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31 January 2012 15:38

Don’t occupy Rondebosch

Seven reasons to not emphasise equality.

JOHANNESBURG - The “Occupy” movement is fuelled by the politics of inequality. Few countries are as economically unequal as SA.  A nation can achieve much political and judicial equality through enacting a constitution and committing to the rule of law.  That is, one vote per adult, all adults eligible to be elected, criminal law applies equally to all. Achieving economic equality however is deeply elusive in today’s hyper-competitive and highly integrated world economy.  SA’s success in creating an equality-based constitution was a decades-long endeavour along a jagged path.  To eventually achieve much greater economic equality, SA must focus on increasing opportunities through improving competitiveness.

Critical among the reasons that progress has been slow and frequently elusive, is that “equality” is infused with much divisive political resonance.  Yet to make real progress toward greater equality SA’s various stakeholders must collaborate to improve the nation’s competitiveness.  This will lead to expanding opportunities, the most critical stepping stones for improving equality.

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24 January 2012 12:21

Obama’s Cold War with China

- reveals SA’s foreign policy impotency.

JOHANNESBURG - While global media and financial markets are consumed with Europe’s debt crisis, the Obama administration is redirecting US foreign policy away from the Middle East and Europe to constrain China’s regional hegemon ambitions. Just as China’s behaviour follows historic norms for a rising great power, the US’s balancing and containment moves are consistent with traditional responses. SA’s foreign policy stance however is a historic orphan which undermines the country's growth potential.

Foreign policies have always centered on national security and economic interests. In recent decades shared international interests made important inroads yet national priorities still dominate

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17 January 2012 15:08

Could SA use a good debt crisis?

Pretoria still doesn’t get what is undermining Europe?

JOHANNESBURG – Many Asian countries have experienced over a decade of high growth since the 1998 Asian debt crisis inspired their more intensely global perspectives with strong regional links. They further downgraded consumption to feverishly focus on competitiveness and skill development. Ten year’s later the West entered its double-phased debt crisis and some countries are now trying to use their current debt crisis pain to adjust for 21^st century realities – while others continue glaring into the oncoming headlights. SA’s manageable debt load provides the perverse option of being among the last to adjust to a more demanding global environment.

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10 January 2012 13:23

The ANC’s Marxist problem

Shawn Hagedorn argues that the ANC has exceptionally lethargic Marxists.

CAPE TOWN - History has shown Marx’s economic and political policy prescriptions to have been formidably wrongheaded.  Few lessons have come at a greater cost.  But Marx’s problem-solving advancements live on and they are precisely the diagnostic tools the ANC need to adequately appreciate SA’s challenges and to sculpt workable solutions.

He painstakingly critiqued premises, structures and developments. Yet what the ANC thought leadership practices is the antithesis of Marx’s career-long struggle to analyse, understand and develop solutions. Rather they dwell on a host of class, equality and fairness issues that are not true to Marx’s analytical rigor and this crowds-out problem solving.

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12 December 2011 14:30

Innovation is overrated

Yet it tells us much about ourselves.

JOHANNESBURG - If you were 20 years old and poor, would you rather live in a country where everyone is poor or one where there is a mix of poor, middle class and rich people? 

Wealthy people living in mostly wealthy countries are highly dependent on innovation to maintain their life-styles. A widely-held perception is that cellphones and as-yet-to-be-invented game-changing technologies will be central to poverty eradication.  Don’ bet on it. Cellphones can be price competitive and highly useful tools when traditional communication, banking and transportation infrastructures are poorly developed. Yet in regions, such as Sub Saharan Africa, where most countries are predominantly poor and young people lack opportunities, innovation is at best a distant second-tier tool for poverty alleviation.

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