Economy & Finance

The destructive capitalism of nature does not act outside the law. He often prospers through him. Ownership, contract, limited liability company, security and bankruptcy proceedings confer on certain assets — a mining concession, a patent on a seed, a securitized claim — a priority, duration and effectiveness that human needs and ecological balances do not always have to the same degree. This is the central thesis of the lawyer Katharina Pistor in The Code of Capital: Capital is not a thing that is accumulated, but a set of legal attributes that it encodes on an asset.

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For a long time, the United States was presented as the most accomplished laboratory of modern capitalism. First world economic power, undisputed technological leader, issuer of the international reserve currency. Yet, behind this image of prosperity is a less visible but fundamental reality: the American economy today rests on an unprecedented level of debt in modern history.

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Senegal has entered an area of economic turbulence whose consequences could shape its future for the coming decade. Behind the technical terms of « government debt », « budget deficit », « IMF programme » or « structural adjustment »It is a simple reality: the ability of a state to build schools, hospitals, roads, pay its officials and protect the most vulnerable populations.

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There is something deeply paradoxical in the relationship between Africa and the major multinationals operating there. On one side, a continent full of riches — mining, agriculture, human beings, energy. On the other hand, people who are still among the poorest in the world. In between, transnational corporations whose turnover sometimes exceeds the GDP of the host states.

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The exploitation of women does not belong to the past. It has not disappeared as a result of modernity, urbanization or digitisation of societies. She changed. She adapted. She has integrated the codes of luxury, development, humanitarianism, mentoring, visible success. She learned to speak the language of consent and to follow the paths of respectability.

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Every year, the Senegalese diaspora transfers more than 1,500 billion CFA francs to the country — the equivalent of more than ten per cent of the national gross domestic product. A sum that exceeds the combined budget of several ministries, which eclipses official development assistance, and which should, logically, act as a lever for structural transformation. However, the Senegalese economy is turning around. The circle of dependence continues. And the diaspora, tired of being reduced to an ATM function, begins to question the meaning of its sacrifice.

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