Africa: Europe Scrambles as China Makes a Move into Region

allafrica ^ | 7 December 2007 | John Kaninda

[Flavius]

WHEN elephants fight, goes the old African saying, it is the grass that suffers most. This could not be more true than in the case of the rivalry pitting Europe against China on African soil, which is set to climax during the European Union (EU)-Africa summit in Lisbon at the weekend.

Africa is going to be the biggest casualty of this new scramble.

[Flavius]

[Flavius]

[CarrotAndStick]

China = Soviet Union + Market Economics

No 1980s-style economic failures to slow it down.

[BlazingArizona]

African politicians have been whining for years about the evils of the colonial era. They were forced to learn French and English, to absorb legal codes, to have industrial infrastructure built on their ancestral farmlands. Now that they have trashed all this, they're broke and starving, just as they were before the Europeans arrived.

Now the Chinese are coming. Mugabe and his pals will now have to complain to the government that brought us Tienanmen Square. Pass the popcorn, folks!

[Flavius]

What have the Romans ever done for us?

EG:
Yeah. All right, Stan. Don’t labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!
XERXES:
The aqueduct?
REG:
What?
XERXES:
The aqueduct.
REG:
Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that’s true. Yeah.
COMMANDO #3:
And the sanitation.
LORETTA:
Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?
REG:
Yeah. All right. I’ll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.
MATTHIAS:
And the roads.
REG:
Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don’t they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads—
COMMANDO:
Irrigation.
XERXES:
Medicine.
COMMANDOS:
Huh? Heh? Huh...
COMMANDO #2:
Education.
COMMANDOS:
Ohh...
REG:
Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.
COMMANDO #1:
And the wine.
COMMANDOS:
Oh, yes. Yeah...
FRANCIS:
Yeah. Yeah, that’s something we’d really miss, Reg, if the Romans left. Huh.
COMMANDO:
Public baths.
LORETTA:
And it’s safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg.
FRANCIS:
Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let’s face it. They’re the only ones who could in a place like this.
COMMANDOS:
Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
REG:
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
XERXES:
Brought peace.
REG:
Oh. Peace? Shut up!

Blog Post Dated: April 14, 2005 7:28 AM | Permalink

[Porterville]

I trust communist Chinese more than I do “democratic” Euro-weanies... because I know what to expect from the Chinese....

Europeans knife their friends in the back.

[Sandreckoner]

“No 1980s-style economic failures to slow it down.”

Right. It’s more modern, looking more at 1990s and 2000s-style economic failures.

[Sandreckoner]

If you’re a less developed nation in bad need of cash and economic development, do you want to deal more with the Americans and Europeans, who (in descending order) demand political, economic and regulatory changes in exchange for loans, or the Chinese, who demand little more than access in exchange for investment and outright cash.

[CarrotAndStick]

It’s more modern, looking more at 1990s and 2000s-style economic failures.

Yes. You can have losses, but you can still continue buying.

:^)

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Great title for the article.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Good point.

As long as the Africans aren't doing this simply to antagonize the Europeans (not the West. Europeans), and if their leaders were a lot less greedy, dealing with China is a smart move, all the more so if they are able to play China and Europe off each other to Africa's benefit.

[Oatka]

They are up against the same things that defeated the white man (and the black man) - disease, corruption, tribalism.

Now, apparently, it is the yellow man’s turn in the barrel.

[MaxMax]

Does this mean we don’t have to give them BILLIONS of aid every year?

[PapaBear3625]

Now the Chinese are coming. Mugabe and his pals will now have to complain to the government that brought us Tienanmen Square. Pass the popcorn, folks!

China needs Africa's resources. China has lots of peasants they can ship over to work at exploiting Africa's resources. China has no need at all for Africa's people.

[Zhang Fei]

Africa is going to be the biggest casualty of this new scramble.

Typical African whining. Since Europeans brought civilization with them to Africa, Africans have been complaining about the white man beating Africans down. Now that the white man has left, they complain about the white man's past actions beating the black man down. One thing about the Chinese is that - yes, they have the ego-boosting mythologies and native tyrant apologetics similar to those employed by Africans, with the white man playing the role of Satan, but they have also figured out the aptness of the following Chinese proverb - don't curse the darkness; light a candle.

[Katya]

I think it’s time to remove third world nation status to china...particularly in money lending. People forget that organizations such as the world bank are still over their giving economic assistance.