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I poked around for a minute, and it turns out Alaska and Hawaii combine to have the same surface area as Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, and Belgium combined.
I didn't read the article but the first thing that jumped into my head is why are they comparing the size of a continent to sizes of countries?
I think it works to show how big Africa is.
But yes, if you compare countries, you can take comparisons further, and it would be more practical.
This has come up before on hn, but I always find it interesting how hard China is pushing into Africa economically: http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/2163955... http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/china-embracing-africa-but-no... http://qz.com/217597/how-a-million-chinese-migrants-are-buil... (that third article is probably the most interesting)
They don't have the baggage of all the atrocities of the past, they aren't overtly racist on principle, and they have no qualms taking advantage or the situation and participating in the corruption and exploitation. How is that surprising?
Lambert equal area projection: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Lambert-...
obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/977/
This has come up before on hn, but I always find it interesting how hard China is pushing into Africa economically: http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/2163955... http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/china-embracing-africa-but-no... http://qz.com/217597/how-a-million-chinese-migrants-are-buil... (that third article is probably the most interesting)
They don't have the baggage of all the atrocities of the past, they aren't overtly racist on principle, and they have no qualms taking advantage or the situation and participating in the corruption and exploitation. How is that surprising?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't have the baggage of all the atrocities of the past, they aren't overtly racist on principle, and they have no qualms taking advantage or the situation and participating in the corruption and exploitation. How is that surprising?
This is ignorant of both history and the present. Speaking as a three year resident of China they are a hell of a lot more racist than is common in the West. The only reason China doesn't have atrocity baggage in Africa is that they didn't have the opportunity. The Qing were all about genocide when it was useful. I'd say ask the Oirat or the Dzhungars except these groups no longer exist.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't have the baggage of all the atrocities of the past, they aren't overtly racist on principle, and they have no qualms taking advantage or the situation and participating in the corruption and exploitation. How is that surprising?
This is ignorant of both history and the present. Speaking as a three year resident of China they are a hell of a lot more racist than is common in the West. The only reason China doesn't have atrocity baggage in Africa is that they didn't have the opportunity. The Qing were all about genocide when it was useful. I'd say ask the Oirat or the Dzhungars except these groups no longer exist.
Like most "big countries" or continents in this case, most of the land is useless and unlivable. We're talking 7% arable land in sub Saharan Africa. So you have all this landmass but only a tiny bit is usable. We often see these maps with Russia or Canada or Australia, but the reality is very little of land is usable. Large countries that effectively use their land, have roads to every part, have significant settleme…
"Some economists have talked about the 'scourge of raw materials', large quantities of rare raw materials putting Africa under heavy pressures and tensions, leading to wars and slow development. Despite these abundance of natural resources, claims suggest that many Western nations like the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom as well as emerging economic powerhouses like China often exploit Africa's natural resources today, causing most of the value and money from the natural resources to go to the West and East Asia rather than Africa, further causing the poverty in Africa."
