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.
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Whither the Neo-Coms?
Yes, I did mean to type an "m" there. Not an "n".
In this case, Neo-Com equals Neo-Communist.
A friend of mine loathes communism. For reasons deeper than I have time or energy to get into right now. (Why he is my friend may also require an explanation of similar depth. Another time for that as well.)
The point I would like to make here is that it appears there is a budding "Communist" bloc building. Rather, a bloc that is gaining in coherence as the parties to it are defining a common enemy.
And that enemy is America. Which is pretty much everyone's enemy right now. Especially for self-loathing Americans. Rather, for George W. Bush-hating Americans.
Capitalism, in principal, is not a bad idea. Neither is Communism. It is the way those ideas are implemented and the systems they evolve into that stir up the passions of men. (Unless, of course, you have a merciless opposition to the principal(s) in the first place. If you do, then there's really no talking to you at all. Your mind is closed.)
George W. Bush-haters, to some degree, detest highly-concentrated, hyper-capitalism that sustains itself through the spectre of fear. Hence, they hate the America that is right now. (And, perhaps, has been for the bulk of recent memory.)
Wait...what does that have to do with Neo-Communism?
Youknow...I'm not entirely sure. The article I've linked to above makes clear distinctions between the polled feelings of the Russian people (they have been fleetingly disenfranchised by the US govt) and the actions of Putin's administration (he's taken full advantage of that current feeling to his own benefit). It also links them causally. Showing us that Putin retains that totalitarian tendency of some of his predecessors. The one that has been used to stoke the fires of anti-Communist forces the world over. The same one that has also cleaved citizens living under Communist governments closer to the State's breast.
But what about China? They're still nominally Communist, but they hardly resemble the best practices as described by Lenin or Mao. And are they really that interested in aligning with the Russians? Aren't the average citizens of both countries competing for the same scarce resources? If not now, then eventually, no?
I'd like to think that we're smarter today than our ancestors were when it comes to gauging the true threats of ideologies that don't synch up with our founding principles. But, in talking with my friend, the fierce foe of Communism everywhere, I'm not so sure.
Communism ain't what it used to be. Right?
In this case, Neo-Com equals Neo-Communist.
A friend of mine loathes communism. For reasons deeper than I have time or energy to get into right now. (Why he is my friend may also require an explanation of similar depth. Another time for that as well.)
The point I would like to make here is that it appears there is a budding "Communist" bloc building. Rather, a bloc that is gaining in coherence as the parties to it are defining a common enemy.
And that enemy is America. Which is pretty much everyone's enemy right now. Especially for self-loathing Americans. Rather, for George W. Bush-hating Americans.
Capitalism, in principal, is not a bad idea. Neither is Communism. It is the way those ideas are implemented and the systems they evolve into that stir up the passions of men. (Unless, of course, you have a merciless opposition to the principal(s) in the first place. If you do, then there's really no talking to you at all. Your mind is closed.)
George W. Bush-haters, to some degree, detest highly-concentrated, hyper-capitalism that sustains itself through the spectre of fear. Hence, they hate the America that is right now. (And, perhaps, has been for the bulk of recent memory.)
Wait...what does that have to do with Neo-Communism?
Youknow...I'm not entirely sure. The article I've linked to above makes clear distinctions between the polled feelings of the Russian people (they have been fleetingly disenfranchised by the US govt) and the actions of Putin's administration (he's taken full advantage of that current feeling to his own benefit). It also links them causally. Showing us that Putin retains that totalitarian tendency of some of his predecessors. The one that has been used to stoke the fires of anti-Communist forces the world over. The same one that has also cleaved citizens living under Communist governments closer to the State's breast.
But what about China? They're still nominally Communist, but they hardly resemble the best practices as described by Lenin or Mao. And are they really that interested in aligning with the Russians? Aren't the average citizens of both countries competing for the same scarce resources? If not now, then eventually, no?
I'd like to think that we're smarter today than our ancestors were when it comes to gauging the true threats of ideologies that don't synch up with our founding principles. But, in talking with my friend, the fierce foe of Communism everywhere, I'm not so sure.
Communism ain't what it used to be. Right?
Friday, September 07, 2007
Killing the Revolution
The slow erosion of the manufacturing sector of the US economy is no accident. It was, as this book would tell you, an inevitability.
The goal of industry is efficiency. That's what produces profit. In the time-honored pursuit of efficiency, labor costs rank as arguably the most logical sacrifice. Which is really only a sacrifice for the people who perform the labor.
