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The looting machine : warlords, oligarchs, corporations, smugglers, and the theft of Africa's wealth  Cover Image Book Book

The looting machine : warlords, oligarchs, corporations, smugglers, and the theft of Africa's wealth / Tom Burgis.

Burgis, Tom. (Author).

Summary:

The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 per cent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 per cent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent. In his first book, The Looting Machine , Tom Burgis exposes the truth about the African development miracle: for the resource states, it's a mirage. The oil, copper, diamonds, gold and coltan deposits attract a global network of traders, bankers, corporate extractors and investors who combine with venal political cabals to loot the states' value. And the vagaries of resource-dependent economies could pitch Africa's new middle class back into destitution just as quickly as they climbed out of it. The ground beneath their feet is as precarious as a Congolese mine shaft; their prosperity could spill away like crude from a busted pipeline. This catastrophic social disintegration is not merely a continuation of Africa's past as a colonial victim. The looting now is accelerating as never before. As global demand for Africa's resources rises, a handful of Africans are becoming legitimately rich but the vast majority, like the continent as a whole, is being fleeced. Outsiders tend to think of Africa as a great drain of philanthropy. But look more closely at the resource industry and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world looks rather different.

Record details

  • ISBN: 1610397118 (pbk.)
  • ISBN: 9781610397117 (pbk.)
  • Physical Description: xi, 329 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm.
  • Publisher: New York, NY : PublicAffairs, [2015]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
A curse of riches -- Futungo, Inc. -- "It is forbidden to piss in the park" -- Incubators of poverty -- Guanxi -- when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled -- A bridge to Beijing -- Finance and cyanide -- God has nothing to do with it -- Black gold -- the new money kings -- Complicity.
Immediate Source of Acquisition Note:
LSC 21.99
Subject: Mineral industries > Africa.
Mines and mineral resources > Africa.
Africa > Economic conditions.
Africa > Foreign economic relations.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Cookstown Branch 338.2096 Bur 31681020062535 NONFICPBK Available -


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