<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Happy-African-Children_GettyImages-5349429821-1110x739.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-341050"/><figcaption> Photograph: Getty Images </figcaption></figure>



Why we need to team with anthropology to get Africa’s story right.



By <a href="http://cnbc.africa/?s=nnamdi+oranye">Nnamdi
Oranye</a> and <a href="http://cnbc.africa/?s=ryan+peter">Ryan Peter</a>



How many times have you seen Africa depicted
in some sort of publication with the picture of a child with a fly on their
face? Too often, I bet. And there’s even a running meme on the Internet about
it. But those of us who live on this beautiful continent know that the child
with a fly on their face is not the face of Africa. While the story the picture
conveys is true, the question is: what is the story? &#8220;A picture is worth a
thousand words&#8221; is a popular English language adage. But there is a story
behind the picture &#8211; and too often we never hear the story.



Anthropology, the study of human societies and cultures and their development, tells that story. But too often we don’t rely on anthropologists to tell us what’s really going on. Instead, we rely on non-profit organisations and journalists &#8211; both of whom have a bias (good or bad).



Most people who actually travel into rural Africa usually do not encounter sad looking kids with flies on their faces. Instead, they often encounter happy, exuberant kids who just want to hang out with them. People will often comment about how ‘happy’ the kids are despite how ‘little’ they have. We hear statistics such as the World Bank tell us that more than half of the extremely poor in the world live in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 413 million people living on less than US$1.90 a day (2015). So many people think that if they send $40 a month to a charity who will administer the money, they are taking care of someone’s needs. But there’s a story behind these numbers as well.



One of the things we have to ask is: who is taking the photo? There’s a story there too. This person usually arrives in the country via its international airport, such as O.R. Tambo in Johannesburg. From there they might be picked up by an organisation or call an Uber to their hotel. They’ll overnight at a luxurious or middle-class hotel found in the airport and surrounds, or, if it’s South Africa, for example, they’ll be taking the Gautrain to a hotel in Sandton (usually the case). They’ll enjoy a good dinner, a good breakfast &#8211; perhaps with imported strawberries &#8211;&nbsp; and then drive out to their destination. When they get there they’ll probably stay at a game farm or a lodge in the bush, before heading out for a day of photographs at some rural village. Here they will encounter tons of kids, and at some stage, they will spot a kid with a fly on their face (even in the first world, flies to land on faces, by the way) and take a quick shot. This will become the story of their trip to Africa that will get posted on their magazine’s front cover. But you and I both know that this was not the whole story, right? What about the hotel? What about the lodge? What about the airport and the Uber ride and the Gautrain? Were all these places not in Africa?



What is the real story in the rural village
the photo was taken? While it may be that a person is living on US$1.90 a day,
the fact is that they also might own their land, their cattle, and their hut.
They’re not paying a mortgage and they’re not in debt. Why don’t we hear about
those stories? 



A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a picture is also not objective. Photojournalists do an amazing job and have their place, but unless we couple the photos with something tangible, something objective, we’re letting the wrong story about Africa be told. This is why we need to partner with anthropologists and the amazing work they do to tell our African story and to tell it in a fresh new way &#8211; in a way that describes what is really going on, objectively. We’ll find that there is more than just sending a person $40 a day. We’ll find there is more going on than kids with flies on their faces. We’ll discover that Africans are thinking differently about themselves, are making a change for their continent, and innovating like never before. And we need to be telling their stories.



Nnamdi
Oranye is an author and the CEO of Disrupting Africa, a research think-tank
dedicated to moving African innovation forward. He is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Africa-Rise-African-Innovation-ebook/dp/B01EIG274S/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=nnamdi+oranye&amp;qid=1555507001&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-2-spell">Disrupting
Africa: The Rise and Rise of African Innovation</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Silicon-Valley-Africas-Innovators-ebook/dp/B0759G581H/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=nnamdi+oranye&amp;qid=1555506964&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1-spell">Taking on
Silicon Valley: How Africa’s Innovators Will Shape its Future</a>”.



Ryan
Peter is an author, <a href="https://ryanpeterwrites.com/">writer</a>,
and the chief editor of the <a href="https://disruptingafrica.com/index.php?title=List_of_African_Innovators">Disrupting
Africa Encyclopedia</a>, which
has made it its mission to write the stories of Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs.

Op-Ed: Africa’s Image in the Media: Every Picture Has a Story

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/agriculture-13730152618Ej-1110x735.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-335002"/><figcaption>Picture: Public Domain Pictures</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">With Africa poised to have the largest workforce by 2035,
will we have enough food?</h3>



By <a href="http://cnbc.africa/?s=nnamdi+oranye">Nnamdi
Oranye</a> and Ryan Peter



I&#8217;m sure you know by now, but we&#8217;re at the dawn
of a new age. When you studied history at school, you probably (at least once)
wondered about what it might have been like to live in the dawn of the
industrial revolution, or the advent of the Renaissance, or perhaps even the
Tang dynasty in China, or some other key time period in human history. But in
generations to come, people will wonder what it was like to live in *your* time
period &#8211; the emergence of a new technological age; the time of the Fourth
Industrial revolution; the time when humanity and technology began to converge.



What will be the outcome? It remains to be seen.
There are a lot of alarmists out there, but when we look at the data, we&#8217;re
seeing the positives are far outweighing the negatives.



History shows us that this generally happens.
Think of what it must have been like at the beginning of the Agricultural
Revolution of the 18th century in Britain. This was a key time when
agricultural methods finally broke with the past, with new techniques and
scientific discovery led to better crop yields, greater diversity of crops, and
the ability to sustain more livestock. It was a huge contributor to Britain&#8217;s
growth, economy, and health, in particular. Farming suddenly became big
business, thanks to the invention of technology such as the horse-drawn seed
press, which made labour much less intensive and much more productive. Britain
actually progressed more rapidly than any other European country, despite its
smallness. The new methods meant more could be done on the same land than ever before.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology brings benefits &amp; social change </h2>



This Agricultural Revolution brought with it
major changes. The positive changes were obvious: food was more widely
available, could be sold for cheaper, and more people could sustain their
health. A healthy society is a more productive, happy society, which brings
with it all the benefits. Productivity and availability were all increased. But
it caused major social upheaval as well. In order to support the new methods of
farming, Enclosure Laws were passed, which limited the common land available to
small farmers. Wealthy lords soon swooped in and purchased public fields,
pushing out the small scale farmers, who migrated to the cities (and later
became the labor for new emerging industries in the Industrial Revolution).
Technology always brings with it tremendous benefits along with major social
change. 



Things are no different today. We&#8217;ve got the
emergence of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) which is set to change everything &#8211;
and in numerous positive ways. The rise of self-driving farm vehicles is one
aspect in agriculture that is getting a lot of mainstream press. In the
Agricultural Revolution there was the horse-drawn seed-press, today there is
the computer-drawn seed press. But there is also a huge amount happening behind
the scenes with the advent of A.I. Machine learning models are being developed
to help both track and predict local weather and other environmental impacts,
or measure and predict soil quality. Access to the technology is also becoming
significantly easier.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The agriculture sector remains challenging</h2>



Nuru (Swahili for &#8220;light&#8221;), developed
by <a href="https://plantvillage.psu.edu/solutions">PlantVillage</a>
is an A.I. assistant that provides expert level farming knowledge to anyone who
has the app on their phone. It has learned to diagnose various diseases &#8211;
armyworm infections, potato disease, wheat disease, and others. Along with this
app, PlantVillage is looking to use drones that collect images and video and
help farmers to spot disease in their crops a lot easier. PlantVillage is even
looking to use satellite imagery to spot where crops are struggling. This is
being used in Africa today. A lot of this is making use of Tensorflow, which is
Google&#8217;s open sourced A.I. to help developers find solutions to real-world
problems. Just this week, Google opened its first A.I. lab in Ghana. The
company is clearly positioning itself as an A.I. company first and foremost. 



The Agricultural Sector remains one of Africa&#8217;s
most challenging sectors, but it is transforming quickly. In Sub-Saharan
Africa, it is projected to become a US$1 trillion industry by 2030, according
to <a href="https://www.pwc.co.za/en/press-room/tech-innovation-agribusiness.html">PriceWaterhouse</a>.&nbsp; With Africa to have the largest workforce by
2035, an increased healthy food production is absolutely key. We have to
challenge our traditional modes of thinking when it comes to farming. With so
much land available and so much new technology beginning to emerge,
agribusiness is sure to be good business looking forward.



We can&#8217;t go back. Technology has arrived, is
here to stay, and is ready to evolve along with us. Yes, it&#8217;ll bring societal
change. Yes, lawmakers will probably even make mistakes. Arguably, the
Enclosure Laws did help to create wide class gaps which the Industrial
Revolution exacerbated. But on the other hand, it also helped lift many others
out of poverty. The question for all of us is whether we will run ahead and
foresee the change coming, work with it, work with the players involved, and
guide it all towards greener pastures. 



Nnamdi Oranye
is an author and the CEO of Disrupting Africa, a research think-tank dedicated
to moving African innovation forward. He is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Africa-Rise-African-Innovation-ebook/dp/B01EIG274S/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=nnamdi+oranye&amp;qid=1555507001&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-2-spell">Disrupting
Africa: The Rise and Rise of African Innovation</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Silicon-Valley-Africas-Innovators-ebook/dp/B0759G581H/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=nnamdi+oranye&amp;qid=1555506964&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1-spell">Taking on
Silicon Valley: How Africa’s Innovators Will Shape its Future</a>”.



Ryan Peter
is a writer and the chief editor of the <a href="https://disruptingafrica.com/index.php?title=List_of_African_Innovators">Disrupting
Africa Encyclopedia</a>, which
has made it its mission to write the stories of Africa’s innovators and
entrepreneurs.

