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INDEPENDENCE - was it worth it for African nations?Did independence come a generation too soon for Africans?
And was Research based on Gross National Income per capita figures
would appear to offer strong support in that direction for many countries
in sub-Saharan Africa are poorer today than when they became independent
in the 1950's and 1960's. Not only that but states which did not opt for
independence but remained under the jurisdiction of a 'mother country'
have performed hugely better than neighbouring countries that opted for
self-rule. Arguably then Today, in Africa, the state with the highest Gross National Income per head is not South Africa, Botswana, Libya, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius nor even the Seychelles which has GNI per capita of $8,650. The island state of Reunion, which falls under French jurisdiction, beats all of these nations handsomely with GNI per capita of $9,820. Taking in the wider world a similar situation is found in South America where the state with the highest GNI per capita in 2006 was French Guiana which even left the powerful economy of Chile behind. The following list below compares GNI per capita (2006) of dependent states with their nearest independent neighbours:- a) French Guiana (France) $9,040 - Guyana $1,130 Surinam $3,200 b) Reunion (Fr) $9,820 - Mauritius $5,450 c) Grand Cayman Island (UK) $26,600 - Jamaica $3,480 d) Guadeloupe (Fr) $14,090 - Dominica $3,960 e) American Samoa (USA) $6,320 - Samoa $2,270 f) Aruba (Neth) $19,970 - Grenada $4,420 g) Puerto Rico (USA) $13,670 - Dominican Republic $2,850 h) New Caledonia (Fr) $17,530 - Fiji $3,300, Vanuatu $1,710 Perhaps the most telling comparison, though, lies off the East coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. There, in 1974, the group of four islands making up the Comoros were offered independence from France. Anjouan, Grand Comore and Moheli all gratefully accepted the offer but Mayotte decided it did not want to follow and instead opted to become a French dependency. Today in the Comoros GNI per capita is $610 whilst in Mayotte GNI per capita is $5,000. A dependent state is a constitutionally organised political entity outside of but under the jurisdiction of an independent country (usually the former colonial power) in matters of defence and foreign affairs. In most cases a governor presides over an executive body. The dependent states today are controlled by one of the following countries:- Australia, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, New Zealand, U K*, U S A. Under this system of 'remote control', the mother country ensures that government in those states is run by competent and accountable ministers who have access to specialised help if they need it. They are therefore run efficiently and are treated as almost part of the mother country. This ensures not only free trade with the motherland but also with any country/group which the mother country trades freely with eg French Guiana has open access not only to France but also to the whole European Union. Mother countries are also usually generous when it comes to development aid and in this way help to promote economic growth without the need to resort to foreign debts which have held back so many independent developing countries. In this way then free from major corruption and incompetence and bolstered by free trade and aid is it any wonder that dependent states have performed extremely well in the last 40 years leaving their near neighbours which opted for independence far behind? *(Dependent territories under UK jurisdiction:- Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat, Pitcairn Island, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands.) |
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just1world@just1world.org |
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