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This report is astonishing. The South Korean firm Daewoo is negotiating with the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar to use half the arable land for farming of crops to be sent to Korea. The deal encompasses over 3.2 million acres of farmland,

MONTFERMEIL, France--Where is Europe's Barack Obama? Not only are droves of Europeans hoping for a victory by the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, many are asking when France, Germany or Britain will get a chance to cast a ballot for a leader from their own burgeoning minorities. The answer: not any time soon. "Obama is rather far away. It's a bit of a fiction here, a bit of a dream," said Kadar Mkalache, tending a stand at the weekly market in Les Bosquets, a tough housing project in Montfermeil northeast of Paris. Born in France 48 years ago of Algerian descent,...

The first West African conference of the African Socialist International has ended in Freetown, with delegates calling for reparations to be paid to Africans for 400 years of slavery. A presentation by Ismail Rashid, a Sierra Leonean professor of African History at New York's Vassar College, captured the mood when he insisted that it is long overdue for the West to pay for the "heinous crimes committed against Africans for our enslavement and dehumanisation." "Asking for reparations is no favour demanded from the west," the radical pan-Africanist exploded. "It is our right because through slavery, the West stole our labour,...

VIENTIANE, Laos - A high-rise Chinatown that is to go up by Laos' laid-back capital has ignited fears that this nation's giant northern neighbor is moving to engulf this nation. So alarmed are Laotians that the communist government, which rarely explains its actions to the population, is being forced to do just that, with what passes for an unprecedented public relations campaign. The "Chinese City" is a hot topic of talk and wild rumor, much of it laced with anxiety as well as anger that the regime sealed such a momentous deal in virtual secrecy. The rumblings are being heard...

China The new colonialists Mar 13th 2008 From The Economist print edition China's hunger for natural resources is causing more problems at home than abroad THERE is no exaggerating China's hunger for commodities. The country accounts for about a fifth of the world's population, yet it gobbles up more than half of the world's pork, half of its cement, a third of its steel and over a quarter of its aluminium. It is spending 35 times as much on imports of soya beans and crude oil as it did in 1999, and 23 times as much importing copper—indeed, China has...

Patriotism lessons would glorify Britain's morally dubious past, say teachersBy LAURA CLARK - More by this author » Last updated at 20:17pm on 31st January 2008 New study: Patriotism lessons could be introduced to foster nation pride but teachers think it could exclude non-British pupils "Moral failings" in Britain's past mean pupils should not be taught patriotism, teachers said in a survey.  Nearly 90 per cent opposed plans for history and citizenship lessons aimed at fostering national identity and pride. One of the 47 London teachers questioned said the lessons might encourage "BNP-"type thinking". Another said the idea "reeked of...

The view that support for human rights around the world is tantamount to imperialism is based on a series of misconceptions What - if anything - should we do about human rights abuses in other countries? This may prove to be one of the key moral and political questions of the 21st century, not just because of the abuses themselves, but because whatever answer we give hinges on our attitude to several of the most crucial issues in international relations today: national sovereignty, cultural differences, the rule of law, globalisation and "liberal intervention" (the new term for what many would...

PRETORIA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Resource-rich Africa should increase trade and strengthen ties with China to secure its development and stake in the global economy, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Monday. On the first stop of a four-nation swing through Africa, Yang told reporters in Pretoria, South Africa, that China and its partners in Africa would benefit from closer cooperation in a number of areas, including trade and investment. "If you view development against the backdrop of globalisation, I think there is all the more reason for China and African countries to work better to support each other,"...

Sarkozy speechwriter 'racist'09/10/2007 17:26  - (SA)    Paris - A star French philosopher attacked President Nicolas Sarkozy's speechwriter as a "racist" on Tuesday over an address suggesting Africans were to blame for their continent's problems. Speaking on France Inter radio, Bernard-Henri Levy attacked presidential advisor Henri Guiano over the contents of a speech delivered by Sarkozy in the Senegalese capital Dakar in July, which sparked an uproar on the continent. "Guaino, he's a racist.... He's the one who wrote this vile speech... saying that if Africa wasn't developed it was because Africans were not part of history," Henri-Levy charged. The writer stressed...

KARRATHA, Australia - For nearly three decades, Chinese peasants have left their villages for crowded dormitories and sweaty assembly lines, churning out goods for world markets. Now, China is turning the tables. Here in the Australian Outback, Shane Padley toils in the scorching heat, 2,000 miles from his home, to build an extension to a liquefied natural gas plant that feeds China's ravenous hunger for energy. At night, the 34-year-old carpenter sleeps in a tin dwelling known as a "donga," the size of a shipping container and divided into four rooms, each barely big enough for a bed. There are...

