The ongoing global economic crisis is notable in that developed nations such as the U.S. and big powers like China have been seriously affected. Africa itself is also being affected, especially from the reduction or complete elimination of funding from the developed world. This article from Time magazine (July 13 edition) examines this situation. As a World Bank economist says in the article, people in the West may suffer from the recession, but for people in Africa, it can literally be a matter of life and death. On the other hand, this lack of aid money may be a good thing, for people like Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid, who argues vociferously about the detrimental effect of aid on African governments.
This other piece, also from Time`s July 13 edition, looks at Liberia and shows some good things happening, a far cry from its wartorn 90s. Yet the familiar problems of violence, albeit crimes and not conflicts or all-out war, and corruption are afflicting this nation. But overall, Liberia has come a long way from its recent past and its president, Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, seems like the real deal, so maybe the country will be able to keep on progressing.