A.I. AgriBusiness is Good Business

If we were to think of Silicon Valley, and our own innovations and start-ups, as countries, we might be able to capitalise on the kind of thinking that makes Silicon Valley so successful, writes Nnamdi Oranye.
California, where Silicon Valley resides, has a bigger economy than most nations of the world. In fact, the World Bank in 2016 rated it as the sixth biggest economy on the globe. That’s one State in all of America. And within this State resides states of their own, if you will – countries, nations that cross borders, generate revenue in almost every border of the world, and connect people across geographic regions in new, unthinkable ways. These are the countries of Silicon Valley, and the big five of them are undoubtedly Facebook, Google, Apple, Uber and Amazon.
If you were to think of Facebook as a country, it would be the most populous on earth, with 1.86 billion people logging onto the network each month. We could think of that as 1.86 billion living, active users &#8211; effectively, Facebook’s citizens. That’s more than China’s entire population (about 1.4 billion). It’s more than India’s (about 1.3 billion).
Facebook’s users are more than the U.S. population itself, which comes in at about 0.3 billion, where the company comes from. Facebook’s biggest problem is that there will eventually not be enough people in the world who will actually log on and use it, so how will it grow? It’s still banned in China, but who knows for how much longer?
<h4>Facebook&#8217;s Free Basics for African users</h4>
To get Africans on board and increase its user base, Facebook is, therefore, finding ways to help us all get online. Through a partnership with Eutelsat, it’s looking to offer a connected experience that it calls Free Basics (see internet.org), which already operates in several countries across the globe and has partnered with MTN and other telecommunications in Africa. This has come with some controversy.
Its plan is clearly to get everyone on the planet logged on and connected &#8211; and at 1.39 billion users logging on every month, it doesn’t seem as if it is just dreaming. If you consider Facebook’s earnings of USD $8.81 billion (Q4 2016), and you compare this to other country GDP’s, you see it’s richer than many of the countries of the world!
Google isn’t far behind. If it were a country, it would probably be the third biggest in the world. In 2016, it reported that it has now more than one billion active users on Gmail. YouTube, Maps, Google Play, and Chrome also have more than one billion active users. And this doesn’t account for active users on the Google search engine or users of its other products. In the same year, it reported it had reached 3.3 trillion searches in a year.
<h4>Only 60 countries&#8217; GDP beat Google&#8217;s revenue</h4>
There are more than 1.6 billion Android devices in the market (2017). Alphabet, the holding company of Google, reported USD $21.33 billion in revenue in 2016; 24.8 billion in the first quarter of 2017. It outstrips even more nations than Facebook if you had to compare GDP with Google’s revenue. In fact, only just over 60 countries in the world beat it &#8211; while the rest trail behind.
In 2015, its revenue for the year was better than 33 of the world’s poorest countries combined, meaning – as reported by Investopedia – that its wealth exceeded roughly 18 percent of the global GDP. It’s not the biggest multi-national corporation there is, and that in itself is saying something.
Where does Whatsapp sit in all this? The messaging app boasted 1.2 billion active users a month in January 2017. If you consider that Whatsapp is owned by Facebook, you can begin to see just how much Facebook would dominate if it were a country. And then let’s not forget Instagram with 600 million users at the end of 2016 &#8211; which is also owned by Facebook.
<h4>Totally different to how we normally do things in an African context</h4>
These are nations within all of our nations. Realising this stark fact puts things in an interesting perspective. It’s a good thought exercise to think beyond the stats and consider the philosophy behind this, consider what it means to have nations of this size within your own nation, linked to your next-door neighbours and across the world. When you think of these innovations as countries you can see the type of service they provide, and the way they provide their service, is totally different to how we normally do things in an African context. The regulatory framework is different. The approach to technology is different. The way they view themselves, and their citizens, is different. What this means is if we were to
The regulatory framework is different. The approach to technology is different. The way they view themselves, and their citizens, is different. What this means is if we were to try compete with the likes of Uber, for example, we can&#8217;t compete in the way we usually do with other countries: with borders and regulation and certain security approaches, and so on. We have to start to think of things like VISA-less borders and we have to come to grips with what our response to that sort of thing is — what our regulatory framework will actually be. This regulatory framework has to be totally new, it can’t just incorporate a ‘business-as-usual’ approach.
<h4>Globalism taken to the next level</h4>
The sheer connected nature of these Silicon Valley companies — the way in which they truly want to connect us — speaks volumes into this, and is truly globalism gone next level. Consider Google / Alphabet’s plans. It has been developing its driverless, ‘smart’ car for some time now, and expects to release this to the consumer market by 2020. It’s investing in healthcare. Android phones and Android watches are telling us about how healthy and active we are being. You can see where Google is going with that. And no doubt, through collecting all the information Google does about you, it will (in my opinion) look to start health insurance or other kinds of insurance too. (Amazon, too, just announced this last week that it’s thinking of going into pharmaceuticals, so this is clearly a market Silicon Valley wants to
And no doubt, through collecting all the information Google does about you, it will (in my opinion) look to start health insurance or other kinds of insurance too. (Amazon, too, just announced this last week that it’s thinking of going into pharmaceuticals, so this is clearly a market Silicon Valley wants to cannibalise). Facebook and Google have plans to get the world online via satellite, or Google’s connected blimps in the sky.
Google along with Levi’s just released a jacket in the last few months to the market with ‘gesture-sensing fabric’ which effectively lets you control your phone by just touching your jacket. Google has been making headway into the ‘connected home’ concept with its Nest products, and others. So the plan is simple: make everything connected, from your watch to your phone to your car to your home to your clothes. Google wants to create a new ecosystem. Facebook wants to, too. Amazon, on the other hand, just wants to own everything.
<h4>How we need to think of our own innovations differently</h4>
“Ecosystem” is the key for me in how we need to think of our innovations, as I’ve argued elsewhere. But more than this, if we are looking at the economies of these companies and thinking of ourselves as African nations in comparison to them, we must realise that we cannot see technology innovations as ‘start-ups’. We have to think of them as more than that.
We have to think of our own innovations, and innovators, as developing nations and ecosystems within our nations. We have to open our borders to them, so they can think Pan-African from the start. We only tend to think of our innovations as ‘tech’, but we have to think consider them as countries all of their own.
Acha Leke, director at McKinsey and Company and a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda on Africa, represents, in my opinion, one way we need to be thinking about this. He is actively campaigning for visa-less borders in Africa, for the recently launched African Union passport. He believes this will accelerate socio-economic growth; boosting tourism revenue and increasing intra-African trade.
As he said at Oxford in 2015, “We are the second fastest growing continent in the world, and Africa offers the second highest return of investment of any region in the world.” What this means is that if we can make our borders more open, we can make it so much easier for our innovators to expand across Africa and get even more investment with effectively less hassle, and that will benefit us all. We will create a more integrated market, make it more efficient for business, open up opportunities, which all will promote greater stability and investment.
<h4>The kind of prosperity these Silicon Valley companies enjoy is what we really need</h4>
Silicon Valley does not think within borders. It&#8217;s kind of connected thinking that creates a better “working together” and the kind of prosperity these Silicon Valley companies enjoy is what we really need, I believe. You can see the same thinking employed in China’s open-source philosophy that has helped it to innovate so quickly – a philosophy that is highlighted by China’s very different take on patent laws.
If we want to prevent Silicon Valley from not only capitalising on our opportunities but also our current markets, we have to start thinking a bit like them while thinking about our context at the same time. For example, I’ve been saying for some time that Facebook can cannibalise our telecommunications industries. Take a look at the Telecom Infrastructure Project, a consortium led by Facebook and launched at Mobile World Congress last year; and also take a look at its Voyager project; and also just think about the fact that Whatsapp is processing 100 million calls a day. It is poised to sweep the rug under the carpet of every telecoms company in the world, including Africa. The problem is I don’t think we’re ready for it.
We need to be creating a new ecosystem for us as Africans through our own innovations, and working with these Silicon Valley innovations, our way. Along with the tremendous positive the likes of Google and Facebook can bring to help connect us, they can also bring significant negative in the forms of where the revenue generated will all be going, what happens to all the jobs that can be lost, and how it develops our own skills for the future. We have a serious challenge before us and we need to rise up to it now.

Op-Ed: If Silicon Valley were a country

Headlines surrounding the G20 Summit held in Hamburg, Germany, last week have been nothing short of gloom, with some protesters waving signs directed at world leaders who gathered for the summit, reading “<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/welcome-to-hell-protesters-clash-with-police-g20-summit-hamburg.html">Welcome to Hell</a>”. It is reported that on the eve of the summit, water cannons had been deployed and directed at protesters attempting to disrupt the gathering of world leaders.
People are clearly very angry at the status quo. This was not the first time an expression of dissatisfaction by civil society was manifested at a high-level gathering of this nature. Recall the 1999 WTO Protests in Seattle, USA – when people gathered to protest during the WTO Ministerial Conference. The 1999 protests were anti-capitalism. Union workers, labour rights groups, and other civil society organizations took the streets to express their <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-dark-side-of-globalization-why-seattles-1999-protesters-were-right/282831/">frustration</a> with ‘globalization’ as they saw it.
<h4>Almost 20 years later, the cry is still the same</h4>
Last week, and almost 20 years later, the cry is still the same, with wide protests during the Group of 20 Summit held in another developed, high-income country, Germany. Protesters do not see the point of the G20 and the summit. In a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/g20-summit-2017-protests-prompt-police-reinforcements/">news report</a>, one of the protest organizers is quoted as attributing economic inequality, issues surrounding climate change and the migration crisis on the G20 and its world leaders.
At a recent <a href="http://www.t20germany.org/">Think20</a> summit, on May 29, 2017 – May 30, 2017, held for the purpose of providing G20 leaders with policy recommendations for Global Solutions, various professionals &#8211; businesspeople, researchers, academics, media representatives, think tanks from around the world &#8211; gathered to engage in dialogue and debate surrounding ways towards economic growth, social cohesion, peace and security and ways to protect the environment.
Policy recommendations were researched, drafted and ultimately culminated into 20 policy proposals that were <a href="http://www.t20germany.org/2017/06/15/20-solutions-g20/">presented</a> to the German Chancellery Minister. The presentation of the policy briefs called on the G20 to take strides towards the implementation of the recommendations.
<h4>Where to these recommendations leave Africa?</h4>
Where is Africa in all of this? There is only one African nation in the G20, South Africa. There is a paradox to be drawn from this with respect to engaging Africa significantly on issues of global importance at such gatherings. This point, of “talking about Africa without Africa” and “a stronger voice for Africa at the G20 [and in other global settings]” was highlighted by one of the panelists during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Pq6WQuVTQ">discussion</a> at the Think20 Summit. The current frustration
The current frustration, as manifested in Hamburg, is frustration against the status quo, frustration against a club of world leaders in an exclusive group driving the agenda for everyone else. Their inability to drive the agenda or to contribute significantly to the agend has frutrated African countries, who see themselves as being driven by the agenda. Even though Africa’s position is not significantly on the minds of those thousands of protesters in Hamburg, it is clearly part of the bigger problem with the formation of the existing structures and models.
<h4>Governance as we know it is being questioned</h4>
The protests surrounding the G20 summit are yet another reminder (after the 2016 US elections, the Brexit vote, the near misses in the Dutch and French elections) that governance as we know it is being questioned.
The tough questions and civic resistance is a wakeup call that it is no longer business as usual. Grassroots organizations also want a seat at the table; as do indigent communities and smaller economies, particularly those in Africa. It cannot be about ‘club governance’. If seats are not provided for all stakeholders, there are those prepared to bring folding chairs to disrupt the formal gatherings – as it was clearly being seen in Hamburg.
The G20 (and particularly the summit) was birthed from an attempt to learn lessons from and address the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. As an informal political forum it has made significant steps towards being more inclusive and not simply a club for the biggest economies. It has engaged various groups: businesses, youth, think tanks, and others; however, it still is an exclusive group trying to be inclusive. Integration and cohesion is a global goal at this point, the stakes for further disintegration (socially and internationally) are all too high at this point.
Integration and Cohesion is a global goal at this point, the stakes for further disintegration (socially and internationally) are all too high at this point.
Author: Mary-Jean Nleya, Founder &amp; Editor of <a href="http://www.theglobalcommunique.com/">The Global Communiqué</a>. Mary-Jean was selected as a G20 Young Global Changer to attend the <a href="http://www.t20germany.org/">Think20</a> Summit in Berlin, Germany in May 2017.

