resource curse

Kambale Musavuli is a renowned Congolese human rights advocate and a perceptive geopolitical commentator dedicated to unveiling resource exploitation, power struggles, and the plight of the Congolese people.

Timestamps:
[00:00] - Trailer
[00:59] - Introduction
[01:28] - Why I am Based in Africa
[01:45] - Kwame Nkrumah's 7-Year Plan
[02:19] - Nkrumah's Far-reaching Influence
[03:03] - Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah
[03:41] - The Abandoned Oil Refinery
[04:29] - Corruption in DRC's Oil & Gas
[05:56] - Envisioning a Unified African Nation
[06:36] - Emmerson Mnangagwa Lithium Ban
[07:44] - Unemployment Insights from China
[08:53] - Where Kambale's Story Begun
[10:37] - Congo's Turning Point: 1994
[11:40] - Congo's Borders & Global Pressure
[12:20] - War in DRC And Refugees
[15:41] - Personal Impact of War on Kambale
[26:30] - Fighting Our Own: Black Skin, White Masks 
[33:17] - Youth Engagement in Current Affairs
[37:28] - Inside Congo's Turmoil
[44:09] - Lumumba Assassination's Implications
[54:00] - Why You Should Care About Congo  
[54:26] - Congo: The Most Resource-Rich Country 
[56:15] - 1 Billion Fish Dying of Old Age Annually 
[1:03:26] - More Reasons to Care What's Happening In Congo
[1:05:11] - Importance Of Pan-Africanism
[1:07:53] - Congo Spearheading United Africa
[1:09:16] - West African Nations Inspiring Hope
[1:10:47] - Macron's Significant Congo Visit
[1:19:21] - Closing

Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-British entrepreneur, founded one of the largest mobile phone companies that operated on the African continent. In 2006, he established the Mo Ibrahim Foundation with the goal of fostering improved governance. The foundation publishes The Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which assesses governance performance in 54 African countries. It also awards the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (worth $5 million) to African leaders who have successfully delivered security, health, education, and economic development to their constituents and have democratically transferred power to their successors.

Resources:

• The Road to COP27 Making Africa’s Case in the Global  Climate Debate(July 2022)
• "Billionaire Mo Ibrahim attacks ‘hypocrisy’ over Africa’s gas", The Guardian, 17 October 2022

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPod

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Host

Professor Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Tony Addison is a Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen in the Development Economics Research Group. He was a Chief Economist and Deputy Director of UNU-WIDER in Helsinki, Finland. He was previously Professor of Development Studies, University of Manchester; Executive Director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI), University of Manchester (from 2006-2009); and Associate Director of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC).

His books include: From Conflict to Recovery in Africa (Oxford University Press), Making Peace Work: The Challenges of Economic and Social Reconstruction (Palgrave Macmillan), and Poverty Dynamics: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective (Oxford University Press). He was a lead author for The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09: Escaping Poverty Traps.

• Extractive Industries: The Management of Resources as a Driver of Sustainable Development (Oxford University Press, 2018, open access book)
• Twitter: Tony Addison
• Twitter: Dan Banik & In Pursuit of Development

https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

Host

Professor Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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I suppose it’s elitist and maybe even nationalistic of me but I was surprised to hear the phrase “resource curse,” which I associate with the developing world, used recently in a webinar in the context of a region of the United States. The region is northern Appalachia, comprising 22 counties in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia. And the curse is, as it so often is in the third world, a surfeit of oil and especially natural gas, in this case extractable largely through the relatively new process of fracking. 

Here to explain how the resource curse is impoverishing communities in the middle of the U.S. in the middle of the 21st century is Sean O’Leary. He’s a senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute and the author of its recent report, “Appalachia’s Natural Gas Counties: How dreams of jobs and prosperity turned into almost nothing.”

There is considerable academic literature on the resource curse thesis which aims to explain why resource-rich countries have not benefited from their oil and mineral resources. And this resource curse thesis within economics, political science, and sociology has numerous economic, political, social, and environmental dimensions.

But in her work, our guest has often highlighted the inadequacies of the “resource curse” thesis particularly in explaining dissatisfaction with the pace of economic development in her own country – Nigeria.

Zainab Usman is a senior fellow and Director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has previously worked as a Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank and is co-author of the book, The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Technologies for All. She also contributed to World Bank’s flagship report  –  Rethinking Power Sector Reforms in Developing Countries. Her forthcoming book, Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, is set to be published later this year.

• Zainab Usman on Twitter
• Dan Banik and In Pursuit of Development on Twitter

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Professor Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Corey and Steve interview Leif Wenar, Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and author of Blood Oil. They begin with memories of Leif and Corey’s mutual friend David Foster Wallace and end with a discussion of John Rawls and Robert Nozick (Wenar’s thesis advisor at Harvard, and a friend of Steve’s). Corey asks whether Leif shares his view that analytic philosophy had become too divorced from wider intellectual life. Leif explains his effort to re-engage philosophy in the big issues of our day as Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Mill and Marx were in theirs. He details how a trip to Nigeria gave him insight into the real problems facing real people in oil-rich countries. Leif explains how the legal concept of “efficiency” led to the resource curse and argues that we should refuse to buy oil from countries that are not minimally accountable to their people. Steve notes that some may find this approach too idealistic and not in the US interest. Leif suggests that what philosophers can contribute is the ability to see the big synthetic picture in a complex world.

Resources

• Transcript
• Leif Wenar (Bio)
• Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules That Run the World
• John Rawls – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Peter Nozick – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Should the United States allow its citizens to buy oil from countries run by bad men? Is this a case where morality trumps the usual case for free trade? Leif Wenar, professor of philosophy at King's College, London and author of Blood Oil, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the morality of buying resources from countries that use the resulting revenue to oppress their citizens. Based on the ideas in his book, Wenar argues that in many cases, importing oil is equivalent to buying stolen goods where the low prices cannot justify the purchase. The conversation discusses the possible outcomes from banning foreign oil from tyrannical regimes along with the resource curse and the case for fair trade.