The title is false; nowhere in the article says that Kenya is unable to pay loan payments. It merely states that there's a contract clause that says China might take over Mombasa port if payments are not due. Kenya is not Sri Lanka, it's a wealthier country. They will find a way to pay back the payment. What can be discussed is if it was the right decision to build a high speed train. A much better decision would be…
>Kenya is not Sri Lanka, it's a wealthier country.
Is it?
Measured by GDP, they are lower than Sri Lanka.
rich loan to poor to get richer. this is new to you? you think china is the first or the last to do this? IMF is doing this wherever they can. the west is annoyed china is doing this too so they push all these "amg china is evil" articles to stir the pot and try to turn the locals against chinese.
No one takes money from the IMF unless they are so screwed that they have no other options. The reason they have no one willing to lend to them is that their government has enacted policies that destroyed their economy and the IMF requires concrete changes to get them back on the right track. The alternative to taking an IMF loan is so bad (collapse of country) that they take it. It isn’t the IMF’s fault, it’s what h…
How can this be downvoted?
Did Argentina get trapped in debt with IMF because a meteor hit Buenos Aires?
Did a tsunami hit Athens?
These countries burned through their reserves with no responsibility at all, reserves which were hard earned money from the population, and people demonize the IMF alone?
>Speaking furthermore, I do find it highly concerning just how much of an echo chamber this place is in regards to this notion of "Chinese colonialism" and Chinese "debt - traps". Western media should not be trusted to report accurately about foreign non-western countries. They almost never do.
I won't argue over the title or echochamber... I can't even load the page (500 Internal Error). Have you ever heard of africastand.com? I can't find any information on them in google/wikipedia and the waybackmachine only has 4 snapshots between april and august with no contact information. Are they western media or just yellow clickbait? Is everything in english western media?
I've never heard of them, which leads me to doubt their credibility. One particular problem on the continent at the moment is the wild rise of fake news on subjects ranging from politics to even entertainment. Mostly circulated via whatsapp through random blogs. For general Pan African news content I recommend the following
- Africa Report
- Jeune Afrique (Translate, its in French)
- Africanews.com (Relatively new, but has a CNN like approach)
- Al-Jazeera (some great African content at times)
- BBC Africa (can be a bit basic but gets the generals mostly right)
- Bloomberg Africa
There are better national specific resources than these, but you'd have to have an interest in a specific country to care about those.
Having worked with the World Bank in the past, I think that’s a very uninformed and biased view. They have been very effective in reducing poverty and improving infrastructure in Africa. I recommend that you read facts about what they do before reading random opinions online (from brand new accounts, especially). Also, I know dang warns us about pointing out potential propaganda, but this seems like this post is a go…
That’s an awfully dismissive comment to a well laid out argument, you’re not really helping make a case for World Bank, which has been rife with corruption for decades.
Sorry, I seem to have missed the ‘well-laid out argument’.
All I’m asking is that people read facts about the World Bank and make their own opinions.
Yes. Belt and road is imperialism, no doubt. We (Europeans) did the same to Africa before.
And it was condemnable then too.
It was, but it wasn't actually condemned. In fact, the West scrambled for Africa. They still are, just that they have another player who doesn't play by their rules now.
Having worked with the World Bank in the past, I think that’s a very uninformed and biased view. They have been very effective in reducing poverty and improving infrastructure in Africa. I recommend that you read facts about what they do before reading random opinions online (from brand new accounts, especially). Also, I know dang warns us about pointing out potential propaganda, but this seems like this post is a go…
That’s an awfully dismissive comment to a well laid out argument, you’re not really helping make a case for World Bank, which has been rife with corruption for decades.
West African American here (Ghanaian - American). This article actually isn't true, while the Kenyan Chinese pact that led to the construction of the Nairobi - Mombasa Port does have clauses related to penalties around lack of payment, there has been no actual announcement or any signs of China declaring possession of the Mombasa Port. In fact, the big issue in Mombasa right now is actually revolving around a Kenyan…
I am an African and I live in West Africa. I think China is doing great job for the continent and it is helping Africa upgrade her infrastructure.
But we Africans should know that sustainable development and transfer of technology cannot come if we fail to build our own indigenous peoples and companies. Nobody is father Christmas, everybody is there to maximize his gains. So , we Africans should wake up and take our destiny into our hands.
I have some concerns with Chinese loans, they are tied to we using only Chinese companies, Chinese technologies, and in most cases only Chinese labour. This shows that Chinese loans are not in the same class as World Bank own. There is nothing like open bidding and fair pricing mechanism. If we use only Chinese oriented inputs what benefit is their for the local communities and businesses? We must nurture , support , and empower our people and businesses.
Chinese is just trying to continue her 'supersonic' growth via African loans.
We have been mixing cement and granite before now , suddenly we are watching foreigners doing same in our backyard. This is inexcusable, and I cry each time I pass such site.
Yep, we all know it's not slave labor if you get prisoners to do it.
I'm completely against using prison labor for profit, and there are inequalities in the US system...but prisoners in the US have had due process. Despite our problems, the protections for the accused in the US are among the best in the world. To pretend that there isn't an enormous difference between labor camps in China and prison labor in the US is absolutely absurd.
Your argument is that, because they had a fair trial and were found guilty, it is ethical to force them to work without compensation?
> Over the years, the courts have held that inmates may be required to work and are not protected by the constitutional prohibition against involuntary servitude. They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the ‘grace of the state.”
Yep, we all know it's not slave labor if you get prisoners to do it.
I'm completely against using prison labor for profit, and there are inequalities in the US system...but prisoners in the US have had due process. Despite our problems, the protections for the accused in the US are among the best in the world. To pretend that there isn't an enormous difference between labor camps in China and prison labor in the US is absolutely absurd.
Prisoners in the US have largely been screwed into pleading guilty through a horrific bail system combined with malicious plea deal bargains (over 90% of convictions did not go to trial - https://theoutline.com/post/2066/most-criminal-cases-end-in-...). The Chinese camps are terrible in a different way, that doesn't excuse any of the inadequacies of the US prison system.