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The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for February, 2012

Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think
By Vijay Mahajan (Author) . Hardcover, 288 pages, Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008, Language: English, ISBN-10: 0132339420, ISBN-13: 978-0132339421

The author recognizes that Africa is more than a hot continent full of corrupt officials, desert sands and teeming jungles. He dispels the myth that Africa is homogeneous and recognizes the various market strategies on the African Continent....This book should be required reading for anyone interested in doing business in Africa.....“This book lays out a powerful portrait of the growing opportunities in Africa. It is clear to us that any global firm interested in growth must see Africa as an essential part of its portfolio.” Neville Isdell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, USA. ....“While we consider Africa one of our most important markets, we are very aware that it is often overlooked as a place to conduct sustainable business. This book shows that Africa offers opportunities equal to other developing regions that receive more attention. Through the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards, we have committed to promoting high-quality coverage of the business environment in Africa. This book makes an important contribution in providing a vivid picture of the African market opportunity.” Paul Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, Diageo, UK

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for January, 2012

Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunity
By David Fick
[512 pages, Publisher: Real African Publishers, 2007; ISBN-13: 978-1919855592]

David Fick's "Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunity" reads like a "Who is Who" list of hard-nosed African entrepreneurs who have fished in life's dustbins and weathered the elements with astounding results. The 512-page volume is based on his belief that the second largest continent has immense potential that only waits to be tapped, and his confidence in her citizens' creativity, resilience and industry. "While many write off Africa as the continent of despair, other enterprising individuals and organisations have recognized the huge, untapped potential of Africa and are actively pursuing business ventures across the continent," says the book. The book features brief descriptions of these successful entrepreneurs and their ongoing enterprises in Africa. Each story captures the spirit behind these successes and highlights how they are not only creating countless job opportunities in 53 African countries but also bringing immeasurable improvement to the quality of life in African communities...

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for December, 2011

The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again

By Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols

Hardcover: 352 pages; Publisher: Nation Books; 1 edition (January 5, 2010); Language: English; ISBN-10: 1568586051

"...This is another in a long line of enlightening and valuable studies by the authors pertaining the role of big business in the demise of American news media in the name of profit. It is required reading for anyone concerned with the loss of the democratic values that once served as the foundation of journalistic enterprise..."

"....Not only is this book not radical, it is intelligently written, well-researched, timely, and important. A functional democracy requires a healthy press, and clearly the US press is suffering under the influence of private capital. (Fox News is the poster child of our moribund press, but it is not alone). Public investment in journalism is a refreshing idea and one that should be take seriously...."

"....American newspapers are dying at an alarming rate, killed off by a failing corporate model that puts profits before journalism and a reliance on advertisers who are flocking to the Internet. Respected journalists McChesney and Nichols offer historical perspective—how we got into this sorry state—and analysis from journalists, economists, and advocates on how we might be able to get out of it. They cite statistics, chronicling efforts to move newsgathering to the Internet and the success of many bloggers who rely on aggregated news from old media. Their bottom line: without some kind of government support, journalism as we know it will not survive...The authors argue passionately for radical solutions but also offer an exhilarating vision for the direction of American journalism..." - Vanessa Bush

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for November, 2011

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

By John Perkins

Paperback: 303 pages; Publisher: Plume; First Thus edition (December 27, 2005); Language: English; ISBN-10: 0452287081

"...Perkins, a former chief economist at a Boston strategic-consulting firm, says he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business. "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars," Perkins writes..."

"...Perkins' story illuminates a larger picture in a way that more scholarly treatises cannot match. In this book...Perkins really does tell it like it is. This is the book I have been waiting for, the book that fills in the blanks left behind by the writers of global theories, the book that tells us how it really happens...(how)...the United States engineered ousters of democratically-elected leaders who did not do the bidding of our corporations..(and)...the actual steps that led to these actions...."

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for October, 2011

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

By Naomi Klein

Hardcover: 576 pages, Publisher: Metropolitan Books (September 18, 2007); ISBN-10: 0805079831

A real eye-opener and a 'must-read' for those interested in understanding the machinations of the Empire.

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.

"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq'' civil war, a new law is unveiled that will allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves… Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly outsources the running of the 'War on Terror' to Halliburton and Blackwater… After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts… New Orleans residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be re-opened." Klein not only kicks butt, she names names, notably economist Milton Friedman and his radical Chicago School of the 1950s and 60s which she notes "produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today." Stand up and take a bow, Donald Rumsfeld.

