Ivory Coast

[DuncanK]

Communism is the way. Even a totalitarian regime would be better than any other option for Africa.

[Dinner]

They tried leftist regimes and that is the reason nearly all of Africa has remain abjectly poor while Asia bounced out of it's colonialist stupper much more quickly. Don't believe me? Read the post colonial history of countries such as Tanzania.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Spiffor: Aren't many of the rebels from new post independence immigraint groups?

I don't know. It is hard to find a good synthesis on the situation

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by Oerdin
They tried leftist regimes and that is the reason nearly all of Africa has remain abjectly poor while Asia bounced out of it's colonialist stupper much more quickly. Don't believe me? Read the post colonial history of countries such as Tanzania.

I think if there were one government for all of Africa that could handle all the ethnic groups and bands (gangs, I'm not sure what you call them) it would have a fair chance at success. Communism would be the best way.

[Spiffor]

The biggest problem Africa has known in the recent past wasn't capitalism, or a democracy resulting in a despotism of the majority. No, the biggest problem is that political elites were mostly thinking along tribal lines : unclear separation between the money of the leader and the money of the state, nepotism considered normal, leaders hardly gave a rat's ass to their country, and rather tries to reward their supporters or their ethnical groups. The whole state intervention wasn't aimed at the general good, but at paying more-or-less influencial people so that the leader gets support.
Rather than a specific economical system, the first thing Africa needs is responsible leaders. There are some, and have been some in the past, but they are rather exceptions.

[Spiffor]

Bump.

There has been a long ceasefire since last time, and both camps seem to have settled down on their positions. The Rebels now have centred their power in Bouaké. Skirmishes happen, however, and result in tens of casualties.
Troops from other West-African countries have taken over the French army in maintaining the spearation line, but the French remain in Ivory Coast, dealing both with the rebels and the government.
By the way, the cacao harvest last month was deemed rather good, and didn't seem to have suffered too much from the crisis.

The Ivorian government has been formed, and encompasses both Gbagbo's partisans and rebels. They had their first meeting last week in Abidjan, after 2 weeks where the rebels refused to attend.
Finally, the union government is beginning to work, and the mood was seemingly pleasant during the meeting. However, the distrust between the two factions remains high. The very evening of the government's meeting, significant skirmishes happened, resulting in 30 fatalities. On the other side, British foreign minister Jack Straw expresses his worries about a mercenary company hiring new staff, supposedly for the Ivory Coast military.

The situation has sure calmed down, but it is hard to tell whether the bloodshed will come back, or whether both sides can work together.

[Imran Siddiqui]

While I can see the sentiment by some to realign Africa based on ethnic lines, it would be a total mess (not like there isn't a mess right now, though). There would pop up 100s of countries. Africa is home to many, many, many ethnicities, and the main problem, as Spiffor correctly pointed out, is that people identify themselves with their ethnic tribe, rather than the country.

It's a big problem, but how you get people to THINK another way is extremely difficult.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
It's a big problem, but how you get people to THINK another way is extremely difficult.

IIRC, African elites try to create a national identity within their borders, across ethnical divisions. Such an effort has been significant in Ivory Coast from the independance on, and I've read Togo is taking measures in this direction.
However, these efforts are really fishy : their main aim was to consolidate the elites in power, without them being ready to give up their ethnical bias in reality.

I don't know what is the mainstream behaviour of artistic / mediatic elites in this domain. Anyone has info ?