The Economy of Africa is comprised of more than 800 million people in
fifty-four different nations. Africa's economy is emerging from the
after-effects of colonialism and it struggles with difficult
democratic, welfare and quality of life issues. Africa is by far the
world's poorest continent, and more saliently it is on average poorer
than it was twenty-five years ago. While rapid growth in China and
now India, and moderate growth in South America, has lifted millions
beyond subsistence living, Africa has stagnated, even going backwards
in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This
poverty has widespread effects, including low life expectancy,
violence, and instability—factors that further increase the
continent's poverty. Over the decades a number of solutions have been
proposed and many attempted, but no improvement scheme has shown much
success.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Africa
Today's selected anniversaries:
1887 Bloody Sunday clashes in Trafalgar Square
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_1887)
1970 A 100-mph tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges
Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an
estimated 500,000 people (this is regarded as the 20th
century's worst cyclone disaster).
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh)
1982 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington
D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War
veterans.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial)
1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, causing a lahar
(volcanic mudslide) that buried Armero, Colombia, killing
approximately 23,000 people.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz)
1990 The first known web page was written.
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Link.htm
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence
that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as
Time." ~ Thomas Carlyle
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle)