We have been working for several months in Zinkia and with Pocoyoworking on the development of a project in Angola and for Angola. Pocoyo has been present in Angola for a long time now and is very much loved by the children there.
In the last few days, after returning from my first trip, from which I have been wrote in this blogI have been paying closer attention to recently published news and studies on the African continent, its citizens and its future.
I would like to share in a brief way some of the data that have caught my attention the most...
First of all, to reflect on the real size of Africa in relation to the rest of the world and in particular with respect to the countries today considered among the most important. The photo below is significant
Secondly, people power. The power of population growth.
Also in a previous post spoke of an analysis carried out by Spanish sociologist and professor Emilio Lamo de Espinosa that had caught my attention because of its simplicity and its consequences. I repeat what I said: "...In 1950, 25% of the world population was European. Today it is only 8% of the world population and in a very short time it will not exceed 6%. This gives Europe an enormous capacity of power and less and less control over the future. Technologies are spreading faster and faster. This diffusion of technologies means that productivity is becoming more and more equalized between the different markets. The more population, the more productivity if the technology gap is no longer significant. Demographic growth becomes power. This simple reflection explains that history is no longer written, nor will it be written for a long time, in the West. For many generations, Europe wrote the future of the world. Now it is up to others to write it for her..."
This is the reality of Africa
Their growth rates far exceed those of other countries. And Western civilizations are already starting to leave us behind and what is worse, they are starting to embarrass us in these matters.
This also makes them enormously optimistic.
An optimism that has been lost in many parts of the developed world. European and North American optimism has given way to pessimism. And if it is not pessimism, at best... it is conformism. Which is just as bad.
Africa's optimism and the way its citizens look forward to their future is reminiscent of the "happy 60's, 70's and 80's"in Europe and North America.
It is not a mirage.
These are some of their figures and some of their forecasts:
For those who have not yet done so... you have to start looking at Africa carefully. It is on its way to becoming a necessary heart that beats and gives life to the rest of the world and looks very likely to become one of the world's most important food pantries once again.