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Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

nytimes.com

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Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#51

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

noonespecial wrote: post #43
segmondy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My strong opinion on this. Their secret is trade, China manufactures, they build, they create, they need more raw material than ever and Africa has that. That's why they are in Africa, they are making these deals so they can get their raw materials. That's one. Second, China was "poor" not too long, it's fresh in their mind, they know how a poor place can just transform, and they see that possibility in Africa. Plent…

So Africa is China's California. Whoa. I hope this time around, the Africans aren't the Indians.

How much do you know about the history of Africa and relations with Europe over the past few hundred years?

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#53

Post by BurningFrog »

kevindong wrote: post #5

> For Djibouti, the debt is especially daunting, amounting to 60 percent of its gross domestic product. This seems absolutely insane to me.

I dislike this way of describing debt. Because it sounds to most people like the country owes 60% of its GDP to foreigners, and only has 40% left to live on.

A different way to express the same situation is that the debt is 7 months of GDP.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#54

Post by gozur88 »

matt4077 wrote: post #44
gozur88 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except there's no actual indication he has any such intentions. I wish people on the left would recover from their hysterical election freakout.

Ahh, the thread is de-railing... I'm busy stopping friends from promoting conspiracy theories and Hitler comparisons left and far-left. Yet the fear voiced in the comment you're replying to doesn't seem to be completely unwarranted. One of the key principles of "democratic procedures" is that the courts have final say over all executive activities. It is obvious that this principle is centre to some of the recent twe…

It's not unreasonable for the president to push back when he thinks the courts are overstepping their bounds. That, I would argue, is part of his job. In this particular case it's pretty clear the president was well within the law, and he would be remiss if he didn't say anything.

I wonder if the people who are now wailing and rending their garments were equally horrified when Obama scolded the Supreme Court in a State of the Union speech.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#55

Post by anigbrowl »

r00fus wrote: post #2

Great news for fans of rail and Africans alike. Also: environment is happier. I'm just amazed at how China is moving forward where other countries (looking at you, USA) simply cannot. What's their secret?

Not being a democracy makes this sort of thing vastly easier.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#56

Post by prawn »

sremani wrote: post #33
akhilcacharya wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many of Trumps opponents went to Jail? I don't disagree overall but this is perhaps not the best example to use.

Of course that is not the standard you should hold an American president, but that does demonstrate the day-light between the two systems.

I assumed it was a reference to the "Lock her up" campaigning.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#57

Post by skybrian »

grardb wrote: post #4
r00fus wrote: post #2

Great news for fans of rail and Africans alike. Also: environment is happier. I'm just amazed at how China is moving forward where other countries (looking at you, USA) simply cannot. What's their secret?

I read another comment on HN about this recently. Their explanation was that it's due (at least in part) to the high savings rate of the Chinese compared to the USA (and other countries, I guess)[1]. The idea is that when people are stashing their money into bank accounts, the banks have a lot more money to work with. For example, Americans will use their money to buy cars. The Chinese would save their money, and the…

I don't believe it's a lack of money. There's no shortage of investors looking to make money in the U.S, and we have very low interest rates. If people aren't investing, it's because they don't think they can make a profit.

So I believe the real question is, why is it thought to be a money-loser?

And somehow, Chinese investors seem not to care that much about profits? It's unclear how much of these is foolishness versus vision versus corruption.

In any case, lots of great infrastructure gets built by companies that go bankrupt. From the point of view of someone who didn't finance it, maybe it doesn't matter whether it's a smart move or not.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#59

Post by et-al »

ice109 wrote: post #48
rjeli wrote: post #39

"Empire of Dust" (1:15) follows a Chinese developer working in Africa. Interesting glimpse into local difficulties with culture and industry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0C4_88ub_M

i wonder how good this guy's chinese is. edit: this guy speaks 4 very different languages - english, swahili, french, and chinese. that's quite impressive.

There's an accent, but it's actually significantly better than most (white) American expats I've met in China.
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