whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1. Government and Business, Panic and Rescue
(Analysis/Analysis)

...the reasons why it failed in the first place. But the confusion that abounds makes it very easy for the South African government to justify the R 12 billion they have squandered on South African Airw...

2. Taxing the poor so that the rich can buy expensive cars
(Analysis/Analysis)

...a tax as a necessary evil for saving jobs, and – at once – everyone is satisfied. Welcome to South Africa’s motor-industry, where the South African taxpayer subsidises the purchase-p...

3. Zimbabwe's Hope Deterred
(Analysis/Analysis)

...high levels and whoever gets to run the economy will have to contend with this problem as well. Former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, flew into Zimbabwe on Monday 13 0ctober 2008 in an effort...

4. The charity of dumping
(Analysis/Analysis)

...of the Niall Mellon Township Initiative? Maguinness has a program that, since 2002, has built houses in South African townships for the homeless. The house-building volunteers, from rich countries i...

5. Zimbabwe: The beginning, and ending, of the beginning
(Analysis/Analysis)

...otiation had fallen through with no agreement in sight, and all seemed a lost cause. The announcement by South African president, Thabo Mbeki, that a deal had finally been reached created optimism amo...

6. The Revenge of the Markets
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tive, that is twice the entire value of Russian-listed companies, and almost four times the value of all South African-listed firms. As the terror has taken hold, investors are selling their shares ...

7. Possession of state assets has become an end in itself
(Analysis/Analysis)

...jor power stations, roads, or hospitals take years to build and a budget must be raised in advance. The South African government has committed itself to spending billions on infrastructure for the Wo...

8. Mozambique's Lessons for South Africa
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ccords that settled Mozambique, there is still no main bridge across the Zambezi River linking north and south. The current bridge requires that Mozambiquans travel via Malawi. There is, however, a ...

9. Apple, the destroyer of comfort-zones
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ed much in the past decade. We use them for phone calls and to send short messages via SMS. Outside of South Africa the growth of cheap bandwidth means that people enjoy watching television or playi...

10. The Remarkable Power of Remarkable People
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ial, religious, gender or sexual orientation laws also act to select for, or against particular groups. South Africa’s Apartheid laws denied dark-skinned citizens not only the right to vote, bu...

11. How to cross a river...
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d with a river – wonder how they will cross it, not who will bridge it for them. It is clear that South Africa's rural areas no longer contain people who are self-reliant. All these people...

12. South Ossetia: Russia and Georgia's dangerous game
(Analysis/Analysis)

...cted regions as diverse as Aceh (part of Indonesia) and Cabinda (an exclave of Angola). It also affects South Ossetia, a break-away province of Georgia. Russia’s Perfect War Russia wants a war...

13. Everything gets tested but political ideas, they become policy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...rtunity to vote out idiotic political hacks and replace them with people you hope will undo the damage. South African taxpayers have little expectation of seeing the padded rears of ANC fat-cats depa...

14. The errors of selection and confirmation bias
(Analysis/Analysis)

...usion. My email inbox is full of high-minded spam articles lamenting the demise of positive thinking in South Africa. JP Landman, a well-paid executive at BOE Investment Research, declares that the...

15. No way out; ducking the Eskom bullet
(Analysis/Analysis)

...terprise. The shareholder here is the taxpayer. Government must pay money derived from the earnings of South Africans to cover the cost of the investment in state-owned firms. If government increas...

16. Dealing with the consequences of Zimbabwe
(Analysis/Analysis)

...o currencies available for alternative use with which Zimbabweans are familiar are the US dollar and the South African rand. The US dollar poses concerns about exchange controls with what will have ...

17. Xenophobia and the end of the African Renaissance
(Analysis/Analysis)

...have been treated to the spectacle of their relatives and friends being tortured and murdered by mobs of South Africans. The initial response from President Thabo Mbeki – the man who would have...

18. When big businesses stop submitting to autocrats
(Analysis/Analysis)

...hat a government can be dictatorial up to its borders but, beyond these, they have to obey the law. In South Africa the government has yet to be faced with any major company saying, "No." ...

19. Taxing the Future, Confusing the Present
(Analysis/Analysis)

...budget speech. It was a plea, not only to the new Zuma / Motlanthe alliance within the ANC, but also to South Africa's taxpayers. Behind the glib remarks he was begging taxpayers, "Please k...

20. Overcoming the Conservation of Energy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...lly become rusted heaps if they aren't maintained correctly. Such neglect is visible throughout the South African economy; most obviously in public schools, public health, and public electricity....

21. The hazard of market dominance
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d the greater the impact on price inflation. Effective control of the economy is in very few hands. The South African government comprises over 34% of the economy, as well as defining prices through ...

22. When no-one is held accountable, everyone suffers
(Analysis/Analysis)

... Kenya was the main despatch and purchasing hub for international buyers. Back home, the failure of the South African government to hold the health ministry to account sees millions dieing from AIDS....

23. Netscape, the Internet and Creative Destruction
(Analysis/Analysis)

...te endeavour that created power generation in the first place. The price of internet use has plunged in South Africa, from hundreds of rands a month for dial-up services to as little as R 45 per mont...

24. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

... many leaders still under colonial oppression. He came with a lot of promise, leading the breadbasket of southern Africa, and on many occasions leading the SADC on politics. Twenty-eight years on, th...

25. Funding departments instead of people cheats everyone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...fe and Medi-Clinic, is worth about R 63 billion a year. Yet this large number is only 4.6% of the total South African economy. State spending, as a proportion of total economic income, is 34.2%. I...

