A city of contrasts and deep divisions, Johannesburg is vibrant, beating with the tell-tale dynamism of a massive conglomeration going places. There is a sense of urgency, relentlessness and possibility. It is sprawling, dangerous and chaotic, yet bursting at the seams with optimism.
The story of cities is the wonderful human tale of individual self-transformation. Cities are places you move to in order to change yourself. Jo’burg teems with millions of newcomers seeking a better life, trying to get away from somewhere and propel themselves somewhere else. Such is the narrative of all great urban centres throughout history. It is the story of the established classes moving out, replaced by newcomers hoping to move up.
Deep in Hillbrow, once the art deco home of the middle class and now home to “dark buildings” (slum tenements run by gangsters), Irishman Terry Behan runs a boxing club in the operating theatres of a long-abandoned municipal hospital. He saves lives through boxing, offering street kids dignity and worth via discipline and sport, enabling them to re-start their lives and begin their process of self-transformation. The club is called Fight with Insight and its hero, painted on the huge mural outside the building, is the most famous South African boxer of them all: Nelson Mandela.
In the vibrant eco-system of abandoned urban areas, people who leave are replaced by others. Hillbrow in the 1970s had been known as a “grey area”, neither exclusively black nor white. At the end of apartheid, whites fled to the suburbs once tens of thousands of poor blacks moved in.
Despite its violent reputation, Hillbrow has recently turned itself into a sort of Dubai of southern Africa. Side by side with the gangsters, the drugs and the destitution, it operates as Africa’s bazaar. Traders from all over the continent come here to buy wholesale original and counterfeit products at bargain basement prices and then head back, in laden down buses and trucks, to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and much further north. To facilitate this trade, South African airlines allows a 60kg discount bags offer for destinations like Nairobi, Entebbe and Dar es Salaam.
In Hillbrow, French, Portuguese as well as English, Zula and Xhosa fill the air as buyers haggle for their bargain. The whole of Africa is here, buying, selling, bargaining, deal making and getting on with the noble pursuit of commerce and financial self-expression, driven by that most universal of all economic referees: profit.
Aggregate economic growth in Africa was five to six per cent in the ten years between 2004-2014, but weaker commodity prices knocked that back to just 2.5 per cent in 2015-2017. However, four of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world in 2017 were in Africa and the UN forecasts that African nations will take six of the top ten spots in 2018. Africa is rising and it is one of the most significant global economic stories of the 21st century.
One other big economic story also played out this week here in Johannesburg: the story of global power passing from America and Europe to a combination China, India and Russia with the support of Africa.
The rules of our world were set up by the USA at Bretton Woods in 1947, where the UN, the IMF and the World Bank were introduced to run the world in America’s interest and, most importantly, with the US dollar at the centre of the new world order. By ensuring the dollar replaced sterling as the default currency of much of world trade, the Americans immeasurably enhanced their leverage. This was Pax-Americana.
As long as the USA was top dog, this status quo remained broadly unchallenged. But those days are over. America may be an incredibly powerful country, but it is on the decline.
The new challengers are China with the money, Russia with the guns and India with the people. Add Africa with the resources and you have an intoxicating brew.
Last weekend, presidents Putin, Ji Xinping, Modi, Ramaposa and Tremer of Brazil met in Jo’burg to discuss the future. These are the so-called BRICS, a loose, informal alliance that could become something more coherent, filling the void left by a retreating, nativist America.
It would be ridiculous to think that China is not eyeing a parallel set of global institutions to shape the world in the future, just as America did in 1947 when it was supreme. The country with the money always sets the rules.
We already have examples of the China-first institutions set up by the BRIC nations to rival the post-war Western international outfits that oversaw the era of Pax-Americana. The New Development Bank or NDB was established in 2014 by China in conjunction with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, each putting up an initial $10bn capital stake.
Essentially providing a Shanghai-based counterbalance to the Washington-based IMF and World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a Chinese-led development bank headquartered in Beijing, which began operating in 2016 with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond.
Then there’s also the Belt and Road Initiative which sees China pushing for a modern day silk road, expanding maritime trading routes and land infrastructure networks across over 70 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, encompassing nearly 4.8 billion people, more than half the planet’s population and economies worth a total some $21 trillion or 62 per cent of global GDP. This is Chinese cheque-book diplomacy in action.
Russia has a huge interest in this new world order, as does India, which is soon to be the most populous country on earth. Meanwhile, South Africa is a crucial part of the jigsaw because it is still by far the largest and most important economy in Africa.
