Africans In China

(sockandawe.com)

China increased its holdings of US treasury securities by $65.9 billion in October, consolidating its place as the No 1 holder of American debt, according to the Treasury’s latest report on international capital flows.

It was China’s largest monthly increase this year, pushing the country’s total holdings to $652.9 billion, compared with $587 billion at the end of September, when it replaced Japan to become the top holder of US debt.

The continual increases in US debt holdings in recent months have triggered fierce domestic debate, as the country has channeled almost a third of its $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves into US treasury securities.

Wei Weixian, economist with the University of International Business and Economics, believes it “is a fairly acceptable option”.

With US treasuries recently gaining investor favor, their yields have been on the decline; but in the long term, they are still a relatively safe investment for China, Wei said.

“Despite the financial crisis, the US economy remains the strongest, providing back-up for the treasury securities,” he added.

He also pointed out that China does not have many options to deploy its massive amounts of foreign exchange reserves.

For example, China pulled $200 billion out of its foreign exchange reserves to set up China Investment Corporation (CIC) to diversify investment, but CIC has incurred heavy losses in its investment in the US private equity firm Blackstone due to the tumbling international financial markets. CIC has since said it would be more cautious in investment abroad.

Guo Tianyong, economist with the Central University of Finance and Economics, also believes the US treasury debt has relatively low risks and good liquidity.

Moreover, it is not out of the realm of belief that Beijing and Washington may have reached a tacit consensus that China helps stabilize the American markets by increasing the purchases of US securities, Guo said.

Opponents of the rising purchases of US securities cite the possibility that Washington may be financially unable to pay back the money in the future, as it has to issue a lot more debt to finance its ailing financial markets.

As China piles up more US debt, it would also be a problem to sell it later as sales would affect returns on its existing dollar assets, analysts said.

Japan remained the second largest holder with a total of $585.5 billion, up by $12.3 billion in October. The UK is third with $360 billion.

US Treasury data show that net foreign purchases of long-term US securities in October decreased by $34.8 billion while foreign holdings of dollar-denominated US securities, including treasury bills and other custody liabilities, increased $92.4 billion.

International investors have opted to cut holdings of long-term debt while increasing short-term holdings, the data shows, which analysts ascribe to long-term economic uncertainties in the US.

In another development, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said yesterday that more interest rates cuts may be possible this month as economic indicators in November pointed to a weakening national economy. “From now until the beginning of next year, there is pressure on interest rate cuts,” he said in Hong Kong.
(Chinadairly)

It’s hard to find something not impacted by our current financial crisis. Here are 12 examples of what the recession means for specific things, from Spam to sex addiction.

1. Spam

It looks like meat, it tastes like meat, but it’s a far cheaper substitute for meat. It’s Spam! And it’s booming. Though Hormel’s share price has fallen with the overall market, Spam sales are soaring as the economic crisis leaves consumers strapped for cash. Interestingly enough, Spam, the “crazy tasty” mix of ham, pork, sugar, salt, potato starch and a sodium nitrite, was invented during the Great Depression and became a staple for Allied troops overseas in the 1940s.

2. Marriage and Divorce

Breaking up is hard to do, especially in this economy. While it may be too early to know the impact of the crisis on divorce rates, it appears divorces may have slowed down since the financial crisis began. That’s because despite most arguments being over financial issues, it may just be too expensive to pay the legal fees of a divorce and support two households. In fact, during the Great Depression, divorce rates dropped sharply, though they picked back up immediately thereafter.

3. Recycling

The plunge in commodity prices has taken a toll on recyclers. In fact, the whole movement may come to a halt as oil and metal prices fall. Used newspaper, used cardboard, and scrap metal prices have also seen a drop, partially due to dwindling home construction and slower automobile production. Some recyclers are closing their doors, and in the UK entire city councils are abandoning their recycling efforts, as they are no longer economically feasible.

4. Psychics

“There is no rhyme or reason to the way the market is trading,” says a personal trader. “When conditions are this volatile, consulting a psychic can be as good a strategy as any other.” Psychics, astrologers, palm readers and “professional advice-givers” say business is booming as clients come to them seeking financial guidance. Clients will typically pay $75 to $1000 for an hour’s worth of insight!

5. Holiday Parties

Just as you suspected, companies are cutting back on their holiday galas. ABC News announced the cancellation of its annual celebration. American Express did the same and then some – announcing the cancellation of 2009’s celebration as well.

But what about the caterers? 56% of party planners say that their corporate holiday party numbers will be off more than 10% this year compared to last. They’re scrambling to come up with innovative, more somber types of gatherings like luncheons, pot-lucks, and receptions rather than galas, caviar, and glam.

6. Used Car Sales

The used car business is flourishing! Specifically, used car companies that offer buy-here/pay-here financing for lower credit individuals who have been locked out of traditional lending.

But if used isn’t your thing, it may still be a decent time to buy new. That’s because even steady growth car makers like Honda and Toyota have seen 24% and 32% declines, respectively. Car dealers are desperate to get rid of inventory and are offering invoice and below invoice prices. Look for dealers that have a lot of inventory, because they’ll likely offer the best deals.

7. Iceland Tourism

Looking for a good holiday or spring trip? Look to Iceland!

Once an economic success story, this small country is now, well, bankrupt. If you were attune to Fannie and Freddie and the big Wall Street break-up, you may have missed Iceland’s fall. Its three largest banks were oversized and highly leveraged, and seemed ready for collapse in early October. Iceland’s currency, the krona, is essentially valueless, and foreign trade has come to a halt. Luckily, the IMF and its Nordic neighbors have stepped in, lending $2.1 billion and $2.5 billion respectively to help the country recover.

But tourism appears to be on the rise. Airfare search engines report a 400% increase in Iceland flight searches. A recent search of round-trip flights from New York found tickets at a record low of $471.

8. College Endowments

Ivy League schools aren’t immune to the financial crisis. Since many college endowments are invested in alternative asset classes, which have lost value, they’re seeing unprecedented losses. Many college and university endowments are projected to have decreased by 30% this fiscal year. For Harvard, that may mean an $11 billion drop.

That may mean a decrease in financial aid – especially because lenders can no longer sell their securitized loans in the secondary market to get new money to offer new student loans. Despite Congress’ Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008, which authorizes the Education Department to buy federal student loans from education lenders for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, there’s a chance financial aid may fall short.

9. Lipstick & Hosiery Sales

The Lipstick Indicator is an economic theory proposed by Leonard Lauder, the chairman of Estée Lauder Companies. The theory states that a direct relation exists between rising sales in tubes of lipstick and a falling financial market – the worse the economy, the more women indulge in small purchases, like $10 tubes of lipstick. There are conflicting reports as to whether Lauder’s theory is holding up this downturn. Perhaps hosiery sales will supplant lipstick as the indicator of choice. Overall hosiery sales rose 2.3% this year, with Spanx seeing a 77% increase in sales compared to last year.

10. NASCAR

Very few sports have been hit harder by the economic crisis than NASCAR. From ticket sales to souvenir sales to team sponsorship from large companies, racing is reeling. That’s because an average NASCAR team relies on corporate sponsors for 80% of its budget. That’s four times the percentage of an NFL franchise’s budget. And many of those corporate sponsors, including the Big Three – GM spent $578M in sports advertising in 2007, including NASCAR – are facing high-profile hard times of their own. As a result, some NASCAR teams, including Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc., have merged in an attempt to attract corporate sponsors.

11. Personal Maintenance

According to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, gym memberships have been on the decline since 2007. There’s no sign that these former gymrats are instead opting for cosmetic surgery – 53% of plastic surgeons of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery say business has slowed.

12. Sex & Sex Addiction

Will the financial crisis spark a baby boom? It just might. According to the Telegraph, sales of sex toys, pregnancy tests, maternity clothes, and baby equipment are soaring. But that’s not the only place sex may have increased. Jonathan Alpert, a Manhattan psychotherapist, has seen a big jump in the number of Wall Street workers who seek help for the sex addictions. Apparently, the economic crisis has sparked “maladaptive coping mechanisms” among bankers, according to Jodi Conway, a sex addiction therapist in New Jersey.

(mentalfloss)

Ten years ago, out of curiosity he came to Beijing, the capital of China. During the past ten years, he witnessed the city’s tremendous changes. Meanwhile, he learnt fluent Chinese, fell in love with Chinese cross-talk and became one of China’s well-known foreign comic stars.
Today, as ten years has passed, as a doctoral graduate from Renmin University of China, he shared with us stories about his life in China. He is Maurice GOUNTIN from Benin, a country in Western Africa

When Maurice was a child,
the concept of China, in his mind, equalled Chinese Kongfu actor Li Xiaolong’s movies or those Chinese goods with “made in China” label. He still remembers that China’s cooling
ointment was a household medicine in Benin. He recalled, “When I had a fever or caught a cold, my mum just rubbed some cooling
ointment on our body,
symphony will be relieved.” At that time, it never occurred to him that he would
learn Chinese and come to China one day.

In 1996, Maurice became a college student in the National University of Benin where he specialized in English. It was when Maurice started his first year that his college offered a new second-foreign-language course, which was Chinese. Maurice applied for the course of German language, yet out of his curiosity, he was in the class of Chinese as well. Chinese is a remote and unfamiliar language to him since the official language of Benin is French and he chose English as his major. Therefore, Maurice made up a fake name when he registered in the Chinese class. He thought that using a fake name would help disappearing from the class when the complexity of be the language will start.

Maurice said, at the very beginning of his English study, his teacher told them it was quite easy to learn Chinese, since images of many characters resemble those objects from real world, like Chinese character “hill” and “bird”. The vivid pictographic Chinese characters gradually aroused Maurice’s passion in continuing his Chinese study. What’s more, he got the first place in a Chinese examination after learning Chinese for one month which hardened his resolution to
learn Chinese. Maurice finally gave up the German course and put his focus on Chinese course.

Maurice was hard-studying in Chinese language. He always ranked among the best. When his second school year ended, Maurice’s Chinese teacher recommended he come to China for further Chinese study to eventually teach Chinese after getting a degree. It would be a bright future for Maurice. Officials from People’s Republic of China Embassy in Benin and director in Benin’s Chinese Cultural Centre all contacted Maurice, willing to offer a four-year scholarship for him.

Having weighed all alternatives in his mind, Maurice made the final decision. It was without doubt a difficult one. He decided to come to China and had to give up a bachelor degree which he would obtain after his third year and a master degree at the end of the fourth year (based on French educational system). Beijing Language and Culture University became his first stop in China.

Before Maurice came to China, his understanding of this country was so restricted to Chinese ancient stories, the Revolution of 1911 and China’s influential figures like Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek that he felt Chinese culture was distant and vague.
Maurice said when his
Chinese teacher taught in class that China’s Great Wall was more than 6000 thousand kilometers long, nobody believed.

“My classmates yelled “that’s just impossible. We couldn’t buy your story.” The very thought of my ignorance at that time almost makes me laugh.” Maurice said.
It was because of his lack of knowledge of China and fears of
Chinese language itself that Maurice thought before his set-out that his journey in China might be no more than three months. He said, “Chinese language is extremely subtle, like magic. I cannot believe people living in the other part of the world communicate in such a way.”

Maurice stepped on the soil of China in 1998. Unexpectedly it was a ten-year stay.

After his arrival in Beijing China, Maurice found what Beijing gifted him was more of a pleasant surprise. Maurice said, “Before I came to Beijing, I thought I would be very lonely there, hard to find people like me and just immersed in an ocean of Chinese people. Beyond my expectation, I saw so many people of all colors around me.”