Op-Ed: The G20 Summit – global goal of integration

I love baseball. I’ve been watching since 1964, when I was seven years old. It’s in my blood as it is for many of my generation. It’s uniquely American. Just like mom and apple pie. And July 4th and fireworks.
Up until I was around ten years old, I was more of a New York Mets fan because we only lived a few minutes away from Shea Stadium in Queens. But I was equally devoted to the Yankees too, and ultimately, ended up rooting for them as I got older. Man, the dilemmas we faced when we were kids.
Back in those days, my father, who worked in the garment center, would get cheap Mets tickets from his mobster bookie, Joe “The Hat.” Joe was like a character from an era gone by, and wore a large, white fedora, earning him the nickname. He was the real deal. Never without a half-smoked cigar jutting out of the corner of his mouth, he owned a tiny, hole in the wall, barber shop on West 39th Street that had one of those old, striped barber poles out in front. From that storefront, “The Hat” took bets on everything from baseball and football to horseracing and boxing. My Dad said he once heard there was a dice game in the back, although he never actually saw it.
<h4>New York&#8217;s Yankees and Mets attracted all the best ballplayers</h4>
One of the great things about growing up in New York was that, because we had two teams here, all the best ballplayers of my generation either played here, or passed through, at some point during their careers. Everyone from Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays to Pete Rose, Roberto Clemente, Roger Maris, Tom Seaver, and Hank Aaron among others. And if they didn’t play for the Mets or Yankees, then they faced them as competitors. And thanks to Joe “The Hat,” I got to see most of them play live.
There must have been a million summer afternoons too, where I’d sprawl out like a giant, gangly octopus on the couch, and watch a game from start to finish on TV. All nine innings. Days seemed to move ever so slowly back then. And baseball was part of the reason why. Sometimes, if you were watching a game on a Saturday or Sunday, it felt like someone flipped the switch and set life to slow motion. A single inning could take fifteen minutes or more. And the three-plus hours it usually took to watch an entire game, seemed like ten. I loved every minute of it.
Today, fifty-three years later, I still love it. And I watch whenever I can, although it’s hard unless I’m home alone. But I got lucky the other day, and caught the Yankees playing the Texas Rangers on television, right from the first pitch. It was a typical hot, Sunday afternoon in late June. Eighty-five or so degrees outside. The Yankee Stadium crowd was quietly buzzing in the background. And it was all sun and blue skies above. It was baseball in New York. And it felt just like it used to when I was a kid.
Well, at least for a little while.
<h4>The world is an anxious place these days</h4>
But it’s no longer 1964, and life outside is no longer slow. The world is an anxious place these days. My iPhone reminds me of this continually, beeping dozens of toxic CNN headline alerts at me all day long. Trump, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Iran, ISIS, nukes, terrorism, healthcare, travel bans, race, gender, who can go into what bathroom, Hollywood dimwits, religion, guns, speech, hate, violence&#8230;
Stop it already!!! I can’t take it anymore!!!
Frankly, I don’t care how many missiles Kim Jong-un just tested. Or what Donald Trump just tweeted about Mika Brzezinski. Or who the Russians conspired with. Even what a colossal ignoramus Kathy Griffin is. A few weeks ago, it got so bad, I even turned off my iPhone completely a couple of times. But it really didn’t matter because everybody around me still had theirs, and were locked into them like iPhone robots.
<h4>People are oblivious to most things going on around them</h4>
Sometimes, when I walk down the street in the city, people drift by me in a trance-like, almost catatonic, state plugged into the broader digital collective, and oblivious to most things going on around them. There is now a near-constant stream of information and communications being fed into our brains via our iPhones. Outside of my ninety-year-old mother, the rest of the U.S. is slowly overdosing on the crack-cocaine epidemic of our time: information overload. You just can’t escape it. Because now, it’s a way of life.
But then, just for a moment, I looked back at the TV and the Yankee game. I listened to one of the announcer’s marveling over a ball that was just hit deep into the outfield, and how it bounced off the wall, and ricocheted away from the left fielder. And I looked at the perfectly manicured, cross-hatched, green grass on the field reflecting the sunlight. And the shadows from the stadiums upper façade, slowly overtaking the rest of the diamond from the earlier innings. I watched the Yankee’s pitcher go through his pre-pitch routine, nervously spinning the ball in his hand, and then adjusting the brim on his cap so it sat just off to the left of his head. And the batter up at the plate, as he rapped the bat against his cleats a few times to shake loose the dirt that was stuck in the heel.
<h4>Baseball is antithetical to the never-ending flood of rage and vitriol</h4>
And as I briefly stared at the television, I thought about how much I’ve always loved baseball. What a refuge it is for me. Because it’s completely antithetical to the way life is today. And it&#8217;s antithetical to the never-ending flood of rage and vitriol we’ve come to accept as the new normal.
So, if you feel like you need a place to hide, or if you just don’t want to hear all the screaming and yelling anymore, try to find yourself a baseball game on television. Tune into the Mets or Yankees. Or maybe Red Sox or Cubs. Stop looking at your iPhone alerts. Turn the phone off. Lower the blinds and turn up the air conditioning. Grab a beer and some chips. Kick back and slow down. Breathe. Take in the game. And get away. What could be better?
Because during a baseball game, there is no Donald Trump or Russia. There are no Democrats or Republicans either. And no healthcare debate or immigration reform.
During a baseball game, there’s just baseball and you. Home runs, double plays, batting averages, curveballs and sinkers.
It’s nice and slow, and easy and safe. And that works just fine for me.
Something tells me that, if Joe “The Hat” was still alive today, he would’ve been pretty proud of me.

Op-Ed: Baseball as metaphor for a better, less anxious life

The African National Congress had hosted its National Policy Conference in Nasrec from the 30th June-05 July 2017. This national discourse has been dominated by the robust discussions and a surprising obsession with the term of white monopoly capital (WMC). What has not captured the national attention, is that the thousands of delegates that descended upon Nasrec, represent domestic tourists.
The delegates were joined by non-voting delegates that included National Members of Parliament,  Provincial Members of Parliament, Veterans, Ministers, Premiers and members of several ANC sub-committees. Observers to the NPC included COSATU, SACP, SANCO, COSAS, and SASCO. The NPC guests ranged from members of the diplomatic community and political friends of the ANC from near and far, that came to grace the event.
The ANC delegates would consume a multiplicity of products and services ranging from accommodation, food and beverages, transportation, and engage in the mandatory therapy associated with shopping.
<h3>Benefits to the night time economy</h3>
The ANC remains a mass democratic movement, which attracts supporters when it hosts events.  In addition, the Night Time Economy, which is basically a 24-hour economy located around bars, pubs, clubs, and places of entertainment creates thousands of jobs and is a key driver of expenditure in cities.
The NTE would have benefitted immensely from ANC delegates, as they would engage each other in the Battle of Ideas, outside of the conference venue. ANC delegates are known for their patriotic expenditure at places of the NTE, running bills that ensure that the imminent shedding of jobs in such establishments, is curtailed.
The importance of the NPC can be reflected by the fact that it coincided with the Durban July, robbing the Indian Ocean coastal city of Durban, ANC delegates and their expenditure. The greater Johannesburg economy benefited from the expenditure that occurred in the extended NPC, which was for six days, an economic bonanza for the Gauteng economy.
<h3>Scope of event tourism</h3>
The NPC falls within the definition of event tourism, which includes conferences, conventions, and symposiums. Domestic tourism continues to receive less attention than the more glamorous international tourism, but in almost all destination, domestic tourism remains robust and dominating the majority of tourism trips.
Statistics South Africa which released the Domestic Tourism Survey 2015, noted that domestic tourism declined between 2013 and 2015 with the total number of day trips decreasing from 54,4 million in 2013 to 48 million in 2014 and 44 million in 2015. However, despite the downward trend, the total expenditure on day trips increased from R35 billion in 2013 to R39 billion in 2014.
Domestic tourism is a function of economic growth and employment, and the South African economy has been bleeding jobs and experiencing a growth trap. The problems of South Africa are much greater when you consider that the skills mismatch means that millions will remain unemployed because they have skills not required by the economy.
The increase in the unemployment rate recently should not be a surprise because of the investment strike by the private sector, sitting on more than R800 billion in their bank accounts.
<h3>Global economy shifted emphasis to services sector</h3>
The loss of jobs in mining has destroyed the economies of several mining towns, leading to lawlessness associated with the emergence of zama-zama’s who run a multi-million rand illegal mining operation.
Tourism in these times of doom and gloom has remained robust, with year-on-year growth at 13%, considering that the SA economy would not see 1% growth. The global economy has moved from a commodities (mining, agriculture) consumption to a consumption economy led by services such as banking, and tourism.
As South Africa continues to be unprepared for the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, tourism is possibly the sector that would remain labour-absorbing because of its labour intensive nature. The state continues to invest as little as possible on tourism, instead focusing too much energy on mining, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Tourism remains underfunded but continues to inspire with growth that creates jobs. The Department of Home Affairs remains an enemy of international tourism growth because of an obsession with visas. As more countries become visa friends to attract tourism and drive mobility for commerce and business, Africa is lagging behind.
The Department of Transportation is an enemy of tourism because of limited international flights to South Africa, which make limits aviation capacity and lower prices. The consequence is 13% tourism growth instead of 100% tourism growth, and this means that addressing monopoly poverty and inequality in the lives of South Africans is a dream deferred.
Our people are not interested in WMC, their tragedy is inter-generational poverty, unemployment and lack of assets, a lifetime defined by a lack of freedom because of lack of having, or ownership.
Author: Unathi Sonwabile Henama teaches tourism at Tshwane University of Technology and writes in his personal capacity.

