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Africa could be sitting on a goldmine or a landmine depending on how it handles the ever-growing young population. It is estimated that 60 percent of Africa’s 1.2 billion population are under 25 years. This makes Africa the ‘youngest’ continent in regard to its population average.
The San Diego Monitor
Despite the worries, the first batch of the Generation Z (born between 1995 and the early 2000s) are already joining the job market. This is the generation that follows the millennials and are set to take on the current work cultures by storm.
Most analysts argue that this population bulge poses a great risk The unique aspect about Gen Z is that they have not known for the continent since job opportunities and overall economic life without tech gadgets such as mobile phones, digital television and internet access. WATCH NOW development might not be sustainable to absorb them.
The San Diego Monitor
The future is African — and the United States is not prepared Beginning in 2035, the number of young people reaching working age in Africa will exceed that of the rest of the world combined, and will continue every year for the rest of the century. By 2050, one in every four humans will be African. At the end of the century, nearly 40 percent of the world’s population will be African. Yet, instead of preparing to build a relationship that can grow with the continent, based upon diplomatic cooperation, the United States is doubling down on more than a decade of reliance on its military as the primary vehicle of engaging with Africa. The consequences, as one might expect, are overwhelmingly negative. The impending demographic dividend will only add to Africa’s economic importance. Since 2000, at least half of the countries in the world with the highest annual growth rate have been in Africa. By 2030, 43 percent of all Africans are projected to join the ranks of the global middle and upper classes. By that same year, household consumption in Africa is expected to reach $2.5 trillion, more than double the $1.1 trillion of 2015, and combined consumer and business spending will total $6.7 trillion. Africa’s rapid change also presents challenges that will not be contained within the continent. Indeed, the persistently high absolute number of people in poverty, the underdevelopment
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of infrastructure, ongoing conflicts, and continuing problems with democratic governance are already combining to make Africa the world’s largest source of emigrants. Many other countries have taken note of both the potential and the challenges in Africa’s anticipated transformation, and have mostly decided to increase their engagement. Plenty has been written about China’s growing presence, and the European Union has also been deepening its links to the continent. But there is also a growing list of other countries pursuing stronger ties — including India, Brazil, Turkey, Japan, and the Gulf states. In contrast, the United States’ relationship with the continent has, since 9/11, been increasingly defined by the militarization of U.S. foreign policy. In 2003, the George W. Bush administration established the first permanent U.S. base on the continent in Djibouti. In 2007, the U.S. Africa Command was created. NEXT PAGE
In Africa the median age is 19.4 years; In Europe it is 41.8 years. Over 60 per cent of Africa's population is under the age of 25, and the continent’s population is expected to double by 2050. In contrast, in Europe just 27 per cent of the population are under 25, and it is a continent in decline.
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The San Diego Monitor
The Barack Obama administration solidified this policy approach by increasing military spending and deploying more troops. President Trump is following the lead of his predecessors; over the past year, the number of U.S. forces in Africa has increased by nearly 1,500, bringing the total to around 7,500, not including Special Operations forces. The United States now has 34 status of forces agreements (or similar treaties) with African countries — 14 of which were signed or upgraded in the last decade. U.S. Special Operations forces are also often deployed in countries without such agreements. In 2017 alone, U.S. troops were deployed to 50 out of Africa’s 54 countries, many on clandestine missions. This growing military presence is displacing diplomacy. Military advisers outnumber diplomats in embassies across the continent. Career diplomats who focus on Africa are often ignored in favor of military commanders. And at least one senior State Department official has estimated that there are seven military employees for every civilian diplomat working on U.S. policy toward Africa. It should come as no surprise then that the aggressive U.S. military presence has done little to strengthen U.S.-Africa ties. Protests against bases and troop deployments have
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taken place in Ghana, Niger, Cameroon, Liberia and several other countries. U.S. Africa Command is actually headquartered in Germany, largely because no African country wants to host it. The unease with American militarism is likely only to grow — particularly as countries become less dependent on U.S. aid, and as certain U.S. military missions potentially provoke an increase in violent extremism. It should be equally obvious that the military can’t be the foundation of U.S. relations with a rising Africa. The Pentagon may be able to provide weapons, training and vehicles to African militaries, but it can’t offer trade deals, infrastructure projects or advice on agriculture. The U.S. military may attempt, with varying levels of success, to professionalize African militaries, but it can’t work with civilian governments, political parties or social movements to promote democracy and human rights. Indeed, Washington’s obsessive counterterrorism focus in Africa has little positive to show for its efforts, and actually risks increasing human-rights violations by African governments adept at using force against their civilian opponents. Simply put, the U.S. military is attempting to prepare African countries to fight an enemy they actually may not have (or at least not to the extent that Washington imagines), while the U.S. government is failing to help those same countries deal with the real killers — namely, poverty and corruption.
