Fool’s gold
Dear Sir,
In reference to the editorial, “Gold unlikely to lose its lustre for long” (April 18), I must say that there is no guarantee that it will be so. It is true that people attracted to the lower price are snapping up gold bars, coins and jewellery in Qatar and elsewhere in the world.
But the fact is that the precious metal has of little commercial value. People still invest in it, seeing it as a quasi-currency. But any currency can lose its value because of many factors. But the gold’s value is sustained by its apparent scarcity.
After rising for more than 11 years, gold started falling steadily in the last several weeks. Its downward spiral has now intensified, with prices falling by 9% on Monday, its biggest loss in a day in dollar terms.
Historically, many investors think of gold as an alternative investment when economic times get tough. But as price continues its downward trend, the selling pressure will grow and more and more people will dump their gold assets. It will be total chaos then. Hold off then. I expect gold prices to fall further.
TPA
(Full name and address supplied)
Plight
of Africa
Dear Sir,
Africa is melting before our eyes. With numerous de facto civil wars, the outlook for this troubled continent is dark indeed.
Terrorists and drug cartels are using Africa as a convenient stepping stone to Europe.
World powers, meanwhile, are seeking to establish footholds and gain control over Africa’s strategic minerals and energy reserves.
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains the deadliest since World War II and has resulted in the loss of more than 4mn lives since 1998 and the displacement of millions more.
Many die from war-related causes, mainly disease and malnutrition. Corruption and tax evasion cost Africa hundreds of billions in the last decade. In 2009, $74bn left Africa illicitly which was three times the amount of development aid the continent received that year.
In the three decades through 2009, $1tn was lost to Africa through clandestine channels like untaxed transfers to foreign accounts and bribes to officials. Africa is continually called a dying continent, a dark continent, a corrupt continent.
Farouk Araie
[email protected]
