Labor

If you only think of genocide when you hear the name "Rwanda," it's time to think again.

Today, Rwanda is moving forward, fervently set on rebranding itself into one of Africa's most investment-friendly havens. And it appears to have some of America's most recognizable names in business in its corner. A just-published article in Fast Company counts the CEOs of Starbucks and Costco as two of the Rwanda's most influential supporters, along with the likes of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, former British PM Tony Blair, and Pastor Rick Warren of "Purpose-Driven" fame. All seem to praise the Rwandan government -- and especially President Paul Kagame -- for being serious about making the country's business climate as streamlined and free of bureaucratic hassles as possible, which is certainly an anomaly in much of the developing world. (Registering a business in Rwanda apparently takes less than 48 hours.)

An article in Fortune called "Why CEOs love Rwanda" offers this money quote from Chicago financier Dan Cooper (who is credited with introducing Kagame to Costco CEO Jim Sinegal):

We came away saying, this is the most undervalued ‘stock' on the continent and maybe in the world.  Here's an African nation that's reaching out, not to governments so much, but to corporate America.  They want to work.  They want U.S. business to bring innovation to their country."

But is this too good to be true? The country's new model of economic development is an interesting one; it's almost as if Kagame has torn a page out of Beijing's handbook. While Kagame can be credited with cracking down hard on government corruption and creating a competent administration in the country's capital of Kigali, there's always the problem of restricted political rights and civil liberties, which critics of the regime never fail to point out. The issue is certainly important, especially given Rwanda's long history of political violence.

But that said, the country's clearly moving forward. And apparently, the business world isn't the only one taking notice. Last year, the United States signed a bilateral investment treaty with Rwanda -- the first such treaty signed between the U.S. and any Sub-Saharan African country in almost a decade. 

Fifteen years after genocide, this is Rwanda rising.

Hat tip: Africamusings

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images

The Private Sector Development blog at the World Bank has a cool post on the effect of labor laws on computer use. Social scientists have theorized that the stricter the regulations on hiring and firing workers, the more companies turn to computers and technology.

Turns out that conventional wisdom is correct, a World Bank study shows:

Amin (2009) tests this hypothesis on 1,948 retail stores in India using data from Enterprise Surveys, a regular World Bank survey on firm performance, firm characteristics and the business climate....The study finds that the percentage of retail stores that use computers rises by 6.2 percentage points as we move from the state with the least to the median level of rigid labor laws. This is a large effect given than only 19% of the stores in the sample use computers.

The PSD blog cautions against reading too much into the results, though: 

That is, to properly understand the computers/productivity relationship one needs to distinguish between the motive of saving labor because of labor regulations and the motive of enhancing efficiency through computer usage. To what extent these effects hold remains to be empirically ascertained - an important task given that the use of computers and other modern devices is fast spreading across the globe.

But there's a nice synergy there. And I wonder whether the same scientists have studied the corollary between India as an outsourcing hub and an IT giant. 

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a frankly horrific set of numbers. The unemployment rate hit 8.5%, the highest in more than 25 years; 663,000 workers lost their jobs in March alone; 25 million are underemployed; and over the course of the recession, the U.S. has bled more than 5 million jobs.

Certainly, the U.S. has fewer social safeguards against the disruptions of unemployment than many other high-income economies, meaning fewer protections against lay-offs and less-generous unemployment benefits. (FP looked at the best places to lose your job last month.) This generally means more volatility in the unemployment rate.

But is the U.S. really doing worse than, say, France and the United Kingdom, countries with historically high unemployment? 

The short answer is yes; the U.S. recession has gone on for longer and is deeper than in Europe, and therefore has sapped three times as many jobs.  The unemployment rate in the U.S. is higher than in the U.K., and close to France's. (The U.K. and French numbers above are estimates.) And the job-losses are accelerating faster in the U.S. than in other countries.

Here's hoping for it to bottom-out soon. 

There are more slaves on the planet today than at any time in human history. But a landmark case in West Africa this week should give thousands of them a rare dose of hope. A court in Niger found the country's government guilty of failing to protect the rights of Hadijatou Mani, a 24-year-old woman sold into slavery at the age of 12.

Mani says she was sold as a young girl to a man for $500 and forced into domestic and agricultural work for a decade. Her master raped her repeatedly, and she bore him three children. She was freed in 2005 and, with the help of Anti-Slavery International, brought the case against the government for failing to protect her. In the judge's decision, he ordered the government to pay Mani about $20,000.

Niger officially abolished slavery in 1960, but the practice persists throughout the country, with an estimated 43,000 people enslaved. There are believed to be tens of thousands more in bondage across West Africa. Niger's government repeatedly contends that it does all it can to eradicate the practice, but this is the first time a court has held it responsible for looking the other way. There's little chance of thousands more slaves being so lucky as to be freed and rewarded, but if this compels the government to enact (or enforce) more stringent laws, all the better.

Photo: Boureima HAMA/AFP/Getty Images

Think it's tough finding employment in the United States?

Try a Chinese job fair:

China Photos/Getty Images

Job seekers visit the first large-scale job fair held at the China International Exhibition Center after the Olympics Games on September 21, 2008, in Beijing.

Straight from FP contributor Robert Reich's blog:

Labor Day should remind us how many shitty jobs still exist.

The globetrotting documentarians over at Current Vanguard have just posted an interesting new short film from the Philippines, where the primary export is the country's own citizens.

"Destination Anywhere" looks at the 20 million Filipinos who work abroad in fields ranging from housekeeping to medical care. The billions of dollars in remittances they send home every year account for about 10 percent of the Philippines' GDP. While this is generally viewed as positive for economic growth (President Gloria Arroyo has described the overseas workers as "heroes of the republic".) it doesn't do much for the kind of longterm development and savings that could stimulate job creation at home. Plus, as the film's director, Tracey Chang, finds, there are enormous social costs when you consider the Philippines' millions of separated families.

For more on the relationship between remittances, corruption, and poor economic planning, check out "The Remittance Curse" in the current issue of Foreign Policy.

ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

It's no secret that Japan has traditionally been averse to immigration. Many long-term immigrants wait eternally for Japanese citizenship. The Japanese parliament also recently approved a plan to fingerprint and photograph all adult foreigners entering Japan.

But is the tide against foreigners turning in Japan? Possibly. According to a recent Mainichi newspaper telephone survey, 63 percent of respondents favored allowing the immigration of unskilled foreign laborers, even though the Japanese government generally opposes such measures—opting instead for a "cautious" approach toward unskilled workers. Out of the 63 percent, 58 percent supported accepting unskilled foreign workers in fields facing worker shortages, and 5 percent believed that entry-level foreign workers should be accepted without conditions.

Hidenori Sakanaka, head of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, believes the shift in favor of foreigners may be due to Japan's enormous demographic challenge associated with its rapidly aging society. He also suggests the Japanese may gradually be appreciating the work already done in Japan by entry-level foreign workers in fields from nursing to agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Necessity may be the mother of invention—or in this case, acceptance—but it remains to be seen whether this is really a cultural shift toward embracing immigration. If legislation follows, I may be convinced.