President Who?
The Sweet and Sour of the Chinese Pres’s visit
President Hu of the PRC arrived in Namibia yesterday, slightly early apparently having cut short his visit to Zambia, not being used to facing protests. The protests planned were over mistreatment of Zambian workers by Chinese companies. People’s opinions, especially those of foreign people, do not count for too much in the People’s Republic.
Anyway, President Hu arrived safely, being greeted at the airport by the obligatory traditional dancing troupe – one being uncomfortably reminded of turkeys celebrating the arrival of Christmas. Because the reason for the visit was not to distribute largesse, as one burbling reporter had it, but to ensure China’s call on commodities to drive its economy. Thus his itinerary, otherwise geographically rather confusing, defined itself: Sudan for the oil, Liberia for the iron ore and rubber, Zambia for the copper, Namibia for the uranium and South Africa for most everything else. At least, President Hu was a bit more subtle than to spend his time visiting the uranium mines, although the main one at Rossing is spectacular enough.
The amounts of ‘largesse’ involved are hardly massive – N$30 million (less than US$ 5 million, for ‘projects’, and a similar amount as an ‘interest-free loan’).
What would President Hu made of Namibia? It’s difficult to say: the 40 degree sun blazed down, and the both the flags and the scrub grass wilted by the roadside.
There still remains the impression, as voiced by a BBC listener, that China is mostly or exclusively interested in sourcing its raw materials from Africa while in return opening lots of no-name shops which sell Chinese products, such as shoes which fall apart on the first walk and can openers which succumb to the first tin of beans. China can of course make very good products, when the price is right.
But there is no doubting that China is the country of the future, and will be a superpower when the US is forgotten (as it was a civilisation before the West was even thought of). And it’s true that the great Chinese exploration fleet discovered Africa seventy years before the Portuguese (but don’t add the part that they sailed around Africa without really stopping – not too much of interest there – and that the admiral was fired on his return for wasting time exploring useless foreign countries).
So we need China, and thankfully, due to U308 , they need us. Greetings and welcome.
The Sweet and Sour of the Chinese Pres’s visit
President Hu of the PRC arrived in Namibia yesterday, slightly early apparently having cut short his visit to Zambia, not being used to facing protests. The protests planned were over mistreatment of Zambian workers by Chinese companies. People’s opinions, especially those of foreign people, do not count for too much in the People’s Republic.
Anyway, President Hu arrived safely, being greeted at the airport by the obligatory traditional dancing troupe – one being uncomfortably reminded of turkeys celebrating the arrival of Christmas. Because the reason for the visit was not to distribute largesse, as one burbling reporter had it, but to ensure China’s call on commodities to drive its economy. Thus his itinerary, otherwise geographically rather confusing, defined itself: Sudan for the oil, Liberia for the iron ore and rubber, Zambia for the copper, Namibia for the uranium and South Africa for most everything else. At least, President Hu was a bit more subtle than to spend his time visiting the uranium mines, although the main one at Rossing is spectacular enough.
The amounts of ‘largesse’ involved are hardly massive – N$30 million (less than US$ 5 million, for ‘projects’, and a similar amount as an ‘interest-free loan’).
What would President Hu made of Namibia? It’s difficult to say: the 40 degree sun blazed down, and the both the flags and the scrub grass wilted by the roadside.
There still remains the impression, as voiced by a BBC listener, that China is mostly or exclusively interested in sourcing its raw materials from Africa while in return opening lots of no-name shops which sell Chinese products, such as shoes which fall apart on the first walk and can openers which succumb to the first tin of beans. China can of course make very good products, when the price is right.
But there is no doubting that China is the country of the future, and will be a superpower when the US is forgotten (as it was a civilisation before the West was even thought of). And it’s true that the great Chinese exploration fleet discovered Africa seventy years before the Portuguese (but don’t add the part that they sailed around Africa without really stopping – not too much of interest there – and that the admiral was fired on his return for wasting time exploring useless foreign countries).
So we need China, and thankfully, due to U308 , they need us. Greetings and welcome.
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