In California, we've got crumbling infrastructure, including a shaky electrical supply, plus high unemployment and concerns that our leadership is not accountable to us. We think we've got it bad. But before you sink too deep into your depression, consider Chad, the 10th-poorest country in the world, where I spent two weeks this November.
This sub-Saharan African nation seems to exist in a parallel universe where there is next to no infrastructure and barely any electricity, as well as little employment, and where accountable leadership is a work in progress. The CIA's Web site describes Chad as slightly more than three times the size of the state of California, but any other comparison is absurd.
Chad is home to eight million people from about 200 ethnic groups. The per capita GDP is about $270. The CIA's list of natural hazards for the country, which is bordered by Libya, Sudan, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, includes "periodic droughts and locust plagues," which places Chad in a proper Biblical context.
| Continue Lisa Margonelli's San Francisco Chronicle article "Economy Got You Down? California is a dream compared to African nation Chad"
posted in articles on December 26, 2003 12:31 PM | t (0)
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