Maurice put a lot of efforts into Chinese study in at school. He chose to register in a foundation class of Chinese and return to the starting point to solidify his foundations of Chinese. Through his hard work, Maurice still ranked first in Chinese examinations in his new class. His
Chinese teacher said to students who was from South Korea and Japan banteringly, “South Korea and Japan are a lot nearer to China and have many similarities in languages. Yet an African guy got the first place. Where have you been hanging out? ”

Since then, in order to keep on with his excellent results, Maurice redoubled his efforts. He made best use of every minute to practice Chinese. As time went on, his Chinese level was raised to a large degree.

On December 8th 2000, together with his schoolmate, an Irishman Richard Doran, Maurice performed a cross talk named “Eating Culture in Chinese” in the Beijing’s Overseas Student Theatrical Festival sponsored by the government. (Cross talk was a traditional Chinese show.)Their performance was highly praised and it also marked a starting point of Maurice’s ties with cross talk. During their rehearsal before their performance, their school teachers invited a famous Chinese cross talk actor Ding Guangquan to tutor them.

Afterwards, Mr. Ding asked whether Maurice and Richard whether will to be his apprentices to learn more cross talk.

At that time, Maurice even didn’t know what he would learn and what it was for. However, he thought to learn cross talk would benefit his Chinese study. Thus he took Mr. Ding’s suggestion and started his cross talk study.

He didn’t realize how hard the cross talk could be at the very beginning. Maurice said, “It is just because of our ignorance of cross talk that makes us get started. Otherwise, we won’t be engaged in it.”

Learning cross talk was a great opportunity for Maurice to improve his Chinese level. He learnt a lot of Chinese idioms and witticism from cross talk which made his expressions more natural, various and humorous.

Maurice often received performance invitations after he started learning cross talk, yet his studies at school weren’t disturbed. For him, studies at school were his mainline, but cross talk was no more than a hobby. Even if sometimes it was hard to refuse some performance invitations, Maurice would try to balance all alternatives to diminish their impact on studies.

During Maurice’s postgraduate studies, he was an all-subject-over-80 student. Before his postgraduate graduation, Maurice decided to give up his original plan to become a
Chinese teacher back Benin. And he went on with his further study in the realm of Sino-African relations. He hoped to become a bridge builder to link China and
Africa. Through his hard

work, Maurice got admission to Remin University of China to pursue a doctoral degree majoring China’s contemporary diplomacy. Moreover, he obtained one of 50 scholarships for outstanding overseas students in China granted by China’s government per year.

In this June, Maurice got his doctoral degree and he delivered a speech on behalf of all overseas students in Remin University of China at graduation ceremony. Maurice said, “The more I’ve learnt, the richer I felt Chinese culture is. Though a doctoral degree is in my hand, I still feel there’s a lot more to learn.”

When it comes to the reason why Maurice chose to study for a doctoral degree, he said that links between Africa and China had been tightened since 2000. And there was still room for improvement in regard to the way of communication between Africa and China. People from Africa and China should deepen the understandings of each other. He hoped to contribute to the development of the bilateral relationship and to become a person whose words carry weight.

Maurice said, at present, a great number of Africans still read translated versions to get knowledge of China. Such books could be distorted or even written by some experts who lacked understandings of China. Maurice thought we were in need of those experts who had deep understandings of both African and Chinese cultures and got experiences of living in two areas. A good grasp of current economic and social trends in Africa and China and a speciality in international relations would add more weight to one’s words.

Maurice said, “You cannot fool me in the field of African and Chinese cultures,I’ve experienced both and also have deep academic knowledge about them.” He was confident that with his academic knowledge and rich experience in Africa and China he would help push forward Sino-African relations.

Maurice added that the image of China became clearer and clearer in eyes of Beninese. There were only 56 students in Maurice’s Chinese class when he was studying in the National University of Benin. However, in these days more than two hundred students chose Chinese as their second language. Apart from the National University of Benin, other schools also set up Chinese courses and more and more people developed their interest in China.

“There’s no enough time for any astonishment since China develops so fast. As China’s international status rises, compared with the year of 1998, African people’s understanding of China is totally another story. Especially after Beijing winning the bid for Olympics and China’s entry into WTO in 2001, China’s success in launching Shenzhou No. 5 manned spaceship in 2003 and the opening of Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, people from all around the world, especially African people have seen the distance between us shorted.”

Maurice said, “In recent years, China’s aid programs boomed like building stadiums, paving a road and other projects. And more Beninese are familiar with China nowadays.”

In recent years, more and more African art troupes come to China to put on their performance. China also invited art troupes from different countries in the world to perform in Beijing in order to increase each other’s understandings.

Maurice said that China set up a number of cultural centers in Africa which focused on the spread of Chinese traditional culture like traditional Chinese paintings, acrobatics, calligraphies and Beijing Opera.

In Maurice’s viewpoint, highlights of Chinese traditional culture were appreciable for its vitality and profundity. “But Chinese traditional culture is so profound and complex that you feel a liking for it but feel hard to get close,” Maurice said, “If we can start with superficial and common layer of culture and then gradually deepen it, the effect of spreading of culture might better.”

“Beijing Opera troupes once performed in Africa, but most African couldn’t identify themselves with such style of performance. Instead, they thought make-up of Chinese actors was strange. It might produce a reverse effect, widening gaps between Africa and China.”
Maurice added, if Chinese people could perform African’s favorite street dance with Chinese elements, starting from the commonness of two cultures, it could produce a sense of warmth among African people. They could felt we were similar which would break down the Africans’ fearfulness towards Chinese culture.

Maurice also mentioned, large-scale evening party between Africa and China was rare. He thought China could invite famous African and Chinese singers and actors to perform on the same stage to improve our friendship. He had a special liking for the song named “In the Distant Place” sung by Chinese singer Han Hong and African man Hao Ge in 07’ Spring Festival Evening.