Op-Ed: Domestic tourism benefit of ANC National Policy Conference on S.A’s Gauteng economy

Ketumile Masire (2001): “This is the time to demonstrate to the world that, as fellow Africans, we are capable of working together so that we can all enjoy peace, freedom and dignity.”
FMF was saddened to hear of the death last week of statesman Sir Ketumile Masire, President of Botswana from 1980 to 1998. Masire is widely credited with transforming Botswana’s economy, and promoting democracy and inclusivity.
Sir Ketumile Masire was the recipient of the FMF’s 2000 Free Market Award for his “exceptional contribution to the cause of economic freedom”, presented in April 2001 at an event attended by Nelson Mandela.
Michael O’Dowd, then-FMF chairman, presenting the award, said: “Some people may think it strange that a free market organisation should be honouring somebody for his acts as the head of a government, but this is not so. It is true, unfortunately, that free market organisations spend a lot of time criticising the actions of governments but they are not opposed to governments as such. On the contrary, we fully realise that free markets can only exist under the aegis of a good government.”
In accepting the award, Masire said: “One of the key initiatives that I took before leaving office was to put in place the process of charting a long-term vision for Botswana.” Critical elements of Masire’s vision included: “…an educated and informed nation; a prosperous, productive and innovative nation; an open, democratic and accountable nation; a moral and tolerant nation…” He added: “This is critical for fostering an environment in which free and uninterrupted economic activity can take place.”
O’Dowd: “Over 35 years, Botswana has had the highest rate of economic growth in Africa &#8230; Botswana has proved that there is nothing about Africa, neither in the character of its people, nor in its traditions, nor in its history, that closes to them the prospect of joining the first world.”
Masire pointed out that an important factor that contributed to Botswana’s sustained economic growth was an “unflinching commitment to public sector reform” He added: “There is indisputable evidence that … the absence of bureaucracy in the public sector enhances private sector development.”
“Standard international comparisons show Botswana as being the freest economy on the continent of Africa”, noted O’Dowd. “What then did Botswana do right? Botswana maintained all the institutions and practices which constitute a free market economy. It consistently protected and respected property rights and nationalised nothing. This is crucial. It upheld a proper system of law under which contracts are dependably enforceable. It refrained from interfering with the day to day operation of the economy by means of controls and it refrained from setting up grandiose state enterprises as the old South African government did. This has been the road to success followed by every successful economy in the twentieth century, and it was the road followed by Botswana.”
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Sir Ketumile Masire, Nelson Mandela and the Free Market Foundation

While attending a WPP South Africa Leadership conference, I was fortunate to listen to a panel discussion regarding the challenges and opportunities faced by multinationals when building brands in Africa. I share some of the insights and my own observations on this intriguing branding task.
Bharat Thakrar, CEO of WPP Scangroup shared an evocative story he likes to tell clients about the challenges of working in Africa. I’ll call it the ‘Mara River’ story, as I can’t remember how he framed it exactly.
Every year over a million wildebeest migrate from Tanzania’s Serengeti to Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve in search of green pastures. On their journey, they need to cross the Mara River, which while impressive, is not too wide or deep that it could be considered a major obstacle for these big animals to cross. But, once in the water, they discover the fearsome crocodiles lying in wait.
Like this crossing, Bharat’s point was that doing business in Africa is not as easy as it might first appear. And multinationals need to be aware of the proverbial ‘Crocodiles of Africa’ when they are launching and building brands in local markets.
<h3>Multinationals and Africa&#8217;s opportunities</h3>
One of the reasons multinationals sometimes struggle to realise the opportunity that Africa promises, is their failure to take the time to really understand local market nuances. They have a global brand bible that has identified a universal human insight that “works for all consumers”. But in Africa, simple copy and paste strategies often don’t work. Just because two countries speak the same language doesn’t mean they share the same cultural understanding.
Virgin Mobile, a big player in the UK wireless communications was launched in SA, with some fanfare back in 2006, but failed to make significant inroads into the local market. The premium and aspirational appeal of the parent brand proved irrelevant to South Africans. The brand needed to prove itself like any other, and when basic product and services lagged behind established competitors, international brand ‘cache’ wasn’t much help.
Abey Mokgwatsane, CEO Ogilvy Group, pointed out that this failure to localise was not as much of an issue in the past, as many multinationals were able to dominate through better distribution and stronger trade relationships. They were simply more physically available, in more places, more often. The local alternatives were fragmented, often poorly branded and not easy to find. But as mobile internet penetration has grown, so too have the options available to local consumers. Local brands have upped their game and as a result, more local brands have gained market share at the expense of international brands.
SAB’s acquisition by AB InBev was in part due to the former’s strong portfolio of local brands; Castle Lager in South Africa, Safari Larger in Tanzania or 2M in Mozambique, to name a few. SAB used this portfolio of to maximise relevance in each country. By contrast SAB’s international brands Grolsch, Peroni and Miller have gained less traction in Africa, in part due to their premium price, but also the challenges of connecting an American/European image to local drinkers.
Africa is not one country, which the conference panel acknowledged, but Chris von Sale, CEO JWT Africa, made an interesting counter argument, asking; “Have marketing professionals made Africa appear more complex than it needs to be? Are we scaring global clients away? Shouldn’t we focus on finding the commonalities between customers and markets?” Our job, after all is often to simplify. This point is well made, but it seems that this risk is outweighed by the dangers of oversimplification.
Here are some lessons on how best to approach the localisation challenge.
<h4>Lesson 1 – A global promise needs a local expression  </h4>
While brands should not stray too far from their core brand idea, it won’t resonate unless it has local relevance. Vodacom launched at a time when the country was taking its first steps as a democratic society, and played with this in its communications. But when the brand turned red and adopted the global brand positioning, it lost some relevance. The brand has regained traction by recapturing a local purpose that resonates with South Africans. This is best captured in the 2015 Summer Days ad that shows how technology can help South Africans collectively realise their potential – power to all of us.
<h4>Lesson 2 – Get your choice of product mix and channel right</h4>
Unilever’s powder detergent, Omo was the leading brand in Uganda, commanding close to 100% market share. But it lost ground to local brand Nomi when the latter was launched in bucket–like containers with handles that were popular with kids and offered convenience in comparison to sachets and packets. Nomi also focused distribution in smaller villages and up-country areas where competition was less fierce.
<h4>Lesson 3 – Be prepared to change visual codes rather than trying to change market</h4>
Jameson is a premium whiskey. Its positioning is linked to the idea of unpretentious premium; an idea developed in Europe. This translates into a visual aesthetic that focuses on natural and raw materials, and playful typography. This style was aspirational to European consumers in developed markets, but in South Africa where many consumers have come from, or still live in a ‘raw’ environment, this aesthetic doesn’t signal premium or luxury. The brand overcame these issues by reviewing local premium drivers and adopting materials and finishes that suggested a more refined expression of premium, while retaining an unpretentious feel.
<h4>Lesson 4 – Build local pride and aspiration </h4>
Absolut’s recent win at Cannes is well-deserved recognition for its ‘One Source’ collaboration with Khuli Chana, which nails the localisation challenge. ‘One Source’ is an intrinsic claim referencing all ingredients being sourced in one location &#8211; the Swedish town of Ahus. But this didn&#8217;t resonate with African audiences. The ‘One Source’ campaign took this intrinsic and turned it into an extrinsic celebration of Africa as the ‘One Source’ of all creativity and it became a war cry of the African creative revolution currently underway. They started with an exclusive Khuli Chana Signature Edition Bottle, and then launched a documentary series, an EP, and a music video that went to number one on iTunes. It quickly became a cultural talking point and earned media to the value of R60.9m. The imagery, status and aspiration was all local, rather than international, but was still inherently true to the brand.
Author: Mathew Weiss is the Managing Director of Brand Union Africa.

Op-Ed: Mind the proverbial “crocodiles of Africa” & avoid the dangers of brand localisation

Is the South African government unconcerned about the devastating unemployment in the rural areas that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will cause? If the government generally is unconcerned, perhaps Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa should give the matter some earnest thought because he will be blamed.
In circumstances of mass unemployment, it is inhumane for the government to pretend that the jobless do not exist. It is even more inhuman to adopt legislation and regulations that have the effect of prohibiting the unemployed from working.
If the government were to introduce legislation that made it illegal for any worker to work for less than R20 per hour or R3,500 per month, and threatened them with fines or imprisonment if they should do so, such legislation would be considered evil. Legislation that makes it illegal for an employer to pay workers less than R20 per hour or R3,500 per month has the same outcome, but under this scenario, the employer is the transgressor. That law is no less evil but the legislators responsible regularly escape the blame.
Why are the unemployed South Africa’s forgotten people? Research is carried out and a furious debate occurs about increasing the wages of low-wage workers, but, for those who earn zero, there is silence. Does government consider the problem so difficult to solve that it has decided to wish away the unemployed and pretend they do not exist?
<h3>Constitutional rights of the unemployed</h3>
There is good reason to argue that the NMW will be unconstitutional in terms of some or all the sections 9(1) “equality before the law”, 9(2) “equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms”, 10 “the right to have their dignity respected and protected”, 12(1) “the right to freedom and security of the person”, 12(1)(a) “not to be deprived of freedom arbitrarily or without just cause”, 22 “every citizen has the right to choose their trade, occupation or profession freely”, and 23(1) “everyone has the right to fair labour practices”.
The freedom denied the unemployed under the NMW is their freedom of contract; the right to take care of themselves and their families by working for employers under the best conditions and for the highest wages they can find. They are deprived of the right to make these important and critical decisions for themselves because their right to contract with employers is blocked by the labour law prohibitions imposed on employers.
The NMW, to be introduced by May 2018, will prohibit employers from paying employees less than R20 per hour or R3,500 per month. This prohibition will slam shut the jobs door in the faces of the young, the old, the inexperienced, and anyone else who, for some reason, is prepared to work for a low wage to gain work experience, to earn something rather than nothing, or, simply, to have something to eat. 

