Have started
watching a reality show called “Young, Famous and African,” on Netflix. As the
title of the show illustrates, this is a reality show based around Africans, who
are exceedingly wealthy, young and famous. The show is shot primarily in Johannesburg,
South Africa. However, the participants in the show are not limited to South
Africa. The show’s power couple is from Nigeria and one of the more colourful characters
is from Tanzania. Think of this as Africa’s answer to “Bling Empire.”
This show is
what you’d call an eye-opener and hopefully one that will open the rest of us
to the opportunities available in a world of increased nationalism and covid
restrictions. If you talk to enough people in Singapore and beyond, you’ll find
that their image of Africa is limited to a single monolithic block filled with starving
black people being screwed by dictators mollycoddled by China.
Whilst much of
Africa is poor and filled with starving people ruled over by some of the worst
brutes in history, there are parts of Africa that are growing their wealth. Whilst
the middle class in Sub-Saharan Africa remains small compared to many parts of
the world, the fact remains, there is such a thing known as a “Consumer Market”
in Africa and wealth is being created outside what is considered the only
economic activity in Africa (looting natural resources) – the participants in
this show, for example are made money from movies and music.
Seeing a “Prosperous”
Africa is a powerful reminder to the rest of us that the world that we grew up
in is changing. Singapore like the other Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Taiwan and
South Korea) got rich by manufacturing more cheaply and selling to the developed
world of the West and Japan. Wealth was generated in one part of the world and
the rest of the world acted as a contractor. Hence, the early development of
Asia was in manufacturing of “cheap” goods.
However, things
have changed since then. The developing Asian giants of China and India
disrupted this model of development. China’s economy went from USD178 billion
(smaller than Canada, Spain and Brazil – let alone Germany and Japan) to USD
14.72 trillion (Only the USA has a larger economy and the talk as about when
rather than if China becomes the world’s largest economy).
Suddenly, the
world economy had a few more engines and economic prosperity in the developing
world has brought along social changes. French cognac producers, for example,
no longer kick up a fuss when people mix cognac with soft drinks. The reason is
simple – the largest market for cognac is Asia or more superficially China,
which is filled with people who mix their cognac.
Furthermore, the
traditional model of development has changed. Innovation for example, used to
be regarded as a uniquely Western thing, with a lot of economic growth in the
developing world coming from people brining in Western things into Asia. This
is strictly speaking no long true. China, which had a brand name in low end manufacturing
is trying to get rid of low-end manufacturing and high-end technology companies
like Tencent and Alibaba. The mid-tier Indian companies that did things cheaper
than their Western counterparts make the distinction of being “product”
companies that create things rather than do things cheaper.
This is not to
say that developing countries are the cure all for everything. Just as China
and India have a middle class bigger than most countries have people, the vast
majority in both places live in awful poverty. Americans in particular needed
to reminded that China will only be the largest economy because it has more
people. Even when China becomes the largest economy in the world, the average
American will be more prosperous than the average Chinese. Migration flows will
continue to flow out of developing countries. As has been pointed out, the
American Born Chinese (ABCs) still call themselves Americans of Chinese descent
rather than Chinese with American passports.
However, the point
remains that the world is opening up and in areas where nobody expected it too.
A former colleague has, for example, found the joys of driving a jeep made by
Mahindra Automotive. This is a revelation in as much as India didn’t get
manufacturing in the same ways that the Chinese didn’t get software.
Again, I’m not
saying that dealing with people from the less developing world is going to be
easy. However, the point is that the developing world is actually developing,
which means opportunities in a variety of industries are being created. Africa,
for example is also producing music as well as natural resources. We cannot
stop hungry people from getting the things we take for granted. One of the best
ways to commit financial suicide would to willingly become a prisoner of our parent’s
world view.
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