Modern buildings such as this nightclub and restaurant have emerged out of the old Accra.

Accra, the capital city of Ghana, was host to U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Africa, during which he pushed developing countries to strive to build prosperity and progress.

Although Accra continues to have problems with its sewage system, among other things, it is modernizing at a relatively quick rate. Ghana as a whole maintains an 11 percent unemployment rate and a 28 1/2 percent poverty rate, both comparatively lower than many of the country’s neighbors.

Ethan Zuckerman of the blog My heart’s in Accra visited Accra and compares the city now to the city he saw during a trip more than a decade earlier.

Visiting Accra feels like time travelling. [...]

I feel as if I could recreate the past by layering a thin film on top of the current reality - a scrim that covers that new four-story shopping plaza with the disused concrete and rebar hulk that stood there a decade before. Add some burning plastic and we’d be able to take me back to a past I remember, if I squint a little bit. It’s the same place, just gentrified, in a particularly Ghanaian fashion. My friend Amos met me for lunch at Asanka Local, a deservedly popular chop bar that’s new since my last visit, and mentioned that he was looking for a house in the area to use as an office. He figured he’d need to spend at least 100,000 cedis, or about $67,000. Makes me wish I’d bought the apartment building I used to live in.

When I visited the Accra Mall on Sunday, there was no amount of squinting that could have convinced me that I was in a country I knew and understood. Ten minutes past the airport, the mall features two supermarkets, a cinema, several high-end boutiques and an excellent bookshop. It’s beautiful, as nice as its counterparts in Nairobi and Cape Town, and it’s got a steady buzz of people, tourist, Filipino overseas workers, Lebanese traders and lots of middle-class Ghanaians.

The bookshop left me babbling. In 1993, the only bookstores we had in Accra were the university shop in Legon, which featured required reading texts, Akan-English dictionaries, and the occasional heavily used Mario Puzo novel, for $5.

[...] And then there’s the grocery store. When I first came to Accra, I asked the bartender at the hotel where I was staying where I should shop for food. “All the obruni go to Danquah Circle. You can get anything you imagine there.” I walked around for a couple of hours, visiting the handful of western-style food shops and discovering that my imagination now needed to be limited to canned corned beef, canned mackerel, dried beans and pasta. Add in the amazing fruits and vegetables on sale on almost every corner, and we had a perfectly servicable diet, but one light on the comfort food that everyone needs now and again. My family and friends ended up feeling like they were supplying a prisoner, sending me letters that included packets of dried orange cheese mix so I could buy pasta, oil and a little milk and make macaroni and cheese. A letter from Rachel included sheets of nori, which led to a sushi party, using soy sauce bought from one of the Chinese restaurants in town. I almost got into a fistfight with a housemate about his incursions into my most prized posession - a jar of Skippy peanut butter.

And now there’s a supermarket, and it has cheese. A whole cold case full of it. Apples aren’t luxury items sold for a dollar a piece by roadside hawkers - you can buy them by the kilo. I looked like a madman, walking through Shoprite with my camera, snapping photos of remarkable, miraculous sights - chickens, already gutted and plucked, frozen and in bags! - that looked completely ordinary to everyone around me.

I don’t know that one could come to Accra and pretend that it’s 1994 anymore. If the mobile phones don’t give it away - with phonecard sellers, repair shops and charging stations on every corner - the architecture does. [...]

My friends who support the NDC - the party that regained control in the most recent election - tell me that NDC won because people felt like eight years of NPP government had resulted in a lot of developments that looked like Citizen Kofi and not much improvement of schools or infrastructure. I’m not sure that’s entirely fair - driving throughout the city, I saw roads I knew to be almost impassible that are now paved and smooth. I ask about whether a particular neighborhood is still plagued by traffic jams and learn that a two-lane road has been replaced with a six-lane carriageway with two flyovers.

Is this just benefitting the comparatively wealthy who are lucky enough to live in the capital city? No idea - I was there for 51 hours, and I didn’t get outside Greater Accra. And I know it’s a mistake to characterize the direction of a country based on half a dozen long walks and conversations with a dozen old friends. But I felt like I was catching glimpses of a future Accra, the stylish capital of a middle-income nation.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ethanz under a Creative Commons license.

Are capitalism and Islam at odds?

Luv Puri is a journalist who has reported on the Jammu and Kashmir conflict from both sides of the Line of Control for The Hindu newspaper. Now in New York, he writes to explore how Muslim-American entrepreneurs reconcile the economic guidelines of their faith with the capitalist system in the U.S.

Shabir Mohammad Aziz came to New York City in 1988, with a burning ambition to become an entrepreneur in the United States. He was 22 years old, with a wife and two kids. Aziz’s family business had suffered huge economic losses and crumbled.

Aziz had a liking for perfumes and wanted sell perfume products. To become an entrepreneur in the United States, it was essential for him to follow the rules of a capitalist system — but some of the regulations were at odds with his religious beliefs. He was a devout Muslim and his religious beliefs prevented him from borrowing money on interest. Islam forbids all forms of interest; it is believed that interest involves both oppression and exploitation.

