New School Economic Review

What HIV Epidemic?? Hans Rosling’s back

by Benjamin on August 30, 2009

In June, Hans Rosling (raved about earlier) gave a talk at the US State department explaining that the mindset about developing and developed countries is wrong, and the idea of an African HIV epidemic is wrong… He has a dataset, and if our mindset does not coincide with the dataset, then one of them must be wrong… The talk encompasses historical comparrisons of the US and China, an overview of world incomes and a discussion of the HIV ‘epidemic’  in Africa… Which according to Rosling is not an epidemic, but rather is a

Special situation probably of concurrent secxual partnerships among part of the heterosexual population in some countries or some parts of countries, in South East Africa. Don’t make it Africa, don’t make it a race issue. Make it a local issue.

Below is the State Department talk, but a documentary entitled “Rosling’s World” just aired on Swedish Television (in Swedish with English Subtitles), which will be free to watch until 15 September. I’m off to watch it now.

All in all, this is well worth watching, and I am sure it will provoke some responses.

Regionalism and Trade: A Glimpse of Africa’s Experience

by NSER Editorial Board on January 12, 2009

Regionalism has a long history in Africa. Its earliest manifestations can be traced to the pre-independence period when the regionalist impulse found expression in Pan-Africanism, highlighted in the Pan-African conferences organized in the first half of the last century. A few regional economic groupings were formed during that period, albeit in a colonial context. Two prominent examples dating from that period are the East African Community and the Southern African Customs Union (the world’s oldest customs union).

The struggle for and attainment of independence provided the main impetus for further regional integration, based on the belief that regionalism would result in strengthened political solidarity, mutual consolidation of newly-gained independence and collective
self-reliance. Thus, Africa’s post-independence efforts to implement regionalism focused on both political and economic changes. This article examines the progress made in regionalism in Africa and describes some of its key features, assesses its impact on intra-Africa and external trade in the context of globalization, and draws some conclusions.

Download full paper here

Otobo, Ejeviome Eloho. 2004. “Regionalism and Trade: A Glimpse of Africa’s Experience.” New School Economic Review 1(1): 75-81