Lagos, Lagos Jumping

[Wahalla]

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2026474_2026675_2074274,00.html

Read this article in Time Magazine on a flight oin Friday.... Suddenly I realised I havent been in Lagos for over 10 years now...

I hope the progress is true.. there was a program on the rebuilding of Lagos.. I like the conection between the goverement and the goverened being taxation... a goverment that has its revvenue from other sources but taxation has no reason to encourage development.. but that they are up to 79 % of the city spend in Lagos is inspiring if it is true...

I hope EKO ATlantic is a success.. commercially.... But then this is africa.... If it is commercially then it will have cultural significance....

[johnnycakes]

Re: Lagos, Lagos Jumping

They are building an island for the rich and the corporations. This is in no way a step up for poor Nigerians who suffer as they always will under capitalism;

Here is an excerpt from the Time article;

"...... Such epic overcrowding has spawned a host of other difficulties — not only legendary traffic but also unemployment, poor housing, crime and disease. All that has been exacerbated by Nigeria's notoriously poor government, something that, in turn, has its roots in the country's large oil reserves.

OIL, WHICH ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 85% OF REVENUE, DETACHES A GOVERNMENT FROM ITS PEOPLE.
Because it does not depend on them for money, it feels little need to serve them.

That disconnection helps explain Lagos' decline. When oil prices collapsed in the early 1980s and state revenues tumbled, work on Lagos' infrastructure stopped. But when crude prices recovered, no one thought to resume it.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/pa...074274,00.html #ixzz1PAT1eDZl