Paul Collier, the author of “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are failing and What Can Be Done About It”, and Daya Olopade, the author of “The Bright Continent”, offer in depth knowledge about Africa’s economic situation. Though discussing the same topic, Olopade and Collier propose complete opposite theses, questions, and solutions. Paul Collier hails from the United Kingdom while Daya Olopade is a Nigerian-American, thus creating a complex balance of opinions. Collier’s book offers Western culture reasoning to why the poorest countries are incapable of progressing in the globalized world, despite constant aid being given to them from the top, formal economic, countries. Olopade, on the other hand, creates myth-busting points
…show more content…
She provides a very different view on how the developing countries can excel in the globalized world than the Western world provides. “The Bright Continent” offers the same problems as “The Bottom Billion”, however the solutions differ greatly. Due to Olopade’s personal ties to Nigeria and large exposure to other African countries, she is able to obtain first hand economic boosters. “Kanju” is a term discussed in “The Bright Continent” that is translated as a certain type of innovation that has come from the difficulties Africa has faced due to poverty. In her eyes, the youth of Africa is one of the keys to prosperity and a bountiful future. For Africa to ultimately escape their poor traps, they have to leave the formal systems behind and improve and expand their informal systems. Olopade wants Africa to avoid foreign aid as much as possible, thus allowing their people to prosper with their own creations and informal trade or bargaining. It is impossible for anyone to prosper when they themselves are a bottom-up informal system and they are receiving aid, legislation, and military involvement from top-down formal systems, contrary from Collier’s …show more content…
Firstly, the conflict trap can be defined as countries that have faced, are facing, or will face again, a civil war. Seventy-three percent of the Bottom Billion are currently in a civil war or have very recently faced one. It is difficult for any country to overcome civil conflicts, but even more so when that country faces the other three traps and have a poor economic standards. Civil war always has and always will lower a countries income simply due to the actual financial costs of a war. When one is fighting against itself, they are practically doubling the costs. Collier states, and other political scientists will concur, that a rebellion can and will stem from a weak state which develops from a weak economy. When a state has already experienced one, or even unfortunately more than one, civil war, they double their risks of facing another one; whether the following wars are for the same reasons proposed by the rebellion or not. In reference to conflict and civil war, Collier says, “Civil wars are development in reverse. […] Both economic losses and disease are highly persistent: they do not stop once the fighting stops” (27, 28). The rebels in a civil war are promoting negative, sadist, ideology often times, and are “The young, the uneducated,
She provides a very different view on how the developing countries can excel in the globalized world than the Western world provides. “The Bright Continent” offers the same problems as “The Bottom Billion”, however the solutions differ greatly. Due to Olopade’s personal ties to Nigeria and large exposure to other African countries, she is able to obtain first hand economic boosters. “Kanju” is a term discussed in “The Bright Continent” that is translated as a certain type of innovation that has come from the difficulties Africa has faced due to poverty. In her eyes, the youth of Africa is one of the keys to prosperity and a bountiful future. For Africa to ultimately escape their poor traps, they have to leave the formal systems behind and improve and expand their informal systems. Olopade wants Africa to avoid foreign aid as much as possible, thus allowing their people to prosper with their own creations and informal trade or bargaining. It is impossible for anyone to prosper when they themselves are a bottom-up informal system and they are receiving aid, legislation, and military involvement from top-down formal systems, contrary from Collier’s …show more content…
Firstly, the conflict trap can be defined as countries that have faced, are facing, or will face again, a civil war. Seventy-three percent of the Bottom Billion are currently in a civil war or have very recently faced one. It is difficult for any country to overcome civil conflicts, but even more so when that country faces the other three traps and have a poor economic standards. Civil war always has and always will lower a countries income simply due to the actual financial costs of a war. When one is fighting against itself, they are practically doubling the costs. Collier states, and other political scientists will concur, that a rebellion can and will stem from a weak state which develops from a weak economy. When a state has already experienced one, or even unfortunately more than one, civil war, they double their risks of facing another one; whether the following wars are for the same reasons proposed by the rebellion or not. In reference to conflict and civil war, Collier says, “Civil wars are development in reverse. […] Both economic losses and disease are highly persistent: they do not stop once the fighting stops” (27, 28). The rebels in a civil war are promoting negative, sadist, ideology often times, and are “The young, the uneducated,