China's roaring tiger to swallow Africa

We all know it: China is digging deep into Africa, eager to satisfy its vast resource hunger and leaving shoddily built hospitals and roads instead. Lavish sums of aid money won't make up for this, they're barely a fig leaf to cover up China's erection on the international scene. A lavish donor country, you say? Lo and behold, high end estimates even rank China as the biggest donor only after the US! These estimates, then, would mean that China reaches the 'magic' .7% of GNI spending target, which barely five Western countries succeed to meet!

What to make out of these figures? Having just read The Dragon's Gift, a smashing book by Deborah Brautigam about the true nature of China's engagement in Africa, I am eager to share some of the eye-opening findings. For starters, these high estimates are most likely to overstate China's official aid flows as defined by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. These exclude a lot of financially attractive investment loans (but still at market prices and therefore not grants) and export credits. The confusion originates in the absence of official aid data released by the Chinese government and the fact that China's Aid Department houses in its Ministry of Commerce. However, few people bother disaggregating data from that Ministry, picking the low-hanging fruit instead and creating a murky - and, I must add, inaccurate - image. As Brautigam writes:

In 2004, The Economist reported an erroneous figure of $1.8 billion for China's "development aid" for Africa in 2002. This was repeated in a Boston Globe article, which became the source for an article in Current History that said the 2002 figure of $1.8 billion was the "last" time "official statistics" on Chinese aid to Africa were released. The Current History article was subsequently cited by researchers at the World Bank, who repeated soberly that "The last officially reported flows are for 2002. For that year, China's government reported that it provided $1.8 billion in economic support to all of Africa." An International Monetary Fund study cited the World Bank report as its source for the same figure. Apparently, no one checked to see if there had actually been any official statistics reported by China in 2002 or at any point before or since for its annual aid to Africa (there were not).

China applies tactics in its Africa engagement that is has learnt from back in the days when Japan was jump-starting China's economic development. Big investments in infrastructure and manufacturing were secured by China's resources, and it was allowed to repay loans in kind (manufactured clothes, minerals, oil, etc.). This resulted in a win-win situation for both countries, stimulating China to do the same. Not only is it investing in those areas, it strongly focuses on training its counterparts and offering scholarships to thousands of young students in a time when most traditional donors are foregoing this kind of assistance. The whole idea is to sharpen local skills and upgrade existing practices in the face of Chinese competition, to increase mutual trade flows. (Like everybody, China is in it for the money.)

Brautigam has done an amazing job in revealing the more precise nature of China's engagement with Africa, and there are so many more facts and stories that nuance the West vs. China aid debate ('you cannot reduce poverty and live in a five-star hotel at the same time' vs. 'you cannot finance a presidential palace for a dictator and call it foreign aid'). The biggest lesson I draw from her book, is that we have to go look for the facts, not only China's, but also our own. As long as we cannot prove that our way of delivering aid or casting embargoes is truly resulting in social justice, stability and prosperity for the people our governments mean to help, and that it is the only possible way to do so, we shouldn't condemn actors that try it differently. (Because our banks, too, give loans to corrupt countries, just as our governments deliver weapons to torture-prone regimes.) Rather, we should learn from them and combine the best of both worlds, if we truly mean to contribute to a better present and future. In the meantime, I can only recommend reading The Dragon's Gift yourself!

Small thoughts that made me a happier person

A few weeks ago, I attended a Red Cross information session in a buddhist temple near Antwerp. It was the first time I'd been there, so I was paying close attention to our host's tour of the site. We ended in the praying/meditation hall for a last few words on what buddhism now actually entails and how people practise it. As I've had an interest in this life philosophy for quite a while, but never really gotten into the matter, I was curious to learn about the basics. One of the 'attitudes' to put into practice in your daily life, has struck me in particular, so here's me sharing this valuable insight with you!

One should not hold any grudge against anyone else for matters they are not responsible for. Or, put differently, before blaming a stranger for something, think again about why it is that you're cross with that person. You'll find that in most cases, there's no reason to feel angry with that person.

Pick your favourite one

At least, that's what I've experienced ever since. Long-legged as I am, I often felt bothered by streets or paths filled with slower walking people. But, then I realised, they're not blocking my way on purpose, they can't see me rushing from behind, so I can't blame them for not being able to see me. The same goes for getting mad at train personnel for a train that arrives late - they can't help it that there's a red sign in front of the train, they're just there to make sure you arrive safely at your destination. That's what you did, so be happy! And let's be honest, it certainly happens once in a while that I'm that slow walking person in your path, and I know, as a matter of fact, that it wasn't my intention to block your path!

If I then try to analyse why it is that I feel angry or upset, then I usually discover it's because I just couldn't bother leaving a bit earlier to make sure that I have sufficient time to make it to my destination; or that I am still dealing with some work issues completely unrelated to the person I was feeling upset about. Realising all this, has helped me tremendously in feeling happier in my everyday life. I feel a lot calmer and I have a more positive attitude towards the outside world. People feel this kind of energy. In fact, if more people would think this way, it'd be a lot nicer out there!

To complete this post to happiness, I leave you with another buddhist attitude I just recently discovered, but which I know will help me tons in being happier with life as it comes my way. If you can in any way contribute to the solution of a problem you're facing, then do so in every possible way you can; if not, then don't worry about it, because it is out of your control!