<h3>Costly labour laws are barriers to employment 
</h3>
Dealing with the requirements of the Labour Relations Act and its ancillary legislation costs money. Every additional cost imposed on employers means less money available to pay existing staff or to take on more workers.
Large firms hire human resource specialists to deal with the legislative and regulatory demands of the laws. In small firms, much of the valuable time of owners and senior staff is absorbed by labour matters. When employers have factored these costs into their calculations, they are compelled to conclude that it makes economic sense to take on workers who will impose the least cash and management costs on the firm relative to their productive capacity.
Given the dynamics of business, and especially the care required in doing business in our current no-growth economy, firms are being super careful in the hiring of staff. Forcing firms to pay higher wages does not bode well for anyone at the bottom end of the jobs scale, let alone the 9.3 million who are already unemployed.
<h3>The National Minimum Wage will devastate the rural areas</h3>
The tragic consequences for the inhabitants of the US territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, who in 2007 were forced to fall in with the raising of the US national federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour in 2006, to $7.25 by 2009 should act as a warning to the South African government. There was a huge difference between the per capita GP in the territories and that in mainland USA. The calamity that hit those territories provides a clear example of the devastation the NMW will cause in areas of South Africa where the average GDP per capita is significantly lower than in the more affluent areas of the country. Employers in small towns and rural areas of the country will not be able to afford the minimum.
The reason given for replacing the existing minimum wages that have been set based on “ability to pay” is that a national minimum wage will be “easier to police”. So, making life easier for officials means that employers in impoverished areas of the country will be compelled to pay the same minimum as employers in the country’s large cities. An idea that will have brutal consequences for low-income people, whether employers or employees.
In American Samoa, by 2009, with only 30% of the scheduled increases applied, overall employment was down 30%, with 58% job losses in the tuna-canning industry and real per capita GDP down 10% from 2006 levels. During the same period, the Northern Mariana Islands experienced 35% job losses and per capita GDP down by 23%. The compulsory increase resulted in a minimum wage that was 75% of the Puerto Rican median wage. Unemployment increased rapidly and GDP per capita declined by almost 7% between 2007 and 2013.
<h3>Young victims of legislative barriers</h3>
Stats SA reported in its most recent quarterly that, “Of the 433,000 people who joined the ranks of the unemployed, approximately 58% were young people aged 15-34 increasing the youth unemployment rate by 1,6 percentage points to 38,6%”. It is predictable that firms, in view of the current poor economic condition, will be wary of taking on new staff. Bias against hiring inexperienced and potentially less productive workers will be heightened by the looming NMW, which they will factor into their calculations.
The NMW already represents a huge barrier to the employment of recent and future school leavers and the already-unemployed. Many young people, trying to overcome years of deficient schooling, will be hit by the NMW regulatory barrier and consigned to the ranks of the “forgotten”, along with the other 9.3 million.
Author: Eustace Davie is a director of the free Market Foundation. The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Free Market Foundation.

Op-Ed: The S.A. government cannot wish away the unemployed

The #DataMustFall campaign has been relatively quiet in recent months, after the flurry of calls for companies such as MTN and Vodacom to do away with a basic, moral tenet of business: making a profit. While we wait as the bureaucratic process takes its usual meandering course, there have been sporadic calls in the media for the campaign to be resurrected. Most notable among these: Saki Missiakos, the CEO of Internet Solutions, who has told MyBroadband that “You and I should not be paying for data”.
While I do not have an intimate knowledge of Internet Solutions, their services, and profit-margin, on their website they offer a wide range of services and pricing options. For the financial department of the corporation to manage running the business without making a profit with a CEO who truly believes that doing so is moral, I would love to see such ingenuity.
However, the comments were not directed at only his own company, but broadly at other players in the industry. To view profit-making as immoral is already problematic – to impose this on other people and to expect them to follow your flawed moral dictate, is even more difficult to swallow.
<h3>Connectivity as basic human right</h3>
Missiakos elaborated on his statement and said that connectivity is a basic human right and that “our goal is to make sure that everyone has access” to it. If the connectivity at hand is being provided by a company, then, unfortunately, it is not a basic human right. The connectivity is being provided through someone else’s work. If you are denied the absolute right to the product of your mind and your own effort, and someone else or the state decides how to dispose of it, you are a slave.
Somehow the notion of rights has been expanded to include a right to what others produce. It is easy to call on the government to provide basic rights, but it can only provide them if they collect enough taxes. So, at the end of the day, someone is paying for the data service which some are demanding should be free.
If you believe that data should be free, if you support the Data Must Fall campaign, I encourage you to start a business providing such a service – just remember that you will have to do so for zero profit. You are quite at liberty to do so. But also remember that, despite what you may think are noble intentions, you have no moral claim on what anyone else has produced and you cannot demand that they do x because you deem it appropriate.
<h3>Spectrum allocation</h3>
Spectrum allocation is yet another mess to sort out. Government stands at the centre of this mess and here I agree with Missaikos that ICASA needs to do more to engage with industry and free up more spectrum. Greater access to the spectrum will make it easier for smaller competitors to enter the market and the increased competition will result in cheaper data products for consumers. If providers want to offer ‘free’ options as part of their services, that is their prerogative.
Before you retweet the meme that data in South Africa is the most expensive in the world, make sure that the statistics quoted are comparing apples with apples and that our context is taken into account. Before you demand that data, or any other product or service, be ‘free’, remember that you are making a moral claim on someone else’s time, resources and effort. Making broad moral demands on whole industries will not result in concrete change.
Chris Hattingh is a researcher at the Free Market Foundation

Op-Ed: #DataMustFall – providers to decide for themselves

The issue of extreme income inequality in South Africa remains unresolved. Persistent high rates of income inequality impact negatively on political inclusion, social cohesion, and crime. Using the US CIA&#8217;s most recent GINI index estimates of income inequality, South Africa is ranked second worst behind Lesotho. 
Countries with a GINI index closer to zero, like Sweden (0.25) and Germany (0.27), have a more equal distribution of family income than countries like South Africa (0.63) and Haiti (0.61). The GINI index paints only a partial picture because a low score does not always indicate a healthy economic situation. The GINI index for Pakistan, for example, is 0.3 but most Pakistanis have much lower incomes and less economic mobility than South Africans.
Is it possible to achieve wealth, high economic mobility, and income equality within a society? In a functioning market, financial profits or losses signal to firms and people, whether their goods and services are in demand. Consequently, for this signalling to work in an unhampered market, income cannot be distributed evenly. But, if people and firms are equipped with the skills and knowledge to consistently adapt to new markets, better levels of equality can still be achieved.
<h3>Wealth generation</h3>
In the modern world, income and wealth generation are based more and more on knowledge and information. The need for workers to acquire a range of skills and to continuously adapt these skills underlies the learning economy. Productivity is driven by tapping into new ideas, innovations and technologies on a global scale. A process that relies heavily on ICT.
South Africa ranks 88 out of 175 countries on the International Telecommunication Union&#8217;s ICT Development Index, despite having high rates of mobile phone penetration and high secondary school enrolment. Ranked first on the Index is South Korea, a remarkable achievement for a country that was one of the poorest in the world 50 years ago.
Few countries have embraced the knowledge economy as much as resource poor South Korea. The country&#8217;s 15-year-olds are consistently ranked highly in reading literacy, maths and science scores in PISA tests. The working population is highly educated and unemployment is low. The country scores 0.3 on the CIA&#8217;s GINI index despite having the second lowest public social spending (10.4% of GDP) amongst the OECD countries.
A strong emphasis on the importance of education, secure property rights, an independent and efficient judicial system, a competitive private banking system, and an excellent ICT sector have helped South Koreans to prosper. The country has moved from rags to riches at an astonishing pace. Intergenerational income mobility is high, and South Koreans are wealthier than South Africans when comparing every income group, from the poorest to the billionaires.
<h3>Distribution of income</h3>
Policy makers can attempt to distribute more income from the abundantly rich to the poor to lower inequality, but this cannot be done on a global scale, and it is a strategy that views the size of the &#8216;wealth pie&#8217; as being limited. Economics is not a zero-sum game. In a resource-based economy, your potential wealth is restricted by finite resources. In a knowledge-based economy, your potential wealth is unrestricted.
Raising taxes on high income earners or creating capital movement controls will often have the opposite of desired effects. In today&#8217;s connected world, skills and businesses are mobile and wish to operate in an unrestricted business environment. Many South African entrepreneurs are choosing to move to other countries because it is difficult to take businesses beyond the incubation phase into a global market.
Mark Shuttleworth, another local tech entrepreneur who now lives in the Isle of Man, believes that exchange controls prevent small South African businesses from building global operations. South African tech entrepreneur Vinny Lingham, who now lives in California, believes that a lack of competition and Telkom are stifling the ICT industry.
<h3>Remove the glass ceiling</h3>
South Africa needs to raise and, ultimately, remove the glass ceiling that bureaucracy has placed on entrepreneurship and our information society. Capital movement controls should be lifted and a more competitive ICT industry established. The ability to move capital freely will also attract foreign investment. South Africa should fully privatise the telecommunications sector and relax regulations and the ‘spectrum bottleneck’ preventing expansion and new entrants.
Less bureaucracy, and a strong focus on ICT and education will help South Africa to embrace the information age and create new wealth opportunities for everyone. Better equality can be achieved without discouraging businesses and entrepreneurs. Taxes that redistribute income are difficult to implement fairly, administratively intensive, expensive, and open to corruption. We should focus more on implementing policies that uplift the poor, rather than trying to tackle inequality with taxes. If there is not enough pie for everyone, make more pie.
Luke Muller is an independent economist.

