1 Obama hails ‘emerging Africa’ (BBC) US President
Barack Obama has hailed a new emerging Africa, on the last day of a summit in
Washington DC with 40 African leaders. Wednesday's talks covered security
concerns and corruption - two areas the US administration says are holding back
growth and investment in Africa. US firms pledged $37bn in investment during
the summit.
The White House announced new aid to support African
peacekeeping forces and new security co-operation. And Mr Obama said the
nations had agreed to convene "experts" to discuss transparency and good
governance on the continent. During the three-day summit, Mr Obama discussed
how the US was shifting its support for African away from humanitarian aid and
towards equal economic partnerships.
The president's 2013 Power Africa has pledged aims
to double electricity in Sub-Saharan African, and US run programmes aim to lift
50 million people out of poverty and double the number of children infected
with HIV who are taking anti-retroviral drugs. The presidents of Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone cancelled their plans to attend amid an Ebola outbreak,
and sent delegates instead.
2 Protesters trapped in the past (SThembiso Msomi in
Johannesburg Times) Twenty years into representative democracy and freedom,
there is still a substantial number of South Africans who believe that their
voices will not be heard unless they engage in the illegal and violent forms of
protest that were preferred during the last days of apartheid.
Given the fact that the vast majority of South
Africans had no representation in parliament and other institutions of power
during apartheid, it was understandable that people embarked on those kinds of
protest. But why do apartheid protests survive in a post-apartheid country?
Kuruman residents decided to shut down their schools
in a bid to be heard barely a month after the last general election. What
stopped them from using their votes? What about other forms of passive
resistance that would not put the future of their children at risk? Surely a
march or a peaceful sit-in at the provincial government offices in Kimberley
would have driven the point home loud and clear.
But, be it in Kuruman or in the Johannesburg CBD -
where toyi-toying school children went on a rampage, looting stock from poor
street vendors - it is clear that many have not moved beyond the apartheid-era
forms of protest. They behave as if the current political dispensation is both
unrepresentative and illegal. If our democracy is to prosper, this culture must
die.
Protest will always be an integral part of
democratic expression but it must be conducted in a way that does not interfere
with the freedom of others. More than the tarred roads, Kuruman residents
should be insisting that their children get the best education possible in
order to lift themselves and their families permanently out of poverty.
3 The scourge of hazardous food (Straits Times) Tough
action taken against high-profile food safety violations in China was spurred
by public fury. But piecemeal enforcement, however vigorous, will not put an
end to cases of exploding watermelons, glow-in-the-dark pork and such. Bizarre
abuses still crop up with alarming frequency. China has seen nine major
scandals in a mere six years, the latest one being the supply of expired meat
that has affected global brands such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks
and Burger King.
Public distrust is not misplaced in the light of
systemic challenges facing food security in China. Unethical acts often go
beyond rogue individuals, and even the management of big operations have been
implicated. In the case of expired meat, six executives from Shanghai Husi
Food, owned by an American group, were detained by investigators. In many
instances, it is hard to ascribe blame as supply chains are hydra-headed.
Modernisation is not always a panacea. The
industrialisation of food production has led to cheaper food but it also exacts
a heavy cost, as the West has seen. For example, an over-dependence on
antibiotics to fatten farm animals quickly and control disease in overcrowded
pens poses a public health hazard, as it promotes the development of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
4 Where have the entry-level jobs gone? (Lauren
Weber & Melissa Korn in The Wall Street Journal) Companies bruised by the
recession have stayed lean by automating and outsourcing core functions while
slashing training budgets and payrolls. But in an effort to cut costs, some
companies also have cut entry-level jobs that serve as a crucial first step on
the path to a professional career. And others have made the responsibilities
for first-timers more sophisticated, raising the bar for new graduates, who are
expected to arrive job-ready from day one.
These developments may be making it more difficult
for some young adults to gain a foothold in the labor market, economists say.
The unemployment rate for people 20- to 24-years-old is falling as the economy
recovers, but remained at a historically high 11.3% in July. Young adults
lacking college degrees are having an especially hard time finding entry-level
jobs.
The number of recruiters requesting two or more
years of work experience for some middle-skill occupations rose as much as 30%
from 2007 to 2010, according to a paper by economists at Harvard University and
the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The slack labor market during that time
offered a natural experiment, said one of the authors, Alicia Sasser Modestino.
"Employers had carte blanche" to choose the most skilled applicants
from a pool stocked with candidates, she said.
Entry-level workers are now being assigned thinking
roles, as opposed to "just following a checklist," said David Vogel,
who manages the undergraduate career-development office at the University of
North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. "It raises the bar on the
types of work that can be done by the entry-level hire, as opposed to
eliminating the need."
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