Word: saharan
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...least superficially mimicking the revolutions in Europe, Mobutu has lots of company in his own neighborhood. Since February three other one-party regimes in sub-Saharan Africa -- those of Benin, Gabon and the Ivory Coast -- have consented to pluralistic systems. These were radical moves, considering that the leaders of these lands, who with Mobutu have held power for a combined 96 years, had previously put up with virtually no dissent. Tanzania too has said yes in principle to pluralism, and Zambia has promised a referendum to decide the issue...
...told their constituents that times would be lean for a few years under the belt-tightening policies and would then turn rosy. But their deadlines are long past, and their promises are unfulfilled. According to a World Bank report last year, the gap in per capita income between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the Third World keeps widening. In 1988 the contrast was $330 vs. an average $750 for all developing countries. The nations of black Africa, home to 470 million people, together have the purchasing power of Belgium, a country of only 10 million...
...Saharan Africa is ill prepared for democratic government for other reasons as well. These countries lack the critical mass of educated voters that is essential. They have few democratic roots. "There is no concept of a loyal opposition," notes Smith Hempstone, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya. "Dissent is equated with sedition." Most debilitating, though, is their sheer poverty, which makes it extremely difficult for a pluralist political system to thrive. Says Hempstone: "Africa missed the industrial revolution, which formed the basis of modern democracy in the West...
...will survive long if Africa's evident destiny -- to drown in debt -- is not reversed, and that will require enormous assistance from abroad. With its current debt of $135 billion roughly equivalent to its gross national product and its debt-service obligations equal to half its export earnings, sub-Saharan Africa faces an intolerable situation that has produced instability and promises to breed more. If the West really wants to see democracy take root, it must first give a helping hand to the continent's economy...
...worse. The richest 20% of families enjoy a more extravagant life-style than that of the upper class in such industrialized countries as the U.S. and Japan. On the other side is an enormous group, 60% to 80% of the population, whose situation is approaching the despair of sub-Saharan Africa or Bangladesh. Of Argentina's 32 million citizens, close to 10 million are below the poverty line (a family income of less than $100 a month) and an additional 15 million hover just above...