26. Jacob Zuma, Inflation Denialist?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...b Zuma – the African National Congress' newly elected president – declares that he finds South Africa's high interest rates unfair on the poor. When you borrow money from your ban...

27. Higher food prices mean downgrading that Turkey to a Chicken
(Analysis/Analysis)

...of agriculture. In the developed world agriculture is now only 2 – 3% of economic production. In South Africa agriculture is a "mere" 4% of total GDP. This shrinking profitability h...

28. The Speculator: Pricing in the Future
(Analysis/Analysis)

...' national revenue given over to agriculture (10%) and industry (35.5%) is strikingly different from South Africa's. Our agriculture is 3.8% and industry is 32%. Both sectors are in rapid de...

29. Simba the Saviour?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...his expertise as a business consultant, but more so for his ten-year stint as Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community, (SADC). Dr Makoni is reported to have the backing of So...

30. Exports and parliamentary laziness
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t to allow them to send money abroad to pay for all these marketing and sales junkets. Sharma says that South Africa has a "mere" 2 000 exporters when we should have 6 – 8 000 exporte...

31. Of Capitalism, Socialist Greed, Poverty and Remaining Silent
(Analysis/Analysis)

... and need to be based in a safe environment that respects property rights. One of the worst excesses of South African state negligence has been regarding HIV / AIDS. Many large firms, from Anglo Ame...

32. South Korea
(Emerging Markets/Eastern Asia)

  Poorest 20%: Market Opportunity: potential for social and economic mobility, as well as the prospects for engaging the poorest 20% as a direct market Productivity + Cost of Workforce: politics

33. South Africa
(Emerging Markets/Southern Africa)

  Poorest 20%: Market Opportunity: potential for social and economic mobility, as well as the prospects for engaging the poorest 20% as a direct market Productivity + Cost of Workforce: politics

34. Searching for objective measures of value
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ce and – by 1980 – it was $641/ounce. An interesting caveat to this story is its effect on South Africa.  Without this exponential rise in the value of gold Apartheid would never h...

35. This festive season: the accumulating effects of individual activity
(Analysis/Analysis)

...m work and start preparing dinner, bathing, and watching television. In small family groups. Given that South African electricity monopoly, Eskom, hasn't invested in their network for thirty year...

36. Trevor Manuel and the "Plunder of Skills"
(Analysis/Analysis)

Trevor Manuel, South Africa's long-serving Minister of Finance, has had a busy time of it. When he hasn't been demanding reform at the IMF, he has been lecturing the US and Western Europe on

37. Contradictions resolve in ways you don't intend
(Analysis/Analysis)

"Run your small business as if it is a big business," says Erik Parker, South Africa's franchise guru, as one of his points for business success. Or, if you're more of a socialist,

38. Slaves to land, the policies of Land Affairs
(Analysis/Analysis)

...shed has the capacity to unlock trillions of dollars of "hidden capital". De Soto has visited South Africa on several occasions to present his ideas to government officials. It appears tha...

39. Killing the Golden Goose, a lesson in Economic Freedom
(Analysis/Analysis)

... have their own needs prioritised. This can lead to unexpected outcomes and inefficient economies. In South Africa the minister of telecommunications gets to decide whether or not there is a market...

40. Africa, China and Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

South Africa receives more than 20% of the foreign direct investment (FDI) placed in Africa each year. Don't celebrate too quickly. Of the US$ 334 billion in total FDI in 2005 only 9.3%, or US$

41. China, Toys And The Tragedy of Xenophobia
(Analysis/Analysis)

...e real ugly nature of the protests against China are seen. Imagine it differently. A few winemakers in South Africa have, on occasion, embellished their product by adding ethylene glycol (antifreeze...

42. The spectre of loyalty over ability
(Analysis/Analysis)

There is a spectre stalking South Africa. It is the spectre that rewards loyalty over ability; craven sycophancy over talent and innovation. The result is lost opportunities and a diminished economy

43. Investment cannot happen if the market isn't private
(Analysis/Analysis)

...s failures of government strategy on AIDS and Zimbabwe, they may be right. Foreign tourists arriving in South Africa in 2010 will (all going well) see nice new roads and sparkling stadiums overwhelmi...

44. Black Economic Empowerment, like charity, is not investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

South African businesses have become one of the largest investment blocks in Africa.  Many African countries regularly fret that they are losing their local business ownership to their cousins do

45. Black Diamonds and the trouble with statistics
(Analysis/Analysis)

...much to invest.  Without meaningful and reliable information poor investments can be made. In 2001 South Africa was suffering from weak economic growth.  High interest rates (broaching 25%...

46. Black Swans, Cost Overruns and Industrial Tariffs
(Analysis/Analysis)

South Africa currently has two large Cinderella projects: the Gautrain and the 2010 World Cup. Both projects are astonishingly expensive. When the Gautrain was announced in February 2006 it was to

47. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...inessman" into a curse. The book was a product of its times. Communism was raging through Europe, South America and Asia and Africa. People's Republics were all the rage and the most produc...

48. Department of inJustice: the corruption of high office
(Analysis/Analysis)

Corruption is a result of poor disclosure and weak systems and institutions. The bankruptcy process in South Africa is from the Victorian era and tends to place a terrifying burden on all involved. Th

49. Zimbabwe: the Hollow State
(Analysis/Analysis)

...5 million of Zimbabwe's most educated and productive citizens are in exile and working in the UK and South Africa 4 million people need food aid; the average life-expectancy of Zimbabweans is 3...

50. Everything is coming up Capitalism
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ndividuals and families; Russia 3) Big-firm - most of the economy exists in a few large corporations; South Africa 4) Entrepreneurial - most of the economy is controlled by small firms; er, no-...