While bankers in New York learn that what goes up must come down, it’s easy to feel somewhat inoculated here in Africa from the global financial unraveling. Indeed, without a major stock index on the entire continent (Apologies to Johannesburg, but you’ll need a market capitalization of at least $1 trillion to play in the minor leagues. Double that and we can talk about the Big Leagues.), doom and gloom don’t seem to be running wild here like other places around the globe (Zimbabwe’s 531 billion percent inflation excepted - though that seems to have little to do with sub-prime mortgages.) While there’s still plenty of regular doom and gloom abound, no one should be jumping from tall buildings any time soon (at least not in Kigali, where tall buildings are something of a rarity).

According to The Economist, arguably the world’s most important newspaper, Africa’s prospects are actually looking pretty good. It seems China’s still buying, Africa’s over-regulated banks were never allowed to invest irresponsibly abroad anyways, and the aid money and direct investment keeps flowing from governments (Japan, China, Malaysia, India, and the US, Europe, and Gulf States) eager to court Africa’s vast resources. Watch TV here and you see commercials for tax-free cities in Dubai and burgeoning stock markets in Poland - it’s bizarre.

Reports The Economist, even adjusting for the global slowdown, the IMF still expects something around 6% GDP growth for the continent. It was less than 1% at the beginning of the last decade. Prices for commodities will certainly fall, but even tempered demand will still be high. The US wants 25% of its oil to come from Africa by the next decade and China is an unscrupulus driller.

So maybe Africa is’nt such a bad place to be.

I asked one of my Rwandese co-workers why she cared about the US election. She said she just cares about the economy and someone fixing it. I told her the good news, that Africa is doing pretty well. So we (myself included) don’t have to worry, I told her. She reminded me that we work for an American organization. America goes down, we don’t have jobs. Not so un-inter-connected after all.

Oh, right.