HomeSocial Affairs (Page 163)

Social Affairs

 

‘What lies at the core of any economic action or system is a shared cultural understanding which provides stability and meanings to people’s actions’

Taye Negussie (PhD)

Up until the 1980s, the dominant intellectual view in the development discourse was that culture and economy were two distinct and autonomous entities having little in common. Subsequently, certain economic management models and strategies were viewed as universal formulae readily applicable across cultures and societies. One such presumably universal economic model was the ‘economic growth approach’ which was tried in many of the then Third World Countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, but succeeded only in a handful of countries.   

 

How many of us know that this rather poor continent, Africa, is ironically one of the biggest markets for the world-class whisky liquor company since long?

Taye Negussie (PhD)

One of the renowned economists of our time, Jeffrey D. Sachs, in his recent article entitled The Lost Generation written to the Project Syndicate website had as an opening statement: “A country’s economic success depends on the education, skills and health of its population.”

Bad governance is an equal sharing of misery.” –Shiv Khera

 Taye Negussie(PHD)

Too often, oppressors in unjust, repressive, unaccountable and undemocratic governance systems seem to be trapped in a mental delusion that they would gain at the expense of the oppressed. This is a gross misconception since the very act of dehumanizing a fellow human being necessarily entails the robbing of humanity both from the oppressors as well as the oppressed. Generally speaking, an oppressive social system is an all-loosing game where no one would stand to gain. A telling example for the final fate of an oppressive system would be the current on-going civil war ravaging almost all the Syrian people indiscriminately.