Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, land of a billion customers
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Re: Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, land of a billion customers
#2Great article, thanks! Very interesting
Re: Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, land of a billion customers
#3This is the fascinating thing about Chinese business investment in Africa: It's business, not charity.
What the bug-eyed rock stars with the big heart for Africa don't tell you is that Africans don't even _want_ their pity, or their charity. They want to do business. Not the "colonial" business of old where resources were essentially taken with almost nothing given in return (except for "teaching western civilization to the natives" or some such nonsense). The Chinese couldn't really care less about that.
All the Chinese want is a stable enough environment for doing business and allowing their million+ workers living there live and work safely. One way they achieve that is by actually living among the Africans, in high-rises that seem to be erected by the day all over Africa, or in African neighborhoods. Where before, Western emigres walled themselves off from the natives, the Chinese actually build shops and restaurants and live in-town, which engenders the notion of "guanxi" between the Africans and Chinese immigrants. It was difficult early on, as the report suggests: First-wave immigrants living in trailers on the worksite, never venturing out to eat or take in entertainment. Now there are shops and karaoke bars all over, peopled with Chinese and African clientele.
Fact is, they aren't there to turn Africa into something the Dutch Boers or German Afrikaners envisioned, but more like whats been happening since the spice routes opened 1000 years ago: You give me raw material, I give you finished products. And, hey, it maybe a bit of a perversion of the Comparative Advantage theory, but one thing it's not is abject exploitation the way it was when the West colonized it.
Re: Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, land of a billion customers
#4This is the fascinating thing about Chinese business investment in Africa: It's business, not charity. What the bug-eyed rock stars with the big heart for Africa don't tell you is that Africans don't even _want_ their pity, or their charity. They want to do business. Not the "colonial" business of old where resources were essentially taken with almost nothing given in return (except for "teaching western civilization…
What the bug-eyed rock stars with the big heart for Africa don't tell you
http://www.ted.com/talks/bono_s_call_to_action_for_africa.ht...
All the Chinese want is a stable enough environment for doing business and allowing their million+ workers living there live and work safely.
And the Chinese are widely hated by the native people because none of the jobs, and none of the money goes to the Africans. There's no meaningful economic development because the chinese money goes to the chinese workers, who shop at chinese stores that employ more chinese people.
Your fiction is lovely... but it's fiction. It shows only that you've never been to Africa.
but like most of the unsuccessful wantrepreneurs on HN, you're never one to let a total and complete lack of knowledge or understanding prevent you from having strong opinions.
Re: Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, land of a billion customers
#5Welcome to Apartheid 2.0, New and Improved, Now With More Racism!
Seriously, the Chinese will rape Africa.