[afro-nets] A Practical Plan to Achieve the MDGs (2)

[D B Williams <WWERIC@aol.com>]

A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (2)
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Thank you for the development article. I am just wondering what 
the price of development will be? Africa is the continent that 
now has the greatest percentage of untapped resources. However, 
at what cost will development take place? I think that develop-
ment is very important but once it takes place will the country 
retain ownership of their own industries? Take for instance Pa-
nama and the Canal Zone. The US controlled the Canal Zone for 99 
years. The US and foreign investors figured that is should take 
that long for them to recover the money that they invested. How-
ever, this really left most Panamanians in a destitute situa-
tion. The area around the Canal Zone was prosperous but the rest 
of the country was destitute.
 
Therefore Jeffrey Sachs' proposal is wonderful, but needs to 
speak to the real technical issues of who will own what and how 
the "host" country being developed will benefit from "first 
world" development projects. There is a great deal of gentrifi-
cation going on in South Africa. I'm not sure if gentrification 
and displacement should be synonymous with development? Jeff 
Sachs however, does do a great deal of good.
 
D B Williams
mailto:WWERIC@aol.com
 
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