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Supplementary Reading

Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation

Paperback: 224 pages; Publisher: Zed Books (October 14, 2006); Language: English; ISBN-10: 1842778110

By Patrick Bond

"...In Looting Africa, Patrick Bond basically updates Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. While Africa is often portrayed in global media as the hapless beneficiary of well intentioned aid and charitable campaigns, Bond emphasizes the many ways wealth is pulled out of the continent--through dividend and debt payments, unequal exchange, brain drains, and such..." "...In 2005 the World Bank admitted that Africa is drained of wealth, through debt, phantom aid, capital flight, brain drain, unfair trade, export of primary products, and distorted investment. From 1980 to 2002, sub-Saharan Africa's debt rose from $61 billon to $206 billion, while it paid $255 billion in interest. Between 1970 and 1996, it also lost $285 billion in capital flight....""..Patrick Bond, somewhat well-known in radical circles as a political economist, has written "Looting Africa" to summarize how global capital and its comprador elites within Africa have systematically plundered and ruined the continent before and after independence...."

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for September, 2011

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (American Empire Project)

By

Noam Chomsky

Paperback: 304 pages; Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st, First Edition edition (August 12, 2004); Language: English; ISBN-10: 0805076883

"....He does an excellent job outlining the big and largely invisible agenda that actually manipulates our consent on things we would never agree to had we known the facts. The rise of multinational corporations to hegemonic power and the rich elites that both serve and comprise them, are the elephants in the room we can feel but dare not discuss or describe. If you think we live in (America) in a democracy, you are blind..."

"....Surveying U.S. actions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey, the Far East and elsewhere over the past half a century along with the modern American war in Iraq, Chomsky indicates that America is just as much a terrorist state as any other government or rogue organization. George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq drew worldwide criticism, in part because it seemed to present a new philosophy of pre-emptive war and an appearance of global empire building. But according to Chomsky, such has been the operating philosophy of American foreign policy for decades. Opponents of the Bush administration's tactics consistently point out how the American government supported Saddam Hussein for many years prior to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait (pictures of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand are easy to come by) as a means of pointing out how the United States is happy to fund despots when it's in American interests. ..."

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for August, 2011

Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa

By Martin Meredith

[Paperback] 592 pages. Publisher: PublicAffairs (September 22, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1586486411; ISBN-13: 978-1586486419

Journalist, biographer, and historian Martin Meredith presents Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, a thorough history of the Cape Colony in southern Africa from when the British took possession of it in 1806 to the founding of modern South Africa in 1910. The chronicle heats up in 1871, when diamonds were discovered in southern Africa - in tremendous quantities. A massive struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the region erupted. Meredith's narrative is heavily researched yet comes alive with colorful portrayals of personalities ranging from rakish prospector Cecil Rhodes (founder of the DeBeers company) who absconded with a fortune manipulating diamond and gold markets, to nationalists like Paul Kruger who fought tirelessly for their land and people, to native kings like Lobengula who were trapped amid the Europeans' struggle. A gripping chronicle of greed and destruction unleashed, and the repercussions for the nation of South Africa for the century to come, highly recommended for world history shelves.

NEPAD marks 10th anniversary with two competitions

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Agency and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) have joined forces in celebrating NEPAD's 10th Anniversary. It is within this context of reflecting over the advancement of the African development agenda, that the two institutions are jointly organising photo and essay competitions. The essay competition is themed; “Looking at ICTs and entrepreneurship in agriculture and rural development through the eyes of women and the youth” and “Looking at ICTs, agriculture, entrepreneurship and climate change in Africa through the eyes of women and the youth” for the photo competition. These contests also fall within the framework of CTA activities on Youth, Women and ICTs. In line with these objectives, CTA and the NEPAD Agency are searching for enthusiastic Africans, who want to demonstrate their abilities by examining these issues. Please follow the links below to download the announcements:

Photo Competition - English | French

Essay Competition - English | French

Tripoli & Sirte on My Mind

""A psychiatrist and revolutionary, Fanon challenges and discredits the
notion that a person can be isolated and understood apart from his/her
social context. And he argues that the conditions of oppression affect
both a person's and a people's conscious and unconscious thought and
practice. Here, he evolves a second fundamental proposition that
oppression, in this case colonialism, has a "totalitarian character,"
and involves not just the conquest and occupation of lands, but also the
lives of the people "settling at the very center of the individual" and
engaging in "a sustained work" of depersonalization, deculturalization
and dehumanization of the dominated people....""Maulana Kargena