As American industry has matured, it has mastered the reduction/elimination of labor costs. Hell, before morning even broke on the Industrial Age, the country built itself up largely on the backs of Africans who were captured, imported and sold into slavery. Shortly after the 13th Amendment rightly killed that golden-egg laying goose, the Industrial Age finished its breakfast and punched in. Initially, industry required an abundance of manpower in order to function. Before the lunch bell rang, though, inventive industrialists had created machines to cut the number of workers needed to perform the labor. When other machines sped up travel--and captains of industry (those devilish pots) determined American workers to be greedy--outsourcing was born. By dinner time, most manufacturing jobs in the US had disappeared or been transformed into service/creative jobs.
During the course of this American day, many dreamers have planted picket fences and lived happily ever after--thanks to their own labor or their ability to capitalize on the labor of their neighbors--while many others have been disposed of like they were torn, stained t-shirts.
The point here, at long last, is that a bunch of Americans may get pissy about losing their jobs, but a bunch of other Americans are still smoking the pig. And as long as there are enough people living high on the hog, the collective rage that results in revolution remains quelled. In this country, it may even be dead.
In China, though, they're slurping their noontime ban mian while the revolution quietly bubbles.
By now, we've heard plenty about how the Chinese economy is a fire-breathing tiger.
With the Beijing Olympics less than a year away, the tale of two countries is growing longer and more prominent by the week.
The next move for the People's Republic mirrors the dusk play we've already watched in the US.
And I, for one, am left to wonder whether the Chinese government will sag under the heavy load of Chairman Mao's dream.
One point three billion people live in Zhōngguó. The way I read the stories linked to above, there are a lot of them who are smoking the pig, yet there are an awful lot more whose backs are being broken while their dreams get another deferment. I also gather that the number of people on the wrong side of that equation could grow if China moves to abandon the manufacturing sector that is still making it such an industrial powerhouse.
That probably won't happen, though. The Chinese will surely benefit from borrowing the American playbook on how manufacturing can yield to service and innovation. Perhaps their car makers will lock down the market on alternative fuel sources and give the people what they really want: clean air, a more vain mode of transportation and employment to create and service those machines. Maybe some other breakthrough will allow communism and capitalism to run parallel to each other more efficiently.
In a worst case scenario, though, the dream could explode. Struggling farmers. Fed up miners. Laid-off factory workers. Displaced middle managers. If they don't make it to the supper table as China steams through its day, the revolution could get new life in the People's Republic.
The goal of industry is efficiency. That's what produces profit. In the time-honored pursuit of efficiency, labor costs rank as arguably the most logical sacrifice. Which is really only a sacrifice for the people who perform the labor.
As American industry has matured, it has mastered the reduction/elimination of labor costs. Hell, before morning even broke on the Industrial Age, the country built itself up largely on the backs of Africans who were captured, imported and sold into slavery. Shortly after the 13th Amendment rightly killed that golden-egg laying goose, the Industrial Age finished its breakfast and punched in. Initially, industry required an abundance of manpower in order to function. Before the lunch bell rang, though, inventive industrialists had created machines to cut the number of workers needed to perform the labor. When other machines sped up travel--and captains of industry (those devilish pots) determined American workers to be greedy--outsourcing was born. By dinner time, most manufacturing jobs in the US had disappeared or been transformed into service/creative jobs.
During the course of this American day, many dreamers have planted picket fences and lived happily ever after--thanks to their own labor or their ability to capitalize on the labor of their neighbors--while many others have been disposed of like they were torn, stained t-shirts.
The point here, at long last, is that a bunch of Americans may get pissy about losing their jobs, but a bunch of other Americans are still smoking the pig. And as long as there are enough people living high on the hog, the collective rage that results in revolution remains quelled. In this country, it may even be dead.
In China, though, they're slurping their noontime ban mian while the revolution quietly bubbles.
By now, we've heard plenty about how the Chinese economy is a fire-breathing tiger.
With the Beijing Olympics less than a year away, the tale of two countries is growing longer and more prominent by the week.
The next move for the People's Republic mirrors the dusk play we've already watched in the US.
And I, for one, am left to wonder whether the Chinese government will sag under the heavy load of Chairman Mao's dream.
One point three billion people live in Zhōngguó. The way I read the stories linked to above, there are a lot of them who are smoking the pig, yet there are an awful lot more whose backs are being broken while their dreams get another deferment. I also gather that the number of people on the wrong side of that equation could grow if China moves to abandon the manufacturing sector that is still making it such an industrial powerhouse.
That probably won't happen, though. The Chinese will surely benefit from borrowing the American playbook on how manufacturing can yield to service and innovation. Perhaps their car makers will lock down the market on alternative fuel sources and give the people what they really want: clean air, a more vain mode of transportation and employment to create and service those machines. Maybe some other breakthrough will allow communism and capitalism to run parallel to each other more efficiently.
In a worst case scenario, though, the dream could explode. Struggling farmers. Fed up miners. Laid-off factory workers. Displaced middle managers. If they don't make it to the supper table as China steams through its day, the revolution could get new life in the People's Republic.
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