Well I can tell you that the farmers who use the newly paved roads made by the Chinese are quite happy. The ones that are getting jobs in the factories are not exactly unhappy either.
Of course there is exploitation just like in the Nike factories across the border in China. That how the West has functioned for a long time so China isn't any stupider... But along with the exploitation comes some jobs that weren't there before and infrastructure that benefits everyone.
As I said, I was in Sudan and Ethiopia and interacted with a lot of different people all over the country, rich and poor and I didn't hear too many bad things about China. It's not a scientific poll, it's only my personal experience. Now if you have any hard data to support your assertion, I'd be very interested in seeing it...
gilles, is there any subject in the world that you aren't the 'mostest informed and educated person to go to' for?
You preach on about every single phuqing subject on Geo. You must be:
- Phuqin' minted in consultancy fees from the UN
- In demand by governments and NGOs
- The highest paid Ex-pat in HK
- Full of BS
Re: Darfur, Gilly, the issue isn't the Chinese attempting to get resources or making investment, which they certainly have every right to do. However, in their search for natural resources, they end up with some very strange bedfellows. I don't have a particular issue with, say, their investing in Venezuela, even though it helps prop up someone I don't particularly like, but in Darfur, as in North Korea, the interests the Chinese have there make it impossible to get the PRC on the side of any attempt to limit the human rights abuses.
No one would say that the Chinese are responsible for the outrages in Darfur or North Korea. But I would say that they are happy to deal with regimes that other nations boycott due to public pressure; the same public pressure hardly exists in China, so the government is able to practice a particularly stark form of realpolitik that props up tottering and abusing regimes. Every country pursues its perceived self interest, no doubt, the PRC is just very blatant about their approach.
Please feel free to check my spelling.
China is learning well from the west - who did natural resources so well with examples such as Operation Ajax in '53.....
Totally at random, I came across this at foreignpolicy.com:
Beijing's Coalition of the Willing - By Stefan Halper | Foreign Policy
Critical but reasonably accurate, I think.
Have you tried knitting or cake decorating? Maybe try to find some new frns that want to go to LKF.
You know I've just noticed a very interesting factoid... You've posted about 1500 messages in just over a year while I have not even double your posts in about triple the time you've been here...
It seems someone else needs to get a life too. Of course your posts are all intelligent and insightful so it makes all the difference...