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08/27/2007
Slideshow: Chinese manufacturing web in Africa
by Magi Griffin
China's presence in Africa, physically and heavily funded, was obvious in Tanzania. The Chinese are prominent in infrastructure projects including roads and railways, mining fossil fuels and textile related industry. Many countries have touted benefits. But at what cost?
Around the corner from where I lived, a Chinese company housed a window manufacturing operation on land from the Diocese of Dar es Salaam. I would drive by a Chinese cemetary going to one of the parishes in the southern part of the city, as well as the RR station and delapidated housing project built by the Chinese. Military and police have received their training.
Attached slideshow, NY-T, 21 August 2007, is relevant for most "developing" nations. It should be noted, India and Japan are also among large stakeholders related to manufacturing and developing schemes. Bonus! Two other short slideshows relating to Africa can also be viewed, one on Chinese businesses and another on food aid. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/08/20/world/20070820ZAMBIA_index.html?th&emc=th
In exposing ourselves to such information, we can better understand the commonalities concerning interelated problems that all struggling countries face. The majority of the world goes to bed hungry every night; 192 million people are jobless. And in our understanding follows our participation, not as part of the problem but as instruments and voices for solution.
Wilfred Collins Wonani, head of Chamber of Commerce, Kabwa, Zambia, recently stated (after a Chinese company once manufactured finished cloth, but now exports only raw cotton - a trend also noted in Tanzania not only with the China and with India):
"We are back where we started. Sending raw materials out, bringing cheap manufactured goods in. This isn't progress. It is colonialism."
Pax,
Magi
