Monday, January 23, 2012

South Sudan facts of the day

South Sudan is about to halt oil production over disputes with their North "friends", from which they have emancipated half a year ago. The problem is that the only way to export the black gold is using the Sudanese pipeline, a fact that the guys from Khartoum are using as a way to retain part of the revenues missed with the partition of the country. 

A big challenge for Juba is that 97.8% of public revenues are actually coming from oil... quite an important share! 

Other horrible interesting facts from the newest country in the world:

- 38% of the population has to walk for more than 30 minutes one way to collect drinking water
- 83% of the population live in tukuls.
- 27% of the 15 years and above population is literate. The literacy rate for males is 40% compared to 16% for females.
- In 2009 there were 129 students per classroom.

More statistics here




Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time... I was something like a macroeconomist... and now I was reminded about it. 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Les Fleurs du mal

The cultivation of flowers for the European market has become an increasing source of jobs in East Africa. E.g., after the success of the industry in Kenya, Uganda emulated and made flowers one of its main non-traditional exported products in last years.

But, unfortunately, it seems to be that there is something evil in this business. A recent paper claims that women who get an employment in the flower industry in Ethiopia are significantly more likely to suffer domestic violence, and this report shows how international triangulation is used to evade taxes to flowers in Kenya: