The Economist: Covid and Africa

COVID is affecting Africa

There are probably way more deaths and cases than are being reported

governments will have debt crises, will need to cut infrastructure spending

This will have a huge effect on education. Education affects family sizes and prosperity

median age less than 20. Optimistic people

78% of Kenyans thought their lives would improve over the next 15 years. Nigerians and Senegalese were more optimistic

IMF predicts that Africa will be the slowest growing large region this year

Between 2003 and 2018, Africa got less poor

Africa won’t have enough vaccines for herd immunity before 2024

Africa needs money, and it’s in everyone’s interest to help. As long as the virus is active somewhere, it can mutate and spread

The Economist: Myanmar’s coup

There was a coup in Myanmar - the military put a bunch of politicians under house arrest

Timeline

1948 - independence

1962 - army toppled democratically elected government

1988 - army savagely quashed a democratic uprising

2008 - Cyclone Nargis. 140,00 people died, army had a terrible response

2011 - army allowed a civilian government

2015 - election (NLD won)

2017 - the Tatmadaw and Buddhist mobs sacked Rohingya villages

Details

The government shut down airports and the internet

Army allowed civilian government because:

  1. A lot of the west was isolating the country
  2. They thought they wouldn’t lose power

Aung San Suu Kyi didn’t lead very well

  • she brokked no dissent and refused to delegate
  • alienated minorities
  • surrounded herself with loyal old ministers, not competent ones

International sanctions for the pogroms against Rohingyas might hurt the poorest people in Myanmar

Myanmar doesn’t want to be isolated when China is right there, but they can collaborate

Players

NLD - National League for Democracy

USDP - Union Solidarity and Development Party, a proxy for the Tatmadaw

Aung San Suu Kyi - led the NLD from house arrest in the 1990s & 2000s

The Tatmadaw - the army

Bamar - ethnic majority

Vox: Progressive Media Push

PGI, Project for Good Information - organization for local progressive news

  • related to efforts to create seemingly nonpartisan websites

defenders of this effort say:

“Democrats have ceded this information warfare […] for too long”

There’s an effort to downplay links between news sources and political organizations