Political union is implausible. Kagame and Museveni can’t even accept domestic term limits. If they won’t hand over power to another one of their countrymen, why would they hand over power to foreigners, especially ones with whom disputes over who gets to steal what from the DRC have emerged?
The East African Federation experiment
31–37 of 37 posts
Re: The East African Federation experiment
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
You just need 1 or a few to reach "escape velocity", though. Europe was ok-ish until ~1700, then Britain reached the Industrial Revolution, then everybody in about a 2000km radius suddenly leveled up. Kind of funny how geography and culture work.
yes, Europe had multiple colonies all over the world to extract raw material. Very easy to do that when you have a strong army. A monopoly on violence lead to that "development".
But how do you get the strong army without being developed first?
(I agree that once you already have a strong army, you can leverage it to get even more advantages.)
Re: The East African Federation experiment
#33I only know people in Tanzania so I don't know how anyone in the other countries feel but the Tanzanians I know are supportive of the dream but are concerned about getting swamped by newcomers as Tanzania has lots of land and has somewhat low population density. If freedom to settle anywhere happened, they're worried Tanzania would cease to be Tanzania. And for those curious, they got the Tanzania jokes in the Simpsons and found them amusing. Tanzanians are generally optimistic people who want to see the good things in life.
Re: The East African Federation experiment
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
You just need 1 or a few to reach "escape velocity", though. Europe was ok-ish until ~1700, then Britain reached the Industrial Revolution, then everybody in about a 2000km radius suddenly leveled up. Kind of funny how geography and culture work.
Ah, the Anglo-centric (what's centrism taken to its extreme BTW?) view. As always, utterly divorced from actual facts on the ground on the Continent.
I'm not from an English speaking country and I'm actually from the "Continent".
Re: The East African Federation experiment
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
You just need 1 or a few to reach "escape velocity", though. Europe was ok-ish until ~1700, then Britain reached the Industrial Revolution, then everybody in about a 2000km radius suddenly leveled up. Kind of funny how geography and culture work.
yes, Europe had multiple colonies all over the world to extract raw material. Very easy to do that when you have a strong army. A monopoly on violence lead to that "development".
Chicken and egg. The "monopoly on violence" requires technological "development".
Re: The East African Federation experiment
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overexploitation is a very real dynamic in colonial and post-colonial countries. As shown by the resource curse (aka "Dutch Disease"), countries with the largest, most valuable natural resource endowments tend to be the ones where average folks are worst off.
The resource curse also affects countries that weren't colonized such as Russia. Norway was worried about this as well so that's why they created their sovereign wealth fund.
No post body was provided.
Re: The East African Federation experiment
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you live and work in one of the partner countries without a visa? Can you cross a border without a passport or customs check? Can you ship goods to another country without paying any duties? I understand there can be a lot of reasons for criticism, but it seems these are real advantages that regular people could take advantage of.
You can cross without a visa and there's an East African passport.The taxes still need to be aligned. If it accomplishes nothing else but a small measure of stability in the Congo then the EAC will be a success in my book.
Travel:
What I read personal travel is still very limited. https://www.eac.int/travelling-within-the-eac
"East Africans can now drive private cars across borders and across the entire EAC region, free of charge, for visits no longer than seven (7) days. ... Anyone using a private car has to fill a form, obtainable at border crossing points or local Revenue Authority office, which grants permission for free access for a week."
And you only have 11 official border entries for cars between all members. At all.
Work:
https://www.eac.int/working-in-east-africa You are free to work unless in the public sector, but you'd still need to pass immigration procedures, and need to get and pay for a work permit within 15 days. Better than the usual wait for 14 days at the border, but then you wait for 3 weeks at the immigration office, and you'd need to pay the work permit fee (unless in Rwanda and Kenya).