Africa, in Darkness

Filed under: Africa

We've previously reported how the West, including U-2's Bono, is getting it wrong on aid to Africa, focusing on increasing aid amounts when it should be addressing ineffective and often corrupt delivery systems.

Now, the Economist has an article showing just how backward Africa (and Russia's Siberia) really is -- and one picture (above) is worth thousand screams. The magazine writes:

Seen from space, Africa at night is unlit -- as dark as all-but empty Siberia. With nearly 1 billion people, Africa accounts for over a sixth of the world's population, but generates only 4% of global electricity. Three-quarters of that is used by South Africa, Egypt and the other countries along the north African littoral. The need for more power stations in the rest of the continent has long been recognised, but most of the attempts at electrification in the 1970s and the 1980s failed.In some countries, dictators pillaged power stations for parts and fuel. In others, power stations were built but not maintained. Turbines were run at full capacity until they broke, then were abandoned.

Click through to read the discouraging details.