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On the Road to Africa, Again

As  elementary students we received the Weekly Reader.  In the 1950s and 1960s the big news was that Afreican Nations were becoming indpendent. The centuries of ‘ colonialism’ of being ruled by foreign countries was coming to an end.  And so it did. But for most of Africa it has just been the same or worse despotism under local thugs rather than foreign ones. The latest invaders are the Chinese.

This is chronicled in the latest issue of Fast Company.    It is the longest article they have ever published. A reporter dutifully travels form country to country. Long story short, the Chinese show up with briefcases of money, pay off local ‘leaders,’ and then proceed to haul off copper, timber, you name it. There are no demands for human rights in exchange for investment, and the investment is liable to be a new parliament building, hardly a help to the $2 per day average citizen. It is a sad story, where is Bono when you need him?

So why are we buynig Chinese products which means the virtual rape of African countries?  Where is our leadership to address this question. Why not make our own baseball caps right here instead of in China? the answer is that we want low prices and business is weary of high taxes and onmipresent regulations, and so they gravitate to coutnries where there are no regulations.

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2 responses to “On the Road to Africa, Again”

  1. Maria D Bravo Avatar
    Maria D Bravo

    I guess is like what is happing with Wal-Mart here. I hate Wal-Mart because is killing many other businesses. I avoid going shopping there, but I hate my self more when I have to go there because I find everything I need, is open 24/7, and is cheap. I was talking with my husband, who is doing the Construction Management degree, and he was telling me that Wal-Mart is very special with its construction projects. If a construction company signs a contract to work for Wal-Mart and if they don’t meet the project’s due date, Wall-mart sues them and charges them for losses during the extra time taken to complete the project. Many of those companies (per my husband) are loosing a lot of money, and many people are being fired because of that.
    It’s really sad to see that we all know there is a problem and we are part of the problem, yet we don’t do anything about it.

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Cnostruction overruns and penalties for that are nothing new but WMT never seems to be on the right side of the issue anymore. Yep it’s cheap which means independent pharmacies, optometrists, all have a difficult to impossible time competing. Like yourself, pass on shopping WMT except in extraordinary circumstances.
    Meanwhile Africa and Myanmar are systematically looted.

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