As the politics of nostalgia engulf the West – with Trump, Brexit and much of European political movements trying to bring us back to an alleged better, less confusing and more simple recent past – the rest of the world is forging ahead and embracing the future.
Sitting in deepest down-town Johannesburg you can see, smell, hear and feel the enormous energy of change. It is the vitality of humans seeking dignity and it is the story of the vast majority of the globe.
The world is spinning on its axis.
All of these economies are developing and practice some type of self-development so eschew extreme neo-liberal market ideologies, and have been keen to find ways around US Dollar hegemony. Actually, Brazil self-financed a huge mass social housing program in the years after the 2008 financial crash, perhaps we could learn a thing or two? And it isn´t just Russia coming up with the guns it is coming up with them in cahoots with India. China are playing their part in this too. Miltary power will be required to make sure they are not intimidated. Africa is another matter though. US… Read more »
I would suggest to the author and others reading on here to view a FT article of 2012 “Sad South Africa – Cry the Beloved Country”, which was updated a few years later. It showed in how less than 20 years the country had fallen to account for only 17% of total annual African GDP, from 47% in 1993 when the ANC came to power. The article was updated partly because a few years later SA now sits second (15%) behind Nigeria at 16%, up from 14% 25 years ago. Also some years ago Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he was… Read more »
When Europeans enter Africa it should come with a health warning: persons of the African continent are not Europeans with black faces but something totally different – as are the Chinese and the Japanese and just about every other – and David would do well to understand this The civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome were not about sculpture. Greece via Rome was foundational to our language, politics, educational systems, philosophy and science as well as the arts. But it is their ideas; transmitted by the written word, which made them such a powerful global influence. Ancient African societies had… Read more »
No mention of the illegal seisure of the white farmers land and their murders.
South Africa is another murderous regime. A 2nd Zimbabwe in the making to ruinization.
https://howmuch.net/articles/general-government-gross-debt-per-capita
Tony,
BRIC nations are not as inefficient as the western world yet ?
Ireland has 800% higher debt per capita repayments than China?
1400% higher debt per capita debt repayments than Russia?
National debt per capita as a ratio of the median income might be a more accurate metric. At least it will be more a relevent sustainable repayment metric.
How come ALL the National Debt meters are running like the electric kettle is left on non stop ?
Where is the Magic money coming from?
Terence Patrick Hewett writes: “The demise of the West is much overhyped – simply because that the rest of the world is taking advantage of newer technology”. I agree. To say that China has the money is a bit misleading, considering that China’s debt is actually higher than that of the US ($30tn v $20tn), and their concept of One Belt, One Road is based on giving extortionate loans to other countries and making them their colonies by taking their land for military bases if they are unable to pay (which they’re not because they wouldn’t need China’s infrastructure investment… Read more »
Perhaps,
$62,700 (54,000e) per capita national debt is 146% of Irelands average income.
But % employment has to be a repayment factor.
Irelands debt per capita $62,700 ratio to average incomes(37k euro = 43k dollars) x % pop employed.
Ireland has .4 pop employed.
Irelands efficiency is 62.7 / (43 × .4)
62.7 / 17.2 = 365%
Ireland has a 365% debt exposure ratio per employed capita.
What is debt sustainability ?
Does a country’s constitution allow politicians to raise debt unsustainability for their own snapshot of time, to be repayed back by the next generations suffering ?
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/08/will-unapproved-opinions-be-censored-off-the-internet.html
Nothing is declining as fast as freedom of speech if the liberal intelligentsia of the leftist persuasion have their way.
