Current Events Summary 2

About a month ago, there was some big flooding in Africa. In east africa, it was most felt in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan. In some parts of the land, it floods most years, but the people were still surprised this time at the rapidness of the rising rainwaters. Thousands of people lost their homes, and hudreds their lives. This will be a negative affect on their economies because the rains destroyed many peoples crops, which is a large part of income. Many of these East African countries do not really have enough money to repair all the damage and bring help to their suffering countries. The UN is lending a hand, but many more are needed. UN agencies are seeking $43 million for Uganda alone... Now the African countries will be using their money to help fix this issue, instead of using it for other economic plans they may have had. (This connects to the theme that geography affects history.)
But according to Takatoshi Kato, sub-Saharan countries are doing great economy wise. He says East Africa has grown economically (related to the merging of world markets/companies or something), and growth is expected to continue increasing in the next few years. The growth is due in part to oil-exporting countries, but non-oil-exporting countries are assisting as well. There are risks for the future though, such as the fact that "aid flow from international donors has not yet fully materialized." So, for the most part (according to this guy), East African economies are growing rapidly and gaining stability, but there are a few economic dangers.
Kenya has rigid employment regulations that are apparently becoming obstacles to creating jobs. The IFC says that this rigidity produces "less job creation, smaller company size... and longer spells of unemployment... -all of which may reduce productivity growth." They warn that this is not in the long term interest of workers and businesses.
In Sudan, there are people still in bondage of slavery, but since it costs money to free them, the government and other countries have lost motivation to free the people. The slave owners had originally taken them because of ethnic rivalry, but are probably keeping them today because the slaves get them more MONEY. The government has a hard time funding programs to free the slaves because the government doesn't have "enough" money. (talk about priorities!)
So, basically, right now East African countries are suffering economically from things ranging from flooding to employment regulations. But according to some people, their economies are doing great, growing and stabilizing.