Op-Ed: Tackling inequality in the information age

The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) has announced its innovator shortlist for its grand prize of USD $100,000, due to be awarded in Ghana mid-July. Nnamdi Oranye takes a look at the innovators on the list.
Every year the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) runs its Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), which recognises individuals for their contribution to innovation in Africa. Its goal is to strengthen African innovation ecosystems, something I write a lot about, through supporting a culture of innovation and competitiveness. It encourages Africans to look at African solutions to African problems, which is what true innovation looks like.
This year, it has selected ten innovators from nine African countries to be shortlisted from the prize – Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
“This year’s innovators have demonstrated incredible proficiency through innovative solutions addressing challenges in agriculture value chain, health care, energy, communications, service industries as well as surveillance using drone technology,” it says. The judges will include corporates, academia, technology and scientific experts representing top African innovation influencers. The prize will be awarded in Accra, Ghana on 18th July 2017.
In my view, we don’t speak enough about our innovators and our innovations, and seem to give overseas innovations more credit than our own. We love to speak about Google and Uber and Facebook, and so we should, but we don’t offset this with what’s going on in our own back yard. It’s important for us to do this, otherwise our innovation history is going to be written by others. It’s also important for us to do this properly, looking to engage and inspire young people to innovate.
Therefore, in the spirit of giving our innovators the spotlight, I want to highlight the ten innovators shortlisted for the IPA prize. Here they are:
<h3>Innovations in communications and smart solutions </h3>
<ol>
<li> Peris Bosire, Kenya: FarmDrive</li>
</ol>
FarmDrive is a financial technology company that has developed a mobile phone based application that collects data and provides an alternative risk assessment model for small holder farmers. While the continent remains largely dependent on agriculture, one of the biggest challenges facing smallholder farmers is access to credit or finance. FarmDrive assesses credit worthiness of farmers and has seen a higher acceptance rate of loan applications by its farmers while maintaining a very low default rate.
<ol start="2">
<li> Nokwethu Khojane, South Africa: Lakheni, Turning Social Capital into Buying Power</li>
</ol>
Poor people often end up paying for goods and services at a unit price higher than that paid by those with more disposable income because these goods and services are packaged into smaller units to make them affordable. This means they become less economically efficient and end up costing higher than if one was to buy in bulk or in larger units. This is often known as the ‘poverty premium’. Lakheni, however, solves this problem by aggregating poor households into buying-groups in order to negotiate favourable discounts for goods and services.
<ol start="3">
<li> Omolabake Adenle, Nigeria: Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis Software for African Languages</li>
</ol>
Voice recognition software has come a long way, but it’s still way behind in understanding and digitising African languages. However, this software does just that – allowing Africans of all literacy levels to interact with hardware devices such as mobile phones and digital services such as call-center applications by speaking their local language. The software can be integrated into a wide range of devices and third-party software applications.
<ol start="4">
<li> Nzola Swasisa, Democratic Republic of Congo: Lokole</li>
</ol>
Lokole is a device that enables access to email anywhere with cellular coverage at a price that is one hundred to one thousand times cheaper than accessing email via regular cellular bandwidth costs. Lokole achieves this firstly by creating a shareable local area network where up to a hundred users within a 25 meters’ radius can access the network and share the costs. Secondly, it contains advanced algorithms that compress email and also schedules uploads and downloads of data to when data bundles costs are at their cheapest. This means that costs per user could be as little as $0.01/person/day.
<h3>Leveraging artificial intelligence and mechanical solutions </h3>
<ol start="5">
<li> Badr Idriss, Morocco: Atlan Space</li>
</ol>
African governments face numerous challenges in monitoring activities and operation over wide areas. This includes border patrols, deforestation, animal poaching and maritime activity. Atlan Space develops software technology that manages the operations of drones that helps to solve this problem at a very cost effective price without a need for highly skilled human intervention.
<ol start="6">
<li> Aly El-Shafei, Egypt: Smart Electro-Mechanical Actuator Journal Integrated Bearing “SEMAJIB”</li>
</ol>
SEMAJIB is a smart bearing that can change its characteristics as it operates.  It consists of a magnetic bearing imbedded in an oil-filled journal bearing, thus forming the smart controllable bearing. The flooding of the bearing with oil is a game changer as the purpose of bearings has traditionally been to expel oil.  There is a significant improvement in turbine performance using the SEMAJIB particularly in single line combined cycle plants, as well as conventional generator technology.  The device is designed to be used to support energy generating turbines and can be used to improve efficiency and reduce costs of generating energy in Africa.
<h3>Discoveries in healthcare solutions</h3>
<ol start="7">
<li> Dougbeh-Chris Nyan, Liberia: New Technology for Rapid Detection of Many Infections Using Only One Test</li>
</ol>
These sorts of innovations excite me. Doughbeh-Chris Nyan has created a device which can detect and distinguish multiple infections which bear the same symptoms, for example yellow fever, malaria, or Ebola. Most testing methods take 3 – 7 days, but this device gives test results in 10 – 40 minutes. It can be used in any setting and therefore works well for rural areas. This provides a significant step in the detection and management of infectious diseases on the continent.
<ol start="8">
<li> Olanisun Olufemi Adewole, Nigeria: Sweat TB Test, A non-invasive rapid skin test to detect Tuberculosis</li>
</ol>
TB is the second leading cause of death in Africa. Available methods to test the disease can’t be used in rural areas and are quite hi-tech, requiring certain skills. Patients have to visit the clinic several times before a diagnosis is made. However, the Sweat TB Test leverages is able to provide a diagnosis within ten minutes. It has the potential to contribute towards effectively controlling TB, reduce TB related deaths, and also holds promise to prevent drug resistance to TB in Africa.
<ol start="9">
<li> Gift Gana, Zimbabwe: Dr. CADx</li>
</ol>
Dr CADx is a software solution that helps doctors and health care workers diagnose medical images more accurately. Due to the scarcity of radiologists on the continent, most medical images are read by general doctors or other health care workers who lack expertise and end up misdiagnosing more than 30 percent of the cases that they review. As a result, millions of patients fail to get the right treatment or the treatment is delayed leading to more complications and even death. Dr CADx uses deep learning to interpret medical images and achieve an accuracy of 82 percent over the 70 percent average for radiologists. Dr CADx is designed to work in low resource settings with poor internet connectivity opening it up for use in many rural settings in Africa.
<ol start="10">
<li> Philippa Ngaju Makobore, Uganda: Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF)</li>
</ol>
The Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF) is medical device designed to accurately administer intravenous (IV) fluids and drugs by controlling the rate of fluid flow. Over 10 percent of children admitted to East African hospitals need immediate infusion therapy.  If this is not done right, it can have severe adverse effects or result in death. The ECGF, however, solves this problem as it is very easy to operate and has key safety features. It works off a battery than can be charged via solar power or other means.
The grand prize winner of the IPA will get to take home US$100 000. In addition to cash prizes for the runner-up and third place, there will also be investment opportunities, training, and access to AIF’s innovation network, media coverage and PR support.

Ten fantastic African innovators shortlisted for IPA 2017 grand prize

Back in 1750 BC Babylonian King Hammurabi&#8217;s Law Code became the first recorded case in which a ruler acknowledged a higher authority (the gods Anu and Bel) to lend legitimacy to his laws. This then was the first, ancient precursor to the rule of law.
“(And) then Anu and Bel (both gods) called by name me, Hammurabi, The Exalted Prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land. To destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak”.
This injunction is inscribed as the preface to Hammurabi’s famous Law Code of 1750 BC. The Law Code, proclaimed in obedience to the command, was recorded on a series of tablets, a remnant of which is on display at the Louvre in Paris. To ensure that all citizens were familiar with the law, the Code was publicly displayed in the city-state of Babylon.
This is the first recorded case in which a ruler acknowledged a higher authority from which the legitimacy of his laws was derived. Anu and Bel did not instruct Hammurabi on the actual content of the laws that he was to proclaim; that was left to his judgment (and with the advantage of a different perspective, it will now be said that his judgment failed him).  The instruction that was given and that was publicly acknowledged by Hammurabi was however unambiguous: he was to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land.
<h3>The rule of the king was absolute</h3>
Until that time, and for many centuries thereafter, the rule of the king was absolute. The king could make whatever law he chose; he could, upon a whim, make and unmake laws to suit any purpose that he required; he could make contradictory laws, laws that made unlawful actions which had been lawful at the time they were performed, and command the summary execution of anyone whose presence offended his personal caprice.
Hammurabi’s rule, however, required a fealty to the command of the gods, whom he feared. This was a commitment that was materially different to the authority that derived from the Divine Right of Kings, which asserted that the king acquired his right to rule directly from God: whatever the king chose to do was presumed to have been ordained by God.
This doctrine probably had its origin in the biblical account of the Prophet Samuel’s anointment of Saul as the Moshiach of Israel. According to the received religious dogma, this meant that Saul became invested with godlike authority. In the Middle Ages, this canon of faith became formalised, with the reign of James I of England and Louis XIV of France. Under the doctrine, the king could do no wrong, not even in the eyes of God, upon whose authority he performed all his actions, both religious and temporal.
In contrast, it may be presumed that Hammurabi would have believed that a watchful eye was being kept on the performance of his obligations; moreover, the well-publicised acknowledgement of his duty would surely have restrained whatever impulse he may have had to act in violation of the sacred trust. The “rule of righteousness” can, after all, not be readily misconstrued as the rule of wickedness. In this way, the rule of Hammurabi was subjected and subordinated to the rule of Anu and Bel.
<h3>Ancient precursor to the rule of law</h3>
The rule of Anu and Bel is therefore the first, ancient precursor to the rule of law.
Although there is frequent mention of the rule of law in South Africa in the wake of what has been described as a state under the control of a criminal elite, the concept is much misunderstood, even within the ranks of legal academics. This confusion is unnecessary as the essential purpose of the rule of law is not as obscure as is generally supposed; nor is it as complicated.
The confusion probably arises from a misleading descriptor. The term, rule of law suggests to many, rule by, or according to law. This is only partially accurate. The French, who adopted the principle from the ideas of the Enlightment, have a far more accurate term: Le principe de legalite. The principle of legality. The Germans also have a better expression than the one adopted by English-speaking communities: Rechtstaat. A state under law.
Le principe de legalite says much more than the rule by law. It sets a requirement of legality for all law: if the law fails the test of legality, although enacted by the appropriate authorities, it fails the requirement that even the given law must itself be lawful, failing which it becomes illegitimate.
Much of the confusion about the rule of law arises from the proliferation of rules that have been expressed about the essence of the doctrine. Professor AV Dicey extracted three fundamental principles; the legal scholar, Kim Davis, has seven principles; the respected World Justice Project enumerates “four pillars”, and the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Bingham, had “(one)…core principle”… and he was mistaken.
<h3>Misconceptions about the rule of law</h3>
There are three significant misconceptions about the rule of law that have contributed to all the confusion.
The first is that the rule of law is an instrument for the creation of law. This is not so; it is the barrier against the enactment and enforcement of unjust and oppressive law. It is not the lawmaker, it is the gatekeeper.
Some of this misunderstanding arises from a definition that has gained currency within the ranks of legal scholars. This definition has been variously expressed as, government of law and not of man; or, the rule of law and not the rule of man.
The trouble with this definition is that it creates a confusion between the process of government and the oversight of government. The rule of law is not, in any way, actively involved in the former, but is very much committed to the latter.
Man is unquestionably instrumental in the process of law-making, and, although all man-made law should pass the test of the rule of law, the law that is made, is made by man. Any suggestion that it is otherwise, is a fiction. The purpose of the rule of law is not advanced by a fiction.
<h3>US Federal Tax Code</h3>
This definition is further corrupted by the idea that a society must, for its existence, be subjected to an ever increasing burden of laws. The better view, consonant with the philosophy of John Locke, is that the only morally permissible law is law that serves a social utility while preserving the principle of individual liberty. An eminent example of the abuse that occurs with the proliferation of man-made law is found in the 75,000 pages of the US Federal Tax Code.
In 1809, author Thomas Charlton wrote: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. The real threat to personal liberty comes always from the lawmaker and it is the rule of law that assumes the first line of defence against that threat.
The second misconception is the idea that the rule of law is a product of the law-making process. The correct view is that the rule of law is antecedent to law making.
The former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales was mistaken when he proclaimed that “The core principle (of the rule of law) is that all persons should be bound by and entitled to the benefits of laws publicly made taking effect in the future and publicly administered by the courts”.
<h3>Suggestions to amend SA&#8217;s constitution</h3>
It has already been suggested by some ANC members, including cabinet ministers, that the ANC and the EFF should form an opportunistic alliance to amend the constitution to enable the expropriation of property without compensation. If this was done and thereafter enacted into law in the normal way by parliament, it would likely be publicly enforced by the courts, especially if the law craftily decreed (in compliance with an existing Constitutional Court judgment – Agri South Africa v Minister for Minerals and Energy) that all expropriated property would be held by the state, as custodian for the people. In that case, all the requirements of the Bingham test will have been fulfilled. Can such legalised theft ever be said to comply with the rule of law?
Robert Taylor, a prominent libertarian writer, wrote recently under the title, The Myth of the Rule of Law (Ludwig von Mises Institute, 5 May 2017) of the propensity of government for legalised extortion and criminality (an idea first proposed by Max Weber). The rule of law was, according to this writer, simply a device imposed by the state to dupe the populace into a sense of trust in the inherent malevolence of the nation state.
Much of the article is accurate, but the assertion that the rule of law is imposed by the state is fundamentally mistaken. The rule of law is never imposed by the state; it is always imposed against the state, and, when properly understood and applied, it is an effective device for the control and limitation of state power.
Dicey was clear on the source of the rule of law. He wrote, “Whereas under many foreign constitutions the rights of individuals flow, or appear to flow, from the articles of the constitution, in England the law of the constitution (the rule of law) is the result not the source of the rights of the individual”. (Emphasis added.) Jurisprudential scholars locate the source of the rule of law in the natural law.
<h3>Failure of law and order</h3>
In South Africa, the constitution stipulates, as a founding value, the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law. Notwithstanding this provision, the constitution required an act of parliament (Act no. 108 of 1996) to give it the force of law; the rule of law required no such formal enactment: there is no Rule of Law Act. The rule of law simply is.
The third misconception arises when the rule of law is conflated with law and order. Even lawyers have been heard to say that the rule of law has failed because of a failure of law and order.
In her analysis of the requirements for the rule of law, Kim Davis stipulates law and order as the very first of a list of seven. Fortunately, there are few, if any, other legal scholars who have made this mistake.
The matter may be tested in this way: Suppose there exists some rule of law nirvana; a state under the tutelage of a playwright-philosopher like Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic. A criminal gang decides that it has detected an easy prey and begins its criminal regime in exploitation of the rectitude of the administration. As a result law and order begins to fail. In these circumstances, it would be fundamentally wrong to suggest that the rule of law has failed.
A persistent inability to enforce law and order will undoubtedly have an adverse effect upon the rule of law but this does not mean that the former is intrinsically a part of the latter. A failure of the criminal justice system may have many causes: a corrupt police force, an overwhelming criminal element, incompetence within the prosecutorial authority, or even unmotivated or inadequate judicial officers.
These are all matters of the gravest concern, but in a situation where the laws are just and, when applied, are justly applied, they do not reflect upon the rule of law. Where, however, a failure results from wanton or deliberate conduct designed by a person in authority to undermine the law, the rule of law is violated.
The many rules that are said to constitute the rule of law all have one central purpose: to protect the individual from the excesses of a predatory government; even procedural rules such as the requirement for proper administrative and enforcement machinery have, at their core, that purpose.
The task of the rule of law, therefore, is to secure the right to individual liberty against the prospect of unjustified invasion by the state and its agencies. The rule of law is the barrier that the law sets against tyranny.
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Author Rex van Schalkwyk is a former judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa and is the chairman of the FMF’s Rule of Law Board of Advisers. He is the author of three books and numerous published articles. This article is based upon a talk given at the Africa Liberty Forum on 24 May 2017.

