51–60 of 94 posts
What is up with the Millenials Do X, Millenials do Y? I don't remember reading this kind of stories for previous generations. Why are things attributed to a collective like this, it's weird.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
True. I think Ghana has it s bit easier than other places, because they haven’t suffered a prolonged disaster. Weak countries affected by ongoing disasters get international aid which can have “dumping” effect by undercutting the native farmers and making their enterprise less viable. In countries where this happens they (aid) have to be careful they don’t end up undercutting local economies when they try to “help”,
Do economies really need to go through that "farming phase" to grow? I don't see the connection. Modern farming employs less than 1% of the population. Non-modern farming can not compete at all except in tiny niches. So how are those "native farmers" going to bring their societies from poverty to prosperity, by being completely uncompetitive, but protected at the same time?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From your linked article, the reason people spend a greater percentage of their incomes on food is not because of the cost of food, but that their incomes are much lower: > The figures do not mean that food is more expensive in Nigeria than in the US. In fact, quite the reverse. The average American spends $2,392 per year on food, the average Nigerian half that: $1,132. The average Kenyan spends just $543 a year on f…
Where do you get this number, $2,392 per year? I can tell you that for me, it's way more than that.
What is up with the Millenials Do X, Millenials do Y? I don't remember reading this kind of stories for previous generations. Why are things attributed to a collective like this, it's weird.
One thing that shocked me is they breeding "giant rats" (Cricetomys gambianus). These are known vectors of monkeypox. Also, snails usually carry very harmful parasites to both humans and plants.
in Ghana, how well are property laws enforced? Is there violence against farmers, like there is in South Africa? Article does not touch on this, but could be another reason why people choose not to farm.
This is both off topic and a flamewar topic, which the site guidelines ask people not to introduce. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html To give this article a fairer chance at having its actual content discussed, I'm going to collapse this subthread.
Is there such a thing as an "African millennial"? Are there Gen-Xers in Africa? Was there a baby boom to produce Baby Boomers? Aren't these generational terms relevant to the USA only? NYTimes recently covered the distinctions between Millennials and Gen-Xers, and none of those cultural touchpoints or characteristics of Millennials seem to be appropriate for describing any generation in Ghana.
Africa is a very big place, though, in varying stages of development. Several places have burgeoning middle classes, with access to similar amounts of consumer goods as the rest of the world. Is there any reason to think that these middle classes don't face similar generational shifts?
Is there such a thing as an "African millennial"? Are there Gen-Xers in Africa? Was there a baby boom to produce Baby Boomers? Aren't these generational terms relevant to the USA only? NYTimes recently covered the distinctions between Millennials and Gen-Xers, and none of those cultural touchpoints or characteristics of Millennials seem to be appropriate for describing any generation in Ghana.
One of the key traits (stereo)typically discussed in the media w.r.t. millennials is a sense of entitlement, growing up with technology. And to a lesser extent, millennials tend to be more understanding of the importance of the environment and diet.
That happens to reflect exactly the article's premise: agriculture is seen as something that poor, illiterate rural people do. Whereas millennials in Africa are urbanising, have mobile phones, are literate and went to school and are looking for a manufacturing or services job, not an agricultural one. The concept of the millennial translates just fine to the African context, in the case of this article.
The average age in Africa is 24, yet the average farmer is 60. That's where millennials come in, reshaping the idea of farming, and giving it a modern touch. That's what the article is about.
> Aren't these generational terms relevant to the USA only?
I mean, even if you disagreed that an African millennial made sense as a concept... there's hundreds of millions of people living in countries with very similar concepts. (e.g. much of Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan etc). It's not a term exclusive to the US.