Stay hungry, keep shopping!

A few weeks ago, Vredeseilanden held a workshop on 'The Farmer Effect', how different actors driving sustainability in agricultural value chains lead to improved livelihoods for small-scale farmers. Put simple, a bigger income allows farmers to invest in their land, education, health and whatnot. As reporter of the event, I wanted to record the talks to facilitate writing the report afterwards. This set me on a quest for tape recorders, which turned out easier than expected. Seems like bosses still like to tape themselves…

I ended up buying two simple devices - basically the two most basic recorders they had, due to budgetary constraints and the limited use they would serve. As there were no devices on the shelve, I ended up buying the recorders on display. When unpacking the boxes, I noticed that one recorder was missing the USB-cable to connect it to a computer. So I went back to Media Markt, the multi-media supermarket where I'd bought the devices, to fix this problem or get my money back so I could buy another basic recorder elsewhere.

I asked the lady at the service counter to whom I should direct myself with my problem of the missing USB-cable. 'The guy from the store section where you got the stuff from', she said. 'No no, I can't help you with this,' the guy from the store section said, 'go to the repair desk.' I already feared that answer, as this usually is the place where you spend hours waiting before you get attended. I was lucky, only half an hour was my share of waiting and witnessing how many products cannot be repaired because fixing that small problem would cost almost the same as getting a newer version of that product. 'Ok,' the repair desk guy said, 'we'll just have to send it back. Here's a receipt to get a voucher at the service counter.'

It's been now almost 40 minutes of being told to go from one place to another, waiting and not being helped that much. I was eager to get it all over with and get my money back - they couldn't fix the problem and, being the last models of that series, the shop couldn't offer me another recorder of the same series, nor did it have any alternative within the same price range. 'I'm sorry,' the twenty-year old lady said to me at the service counter, 'it's not our policy to give you a refund; we only give vouchers.' I tried to explain to her that I didn't want any voucher; as the shop couldn't satisfy my need, I had to be able to get my money back to do so elsewhere. To no avail - along the process I had somewhat run out of patience, and my grumpiness was easily passed on to her. She was clearly in no mood or capacity to accommodate my sense of customer dissatisfaction. 'Take it or leave it,' was the snappy verdict.

As I left the store with the 'gift card' - almost thrown at me, because I had dared to object to the no-money refund policy and, as a consequence, complicate her life behind the counter - I could not help but wonder how symptomatic this experience had been of the consumption-driven society we live in. Goods are produced not to last, but to be sold. They often brake down, sometimes far too easily. It's not producers' or retailers' policy to repair your good, but to stimulate you buying the newest version of it (you know, to keep labour going). To reduce your resistance to this vicious cycle of consumption, they cook your brains while you wait in endless lines of understaffed customer service desks and are attended by unexperienced assistants who are hired according to their ability to parrot the shop's policy - otherwise they might even sympathise with complaining customers and help them finding a solution, oh horror (and wast of time)! The message is clear: keep shopping and don't bother about the complete irresponsibility of this unsustainable waste-generating consumption industry.

Fortunately Luxembourg is big enough to fit us all

I guess by now most of the 6.999 million people will have heard the news: we've hit the 7 million mark! But should we congratulate ourselves, or rather feel sorry for overcrowding our planet? Well, the thing is not that we're too many to fit - it would take an area smaller than Luxembourg to fit us all, shoulder to shoulder. Nor is the problem how to feed the whole population - there's plenty of scope to increase yield per ha in vast parts of the globe. Just consider, for example, that many farms in sub-Saharan Africa yield only 10% of their north-American peers.

Part of the problem, as I see it, is that our patterns of production and consumption are simply not sustainable. Period. This is all because of the technological advances we have made over the past centuries, which made man redundant in many aspects of what is supposed to be his productive life. And let's face it: why pay someone who's prone to failure and fatigue, when a machine can perform the same job at a fraction of the cost and without nasty labour unions nagging about physical and psychological well-being?

The demand for educated labour is being reconfigured by technology, in much the same way that the demand for agricultural labour was reconfigured in the 19th century and that for factory labour in the 20th. Computers can not only perform repetitive mental tasks much faster than human beings. They can also empower amateurs to do what professionals once did: why hire a flesh-and-blood accountant to complete your tax return when Turbotax (a software package) will do the job at a fraction of the cost? And the variety of jobs that computers can do is multiplying as programmers teach them to deal with tone and linguistic ambiguity.

Now, you cannot simply have 6 million bums while the remaining 1 million are working, can you? So we simply had to come up with unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, which would require people to staff repair offices, call centres and other customer services, while keeping factory workers happy with supplying the ever-continuing demand of unsustainable products, invented by engineers to last as long as not to upset customers (too much), but as short as to keep them buying the gimmicks they invent every other year or two.

Because of this problematic situation - a growing (skilled) workforce and a general lack of labour demand for basic products and services - jobs have always been a sword of Damocles hanging over politicians' heads, especially in periods of economic downturn. Heck, even the weapons industry, to name but one, gets away with crying foul when governments dare not to approve a murky deal with a semi-friendly autocrat - while in reality they only employ a few hundred people and represent (in most cases) less than one percent of GDP. I don't know the solution to this problem, but maybe it's time for more ideas to have sex?