Page 13 - Almanacco_ENG_2015

aFricaThe GDP of many african counTries is GrowinG fasT anDTheir GovernmenTs are bankinG on new TechnoloGies anD increaseD aGriculTural yielDs. conTrariwise, an alTernaTive iDea of The fuTure is DeveloPinG which, wiThouT refuTinG moDerniTy, is baseD on GivinG value To TraDiTional skillsAFricA’STwo FuTuresSerenA milAnoTwo opposed worldviews, two different ideas of the future and of development, are currently at loggerheads in Africa. In many countries the GDP is growing fast thanks to oil and gas exports. In their capitals, buildings are sprouting like mushrooms and countless Chinese firms are building roads, highways, ports and houses. Over the last few years, China has implemented a continent- wide strategy without historical prec- edent, exporting goods, technology, capital and people. Now over a millionChinese citizens live in Africa, and Bei- jing has established stable official rela- tions with over 50 African states.thE thrust of modErnityAfrican governments are banking on mo- dernity, which for most of them means new technologies, increased agricul- tural yields and agreements with foreign countries to give up millions of hectares of land in exchange for infrastructure. Every day capitals gobble up whole swathes of countryside, transforming them without prior planning into two- headed monsters: on the one hand some of the richest, most expensive neighborhoods in the world, on the other shanty towns that stretch as far as the eye can see, devoid of essential services and home to whole communities of fugi- tives from rural villages. Demographic in- crease has now reached astonishing lev-1133