Related article –
´´The narrow-mindedness of this FT article is mind-boggling. The point of China’s BRI is to invest massively in the infrastructure of countries that Western finance, imprisoned in its serially inane ratings, will never reach´´. – Y Faroufakis ( via twitter ) – https://www.ft.com/content/e7a08b54-9554-11e8-b747-fb1e803ee64e
Everything runs on debt. Debt is credit!! That is an oxymoron. There is little credit in being in debt, but the whole world is in debt. Debts such as bonds are called assets by the creditor, go figure! This so called asset is only as strong as the ability of the borrower to pay. The world is in debt. The economy relies upon the weakest economic entity to be able to repay the debt. When a borrower cannot repay the “asset ” becomes worthless. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and this economy is only as… Read more »
First they cam for Alex Jones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SIQkSb_wtk
There is no such thing as a free market. just manipulated corporatism. “Well, what I just want to talk about for a few minutes is the various efforts that are going on in public and behind the scenes by the Fed and other government officials to guard against a free-fall in the markets…perhaps most important, there’s been–the Fed in 1989 created what is called a plunge protection team, which is the Federal Reserve, big major banks, representatives of the New York Stock Exchange and the other exchanges, and there–they have been meeting informally so far, and they have kind of… Read more »
https://usawatchdog.com/elite-closing-down-truth-tellers-paul-craig-roberts/ Dr. Roberts says big tech companies are too big to function fairly. Dr. Roberts explains, “They should be broken up, or they should be nationalized or actually they should be arrested. . . . They are part of a plot. They are engaged in high treason against the government of the United States. If I was the Attorney General, I would have all of them arrested and put in solitary confinement awaiting trial. That’s where they belong. That’s where Google belongs along with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Spotify, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and NPR. They are… Read more »
Gangsters, destitution, violence, barter and the black market. That sounds like Germany in ruins after the War. They were not ‘seeking dignity’ but trying to survive. Now I think of it, should prostitution be added to the list? Is that also ‘seeking dignity’. One wouldn’t expect David to go into Mandela’s communism and use of terror but you would think there might be even a passing mention of the proposed racialist property expropriation. Well, actually, I would be very surprised if it got even a passing mention. I don’t watch or listen to RTE. Has it got a passing mention… Read more »
Coldblow Rte are the host for all discussion on our resources and have a contract to represent ALL Irish citizens but the data and Rte current affairs archive material show that they have not done so. Rte have played a major role in the health crisis, our national debt crisis and unfunded pensions crisis. Rte have had their trolley crisis programmes running for 20+ yrs now. Every year the Rte narrative ends up about incentives for unions, less working hours and more money for capicity. The six one news woman outside a hospital will look into the camera and ask… Read more »
On a lighter note: I lived a long year working in Johannesburg. Joburg is the only city in the whole world that was created for the sole purpose of making money: it was and is a mining town and when the mining stops so will Johannesburg: if you think NY is mercenary you have never been to Joeies The only topic of conversation is money and how to make it: and if you lose your money then you become a non-person – it really is quite incredible. Being 6000ft above sea level there are no birds except the long-tail: but… Read more »
And – if I get the inclination and sobriety – I will regale you all of some of the most outrageous and true stories that ever found the light of day – I really do not know why I am still alive – Jaysus: I and my generation really let it out – but as a nation we were always pretty much on the naughty side.
Smoug barstaads,
Smoug barstaads,
That leech all creation,
And sit on the heap,
Of decadent onanation
To the diaspora – Paddy O’Byrne and Terry Wogan: not greatly loved in Ireland – gave us all the feeling that home was still there – and we love them still.
David – Have you ever seen your mother weep when you got on a boat to go overseas – I have – until you have experienced that you do not know what it is to be Irish – and to my shame, I did not understand until I grew up.
And finally David, I found out that the ordinary stuff that ma and pa, mam and tad, mum and dad, who taught me, was right and I was wrong – the ordinary catholic stuff is really better than what fashion has to offer.
If you really want to know what the English are like – high or low: I don’t want to join the army I don’t want to go to war I’d rather hang around Piccadilly Underground Living of the earnings of a whore I don’t want a bayonet up me arsehole I don’t want me bollocks shot away I’d rather stay in England In merry merry England And fornicate my bleedin life away Monday I touched her on the ankle Tuesday I touched her on the knee On Wednesday I confess I lifted up her dress On Thursday I saw it… Read more »
Mueller Probe Illegitimate, Internet Purge is Here, Journalism is Dead
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani thinks the Russia probe by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is going to “blow up” on Mueller and his team. It has become apparent Mueller has not got a single charge that Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election. The FBI and the DOJ simply made up crimes to frame Trump to try to kick the President out of office. It’s a failed coup, and the people that tried to pull it off are in deep trouble.
https://usawatchdog.com/__trashed/
Tony, Irelands national debt in 2008 was 50bn. By 2016 it had increased by 300% to 200bn. The failed Irish bankers bailout was 65bn. The failed Irish bankers bailout increaded Irelands 2008 national debt by 130%. The public servants portion of the increase was 170%. Irelands top public servants are the ones that go into a room and decide what their own costs should be. Unfunded lump sum retirement payments and pensions are part of being a top table player. Boi and Aib’s bailouts were originally suposed to be for 3bn each. We all know what that means but we… Read more »
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/tag/housing-bubble/
The retraction in the US housing market portends????????????????
Zero down mortgage, anyone??
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/wash-rinse-repeat-the-big-short-mortgages-are-back/
https://usawatchdog.com/ai-wants-to-identify-vilify-nullify-destroy-all-patriots-steve-quayle/
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