keskiviikko 13. toukokuuta 2009

A view from the East

I must confess that Africa isn't one of areas of my key intrests. You never get good news from there, only reports about famine, war and poverty. The story is always the same, except the name of the country changes. I wonder if that is never going to change, or will it be the same as the Middle East conflict, that never seems to end. Suppose it benefits the major players, to have a constant power struggle at those geopolitical areas.

Altought.. it might all change in Africa. If I'm reading this report the way it's supposed to be read. The great peoples power of China has been pouring money in the dark continent for the past few years. And what is interesting, is that they are not only buying resources, but also investing on infrastructure. On sites that can't be shipped out: like hydro power plants, tv-systems and various roads. Of course most of these are linked with recourse gathering, but you still need to remember that these are permanent installations. When payed with Chinese money, they reflect the growing long term intrest towards the region, among the Chinese.

What will this mean for the common man? Nothing much, I suppose as we are slow to react on such things. We are just starting to realise that even a small businessman can do foreign trade and ship goods from China. The idea of Africa is just too complex for us to understand.

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