Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Unemployment in South Africa

I visited South Africa a few years ago and had the privilege of meeting many young people that were searching for jobs. They all had graduated and had skills that an employer could use. The only problem was that there were no jobs for them to apply to.

The article says the unemployment rate has jumped up 1.5% in the last few months to 23.5% with a loss of over 200,000 jobs. I think this rate is low. I would have estimated more like 35-40% from the people I met in Durban.

President-elect Jacob Zuma says he will work with businesses to create jobs. How exactly will he do that? That is a nice campaign promise but I have no idea how you will accomplish this in Africa right now.

And, for that matter, in the U.S. right now either.....

Monday, May 4, 2009

Even Elephants Know What Is Going On

According a report out of Zambia, a good number of elephants have crossed the Zambezi river to live in Zambia rather than Zimbabwe. I think we can read between the lines and surmise the elephants found Zimbabwe unlivable.

But of course, Mugabe blames western intervention for the problems Zimbabwe is experiencing.

It is amazing that elephants are smarter than Mugabe....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5233991/Elephants-abandon-troubled-Zimbabwe.html