Op-Ed: Babylonian gods, the rule of law & the threat to personal liberty

Theories about Donald Trump’s colluding with the Russians in the 2016 election are as plentiful as the 128,824,224 people that voted in it. We’ll find out who’s right and wrong soon enough, though.
But guilty or innocent, there’s a big, bad, murderous herd out there that wants to stomp him straight into the ground. The herd is sprawling and on the move, kicking up dust everywhere. And it’s comprised of all kinds of beasts.
Democrats livid at losing the White House and Republicans resentful of losing their party to an outsider. The media. Progressive lawyers and judges. Academia, Hollywood and anyone else who is still raging over a Trump presidency. And they’re all snorting and grunting furiously as they dig their hooves deep into the dirt, readying themselves for an all-out, frenzied impeachment stampede. This will be a spectacle for the ages.
Because trampling Donald Trump is how Chuck Schumer and the rest of the herd plan to retake the White House. You know the old saying; if you can’t beat him, stomp him.
<h3>High stakes Russian roulette</h3>
Incredibly, just five short months into his term, Trump is already facing off in a high-stakes game of Russian roulette with the newly appointed special prosecutor, Robert Mueller. Special prosecutors are wired to find something bad. That’s their job description. And they have few constraints and unlimited resources which make them even deadlier.
Now, as Mueller and Trump sit down at the table, the world anxiously sits on the edge of their seat waiting to see if there’s a bullet in the chamber. But still, Trump needs to have actually broken the law and Mueller needs to prove it. And as Mueller readies his troops, Trump is preparing to do what he’s done for a lifetime in New York. Slug it out. He’s all lawyered up and working the back channels of Washington for whatever support he can muster.
I have to assume, though, that Las Vegas is giving him pretty long odds to win the fight. He has thousands of enemies and few allies. And there are a lot of very angry and powerful bulls in the herd, intent on getting back what they believe is rightfully theirs. And now, they’re outraged as hell and thundering en masse towards the White House.
But whether Trump is impeached or not, just being dragged through an excruciating special investigation in front of the entire world will likely be enough to assure Trump a single-term presidency. Even if he is exonerated, it’s hard to imagine being accused of something as shocking as colluding with the Russians, and then winning reelection in 2020. Today, thanks to social media, if you’re accused of something it’s nearly as good as being guilty of it.
Because the accusation is the headline that people always remember. And unlike the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s presidency, which only appeared on the 6PM evening news and in the morning newspapers, Russia-gate will be in your face, and on your iPhone, around the clock.
<h3>Outrage delivers eyeballs</h3>
So, whether Trump is actually guilty of a crime or not almost doesn’t matter. The herd doesn’t care. They want him gone at any cost and are going to make a lot of noise. Because, here, in the post-truth era, a good outrage story in the news means people are watching and reading. And the media loves that because outrage delivers eyeballs. Watching Chuck Schumer or Tom Perez throw a hissy-fit on CNN or MSNBC over a Trump tweet insulting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama makes for a great news cycle. Real, fake, or otherwise.
Trump vs. Mueller vs. Russia vs. Comey vs. Flynn vs. the Democrats is the best pure political outrage story since Richard Nixon walked off the cliff in 1974. For the Republicans, if Trump is ultimately impeached, it will be the political equivalent of a nuclear reactor meltdown that makes the surrounding area uninhabitable for decades to come, or even longer. It will render the GOP toxic and unelectable in the 2018 midterms and beyond. And the herd knows it.
<h3>The E.U. is outraged too</h3>
In the middle of all this, and just to keep things interesting, Trump is wreaking havoc on the other side of the Atlantic too. He just flipped the bird to our NATO allies and told them the U.S. is no longer the bank and to pay up what they owe. He’s not actually wrong there, but the delivery could’ve been a little softer. The European Union, in general, is outraged too. After a meeting with Trump the other day, Germany’s Angela Merkel lamented, “The times when we could fully rely on others are finished.” Then she added that the Europeans “needed to take our fate into our own hands.”
Closer to home, Mexico and Canada are watching anxiously as NAFTA hangs in the balance. Right about now, Justin Trudeau and Enrique Peña Nieto probably see Trump like the scary new neighbor who just moved in next door who they suspect might be a serial killer.
So, all is not well for Donald Trump. I don’t see how he can possibly win this fight. Guilty or not, he’s going to be publically gutted in the process and will be damaged goods not only in the U.S., but on the world stage as well. Unfortunately, history will remember him as the proverbial bad guy &#8211; the villain dressed in all black with the handle-bar moustache and the six-shooter. That story is already being written. Right or wrong, true or false.
So, the herd is growing and on the march. And irrespective of the outcome, just by virtue of going through an investigation, or worse, a possible impeachment process, the U.S. is headed down a jagged and slippery slope that, in the end, will only serve to further cleave the country in two.
Author: David S. Levin, Managing Partner, Nexus Capital Markets, LLC
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Op-Ed: Stomping Trump out of the White House

Murray Rothbard, economist and political philosopher, wrote in an essay that there is nothing wrong with being ignorant of economics, given the science’s specialised and often complex nature. However, Rothbard noted, “it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
In a country facing dire economic prospects like South Africa, it is always important to return to basic principles. For this, Occam’s Razor – the simplest explanation is usually correct – is a useful rule of thumb, but it is one that has long been abandoned. Nowadays it appears that there is only one accepted ‘economic’ theory: government intervention will solve the problem.
This nation-wide notion has come about after years of us absorbing frequently-sounded mantra and legitimising pseudo-economics. Our economic growth and stability have suffered consequently.
<h3>Accepted truisms</h3>
For example, a dominant meme is that workers are being ‘exploited’ by employers. This is accepted as a truism without further contemplation.
Marxists believe in the so-called “labour” and “surplus” theories of value. Taken together, these theories dictate that the value of a product is determined by the labour of the producer (the worker), yet the capitalist pays the worker only a subsistence wage. The difference between the “real” value of the product and the wage the worker earns is “surplus” value, which the capitalist keeps for himself. In other words, workers are not paid their fair share and their greedy capitalist bosses keep the bulk of the loot – and thus exploitation is taking place.
These Marxist theories are false – objectively so – and no sincere economist, perhaps excluding some academic economists, would say otherwise. Value is assuredly not determined by the labour put into a product. An individual may spend a month assembling a rickety chair, yet it is the stable, mass-produced chair that will fetch a higher price on the market. Consumers pay for the product they believe is worth their money, regardless of how much labour effort was put into the production. Furthermore, labour often plays a small role in determining the price of a good or service, with the cost of machinery, overheads, and management also playing a decisive role.
<h3>Water in the desert scenario</h3>
This is based on the principle of value subjectivity, which is illustrated well by the ‘water in the desert’ scenario. If someone who has been stranded in the desert for days comes across two large containers, one containing water and the other blocks of gold, which is more valuable? In most cases (but this is not guaranteed, due to the subjectivity of value), the man in the desert will choose to carry the water with him. Gold is not objectively more valuable than water, as value is in the eye of the beholder.
The “labour” and “surplus” theories of value are drops in an ocean of pseudo-economic fallacies. Another fallacy is the idea that public works programmes create employment, a popular notion from Apartheid days.
The idea of paying people with their own tax money should elicit only scepticism. What happens is that competitive private sector contractors who would have been paid with earned money to undertake the “public” works project and employ workers, are robbed of that opportunity and tax funds are extorted from taxpayers to fund something government need not be directly involved with.
<h3>Detrimental results of nationalisation</h3>
Nationalisation also makes a consistent appearance in South African pseudo-economics, right from the nineteenth century railways to the present. It is also the pet proposal of the new rock-star of left wing “economics”, Chris Malikane. But nationalisation has consistently produced detrimental results.
At best, once a company or industry is nationalised, it is marked by inefficiency and a distinct lack of respect for consumers (think Canada’s national health service queues, ditto South Africa’s Post Office), and, at worst, a complete collapse of the sector and destruction of the economy (think Zimbabwe’s mines and the Soviet Union’s agriculture). Privatisation, on the other hand, has produced more positive if inconsistent results, depending on how it is implemented.
When privatisation is done in a non-corrupt fashion whereby cronies do not simply replace their government friends, it leads to efficiency. If privatisation is merely a transfer from the formal to the informal political class – with a dash of monopolistic protection – inefficiency ensues. But bad privatisation is still preferable to nationalisation, as these companies become accountable to market forces, and will surely go bankrupt if they continue to perform as they did under state control.
<h3>White monopoly capital</h3>
South Africans now know that “white monopoly capital” was a phantom threat concocted by the political class to draw attention away from the failures of government and its private sector associates. Why we continue to dance to the tune of this self-evidently false narrative boggles the mind. But we started dancing to the tune of false economics long before white monopoly capital burst onto the scene, and this actively contributes to slowed economic growth and worsening destitution.
Rejecting nonsensical pseudo-economics is not going to put South Africa on the freeway to growth and prosperity, but it is certainly a necessary departure point.
Author Martin van Staden is Legal Researcher at the Free Market Foundation and Academic Programmes Director at Students for Liberty in Southern Africa.