On the part of Africa, they should put more efforts in bringing African cultural elements to China. “Africa has more than 50 nations. Most of them have embassies and cultural counselors in China, but we saw few symbol to represent African cultures on the soil of China, according to my knowledge, no symbol at all,” Maurice said, “If African people could run Cultural centers in China including African-flavor restaurants, African art works like woodcarvings to China for exhibition, it would produce good effects to better Chinese people’s understandings of African cultures.”

Maurice thought there was not too much work left for embassies, rather non-governmental communication between Africa and China should been strengthened. “There’s too much to be done.”

When it turned to the topic of “image crisis of China”, Maurice said, “The image of China is in a transitional period. We cannot expect everything to be perfect. As it goes, to make an omelet, you have to first break the egg.”

We’ve all done it, but usually when we do, we do it on the couch and wake up with dicks on our face. But if you’ve got no friends and no where to go, you’re likely one of the following top 10.

These are the top 10 signs you drank too much.

10. The gardener doesn’t even wake you

9. You’re walking on train tracks with cones on your head

8. You’re using your hand as a pillow

7. You passed out standing up

6. Foot on the bench, body on the floor

5. No shirt, Mumm’s, champagne flute and a suitcase?

4. Only Batman himself can handle 14 zombies

3. “Slow Hand” can’t handle the booze

2. No sink, no toilet, urinal it is

1. ‘Nuff said

(bannedinhollywood)

“So when will China elect it’s first black president?” I posed this question to my Chinese friend Clark sitting across the table as we enjoyed some really good Japanese food. (It’s good to have a break from Chinese food every now and then!) I think this question caught him off guard as he looked very confused and immediately answered, “It is impossible!” The day Obama was elected I was very proud–proud at how far we had come as a country and excited at the historical magnitude of the event. I won’t lie, I would have liked to have been in the US for just this day, but on the other hand being in Beijing on election day gave me some insight into how the “other side” sees American politics.

The shared excitement over Obama’s victory led to many conversations about race, politics, and culture between my Chinese friends and I that ended up giving me the best insight I have into for a long time…

It is easy for us (as Americans) to assume that the whole world is like us–or at least that they want to be like us. As I have travelled here to China and even lived in a dorm of other international students from countless other countries, I see just how different America is than much of the world. I tend to over-criticize our country and point out her flaws more than most. This is not one of those flaws…

I love America. I love America because she is the unwanted step-child of the nations. We are a people of people. A culture of cultures. Although I have always “known” this to be true, seeing a country on the opposite end of the spectrum has aided in my perception. After I asked this question about Obama, I realized a very simple conclusion–China is not just a country. China is a race. China is a people. China is a language. China is a culture. China is China. The idea of a “non-Chinese” being president makes absolutely no sense. After this revelation, I frantically started thinking to other places– Germany (language, race, culture) –Japan (language, race, culture) — Korea (language, race, culture) — and the list goes on.

A terrible feeling came over me– I call it “perceived cultural illegitimacy”. As an American i suddenly felt like an overshadowed, sickly orphan boy wandering through the rows and rows of defined cultures wondering who I was and where I really came from. Who are we? I asked this out loud with a dismayed look and my Chinese friends didn’t really seem like they knew the words to make me feel better! Think about it– Anyone can be an American. Within 1 generation, any family can fully become English speaking, voting, working, Americans. This includes Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, Senegalese, Kenyan, French, or anyone else you can think of. Who are we? We are us. This is the beauty of America that keeps bringing me back to her even in times of my deepest discouragement…

We are indeed the great experiment– a hodgepodge of peoples from every corner of the globe all coming together to risk a new life. America is beautiful because it is for anyone and everyone. We see this so much that we tend to take it for granted. Living in China for the past few months I have began to appreciate the beauty of diversity. Here, everyone knows I am not Chinese. I will definitely never be president here- no matter how much time I spend here. In America you can never pin-point the “foreigners” or the “real Americans.” Some attempt this and in doing so deny the very fabric of our flag –the very definition of our land. We are us. Whatever your political persuasion- you have to be in awe at a country where it is possible that the son of a Kenyan immigrant and Kansas woman can become president where just 50 years ago he would have been denied even the most basic of rights! That is something to be proud about. American identity is both a blessing and a curse. One one hand, we lack the kind of national unity and understanding that is so present in a place like here in China. We are a mutt-country. On the other hand, we were an experiment that worked– a beautiful bouquet of the world’s most colorful cultures coming together in one land.

American is a young country. We are a country that is constantly evolving and re-inventing herself. This is so incredibly different from this ancient culture that is had made me question my own identity. Here, family and ancestry is so important. It’s all about where you come from and who you come from. Some friends of mine who say they are “from” Shanghai although they had never been there–their family is from Shanghai. In a culture like this, how can an American not feel slightly left out? They want to hear me say I am British/Irish/German, but I am not-I am American–but what does that mean? Who are we? We are American. WE–And thank God it’s not just people who look, talk, and believe like me.

As I have come to appreciate and love this side of America, I realize the danger in creating our own “pseudo-nation.”With a recent rise in racist events and anti-immigrant behavior, it seems like many people need a lesson on America. I have met many people in the States that seem to imagine a Chinese-type society where everyone shares a race, language, and culture. (Coincidentally, this is white and English speaking.) I’m sorry–you can’t have it both ways! America is not like this. We never have been and we never will be, and the sooner people realize that the better off we will all be off! If you claim to be a patriot, then you need to love the real America–not the idealized and uniform version you have built up in your culturally monolithic communities. I love America precisely because she is a country unable to be defined– a country of countries. I love this America–complete with all the blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, and languages involved.

America is a passionate idea or it is nothing. America is a human brotherhood or it is chaos. ~Max Lerner, Actions and Passions, 1949

America! half-brother of the world!
With something good and bad of every land.
~Philip James Bailey

(http://matthewdb.blogspot.com)

Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism.

Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing.

As a bonus, the Pelosi presidency would put a woman in the White House this year after all. On the downside, a few right-wing talk-show hosts might succumb to apoplexy. That would, of course, be terrible, but I’m afraid we might have to take the risk in the name of a greater good.

Can I see a show of hands? How many people want George W. out and Barack in?

A great many Americans have been counting the days all year on their 2008 George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown calendars. I know a lot of this has been going on because so many people congratulated me when the Feb. 1 Bush quote turned out to be from one of my old columns. (“I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth from the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth.”)

This was not nearly as good as Feb. 5 (“We ought to make the pie higher”) or Feb. 21 (“I understand small business growth. I was one.”) But we do what we can.

In the past, presidents have not taken well to suggestions that they hand over the reins before the last possible minute. Senator J. William Fulbright suggested a plan along those lines when Harry Truman was coming to the end of a term in a state of deep unpopularity, and Truman called him “Halfbright” for the rest of his life. Bush might not love the idea of quitting before he has a chance to light the Christmas tree or commute the execution of one last presidential turkey. After all, he still has a couple more trips planned. And last-minute regulations to issue. (So many national parks to despoil, so many endangered species to exterminate … .) And then there’s all the packing.

On the other hand, he might want to consider his legacy, such as it is.

In happier days, Bush may have nurtured hopes of making it into the list of America’s mediocre presidents, but somewhere between Iraq and Katrina, that goal became a mountain too high. However, he might still have a chance to avoid the absolute bottom of the barrel, a spot currently occupied by James Buchanan, at least in my opinion. Buchanan nailed down The Worst President title in the days between Abraham Lincoln’s election and inauguration, when the Southern states began seceding and Buchanan, after a little flailing about, did absolutely nothing. “Doing nothing is almost the worst thing a president can do,” said the historian Michael Beschloss.

If Bush gives up doing nothing by giving up his job, it’s possible that someday history might elevate him to the ranks of the below average. Better than Franklin Pierce! Smarter than Warren Harding! And healthier than William Henry Harrison!

The person who would like this plan least probably would be Barack Obama. Who would want to be saddled with the auto industry’s problems ahead of schedule? The heads of America’s great carmaking corporations are so dim that they couldn’t even survive hearings run by members of Congress who actually wanted to help them. Really, when somebody asks you exactly how much money you need, the answer should not be something along the line of “a whole bunch.”

An instantaneous takeover would also ruin the Obama team’s plan to have the tidiest, best-organized presidential transition in history. Cutting it short and leaping into governing would turn their measured march toward power into a mad scramble. A lot of their Cabinet picks are still working on those 62-page questionnaires.

But while there’s been no drama with Obama, we’ve been living a Technicolor version of “The Perils of Pauline.” Detroit is tied to the railroad tracks and the train is coming! California’s state government is falling into the sea! The way we’re going now, by the time the inauguration rolls around, unemployment will be at 10 percent and the Dow will be at 10.

Time for a change.

(nytimes)

written by Liz Dwyer, Anti-Racist Parent columnist

My seven year-old son is very tall for his age. He’s been in the 90th percentile for height his whole life. He’s also African-American. It seems like in our country, Black + Tall + Male = having to constantly hear, “You better put him in basketball! He could be the next Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan.”

Yes, if you’re a tall, African-American boy, you are destined to be a basketball player.

Never mind that he’d rather spend his time at a science center, and never mind that if you ask him what sport he really wants to play, he’ll tell you football because his grandpa works at Notre Dame.

Even though he could have begun playing in our local sports leagues when he was five, I was reluctant to register him because I didn’t want to feed into the stereotype that the only thing of value in an African-American boy is athletic ability. But, when he turned six he begged to play soccer. I felt a little like I was putting my own baggage about sports and black males onto him, so I signed him up.

No one assumed that he knew how to play at all, and the coaches emphasized that the goal was exposure to the sport. However, I noticed that the performance expectations seemed to be much higher for the Latino boys on his team than it was for him. One Latina mother explained to me that it was because soccer is so much more popular in Latin America. She claimed that Latino fathers give their children soccer balls before they can walk. Clearly, this seemed like questionable stereotyping to me, but I found the sentiment echoed quite frequently by other parents.

When the soccer season came to a close, it only seemed natural to move my son on to the next sport, basketball. He was assigned to a team and it quickly became clear that he was the tallest kid on it. He was also the only black child in the entire division. I can’t begin to tell you how excited his coach was. “Come on over here! You’re going to be our rock star.”

I was immediately irritated. I found myself sitting in the bleachers, watching the first practice and thinking, “That coach only said my son’s a rock star because he thinks that since my boy’s black, he knows how to play.” The truth of the matter was that up till then, my son had only played basketball a couple of times. My husband never played competitive sports so it doesn’t come natural to him to toss a basketball or football around every day. I was a cheerleader, not a basketball player, and quite frankly, his learning to read above grade level has been our top priority, not sports.

The very first game of the season, my son scored three baskets and led his team to victory. Afterwards, the coach gushed about my son, saying, “He’s really got some natural talent there.”

I wanted to ask, “What do you mean ‘natural talent’?” but before I knew it, the coach was talking to another parent.

Even though it feels like black folks are always treated like they’re naturals at sports, dancing, singing, joke-telling and hip-hop, I again asked myself if I was reading too much into such a comment. Was this coach just being complimentary or did he assume that blackness = basketball like everybody else?

As the weeks passed, it became clear that my son was not the best shooter on the team. Making three baskets in the first game was a bit of beginner’s luck. But, one of his Latino teammates managed to hit 80% of his baskets. Instead, because of his height, my son became the king of rebounds. Needless to say, they won every game and my son genuinely enjoyed playing on the team.

