Posted on 06/30/2013 6:50:34 PM PDT by TexGrill
US President Barack Obama arrived in Senegal on Wednesday for the first leg of a week-long trip to Africa. Moving on to South Africa for the weekend, he was scheduled to end his visit in Tanzania on Monday and Tuesday.
The trip is a bid by the United States to strengthen ties and improve investment opportunities. That much is clear in the statement released by the White House in May, which said that Obama intended to "reinforce the importance that the United States places on our deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including through expanding economic growth, investment and trade; strengthening democratic institutions; and
investing in the next generation of African leaders".
The question is - is it too little, too late?
Obama's trip comes a little over two months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Africa. China may not be a rival that the US wants to name-check, but there is no doubt that the specter of Beijing's flourishing influence in the region is a vital subtext to the presidential visit.
Chinese investments in Africa have grown steadily over the years that the United States has been engaged in Asia and the Middle East. Currently, they pan across many sectors and are not confined to the state-owned companies. Several private Chinese firms have also invested heavily in Africa. For example, Huawei, a leading global telecom services provider, has invested US$1.5 billion and employs 4,000 workers in Africa alone. The past decade's trade figures also attest to China's growing ties with Africa, having grown from just $9 billion in 2000 to $200 billion in 2012. That is more than double the US trade for last year, which stood at $95 billion.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
The thieving psychopaths who typically rule Fourth World African hellholes love the Chinese because,unlike those silly Westerners,they don’t include any of those pesky “honest government” or “respect for human rights” clauses in the contracts they sign.So they become billionaires,their people are kidnapped,tortured,starved and murdered and the Commies get their bauxite and copper.
Hmmm ... and Americans can’t understand why more Africans want to pursue the Chinese Dream over the American Dream nowadays. Many Americans talk to Africans as if they are primitive savages living in grass huts, or corrupt government officials.
I've been to Africa.Twice.And you?
Ooops,forgot to mention....I’ve been to China.Four times.And you?
Tex is living there and favors posting Asian ‘business tip’ threads.
Obama trip a bust in sub -Sahara Africa!!! Waste of USA taxpayer money!!! Of course....even South Africa sees what a lightweight Obama is. Of course...they would rather deal with the Chinese, Russians, Indians and Brazilians. The USA is sinking fast under Obama and his Democrat Party!!! GW Bush is respected more then Obama in sub-Sahara Africa!!! America.....wake up......ur sinkng fast!!!
It’s pretty sad that a Kenyan-born President of the USA faces throngs of hecklers all over the African continent during his so-called goodwill tour. Yet another sign of the collapse of America.
Fair enough.Perhaps he’ll enlighten us on how the typical African...who isn’t very far at all from a mud hut (regardless of what he might claim)...benefits from doing business with the Chinese.
The Soviets tried to invest in Africa bigtime and got their asses handed to them financially. The same will happen with China. It’s a dead zone.
I think the Chinese investments in Africa are non-economic in nature - they are not expected to generate a financial return on capital. For instance, the Iraqis were crowing over how the Chinese helped them drill for oil and took peanuts in return for the huge amounts of capital invested. The opportunities for personal graft are quite extensive and probably leads a lot of the big shots at Chinese state-owned firms to waste huge sums of money in service of pretty nebulous foreign policy goals. This is the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese buying Rockefeller Center at the peak of the real estate mania in the 80’s. Except the Japanese would have been fine if they had merely hung on to their American real estate instead of selling it to shore up their Japanese holdings, which went on to fall 90% from top to bottom. Whereas the Chinese are literally investing in Swiss bank accounts for African potentates.
Actually, I should have written Singaporean bank accounts, since that’s presumably why Robert Mugabe went to Singapore for medical treatment.
Perhaps the African you’re referencing to might get some respect and an opportunity to pursue a middle class lifestyle. Whereas, if he’s talking to a US government official, he will only be handed a packet of condoms and asked to stay poor and subservient to Obummer and Hildabeast.
I'm sure the typical African will benefit the roads, power plants and associated infrastructure that will be built. It's the Chinese who will get screwed. Not the bureaucrats who are padding their bank accounts, but the citizens of China whose resources are being frittered away on these foreign boondoggles.
You know,in my two trips to Africa (Tanzania,Malawi,Zambia and South Africa) the only thing I saw that came within 1000 light years of "middle class" was in the white suburbs of Johannesburg.OTOH,I saw..came within several feet of...the following: on a deserted road leading to a Tanzanian game reserve I saw,at the side of the road two people standing there,one adult,one child,both black of course.We stopped (long story).The child looked about 7...couldn't tell the gender (another long story) but he/she had red/orange hair,a big swollen belly and little stick legs.Look that up in the medical literature and you learn that it's chronic,desperate malnutrition.
Middle class? You,TexGrill,owe me one keyboard.
Please refer to Post #16
Don’t blame me for your keyboard malfunction, blame Obummer. What’s good for the goose is good for gander. This is the big debate in Africa. Should we treat them as charity cases or can they be trusted as business partners? To be honest, that’s not an easy question to answer but I’m siding with the business solution. For your reference here’s a link of my interview with the Nigerian envoy to Beijing:
http://www.chinafrica.cn/english/africa_report/txt/2011-12/31/content_418064.htm
And a link when I spoke about Hillary Clintons relations with Africa on CCTV:
http://english.cntv.cn/program/dialogue/20120810/112742.shtml
Proud to say that one of my biggest accomplishments was getting an official complaint from the US State Department about my appearance on that show. Nevertheless, I met a few Africans in Beijing who said they saw me on the show and said they agreed with me. One man from Tanzania said, “finally I meet an American who doesn’t worship Hillary.”
Good God...you sure seem to attach a lot of credibility to the Chinese press and Chinese websites.Assuming I’m correct,we have nothing to talk about in regards to China or any of her political,diplomatic or business dealings until you rid yourself of that trust.
The Chinese media blacklisted me for criticizing Obummer and Hildabeast after Obama got re-elected to the White House. Although the Chinese media were wimps in this matter I respect them more than Bathouse Barry and his Rainbow Warriors.
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