Ian Smith, the Grand Old Man of Africa, Speaks "What we believed in was responsible majority rule, as opposed to irresponsible majority rule and I stand by that," Mr. Smith tells the interviewer. "I think it is important that before you give a person the vote you ensure that his roots go down, that he's part of the whole structure of the country." "Smith is an African," Ernest Mtunzi says. "He understands the African mentality. [...] Smith was being realistic. If you give people something before they're ready, they're going to mess it up. And that has happened." Why did...

As the Pelosi Democrats attempt to steer the debate on Iraq and the war on terror away from President Bush's approach, it is useful to examine the premises behind the liberal Democratic understanding of the war on terror. So far the Democrats have been successful in faulting the president's admittedly-flawed approach. But there is no advantage in trading one bad model for another. Here, then, is my critique of some of the major elements of the liberal explanation for "why they hate us." They're very upset at us for the Crusades: James Carroll’s recent book Crusade, portrays the Crusades as...

Thanks China, now go home: buy-up of Zambia revives old colonial fears The Guardian, UK[Tuesday, February 06, 2007 23:56] Backlash as cheap Chinese labour and products follow investment from Beijing By Chris McGreal in Lusaka Members of Zambia's Chinese community wait to greet their country’s president, Hu Jintao, at Lusaka international airport. Photograph: Reuters When the foundation stone was laid for the Mulungushi textile factory three decades ago, the project was hailed as another demonstration of communist China doing for Zambia what the capitalist west would not. Beijing put up the money to build Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles and provided...

THE Chinese are rapidly developing a successful capitalist economy — it would be a shame if the commies took over... New visitors to Beijing might be tempted to utter this paradox, especially at Christmas when the shops and tourist hotels are decked out in western festive paraphernalia. The most upmarket shops boast Eu-ropean mannequins, predominantly English signs and western fashions. Senior communist party officials seem rather embarrassed when westerners ask about the great revolutionary leaders of the past: Mao is as long dead as Marx. I attended a conference in Beijing in late December on Sino-Africa relations. The senior party...

A generation ago, Christopher Columbus was a hero. No longer. Even my preteen kids can tell you that Columbus' followers brought disease and death to many New World natives. But as the forerunner of European colonization, can Columbus also claim to have ushered in an era of higher standards of living? One of the deep questions in economics is why some countries are rich and others are poor. It is widely believed that institutions such as clear and enforceable property rights are important to economic growth. Still, debates rage: Do culture, history, government, education, temperature, natural resources, cosmic rays make...

One of the staples of progressive thought, especially as taught at the University level, is the historical record of colonialism and exploitation of less-developed countries at the hand of Western Europe and the United States. According to this model, much of what is currently the Third World is only in that condition because it has been plundered, and its goods and natural resources expropriated for the benefit and profit of others. Examples include sub-Saharan Africa, many Central American and South American countries, and Southeast Asia. There are a couple of comments to make about this. First of all, is it...

Ancient tomb sheds new light on Egyptian colonialismSkeletal remains suggest conquered Nubians participated in governance of colonized state New evidence from ancient grave site reveals that Egyptian colonialists shared administrative responsibilities with conquered Nubians. In approximately 1550 B.C., Egypt conquered its southern neighbor, ancient Nubia, and secured control of valuable trade routes. But rather than excluding the colonized people from management of the region, new evidence from an archaeological site on the Nile reveals that Egyptian immigrants shared administrative responsibilities for ruling this large province with native Nubians. "The study of culture contact in the past has conventionally used ideas...

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's president vowed Tuesday to defend a string of islets against Japanese claims in Seoul's strongest criticism yet of Tokyo in the long-running territorial dispute.

Last week’s saber rattling by Hugo Chavez, a blunt threat to remove the Dutch from the Netherlands Antilles islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, clearly demonstrates the existence of a misguided national policy that can only result in an armed conflict in the Caribbean. The fabricated territorial and maritime claims against the Netherlands by the current Venezuelan government are certainly a recipe for disaster. But by also seeking to expel what he refers to as the other “colonial powers” of France, the United Kingdom and the United States from their possessions in the Western Hemisphere, he risks armed confrontation with...

VENEZUELA'S president has called on Tony Blair to return the Falkland Islands to Argentina, accusing the Prime Minister of being a "pawn" of Washington. "We have to remember the Malvinas [the Argentine name for the islands]; how they were taken away from the Argentines. Mr Blair, return the Malvinas to Argentina," said president Hugo Chavez. The socialist leader has long been the most vocal critic of US president George Bush, but Mr Blair was added to his list of "imperialists" after the Prime Minister said in parliament on Wednesday that if Mr Chavez wanted to be respected, he "should abide...