The New Silk Road

On the new Silk Road, they don't trade much silk. (That I know of.)

And, it appears, that there isn't actually much trading going on.

Just "the most bare-knuckled resource grab the world has ever seen."

If I've emailed you or talked to you during the last 2-3 months, there's a good chance I've referenced the series that follows or even shared these links with you. It is, quite simply, the finest piece of journalism I've come across in 2008.

It is long. But reading it represents a great investment of your time. Whether or not you were curious about the relationship between China and the African continent before you poked your head into this post.

Without further ado...

China in Africa Part 1

China in Africa Part 2

China in Africa Part 3

China in Africa Part 4

China in Africa Part 5

China in Africa Part 6

There is something very pyrrhic about how the people of those African countries have entangled themselves with the Chinese government and the Chinese business community.

Mutually assured destuction is too hyperbolic, but I don't think there's a more fitting phrase to project the outcome for both China and the Continent. It just can't end well.

Problem, Meet Solution

In English, the President of Zimbabwe's surname, "Mugabe", roughly translates as "gross, willful incompetence." Ironic for a man who holds seven--count'em seven--non-honorary degrees.

That may be slightly unfair to Bobby Mugabe. Navigating your own newfound independence is never easy. After the former Rhodesia fully relieved itself of British colonial rule, he and the rest of the Zanus may have owned the hearts and minds of many Zimbabweans, but there was a mountain of English-inspired detritus to sort out. While land distribution and coalition building dominated the political agenda in the free third world nation circa 1980, first world nations in the West and East counted their billions, raced to corner the market on the next technological revolution and plowed through piles of cocaine like it was oxygen.

Even before Bobby Mugabe was rechristened a corrupt dictator, he and his country were, how you say?, in a hole.

That, though, doesn't excuse the Allyson Felix rate of inflation that has crippled Zimbabwe during the first few years of the 21st Century.

Shit is so bad over there that Zimbab-expats can't even send money back home for their families to buy groceries. One dollar today may only be worth 50-cent tomorrow. Whether they have the scrilla to buy a bag of rice or not, people in Zimbabwe still gotta eat, right?

Therein lies the problem. And here, courtesy of NPR's Marketplace, is the answer.

My Shona may be a little rusty, but I think "Sadza" translates as "clever application of capitalism."

Or something to that effect.