Talking about leftist regimes in the Arab world is a bit anachronistic. The Arabs have nothing but bitter memories of their socialist past during the Cold War period. The leftist policies and patriotic rhetoric of Egypt’s Nasser, the Baathist regimes in Syria and Iraq, and socialist dictatorships in Algeria, South Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan have brought only economic disasters, military defeats and demoralized populaces.

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Despite massive urbanization and exodus of people from the countryside to towns, Africa still relies on its farmers and nomadic herders for subsistence. These people, however, are the poorest of the poor and rarely get the financial assistance they need to develop their farms and improve for their lives. They are also losing their farms and grazing land at an alarming rate due to the land grab by greedy real estate companies.

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