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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (23323)	9/29/2007 10:38:25 AM
From: Lee Lichterman III	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 218007

I wasn't laughing about that, I was laughing at the Pro Africa article written by a bias President. Africa has been proclaiming a turn around for 50 years and it has just eroded further and further into a cesspool. Each leader eventually grabs all he can out of the kitty and runs off to thier Swiss bank account. Meanwhile as bad as everything is in the rest of the world, there is only one place where a Beemer comes with a option package that includes flame throwers to fight off car jackers. South Africa has eroded from a beautiful place to a crime ridden chaotic mess. I wouldn't invest my worst enemy's money in that continent. It is one thing to be PC and another to be foolish with one's money. The operational costs even for good companies there is high and only getting worse. Even the South African mining companies are shutting down perfectly good mines there and choosing to mine in Australia, Canada etc rather than pay the apartheid reparation fees, provide free HIV drugs to miners constantly infecting each other etc. It is a real shame since Africa has so many resources the world needs yet the corruption is so rampant and crime rate so high that they can't stop tripping over thier own feet to become a rich region. They have the timing and resources to turn around much like Brazil or the Former Soviet regions but can't get out of their own way. I would bet 20 years from now there will be the same discussions going on. I recall Clinton's pro Africa push for investment and I laughed then and I am still laughing now. Sure AAUK has don't OK but it is because they moved most of their operations to Australia, Peru, Canada etc. Even HMY is slowly moving away from thier home areas. Mark my words, that president of Senegal will likely be in the news in the next 10 years for running off with billions in illegal funds or diverting it to friends and family. Pull up the news on ANY day, ANY day at all and see what the headlines are for Africa from the BBC news site or any other news source. My post will enrage some for being non-PC yet it is truth. Gold has tripled yet South African mining companies are seeing costs rise faster than profits vs companies that operate elsewhere. FWIW - I agree about Brazil, I have been invested there since the late 1990s just after the last crisis there and new leadership. They seem to be on the right track, so much so that my yields on bonds are falling too much due to the risk factor being so much lower. -ggg- Brazil and Asia are great places for cash but I wouldn't touch Russia or anywhere on the African continent. Good Luck, Lee