The San Diego Monitor
SDMNEWS Must READ In this review, African artists, scholars and cultural producers share their positions on the future of literature, film, performance, the visual arts, music and science. Artists include Keziah Jones, Spoek Mathambo, Just A Band, Gato Preto, Kapwani Kiwanga, Nnedi Okorafor, Lauren Beukes and Faustin Linyekula. African intellectuals are currently engaged in a tedious business. These days – just like everyone else – they are concerned with extensive migration movements, terrorism, or unstable economies that affect their continent as well. But as if that weren’t enough, in a global context they are often additionally constrained to express the reputed backwardness of their respective home countries. And if they do not do it themselves, others will do it for them. As it seems, Africa continues to be a projection surface for various preconceptions informed by Western ideas. The onesidedness of this perspective was recently addressed by Achille Mbembe at a festival in Johannesburg. “In the global North, when talking about Africa there’s still too much focus on opinion and seldom on knowledge,” the Cameroonian theorist said on the panel at the Goethe-Institute. With other artists and academics from the continent and the diaspora he had been invited there to discuss about “African Futures” . About a future therefore, that barely exists in Euro-American perception. After all, social dynamics, creative developments, and alternative models of economy were simply ignored in the African context, as Mbembe says. Among other things this was related to the fact that the transfer of knowledge between the West and the rest was still a one-way street.
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Blaming mass shootings on mental illness leads to stigma, experts warn Psychologists and psychiatrists speak out against Trump after he blamed mental illness for El Paso and Dayton mass shootings Blaming gun violence on the mentally ill prevents America from solving its unique gun violence problem, and stigmatizes those with diagnoses, psychologists and psychiatrists warned following the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings. Experts in mental health have repeated these lines for decades since the deadly school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and made statements again Monday, after Donald Trump blamed mental illness for two back-toback shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 people dead and dozens injured. In an address to the nation, Trump said: “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.” He also called the
The San Diego Monitor gunman from Dayton, Ohio, a “twisted monster”, and both shootings “evil attacks”. The leading associations of psychiatrists and psychologists both condemned the statement, while pointing to a defining characteristic of American life: easy access to guns. “Blaming mental illness for the gun violence in our country is simplistic and inaccurate and goes against the scientific evidence currently available,” said Arthur C Evans Jr, CEO of the American Psychological Association. “As we psychological scientists have said repeatedly, the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent,” said Evans. “And there is no single personality profile that can reliably predict who will resort to gun violence. “Based on the research, we know only that a history of violence is the single best predictor of who will commit future violence. And access to more guns, and deadlier guns, means more lives lost.” Evans called on lawmakers to pass gun restrictions, including a limit on civilians’ access to assault weapons and high capacity magazines. READ MORE WWW.SDMONITORNEWS.COM
The San Diego Monitor
SDMNEWS’s WATCH OF THE WEEK What’s the US up to in AFRICA Global Opinions Editor Karen Attiah says President Trump's dust-up with a Gold Star family should shine on light on the U.S. military's expanding, and unexplained, presence in Africa.
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