This year we were out of town and so we missed soccer registration, but back at the beginning of August, the guy working in the recreation center office made sure to mention that basketball registration would be happening in November.

Again, I found myself wondering, am I only being told this because the guy behind the desk figures a black kid will like basketball more, or does he genuinely not want my son to miss out?

It made me realize that this is one of the most insidious things about racism: It takes a psychological toll on you since you constantly have to turn this stuff over in your head. The vigilance it requires to be sure my son is not being treated in a prejudicial manner gets exhausting. I don’t like having to wonder whether something I’m told or the way my boy is treated is a symptom of either conscious or subconscious racism.

Come to think of it, one of the reasons I like my son’s pediatrician so much is that after checking my son’s vision, the doctor said to him that he has such perfect eyesight that he could be an airline pilot. The doctor never says, “Wow, you’re tall! You should be a ball player!” I wish no one else did either.

Liz Dwyer lives in Los Angeles with her husband of eight years, Elarryo Bolden and her two sons, ages six and three. Her great sense of adventure and desire to learn about diverse cultures took her to Guangzhou, China where she taught English to third and fourth graders, picked up some Mandarin, and managed to get into seven bike accidents. Liz taught in Compton, CA for three years and later worked for national education non-profit Teach For America. Liz has written and reflected on the world around her for the past three years at Los Angelista’s Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness. She’s currently freelance writing and working on her first novel.

Image courtesy of Balakov on Flickr
(antiracistparent)

I’m thousands of words behind in NaNoWriMo, but I can’t concentrate because DUUUUDES! Obama won and hope fills the air even though all of this Pacific Northwest rain is knocking it down and running it down the street and into the gigantic storm drain on the curb in front of our house.

I will hold the Tuesday night moment close to my heart for a very long time.

I should be packing for my trip to daughter’s home in Appleton. I should be cleaning the bedroom: dusting furniture, vacuuming, cleaning the toilet, putting clean laundry away but I am too wrapped up in news reports about who Obama will pick for his staff and why.

Do you think that Sarah Palin really didn’t know that Africa was a continent? An impromptu prayer: Thank you God for protecting us from Sarah Palin. A lot of Your faithful think she was an answer to their prayers, and maybe she is a good and faithful follower of Yours (but if she is, why did she buy all of those expensive clothes? Doesn’t she know that scripture about the little sparrows?) I can clearly see that You knew she needed to serve you quietly in Alaska. Thank you again and again. I mean it. Make sure she stays real quiet okay? We need Your help because some of us don’t think we could take even one more day of that voice.

It won’t stop raining and two more storms are on their way. I don’t think we’ll know when one storm ends and another begins. I’m going to light a fire soon. This kind of night after a long and wet day calls for fire – and coffee. With any luck there’s Kahlua in the house.

Want to: change the sheets, dust the furniture, put the mess away. Put things in drawers, scrub the toilet. Clean the bathroom countertop and the floor. Vacuum. I often list things I want to do and then, feeling satisfied, never do them.

Do you think Joe Lieberman’s days are numbered? Didn’t he recently say he fears for the country if the Democrats got 60 seats in the Senate? Why, yes he did. He certainly did.

Important Goal: By November 15, Etsy will be up and running (and don’t you think it’s about time?). I won’t make cute little zippered bags, I promise. Loads of zippered bags on Etsy. No jewelry either. No doll clothes. Nothing involving tags. No magnets. Well there it is, at least I’ve clarified what won’t be there. No monster dolls either. Not one single zombie or anything made of felted stuff. Nothing knitted, nor anything with googly eyes.

But what will I do? Oh….stuff. Beautiful, happy, sunshine-filled stuff. A wise person told me that if I love it and it speaks to my soul, then it’s worth offering, so I’ll offer and it doesn’t sell, I’ll give it away. I’ll have Twitter polls and winner will win from the spoils.

Time to dust.

(babushkablue)

Chinese President Hu Jintao, shortly after Barack Obama was declared president-elect, sent a message Wednesday (5 Nov) to congratulate Obama on his election victory.

“China and the United States share broad common interests and important responsibilities on a wide range of major issues concerning the well-being of humanity.

“Developing long-term, healthy and stable Sino-US relations serves the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples, and is of great significance to peace, stability and development in the world,” Hu said in a message.

Hu said the Chinese government and he himself have always valued China-US relations.

“In the new historic era, I look forward to working with you to continuously strengthen dialogue and exchanges between our two countries and enhance mutual trust and cooperation on the basis of the three Sino-US Joint Communiques, with a view to taking our relationship to a new high and bringing greater benefits to people of our two countries and the rest of the world.”

Premier Wen Jiabao, in his congratulatory message to Obama, said “a sound China-US relationship meets the common aspirations of our two peoples and the need to maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large”.

Wen expressed belief that with joint efforts, the China-US relationship would make new progress.

Vice-President Xi Jinping congratulated Joe Biden on his election as US vice-president.

Following are quotes from other world leaders on Obama’s victory:

Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President

“Russia hopes Barack Obama’s administration will take steps to improve badly-damaged bilateral ties and make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations with Russia.”

Nicolas Sarkozy, French president

“With the world in turmoil and doubt, the American people, faithful to the values that have always defined America’s identity, have expressed with force their faith in progress and the future. At a time when we must face huge challenges together, your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond.”

Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister

“Barack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future. I know Barack Obama and we share many values. We both have determination to show that government can act to help people fairly through these difficult times facing the global economy.”

Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission President

“We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world. I sincerely hope that with the leadership of President Obama, the United States of America will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal. For the benefit of our societies, for the benefit of the world.”

Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister

“Your extraordinary journey to the White House will inspire people not only in your country but also around the world.”

Taro Aso, Japanese Prime Minister

“The Japan-US alliance is key to Japanese diplomacy and it is the foundation for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. With President-elect Obama, I will strengthen the Japan-US alliance further and work toward resolving global issues such as the world economy, terror and the environment.”

