China's New Focus On Africa -- Time MagazineIf you want to see what's wrong with Africa, take a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The size of Western Europe, with almost no paved roads, Congo is the sucking vortex where Africa's heart should be. Independent Congo gave the world Mobutu Sese Seko, who for 32 years impoverished his people while traveling the world in a chartered Concorde. His death in 1997 ushered in a civil war that killed 5.4 million people and unleashed a hurricane of rape on tens of thousands more. Today AIDS and malaria are epidemic. Congo, then, is not a place you'd normally associate with a yuppie.
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My Comment: The phrase that caught my attention and explains why China is successful in Africa is the following ....
.... Enter China. Beijing doesn't do gifts; it does deals ....
Bingo .... the Time Magazine reporter has noticed the obvious.
In the years that I have been running this blog, I have always commented on how useless a good chunk of Western aid to regions like Africa has been. I have always said .... sarcastically but truthfully .... that if the West was to spend a trillion dollars a year for ten years in developing Africa's infrastructure .... if they were to return ten years later they would still see everything falling apart.
One only has to see what is happening in Haiti this year to see how free aid and gifts sometimes does not work. After the earthquake struck, billions in aid was promised. With such a commitment, there was no reason for anyone to do anything since outsiders were going to do it for them anyway .... hence nothing has been done .... and I predict that nothing will be done in the future.
And on the topic of aid to Afghanistan .... don't get me going there.
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