with China. In many cases China build tons of stuff (bridges, highways, rail, hydro plants, etc. etc.) and give them to the country typically in exchange for super cheap mineral rights. So then you come across immense swaths of forest that have been decimated, with all the timber being shipped to china. Same goes for monster mines all over the place.

In the case of Mozambique they gave away fishing rights to China.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#28

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

China is exploiting them. They're not doing it out of kindness, or for some moral self-aggrandizing.

They're most probably installing levers everywhere on the planet. Now how they're gonna use it is to be seen. Of course without opposing forces China will be free to exploit them to their limit but maybe they won't.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#29
Was wondering how democratic Ethiopia was, and:

> The EPRDF won the 2010 elections by a landslide, taking 499 seats, while allied parties took a further 35. Oppositions parties took just 2. Both opposition groups say their observers were blocked from entering polling stations during the election on Sunday, May 23, and in some cases the individuals were beaten. The United States and the European Union have both criticized the election as falling short of international standards. Additionally, the EPRDF won all but one of 1,904 council seats in regional elections.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#30
post #6

Ethiopia's GDP growth has been on a tear since 2000. [1] If you visit the capital, you can't miss the Chinese influence. Last time I was there, a huge Chinese bank building was going up kiddy corner to the Airport in Addis. BTW, if you haven't visited Ethiopia, put it on your list. It's an amazingly beautiful country. [1] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

GDP per capita is still at $767, which is representative of the majority of the population earning a subsistence living.

Ethiopia has a population of 105 million, yet it has the gross scientific output of Latvia, a country of only 1.92 million:

https://www.natureindex.com/country-outputs/generate/All/glo...

What is growing is CO2 emissions, at 14.9 million tonnes. By contrast, Latvia emits only 8 million tonnes.

On a per-CO2 basis, Latvia is twice as efficient as Ethiopia in producing science. On a per-capita basis, Latvia is 55x as efficient.

The situation is the same across the world when you compare countries populated by Europeans or East-Asians against everyone else.

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