Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - chinese investments,

So now the African has to choose presumably between the Beijing Consensus and the Washington Consensus. This reminds me of Denis Goulet's "The Cruel Choice." It is true, no one will develop Africa except Africans make up their minds to do so.  As to what that entails, much has been written about that. Chinese investment is about their interests and not generosity.

 It still bothers me though that we cannot come up with our own "consensus" or strategy just as the Chinese did it in spite of what appears to be eternal Western dominance. At one level, this can give one a sleepless night. 

Yet many here are more likely to worry about the gay issue. But if you ask just ordinary citizens under normal circumstances to tell you their five major problems in Nigeria, the gay issue will not come up. But moral entrepreneurs make it the big issue and in that respect, they redirecting the minds of many Africans from the real challenges they face.

Yesterday in class, from no where, some postgraduate students raised the question of U.S. exporting gay marriage., I suggested for the sake of self respect, and consistency sake, Nigeria should pass a law against fornication and adultery since the same religious apology that is used against gay marriage also condemns fornication and adultery. This will be difficult and costly, but when people take their faith seriously they are willing to suffer for it. They are believers. The Amish are willing to deny themselves many benefits of modernity because they believe doing so is a slippery slope. One may disagree with them, but you cannot ignore their determination to suffer for the sake of what they believe. I am not sure that the Nigerian politician and people are willing to make such a sacrifice. For them, the angels in heaven are saying they can understand heterosexual sin but not homosexual.  In my conversation with such people, many of them do not care about being consistent or coherent even in their claim to be sincere worshipers of God. They cherry pick and read the Scriptures, but yet they are not even aware they are doing that. I found out that a good predictor of whether someone will make the gay issue big or not is whether they recognize and admit that there are many other things Abrahamic religions consider abominable sin but they tolerate them e.g. usury.

Below is a short documentary by Aljazeera Witness on Chinese in Senegal. When one watches it he or she would have to acknowledge the complex issues involved in Chinese migration and settlement in Africa. In terms of what they say as ordinary people about Africans, they have no respect for Africans or so it seems --- the viewer can judge for herself or himself. They do not want to be dark or darker in skin because of Africa, but they say it is easy to make money in the continent because there is no competition and it is like the people are lazy or so it seems from the tone of their analysis.

They segregate themselves. It is obvious that neither the Chinese nor the Senegalese governments have learned much about race relations history. It seem seven Alexander the Great of long ago is even wiser as he insisted that his occupying soldiers should not segregate themselves from the local people.  There is the official Chinese rhetoric about Africa which is better than that of the West, and there is the real life context of the relations between Chinese and Africans on the ground. Here is the link to the documentary film for those who would want to see it. It is 25 minutes long: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz0bhb5m3pQ

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 12:39 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu> wrote:

All sovereign and corporate foreign/international investing is about money at the end of the day. It is never a charity enterprise in essence. The Chinese model is different. Unlike the Western model, China tries not to be a factor in the political affairs and development of the host country, including regime change for example. She does not seek political domination of host countries to garner and maintain economic advantage. Hers is a partnership model however imperfect it is. This is a significant difference

oa

-----Original Message-----
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2015 9:50 AM
To: usaafricadialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - chinese investments,

from nyt, map of chinese investments around the world. interesting to
see: i bet it's all about oil, minerals, natural resources, and nothing much else ken http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/business/international/the-world-according-to-china-investment-maps.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

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kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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