Kgalema Motlanthe, South African President

“Africa, which today stands proud of your achievements, can only but look forward to a fruitful working relationship with you both at bilateral and multilateral levels in our endeavor to create a better world for all who live in it.”

Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister

“Senator Obama’s message of hope is not just for America’s future, it is also a message of hope for the world as well.”

Mwai Kibaki, Kenyan President

“We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots. Your victory is not only an inspiration to millions of people all over the world, but it has special resonance with us here in Kenya.” (China Daily/ ANN)

MySinchew 2008.11.06

This was announced by the recently formed UN Presidential Exchange Program (PEP). Kenya was a natural choice for McCain since Barak Obama’s father came from Kenya. It was also judged to be the best country to show off McCain’s skills in cleaning up corruption and reducing taxes to zero (wealthy Kenyans already pay little tax and the poor are too poor to pay). His military skills can come handy on a continent racked by constant wars.

The UN PEP office also announced that Sarah Palin will exchange places with Vladimir Putin (a neighbor she often waves to from her porch). However, PEP later issued a correction saying that due to her poor knowledge of geography Sarah agreed to go only as far as Siberia. Siberian natives were overjoyed, saying that the moose hunting season had just begun. Mr Putin was judged to be too risky for Alaska as it contains mineral resources that the Russian oligarchs might covet. He will be sent instead to Tonga to boost the tourist potential of the flagging, and sinking, island economy.

The North Korean President Kim Jong Il will be sent to run Guantanamo Bay Jail. After a year, he will be locked in with inmates for a night of conflict resolution training.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will go to Pakistan to terminate Osama Bin Laden.

Big Al Greeenspan will be sent to China to ruin the Chinese economy.

French President Sarkozy and the German President Angela Merkel will swap places. Sarkozy was judged to be the best person to improve German cuisine and fashion while Merkel promised to tackle trade unions, slim down overblown French bureaucracy, and impose order on the inevitable student protests.

President Bush will be dispatched to Albania to help run a home for retarded children.

President Clinton will go to the South East Asia as a goodwill ambassador to clean up the sex trade there.

Hilary Clinton will be sent to Saudi Arabia to create at least one crack in the glass ceiling of male dominance there. She will be equipped with a crash helmet.

Italian President Silvio Berlusconi will be sent to India as it was judged to be the only country that would continue on its way, no matter who you sent there.

Note: There will be a video announcement on Youtube and Blip.tv at 5:00pm Tuesday (EST) – Time.

Keywords: McCain, Kenya, UN, Presidential Exchange Program, comedy

(pyotrpatrushev)

Emeagwali won the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, which has been called “supercomputing’s Nobel Prize,” for inventing a formula that allows computers to perform their fastest computations - a discovery that inspired the reinvention of supercomputers. He was extolled by then U.S. President Bill Clinton as “one of the great minds of the Information Age” and described by CNN as “a Father of the Internet;” and is the most searched-for scientist on the Internet.

Isaac Asimov, the most prolific science writer, acknowledges that mathematics, science and technology are the gift of ancient Africans to our modern world.

The first draft of a portrait that depicted Emeagwali as a supercomputer wizard driving a carriage powered by thousands of chickens (a metaphor for his 65,000 weak processors that performed the world’s fastest computation). The “Negro Emeagwali” (shown in this illustration) was rejected and replaced with a “Caucasian Emeagwali” (shown below).

A “whitened” Caucasian portrait of Emeagwali was acceptable and widely published. One illustrator argued that Emeagwali has a trace of Caucasian blood and said that he could see the “Caucasian look” in his face.

Jefferson wrote in his book “Notes on Virginia” that Africans are intellectually inferior and cannot understand mathematics.

This false portrait of Euclid as a white male reinforced Jefferson’s views that mathematics could only be comprehended by whites. Since there is no proof that Euclid ever travelled outside Africa it makes sense to assume that he is full-blooded Negro.

(www.emeagwali.com)

Edris Kisambira
Kampala

A two-day translation marathon has resulted in a version of Mozilla’s Firefox browser Firefox in Luganda, Uganda’s most widely spoken language.

The software will be made available by Makerere University’s Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (CIT) with the aim of giving non-English speakers a browsing tool.

Software experts from Translate.org.za, a South African company that develops translation software, guided and trained 300 students from CIT as well as Luganda linguists from the Institute of Languages at Makerere in the translation exercise.

During the two days, experts from Rhodes University and Translate.org.za introduced participants to localization practices to speed the process.

A CD that contains a translated Firefox interface will now be distributed by CIT for a small fee to cover administrative costs while an electronic version will be placed on the CIT Web site for interested users to download. Friedel Wolff from Translate.org.za said that work remains to be done on the browser.

“There is now a Firefox browser that is 80 percent Luganda but the local community with help from CIT needs to continue to work on it to do some improvements before it is disseminated,” Wolff said.

In 2004, seven volunteers spent a year and half translating the older version of Firefox but the application was upgraded before they could distribute the translation.

Africa’s academic community has emphasized the importance of supporting local content and languages online in order to reach the rural population, given that the continent is home to hundreds of languages.

Professor Venansius Baryamureeba, the head of the CIT faculty, said there is now a need to develop online content in Luganda, and that the software development department at CIT is interested in continuing with the translation work.

“We have got the skills and are now in a position to be able to translate Firefox and other software into other indigenous languages,” Baryamureeba said. “And we will do this because we want to contribute to narrowing the so-called digital divide.”

Lorenzo Dalvit, a lecturer from the department of ICT at Rhodes University, said it was a great experience but also a lot of work for the team that did the translations.