Op-Ed: The first step to growth – Reject pseudo-economics

Amazon’s latest revelations showcase how it wants to own a sector worth trillions. But we have the technology to innovate in the pharmaceutical space before Amazon comes and does it for us, writes Nnamdi Oranye.
Amazon’s disruption in the retail and logistics space is unprecedented and in need of no introduction. However, in its typical style, while everyone has been focusing on what we perceive to be its core business, it has quietly been thinking of swallowing a completely different industry – in this case, pharmaceuticals.
I have the great privilege of being invited to conferences and think-tanks all over the world, and towards the latter end of 2016 I started noticing Amazon making certain moves that made me reiterate several times and in several places that it will be moving into this space. I was met with some scepticism. After returning from the Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago, where I raised the point again, I opened up my news sources the day after landing back in South Africa to find CNBC had just confirmed what I suspected all along. Amazon had announced that it will be hiring a general manager to pave its path for entering into the pharmaceutical space. The report revealed that, apparently, entering into this space had been in Amazon’s discussions for a number of years. That means you can believe it has a serious plan it place.
This all makes perfect sense and to be honest we shouldn’t really be surprised anymore. Silicon Valley wants to connect everything, and Amazon certainly has a track record of wanting to own just about everything. One of the reasons why Silicon Valley has gone this way, in my opinion, is it has assimilated a vision of connecting industries and innovations together. Since the early days as just a bunch of professors and students at Stanford with a vision, Silicon Valley has nurtured this sort of thinking – finding ways to connect their innovations to existing industries. That’s what made the original “outfit in a garage”, Hewlett Packard, so successful. And today they continue to do the same.
<h3>Last mile of logistics</h3>
Here’s why Amazon moving into this space makes a lot of sense. It has been relentless in trying to solve the ‘last mile of logistics’ problem. With drone technology, it can literally deliver to pretty much anywhere in the world. Why wouldn’t it look to deliver pharmaceuticals as well? It has already been in this market in some ways, selling equipment and medical supplies, and interestingly offering cloud services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.
An example of Amazon’s vision comes from rural Africa, actually. Here we have an obvious challenge with the “last mile” problem — the movement of goods from the supply depot to the consumer’s home, or wherever the consumer may be. Amazon has been exploring drone technology for a long time, and the truth is so have we, but in unexpected places. For some time, UNICEF has been piloting a project in Malawi, with the aim of delivering medical supplies and picking up blood samples. This has obvious tremendous benefit to rural communities. Through the use of a smartphone, health workers can call a drone to drop off or collect supplies – and with a simple swipe of the screen ensure location services are on, so it can use their GPS location. When the drone arrives, they just tell the drone where to go on the phone, and off it goes. It can carry up to one kilogram of goods. In Tanzania and Ghana, the drones are also being used to carry off birth registration forms from rural areas to the nearest Home Affairs.
I find it interesting that a humanitarian organisation that focuses on developmental assistance to children and mothers is developing and piloting this project – and is actually looking for commercial investors to get involved. Pharmaceuticals, in my opinion, should be among the first to get involved. Home-grown companies involved in that supply chain should be getting in there now, as far as I’m concerned. There is no need to reinvent or come up with technology – everything requires is there already. But, it seems to me, Amazon will beat them to the punch.
<h3>Red tape and regulations</h3>
Amazon is already selling certain kinds of health equipment and medicine already. While it is true that the distribution of medicine comes with legitimate red tape and regulations that would all be new for Amazon, I am sure they will find a way. I can already imagine legitimate systems that would work &#8211; say, an app a doctor or health worker can download via a medical aid such as Discovery Health. Instead of writing you a prescription, the doctor just accesses the app, taps on the medicine he is prescribing, and the transaction goes through your health insurance at the same time as an order goes to Amazon. No need to go to a pharmacy. No need to ask the doctor to write another prescription if you lose the original &#8211; or need more medicine (he can obviously create a recurring prescription, or could put a future prescription on standby, or just create another prescription if you need it, and run it all through the app). Or if you don’t have health insurance, he could put the prescription through to Amazon who asks for your Amazon account details, and then send you a confirmation you just have to tap to purchase. Amazon’s ‘one-click’ buying system, and its ability to make payment almost invisible, will make this all seem a pleasure for us as consumers. Whatever the case, your medicine could be on your doorstep by the time you get home; or it could just get delivered to wherever you are, if you turn location services on and let its drone track your GPS signal. So if you’re away on a business trip or at a holiday home, or live out in a rural village, Amazon will find you and deliver to you your medicine.
Think about how such a simple system could work – using existing technology. It’s only the legalities standing in the way. Steve Kraus, a health tech investor with Bessemer Venture Partners, and expert in the field, is confident that Amazon could break open the pharmaceutical space. In his view, reports CNBC, every major technology company should have a play in health care, an estimated $3 trillion sector. The news of Amazon’s foray into this industry saw pharmacy stocks in other companies drop by the next day, but as Kraus says, it’s not just pharmaceuticals who should be worried. In the future, Amazon could work directly with manufacturers, become a distributor, negotiate discounts, and have such big buying power that most of us will just rather buy there as it will be so much cheaper. &#8220;In Amazon style,” Kraus said to CNBC, “it will want to own the consumer&#8217;s mind and wallet.”
<h3>Thinking without borders</h3>
In my opinion, this is how our innovators ought to be thinking. How do we own the consumer’s mind and wallet? How do we think without borders? We might not be able to compete with Amazon and Silicon Valley companies head-on, and in fact, if Amazon brings the kind of solution I’ve highlighted above to Africa, it will benefit us greatly. Having said that, however, we need to make sure we have the right framework in place so that Amazon’s role on our continent in pharmaceuticals sees us benefit economically as well as from a health point of view. Otherwise, it is just monopolising. It will cannibalise whole industries, supply chains, and expertise before we even realise it.
UNICEF’s example shows we can do this. We just need to invest, move quicker, get the right innovators involved, and think how we can connect it all together. Amazon has a few years to work out the red tape in its own context in the States and other places, but we can work out our own red tape here in Africa before they come. In fact, maybe we could even help them and then have a stake in it all – if we could just get a move on.

Amazon poised to disrupt pharmaceuticals

In 1972 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) put forward a premise that the informal sector is, “the non-structured sector that has emerged in the urban centres as a result of the modern sector’s inability to absorb new entrants. With African population set to grow by close to 70% or by close to 450 million people between 2015 and 2035. Of late, there is new “lingo” among the technocrats and a famous phrase now is the “demographic dividend.”
A demographic dividend is quite ludicrous in my view especially since the World Bank’s latest estimates show that on our current trajectory, only about 100 million of the 450 million will be able to find stable jobs. Maybe it’s time we wholly embraced the informal sector we were constantly warned and admonished against by our presumably accomplished primary school teacher.
The informal economy contributes between 25 and 65 percent of Africa’s GDP and accounts for between 30 and 90 percent of total nonagricultural employment. A song sung from the 80s by the Bretton Woods institutions was finding ways to tax this “informal economy”. Why have we failed so appallingly over the years?
According to the latest World Bank Global competitive index report, Africa will see an additional 450 million people added to the population by 2035. I’m no optimist but looking ahead, I would put emphasis on the informal sector to provide jobs. There is a new debate on the horizon though: can the formal and the informal sectors co-exist? Can one be a conduit for the other?
Research from the IMF shows that the size of the informal economy is large in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in oil-exporting and fragile states, averaging 38% of GDP during 2010–14.
This poses countless questions and one would expect the receipts from oil exporters to elevate these economies’ fiscal space and ultimately foster more investment in education and other sectors. Have oil receipts fostered more income inequality, as the case in Nigeria and Angola, and seen the less privileged turn to the informal economy? Another school of thought would easily counter that with an argument that oil producers have seen relatively more unrest given the exploits of the Niger Delta Avengers and the civil war in South Sudan.
But why has the informal sector remained strong? Without a doubt, development economist Michael Lipton’s argument made the most sense. He argued that many African leaders pursued development policies that had at their heart an urban bias, as the city was where the power base generally lay. Such leaders devoted the vast majority of resources toward urban development, to the determinant of rural areas. This is obviously evident in Lagos whose GDP stands at a whopping 131 Billion.
Many still argue that the future of the African continent is in “formalising” the informal sector. Ideally, this would mean policies to increase tax revenues from relatively small household enterprises. Much of the emphasis here would be on fostering productivity gains as opposed to revenue authorities coming up with tax regimes to capture the informal sector.
Before we address the informal sector and tax compliance, let me state that I am a firm believer that we should address the large “formal” players. MTN in Rwanda had to settle tax disputes north of $11 million out of court with the revenue authority as recently as 2015. Shouldn’t we address the million dollar evaders before the welder who aspires to see his child through high school?
We need to embrace the informal sector on the continent. Although the inclusion the informal sector in the tax base is vital to more revenue mobilisation for Africa, we need do this gradually and morph the informal economy into a semi-formal economy and ultimately a formal economy. This will be a journey, not a destination.

Jill De Villiers

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