Transcript for the Adam Smith in Africa?
discussion.
Please note that transcript has only been spell-checked, the grammar has not been edited. Also the transcript may only be for part of the discussion.
Mutual aid economy
Market economy needs to be “processed”
So, what are your impressions?
I’ve never paid attention to African economics before, because it’s too small, or not that important to world economics. This is my first time to hear how they do business. I’m impressed about this. They share with not who comes first, but who needs first. But how do they do that? Probably that they have to listen to the elderly about what has to be done, they’re following some unwritten culture, to make that situation work. Otherwise I can’t imagine a bunch of strangers coming up with this kind of solution. I don’t think it’s easy to copy from other areas. Like us. Like if I had a bunch of food to share, everyone would just grab it till it’s gone. Like my dad, he would just take what he wanted. It’s human nature. But when you have scarce resources, you have to share or everyone dies.
I agree with henry, I never thought about this problem before. Africans’ economic structure, I mean. But I know a lot of people would pay attention to Africa, because they think it is a good place to develop and put some resources and get more and more from this big land.
—well that’s why china is over there
—yes! I just want to say that, they’re putting a lot of money into their infrastructure, their basic city building and railways, highways, and a lot of buildings I think. Maybe we need to think more for this part, because it’s actually a big market, for example south Africa, it’s the biggest market in Africa, but maybe in a few year, the market will grow.
Igbo Alaba Int’l Market: "settling"
How are they “settling” their future competitors?
They’re sharing their knowledge, their customers, how are they doing this? What’s the benefit?
—businesses need to grow to lower the costs. A fractured market doesn’t have bargaining power. Electronics the costs are settled, you need volume to break even.
—this is also true about pharmaceuticals.
—the model is important, that you get volume, and then so many people may benefit.
—so maybe they’re negotiating as a group, because they have such tight relationships.
—they
—they’re honest people so they have a good price
—this is pure bullshit. We’re talking businessmen here. Wtf
—
Guerillas = rebel soldiers
Gorilla = the animal
Merry-go-rounds ＝ 會 ＝ Korean 會
Acequia = shares water by need
So this topic, although I didn’t’ really get what this guy was trying to present, it really triggered my interest in Africa, which we really don[t pay attention to. I don’t know if it’s shared economy, but it’s definitely shared resources, because they have scarce resources, like water, meat etc., so the men go out to find these things for their tribe. So that’s why people can’t live alone there. In china, you can live alone because the land is more abundant. So the concept of sharing resources mixed with the sharing economy, it’s a totally different term. We can learn something from them too, like we have all these products, electronic products, processed food, and we waste a lot. There they have to make the most out of everything and reuse it, with the scarce resources. This kind of culture things makes them willing to help their own kind of people to grow, to have mutual benefit for their group or their business. That’s my opinion on this topic. I think I’ll be looking into more information about Africa, it’s a pretty interesting continent.
So I think today’s topic, I mean topic, because the speaker today, I cannot understand what’s he’s saying very well, so I will put it on “topic” and today it’s Africa’s economic perspective. Actually I didn’t know the African economy very well, but one of my senior high school classmates, she worked in world vision in Africa before, she’s been there for 2 years, and done a very basic necessary system for them, their drinking water system is not very developed. From her perspective most Africans are still very poor, but actually, this sharing economy, I don’t really know a lot about it. So maybe we could have more topics regarding this kind of thinking, and also African issues. For Somalia pirates and maybe the Ebola virus and the Congo. I know their culture there is very different, their religious thinking is different from other African countries. In Africa there’s a lot of topics we could discussing the future.
—I have a question. HIV is originally from Africa? I think so.
