The Scramble for Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Scramble for Africa - Essay Example5).The impact of ball-shapedization on Africa has illustrated its dangers. Just as niftyism needed to be regulated in the United States and other market economies in the industrial age to protect people from the abuse of companies in the name of profit, a worldwide effort arguably needs to be made to protect the most vulnerable people in the world from embodied abuse when their own governments will not do so. According to Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, a globalization watchdog, G8 countries need to take the lead in preventing this variety of abuse, as their companies are the most likely to be benefiting from it. He asserts, Western companies and banks rescue colluded in stripping Africas resources. We need to track revenues from anele, mining and logging into bailiwick budgets to make sure that the money isnt siphoned off by corrupt officials (par. 4).The potential for Africa to produce huge profits for foreign investors is unde niable. The continent is shaping up to be the highest potential investiture area in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa may be the poorest region in the world but it is also its most profitable investment destination. According to the World Banks 2003 global development finance report, the continent offers the highest returns on foreign direct investment of any region in the world (Wright 2005, par. 7). It is only a matter of time before this fact will influence the behavior of foreign companies. At the moment only around 1% of the private capital that is sloshing around the globe finds its way into sub-Saharan Africa. But there is an increasing band of intrepid international companies that are initiating a new scramble for Africa. like the colonial pioneers before them, they have found that the strategy can be risky but the potential rewards are enormous (par. 8).The African continents wealth of oil and diamonds is the primary target of this latest scramble. Oil in particular has led d eveloped nations to eye Africa, particularly given the recent escalation of prices. Spurred by rising global oil prices and depleting reservoirs nearer home, the worlds biggest energy-consuming countries have re-discovered Africa. Oil production across that least-developed continent is set to double by the end of the decade, with the US alone importing more than than a quarter of its requirements from there. Africa is expected to supply one-fifth of global output by 2010 (Oil exploration 2005, par. 2). Competition for this African resource is fierce, and threatens to inflict salutary injury on local populations. As the worlds oil becomes depleted, the energy-intensive developed countries face each other in mounting competition for the remaining resources. This trend could have major economic, political, social and environmental implications for regions such as Africa (par. 1). Unfettered by the kind of government regulation constraining huge multinational oil companies in develope d countries, there is a grave risk that they could fail to implement environmental and other safeguards, thereby risking the health and safety of the local populations. Further, an environmental hazard such as an oil spill or refinery explosion could have tremendous economic