Equatorial Guinea: Second richest country in the world

[Jerry Jesus]

Hi everybody, I'm new here. I thought I'd kick off the new year by telling everyone a rather interesting revelation.

Behold the second richest country in the world:


The discovery and exploitation of large oil reserves have contributed to dramatic economic growth in recent years. Forestry, farming, and fishing are also major components of GDP. Subsistence farming predominates. Although pre-independence Equatorial Guinea counted on cocoa production for hard currency earnings, the neglect of the rural economy under successive regimes has diminished potential for agriculture-led growth (the government has stated its intention to reinvest some oil revenue into agriculture)..............................Growth remained strong in 2005, led by oil. Equatorial Guinea now has the second highest per capita income in the world, after Luxembourg.


GDP - real growth rate: 18.6% (2005 est.)

Purchasing power parity - $50,200 (2005 est.)

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ek.html

Whoa.................................I'm justy gonna pause for a moment. :eek:

This is equatorial guinea:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/ek-map.gif

With such massive growth rates I wonder if it will look like this in 10 years:

http://www.prisjakt.nu/jedi/screens/swep1/city.jpg

WOW. This took me totally by surprise. Discuss.

[spidergoat]

That is interesting, but I bet there is still a huge gap between the rich and poor.

[Hapsburg]

McShit.
Who's the first richest?

[Huwy]

The fucking vatican city I imagine.
With all their solid gold buildings and priceless art and artifacts all hidden away for no-one to see. Greedy catholics - do they think jesus would have hoarded all that gold?

[Clockwood]

Ummm... yes?
But he would have to walk over an awful lot of water to find the Aztecs and slaughter them.

[Jerry Jesus]

The fucking vatican city I imagine.
With all their solid gold buildings and priceless art and artifacts all hidden away for no-one to see. Greedy catholics - do they think jesus would have hoarded all that gold?


Close but no cigar huwy hehe, no pun intended for you avatar (if that indeed is a cigar). Its actually Luxembourg.


That is interesting, but I bet there is still a huge gap between the rich and poor.

Indeed there is. In this country, "the rich" are members of the presidential family, "the poor" is well,...everyody else.

I say it needs a good ol'fashioned regime change. Send in about 500 troops, a couple tanks and some air support and that should get the job done. I would the the new government would be relatively benign and spread the oil wealth more evenly.

[spidergoat]

Don't give Bush any ideas! :)

[Clockwood]

What are we waiting for? Lets hire some mercs and get ourselves a country.

[nirakar]

Equatorial Guinea seems to be a great example of why median income is aq much better statistic then average income. Per capita income is average income. Equatorial Guinea is still a impoverished country. Most people have no electricity, a short life expectancy, bad roads, no health care, and no money. The money is in the foreign bank accounts of those connected to the ruling president/dictator.

[nirakar]

Luxembourg is #1

[Xylene]

Close but no cigar huwy hehe, no pun intended for you avatar (if that indeed is a cigar). Its actually Luxembourg.



Indeed there is. In this country, "the rich" are members of the presidential family, "the poor" is well,...everyody else.

I say it needs a good ol'fashioned regime change. Send in about 500 troops, a couple tanks and some air support and that should get the job done. I would the the new government would be relatively benign and spread the oil wealth more evenly.

Spread the oil wealth more evenly, you reckon--where, into the hands of Haliburton and Dickhead Cheney?

[Clockwood]

Ah, more anti-American bias.
But even such a thing as you suggest would be better for them than what they have now.

Anyway, yo need not worry. We wouldn't touch the ass-end of Africa with a ten foot pole. Too much trouble.

[dixonmassey]

We wouldn't touch the ass-end of Africa with a ten foot pole. Too much trouble.

You misuse the word "we". It gives an impression that you (and like you) have some say in foreign and other policies. Alas, the question "whose ass to touch with a ten foot pole" is out of your league.

[Clockwood]

I know my country. Why do you think we never got involved in Sudan or Congo with all the genocide and humanitarian disasters going on over there? Too much trouble. Even Iraq is a thousand times more manageable than that hellhole continent. We would have to carpetbomb half the jungle or something just as nasty and that just doesn't look good.

[dixonmassey]

Again, an abstraction with a name "country" doesn't decide a squat. Elite$ do (in 90 something % of the cases). Ratio gain/expenditure is not fixed in time even in Africa.

[nirakar]

"We" are involved in Africa. We backed the Uganda faction in the Congo war. "We" were involved in Angola. "We" have a 1500 person military base in Djibuti that also employs 500 Djibutians. The USA is everywhere. Our spooks and our tools the IMF and World Bank and US AID and the NED are everywhere.

[River Ape]

Luxembourg is #1
I can't believe Luxembourg is richer than Monaco!

[QuarkMoon]

I know my country. Why do you think we never got involved in Sudan or Congo with all the genocide and humanitarian disasters going on over there? Too much trouble. Even Iraq is a thousand times more manageable than that hellhole continent. We would have to carpetbomb half the jungle or something just as nasty and that just doesn't look good.

What the hell are you talking about? The U.S. is all over Africa, both politically and for humanitarian aid. You might want to try and pick up a newspaper every so often, perhaps even turn on your television. :confused:

The fact is Africa is ripe to become the most powerful and richest continent in the world. The oil, the minerals, the agriculture, they have so many natural resources, if they could stop the wars, corrupt regimes and all the genocide, they could rule the world. It's slowly moving forward, the younger generation of Africans are more open-minded, and a lot more educated. I think in the next 20 years you will see more and more African countries embrace democracy and become world players.

[Cottontop3000]

FUCK YEAH!!

[PandaMetal]

I think in the next 20 years you will see more and more African countries embrace democracy and become world players.

Out of curiosity, do you correlate democracy with capitalism?

