What We’re Reading 2/3/10

Feb 3rd, 2010 11:55 AM UTC
By Robyn Mitchell

The Wall Street Journal: Liquid Asset
The Wall Street Journal explores the politically sensitive issue of putting a price on water, arguing that “realizing the true value of mankind’s most precious resource might be the best way of ensuring the world doesn’t run dry.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently called the issue of water scarcity one of the greatest threats to health, safety, economic growth, human rights and national security. However, according to Piet Klop, senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, a Washington D.C., think tank, the fact that “water is way too cheap” is another problem that is often overlooked. Klop argues that in most of the world, the price of water is a far cry from what its scarcity value suggests it should be, which encourages wastefulness and means there is not enough revenue to invest in water infrastructure.

The Wall Street Journal: Haiti Needs to Be Built, Not Rebuilt (Op-Ed)
Director of the UNC Global Research Institute, Dr. Peter Coclanis, argues that the “Marshall Plan for Haiti” that is being touted as a potential recovery plan for the earthquake-ravaged country, has little chance of succeeding. According to Coclanis, what is required to put Haiti on sound economic footing is much different than what Europe or Japan faced in 1948. Instead, Coclanis urges policy makers to focus on creating the conditions—economic, political, public health, educational and cultural—necessary to put Haiti onto the first foothold of the development ladder. Said Coclanis, “Before the quake there were more than 10,000 nongovernmental organizations in Haiti feeding the poor, providing health services and much more. This fact alone should give the world pause. Haiti doesn’t need to be rebuilt. It needs to be built from the ground up.”

The Independent (Uganda): One Year of Obama: Any Change for Africa?
The Independent assesses how Obama’s presidency has served Africa one year into his first term in office. The paper argues that “as an American with a Kenyan father, Obama’s foreign policy could have been expected to hold Africa as a greater priority than previous administrations,” however, “thus far, no intrinsically new solutions have been articulated by the Obama administration.” The Independent highlights the recently released Africa Policy Outlook 2010, which underlines poverty, climate change and HIV/AIDS as the major challenges for America’s 2010 Africa policy. The paper concludes by saying, “Let us hope President Obama will rise to those challenges.”

Reuters: World Bank hops on China’s African express
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Tuesday that the World Bank is working with China to develop a manufacturing sector in Africa and potentially transform the economies of the poorest continent. According to Zoellick, developing a domestic factory sector would go a long way towards cutting these costs, as well as creating jobs and accelerating industrialization. Despite his praise for China’s investment in Africa, however, Zoellick said too many projects tended to rely on imported Chinese labor to the detriment of African skills development. Said the Bank President, “We’ve wanted to work with both Africa and China so that people get the full benefits.”

Reuters: Haiti aid operation still has way to go, U.N. says
Top UN relief official John Holmes said Tuesday that the aid operation in Haiti has been complicated and frustratingly slow, but is making significant progress, particularly in getting food to quake survivors. According to Holmes, providing shelter to an estimated 1 million homeless is first priority now that search and rescue efforts have ended and most life-threatening injuries have been treated. He also emphasized that overall the situation in the devastated capital is calm, apart from “isolated incidents of looting or attacks on convoys of food.” Said the UN official, “We still have a significant way to go before reaching everybody who needs food, and on the shelter side as well. This is a potentially volatile environment and we have to make sure it doesn’t degenerate from fights over food into more serious civil unrest.”

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