After a decade of hard work as a tailor in Brooklyn, Aziz almost had the seed capital required to buy a store on lease. In 1999, he spotted a store on sale for $100,000 in Brooklyn. A childhood friend living in the city agreed to pool the half of the sum. Even then, Aziz was short of $25,000. He could borrow the money on interest, but the religious stricture prevented that. As a last resort, he contacted his brother, who told him that he could give him the money without interest in three week’s time. On that assurance, Aziz borrowed money from a bank. He purchased the store and within a month returned the borrowed money to the bank without interest. His store, Dream Land, brought him a profit of nearly $200,000 in a year’s time.

Aziz’s story is emblematic of American Muslim entrepreneurship, successfully blending Islamic beliefs with the core capitalist system and free market economy. Even then, there is a widespread perception that Islam is at odds with the American economic system. Some view Islamic beliefs as medievalist and, therefore, not in conformity with that of the modern economic system.

Forty-eight-year-old Zafar Iqbal, a Pakistani immigrant who employs over 100 workers in his company, Carpet City, represents the successful blending of capitalism and devout Muslim faith. The son of a poor farmer, Iqbal’s company has become one of the most popular carpeting enterprises drawing clients from New York City and New Jersey.

“What I achieved here financially I could never dream anywhere else,” he says. “But more than that, my example demonstrates that it is possible to abide by Islamic principles and do business in a capitalist society. The two concepts are not antithetical.”

Islam has a social and economic code for its followers, and the Qur’an is their guidebook. Iqbal avoids lending money on interest. He possesses a checking account, but no saving account. This distinguishes him from many of his competitors. He even does not have a stock portfolio. But Islam also stresses the concept of equality and dignity of labour.

“My organization’s work ethics are based on Islam and therefore I lead by example. Many a time people in the organization are surprised when they see me doing hard labour just like any other co-worker,” Iqbal says. “But this is what my religion teaches me and I have no shame doing any sort of work even though I am the owner.” A fiercely competitive merchant, Iqbal incorporates the religious teachings of Islam in his business. 

Islam also encourages charity, a concept popularly known as Zakat. “It is incumbent on every Muslim to make contributions to the needy,” Iqbal says. “Besides making direct contributions to the needy, I have devised an organizational strategy which directly serves the purpose. For instance there are many within my organization that I have given employment not because of their ability but their respective need. This is my contribution to Zakat, though to other people it may seem to be an unwise business strategy.”

“Religions do not choke — it’s the follower’s interpretation which chokes. The very fact that Islam and American business ethics are not contradictory concepts clearly illustrates this,” he adds. 

- Luv Puri

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user borman818 under a Creative Commons license.

Christopher McGuinness is a freelance journalist based in London. He holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and writes at the “Social Europe Blog.” He discusses historical examples of fallen empires and suggests that the economic system requires massive adjustments.

A new world order?

The United States’ status as a modern empire has long been a favourite subject of political writers. One example of such writing is a recent Observer editorial authored by LSE professor emeritus John Gray, who predicts that the recent American economic crisis will soon lead to major changes in the geopolitical world order. These changes, he argues, will lead to a marked decline in U.S. influence throughout the world. One of the main premises of his thesis is that “the fate of empires is very often sealed by the interaction of war and debt.”

Gray is on to something, but his theory can be refined even further. The specific point at issue is his use of the term “debt”, as a number of highly indebted empires have fought protracted wars and survived (in both military and economic terms) to see another day.

In my view, imperial decline has less to do with the interactions between war and debt, and more to do with the interactions between war and unsustainable economics. It is, after all, the governments who employ unsustainable economic models that accrue debt. This is an important distinction to draw because it examines the underlying causes of such problems rather than the symptoms.

Recent history is littered with examples of imperial decline prominently featuring the dangerous mixture of military action (including spending) and unsustainable fiscal policies. The Third Reich’s massive military losses were exacerbated by the economic pressures and limitations imposed by its fascist regime. The socialist Soviet economy was spent into submission by the United States. And traditional European powers like Britain and France could no longer afford to maintain their colonial holdings after two costly world wars.

If Gray’s predictions come true, will market capitalism be thrown to the same ideological scrapheap as fascism and communism? Almost certainly not, but its current American form needs a massive overhaul.

To read more, visit the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Flickr user wallyg under a Creative Commons license.

AUDIO: Edward Wong of The New York Times reports from Beijing about the impact of land reform on China.

Land in the city of Changshu in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province.

On Sunday, the Communist Party of China passed laws allowing peasants to trade and rent land, though they remain unable to buy or sell it.

Leaders were expected to pass a program that would enable peasants to purchase and sell land, but the issues of purchase and sale have disappeared from public discourse despite earlier coverage. Rumors of disagreement within the Communist Party are circulating.

Some communists argue that “privatization” reforms undercut the party and ultimately strengthen Western capitalism in a country already straddling communist and capitalist systems.

Advocates suggest that the reforms would improve food security and relieve rural poverty.

The “Poligazette” blog writes that new freedoms for China’s villagers are a step in the right direction for the oppressive country.

The “Sinomania” blog writes that reforms are monumental and will “open the door to finally giving rural Chinese what they’ve long[ed] for for centuries — their own piece of China.”

The “China Aid” blog writes about the decision of Hu Jintao — Communist Party general secretary and president of the People’s Republic of China — to support the land reforms despite enormous risk, and argues that the Communist Party is digging its own grave.

China Economic Review’s “Editor’s Journal” writes about the promise of the reforms and their potential effects on the agriculture industry.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user iansand under a Creative Commons license.