[Clockwood]

Africa: The continent with hardly any arable land, almost no infrastructure, ecological disaster from one corner to the other, the world's largest desert that won't stop growing, and peoples who don't understand the idea of government beyond who has the biggest gun. Yeah, a very promising case indeed.

[QuarkMoon]

Out of curiosity, do you correlate democracy with capitalism?

No, one deals with politics and the other deals with economics. You don't have to have one in order to have the other.


Africa: The continent with hardly any arable land, almost no infrastructure, ecological disaster from one corner to the other, the world's largest desert that won't stop growing, and peoples who don't understand the idea of government beyond who has the biggest gun. Yeah, a very promising case indeed.

They have plenty of arable land where it's useful. The places that don't have much arable land can use their natural resources to create income in order to import goods like food. Not every prosperous country in the world has booming agriculture, but it does help. As for the people not understanding government, that's why I specifically mentioned the younger generation. They are the one's being educated, millions leave the continent and get educated in Europe or America, and than return to become teachers and politicians. That is having an affect on the continent and that's why in 20 to 30 years time you will see a much more prosperous continent. That is of course if the White's around the world don't try their hardest to screw things up like they always do.

[Clockwood]

Oh yeah... nothing pleases the whitebread faction than increasing the misery and ruin of the rest of the world.
*rollseyes*

[QuarkMoon]

Oh yeah... nothing pleases the whitebread faction than increasing the misery and ruin of the rest of the world.

Very true, especially if you look through history, Europeans have been especially genocidal, prejudice, and just plain violent.

[Clockwood]

Listen. Capitalism wants you at least marginally well off. Starving people or people being slaughtered by their neighbors don't make good trade partners. The misery going on in Africa isn't because the west is exerting influence upon the continent. Its because we are leaving the continent to its own devices and its own inhabitants are tearing the whole thing apart.

If you want to blame western society for something here, try apathy. You will have the most luck with that.

[QuarkMoon]

Listen. Capitalism wants you at least marginally well off. Starving people or people being slaughtered by their neighbors don't make good trade partners. The misery going on in Africa isn't because the west is exerting influence upon the continent. Its because we are leaving the continent to its own devices and its own inhabitants are tearing the whole thing apart.

If you want to blame western society for something here, try apathy. You will have the most luck with that.

Yeah, and all the colonization and raping of the land by Europe has had no affect on the continent whatsoever, right?:rolleyes: Like I said, look through history and you will see genocide, prejudice, and violence stacked on more genocide, prejudice, and violence when dealing with Europeans.

When I finish my degree program and start my own business, I plan to spread to Africa as soon as I possibly can (as well as China and India). The possibilities are endless, get a hold of just 5% of the market in those countries and Africa and you will be quite successful.

[Clockwood]

What makes you think something that happened in history is being performed right now? Countries go through phases, one generation dies out as another matures, culture changes. Just because Germany once was guilty of the holocaust is enough reason to think that they would start setting up the concentration camps the moment we aren't looking? Just because Iceland was settled by the Vikings is enough reason to think they are going to start raiding the coast of England for gold and resources?

Yes, you could go to Africa and perhaps snag some business. Chances are you would have to have bodyguards, eventually a private army, to keep that business. At this point you would become exactly what most of the already rich people already are... a feudal warlord.

And you say you want 5% of the wealth of multiple nations. This means that there would probably be room for only 20 other warlords of equal stature in this collection of countries you now reside in. So it seems you would also be an expansionistic warlord.

[QuarkMoon]

What makes you think something that happened in history is being performed right now? Countries go through phases, one generation dies out as another matures, culture changes.

That would be great if it were true. Sadly, history has shown that to be false, on numerous occasions. It's one thing to be optimistic, it's another to be delusional.


Yes, you could go to Africa and perhaps snag some business. Chances are you would have to have bodyguards, eventually a private army, to keep that business. At this point you would become exactly what most of the already rich people already are... a feudal warlord.

And you say you want 5% of the wealth of multiple nations. This means that there would probably be room for only 20 other warlords of equal stature in this collection of countries you now reside in. So it seems you would also be an expansionistic warlord.

What a great fairy tale, so now you have to be a warlord to do business in Africa? Such ignorance, have you actually been there? Did you know that the Coca-Cola Company has many factories in Africa? Did you know that there are many American and European based hotels in Africa? Did you know that foreigner owned textile factories, bottled water companies, clothing and shoe companies such as Nike, Puma, Levi, Adidas, etc, car manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda, and distribution companies such as UPS as well as various other industries are not only present in Africa, but are thriving?

You don't need to be a warlord, and you don't need an unreasonable amount of security, all you need to do is provide goods or services that are wanted, and treat the people with some goddamn respect. And they will happily pay whatever they have.

[dixonmassey]

Listen. Capitalism wants you at least marginally well off.
Well, capitalism does provide workers with minimum level of subsistenence (otherwise how to work those workers?). Everything above the subsistenence level is not due to capitilsm, it's against it. Also, capitalism relies heavily on the existence of unemployment and misery. So, not everyone is going to be blessed with subsistenence level. Thus, capitalism wants a worker involved into wealth creation at least marginally well off. It doesn't give a squat about extra souls. The army of "extra" is growing and growing. "Mass Consumers" think too much of themselves, they are not essential for capitalist system to work.



Starving people or people being slaughtered by their neighbors don't make good trade partners. The misery going on in Africa isn't because the west is exerting influence upon the continent. Its because we are leaving the continent to its own devices and its own inhabitants are tearing the whole thing apart.

You see, western powers divided Africa into arbitrary pieces, populated by tribes, which to put it mildly are not excited by each other. Interuption of the historical process, colonizing continent, creating deadborn "countries", neo colonizing continent, blaming savages for all evils. Western civilization in all its beauty.