Chapter 1079: Chapter 88: Pressure and Governance
Many Americans might psychologically not regard Black people as equals, but at least they do pay them wages. Just for this reason, the living conditions of Black people in the United States are among the best in the world. As for the two Black-dominated countries of Haiti and Liberia, although Black people enjoy more political status, their economies are in a terrible state. Except for the upper class, staying in the United States is more comfortable.
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Rousong said, "Our country’s rapid population growth benefits from a relatively well-established healthcare system and the current development across Africa. Since the late 1990s, various diseases in East Africa have significantly declined, especially evident in coastal and other humid and hot areas, forming a marked contrast with West Africa."
Although tropical regions are known for diseases, in the 20th century, they were not significantly different from temperate and subtropical areas. It was regions like Northern Europe that showed a more notable difference.
Among tropical diseases, malaria stands out. Although malaria still exists in East Africa today, with East Africa’s development, it no longer breaks out on a large scale. It can be said to have the lowest incidence among countries at the same latitude, even lower than in some temperate countries.
"Secondly, with the development of industry and agriculture, our nation’s living standards have significantly improved compared to the last century. The prices of agricultural products have remained low, and the per capita consumption of food, clothing, and other industrial products has increased dramatically."
Agriculture ensures the growth of East Africa’s population. Not only is the agricultural sector in East Africa self-sufficient, but it can also export in large quantities. With the promotion of mechanization, the use of chemical fertilizers, tailored agricultural planning, improved cultivation techniques, and more, East African agriculture has achieved leaps in quantity and rapidly matched the quality of Europe and America.
Today, East Africa is considered one of the world’s agricultural powerhouses, ranking alongside Germany in the first tier. Germany’s agricultural strength mainly lies in chemical fertilizers and pesticide technology, while East Africa leads in mechanization. Countries like the United States have a more balanced approach but lack standout points like East Africa and Germany.
"Meanwhile, the different rates of population growth across the country result from varying levels of education and divergent ideological influences. For instance, urban areas experience slightly slower population growth than rural areas. The widespread implementation of national compulsory education has also resulted in a lower birth rate among the younger generation compared to the older generation. Though these differences are not yet pronounced, they do reflect changes in our population to some degree."
Overall, educational attainment indeed impacts population growth. For East Africa’s older generation, the low level of education meant they didn’t contemplate much, adhering to traditional reproductive patterns. Particularly among Far East migrant groups, East Africa’s marriage policies fueled a population boom over seven to eighty years, laying a solid foundation for East Africa to become a global populous powerhouse.
"Currently, we have fully implemented compulsory education and achieved substantial progress in higher education, significantly enhancing the national quality. This paves the way for our country to establish itself as a global industrial power. Additionally, the quality of compulsory education has improved dramatically, establishing a comprehensive system for nurturing talent, extensively building teacher-training schools, and raising the average teaching level of instructors, significantly narrowing the education gap with countries like Germany."
In the past, East Africa’s schools at the compulsory education stage were clearly inadequate due to constraints such as talent, funding, and production levels, reflecting a typical "poor education." Especially when compared to European countries like Germany and Austria-Hungary, which implemented compulsory education earlier.
In contrast, countries without compulsory education had even higher average school standards than East Africa. For instance, in Russia, although most people don’t have the opportunity to attend school, those who do are usually the social elite. Russian education follows a typical elite route, so it’s normal for their schooling standards to surpass East Africa.
However, this does not mean Russian education is superior to East Africa’s. After all, the educated population in Russia remains limited, whereas East Africa also follows an elite route in higher education. This makes East African higher education not only large in quantity but also comparable in quality to Europe and America. The primary reason for this outcome is East Africa’s ability to select more talent at the compulsory education stage.
Rousong continued, "And this vigorous development in education has, in turn, benefited our scientific research, industrial, and agricultural development, creating a large number of researchers, technically skilled workers, and better-informed farmers. Simultaneously, it has boosted sectors such as education and healthcare."
With industrialization, East Africa’s demand for talent has grown, and industrialization has accompanied specialization in agriculture. For example, operating machinery, using pesticides and fertilizers, and scientific management all require new farmers equipped with the corresponding knowledge.
"In summary, our population has achieved both quantitative and qualitative breakthroughs. While reaching a population of over a hundred million, the educational level of the new population has also improved significantly."
East Africa’s population has not only become one of the largest globally, but its quality is also among the finest worldwide, which is evidently advantageous for East Africa’s further development.
Ernst said, "The expansion of our population size and the improvement in national quality lay a solid foundation for our further development, but we will also face some problems, including issues like guiding societal opinion, maintaining social order, and managing the bearing capacity of urban development."
As the saying goes, the bigger the forest, the more diverse the birds. With the increasing East African population, the East African government’s management difficulty has also risen. Ernst prioritizes ideological considerations to prevent "Russian" ideologies from entering East Africa. Currently, Russia and European and American social movements are in a particularly active period. After all, in recent years alone, Europe and America have experienced two major economic crises, providing fertile ground for social movements.
Especially Russia, which first faced an economic crisis and then suffered a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. At this time, Russian social movements have become quite significant. Otherwise, during World War I in the last life, they couldn’t have responded so overwhelmingly and overthrown the Tsarist government. After all, the prerequisite for such a broad response is a solid grassroots foundation, requiring tight and large-scale social organization.
The Russian coup occurred in 1917 in the previous life, and now it’s already 1909, so these years should be a period of frequent Russian social movements.
In terms of social order, the East African government is not overly concerned. As a big-government and planned economy country, the East African government is effective at managing society.
Regarding urban carrying capacity, it ultimately involves issues of housing, transportation, education, and healthcare resources. With East Africa’s population growth and advancing industrialization, large numbers of people are pouring into cities, and urban resources are increasingly strained. This requires the East African government to re-plan cities and further implement public resources like healthcare, education, and transportation.
Of course, it’s not just the cities; rural population growth is the main driving force. Currently, East Africa’s urbanization is less than thirty percent, and cities cannot yet accommodate excessive populations.
Therefore, providing more abundant public resources like healthcare and education for rural populations is necessary.
Although over the past twenty years, due to the need for industrial development, East Africa has tilted most policies and resources toward cities, this does not mean rural areas should be neglected, at least not excessively. Thus, improving necessary healthcare and education is essential.
Of course, given that East Africa’s urbanization level is set to rise further in the future, East Africa should invest cautiously in rural public resources. It’s clear to see that East Africa’s population is increasingly concentrating in cities, and in such circumstances, investing too much in rural areas might lead to some waste.
Still, the East African government shouldn’t just stop taking action. It just needs to put more effort into understanding the development potential, population, and economic conditions of rural areas to allocate social resources more reasonably.
