Howard French can write interesting and, sometimes, useful stuff when he is not knocking off things in a hurry or trying to win brownie points someplace, in support of consulting activitie. His major publication that I relevant here is the book:
"
".
This was published just year, but the author, in this latest fly-by-night piece seems to have forgotten (of temporarily finds to overlook) many of his own carefully-made points.
Carefully note the "second continent" and "empire".
Here are bits of a review of that book:
The author meets many people, including a foul-mouthed farmer from Henan dreaming of building an empire in Mozambique, a factory owner from the ancient city of Chengdu in Senegal, and a Francophile construction company official in Mali. Almost all appear casually racist about the inhabitants of their new homes in a way that one might have thought had largely disappeared from public discourse (if not private thought).
From numerous first-hand experiences, that hardly surprises me. I expect it to be the standard attitude of African's new friend.
The picture that French paints of China venturing forth into Africa is not a pretty one
and
of which French "helpfully" explains that
available victim
Who the "available victim" is in this case is not a huge secret. For more on what the reviewer aptly refers to as French's Imperialism 2.0, go here:
http://africanarguments.org/2014/07/09/imperialism-2-0-review-of-howard-frenchs-chinas-second-continent-how-a-million-migrants-are-building-a-new-empire-in-africa-by-michael-deibert/Great for Africa and Africans?
Here are some bits from another review of French's book, bits that any moderately awake person will hardly find surprising. In almost ever country that French visits in his book, the Chinese deride Africans in very racist terms---all are supposedly lazy, incompetent, thieves, etc.
French travels to, Africans complain about inferior Chinese goods and shoddy infrastructure, like the new roads the Chinese have built.
and
and
French concludes that Chinese migration to the continent falls within a wider tradition of foreign powers establishing spheres of economic influence in Africa
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/books/review/chinas-second-continent-by-howard-w-french.htmlAnd yet another one:
"For all of China's denials that its overseas ambitions could be compared to those of Europeans or Americans," Mr. French writes, ". . . what I was witnessing in Africa is the higgledy-piggledy cobbling together of a new Chinese realm of interest. Here were the beginnings of a new empire."
Another review:
Another review of French' s book:
French finds these Chinese describing Africans as lazy, dishonest and stupid,astonished, for example, that the incredibly fertile, fallow land across the continent is not being intensively cultivated for produce and profit.
Yet another unhappy review:
Many of those who make up the relatively cheap local labor force complain about mistreatment, racism, dangerous conditions, and unfair compensation. Chinese companies often negotiate infrastructure-for-resources deals with African governments; China boasts that it has built dozens of stadiums and hospitals throughout Africa. But by importing Chinese workers to perform the majority of skilled jobs, these companies typically fail to enrich locals, who are left with the least lucrative and most dangerous jobs.
and
As French notes, the roads are often built so rapidly and with such cheap materials that they quickly start disintegrating
That's the type of infrastructure that seem to excite some on the continent.
Here is a bit from the review on Amazon:
If French is sympathetic to the plight of many Chinese immigrants, however, he remains critical of their casual racism and general callousness about their African hosts. And as he laments the seeming inevitability of corruption and environmental degradation, .
Much noise has been made about the book since it was published, and one can find any number of unhappy reviews out there.
I would encourage people to read the book before getting excited by the notions that (a) the Chinese are indeed doing a great deal of good in Africa and (b) that French actually believes (a).
I especially recommend the book to those who insist on the "romantic" notion that of Kung u's "help".
Imperialism 1.0 wasn't entirely about grabbing things by force; in many instances, people were simply conned and suckered into giving up a great deal for
relatively very little in return. On hoped that lessons had been learned, but here we are today, with 2.0 apparently no limit to the excitement over "free" and "help" and "great deals".
Infrastructure?
Mzungu did a whole bunch of schools, hospitals, roads, railways, dams, whatever. Go out there and look at what happened to those. At best, Kung Fu is replacing---and no for free either---stuff that got eaten into the ground or simply got neglected. What needs improving in Africa is not the infrastructure, and unless that "what" is changed, any new infrastructure will simply go the way of the old.
Topic: What the U.S. president didn’t say in his big Nairobi speech. (Read 2489 times)