At Rhodes, the university administration and Translate.org.za have initiated a project that is helping translate software in use within the university into non-English languages

(ALLAFRICA)

In 1884, at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Bismark called together the major western powers for a talk on a negotiated solution to the questions over the control of Africa which 80% of territory was still under traditional and local control. Bismark wanted to expand Germany’s sphere of influence over Africa but have seen dangerous the fact that western powers were struggling with one another for territory.

Fourteen countries (Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands,Russia, Portugal, Spain, Sweden-Norway, Turkey, and the United States of America) participated to that conference and four of them (France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal) were the major players in the conference, already controlling about 20% of Africa at the time.

The conference obtained the neutrality of Congo and Niger Rivers mouths and basins and they were opened to trade for all the Colons. However, despite its neutrality, part of the Congo Basin became a personal kingdom for Belgium’s King Leopold II ( and was named Leopoldville : meaning Leopold’s Town) and under his rule, over half of the region’s African population died.

Even after the conference, the same give and take continued depending on the influence a country was gaining or losing. The map above is 30 years after the Berlin conference European powers claims, they had fully divided Africa among themselves into fifty countries

• Great Britain desired a Cape-to-Cairo collection of colonies and almost succeeded though their control of Egypt, Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), Uganda, Kenya (British East Africa), South Africa, and Zambia, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), and Botswana. The British also controlled Nigeria and Ghana (Gold Coast).
• France took much of western Africa, from Mauritania to Chad (French West Africa) and Gabon and the Republic of Congo (French Equatorial Africa).
• Belgium and King Leopold II controlled the Democratic Republic of Congo (Belgian Congo).
• Portugal took Mozambique in the east and Angola in the west.
• Italy’s holdings were Somalia (Italian Somaliland) and a portion of Ethiopia.
• Germany took Namibia (German Southwest Africa) and Tanzania (German East Africa).
• Spain claimed the smallest territory - Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni).

You can see that some of the participants such as USA don’t have any claims in Africa, at least that what the map tells us. I wonder what their part was or if they wanted just to waste their time ( 3 months of negotiations) negotiating something they didn’t want.

More than 100 hundred years after the Bismark conference more super powers have emerged and of course want exactly what the former wanted and Africa is on the Agenda.

Africa is now meant to be independent, and more than 50 African countries are members of the UN. Their masters are now called partners. They didn’t easily give up their title of masters but have lost it after long fights. They are now called partners and not masters but you don’t need to be a politician expert to notice than they don’t act differently. Even a software engineer like me knows that Africa is not yet independent.

With China and India economies booming, Africa, the continent which have been fueling all the economies: USA and Europe from the slave trade era to the modern era, is for sure still needed for help and ready than ever. However, Africa is already divided and the traditional super powers have already traced their borders.

The world economy is exactly in the situation of 1884 when emerging industries were in luck of enough raw materials. China and India are in need of the food of their machines and Africa had got plenty of them.

China, which has been seeking relationship with Africa since the Mao’s era, has recently boosted it’s cooperation with Africa. It’s worth mentioning that Chinese cooperation with Africa is not matter of yesterday as one would think when reading news around internet. It’s just recently that we are being told all the time about the “disastrous China-Africa cooperation” by western media.

Even though China-Africa cooperation is not a matter of yesterday as I said previously, it’s just recently that we are being told frequently that : China is invading Africa, China is devouring African resources, Congolese kids are dying mining for Chinese companies, China is giving weapons to Mugabe and Sudan to kill Africans and many more. China have been in Africa a long time ago but was not a treat to the masters’ interest in any how. However now days, building on the long time relationship it had already with Africa, China has aggressively and quickly used it’s friendship with Africa to get economic interests and many deals are being signed despite the cries from West.

In the modern worlds, every country is meant to have right to choose its partners and West have lost the title of Master. They are supposed to be and are called Partners and not masters even tough they play the later.

The West now have two choices:

- Give up Africa and leave it with China and concentrate to their own economies. They have had enough time ( more than 100 years) to steal Africa and it would not be surprising that Belgium has now more gold than it’s colony : Congo. In terms of raw materials, I don’t doubt that Europe has enough stock for their industries for decades to come.

The consequences would arise if China managed to help Africa develop itself without the West: I don’t want this to happen just for the sake of international security. Imagine Africa as a world power without any help from Europe with the history of slave trade and colonization and all the killings of African nationalists that followed and all the made in Europe civil wars . I don’t want to have an image of a bad, criminal, bandit, … white man because really it’s not true. I’ve got very good white friends and I can say they wouldn’t be unhappy to hear Africa is developing. Even though I fearlessly can affirm that the Evil of Africa is white, I have not doubt that the White is not the Evil of Africa.

-A second choice is to really engage Europe in the development of Africa : that would be very good. Africans would easily forget their history and treat the West as a Partner not as an enemy. The current generations of Europe would have reason to reject the responsibility of their ancestors actions arguing that they would have acted differently if they’ve born before the slave trade like we do when blaming those criminal who killed Jesus. Who would not benefit from that ? None.

The consequences of the ideal solution are two:

* That would mean investing money, I mean money and not the aid, not financing unproductive made in Europe projects. That would come to a cost but there is no doubt that the West is able to handle it.They have got enough to invest and much of the benefits would still go to them.

* An other alternative that I think would not be with less consequences, is the independence of Africa. Africa would then seek economic and political independence. Imagine an Africa with nothing to report to the World Bank or the IMF and a decision maker in World Trade organization. Europe would find itself in situation of one of African partners like China and India. Africa would cease being just a natural resources provider but a hub of heavy industries. The cost of natural resources would rise and the European industries face the treat of cheap African goods on their market in application of their own rules of World Trade Organization. With the experience they have with China I don’t think they are ready to accept that.

Unable to stop China “Invading” Africa, they have lost their mind as you can see in this video, and they are now fighting on two fronts:

- Demonizing China however and whenever they can: we are now being told whatever about how Chinese actions in Africa is disastrous. We are told of a China “devouring” Africa and sponsoring dictatorship in Africa, undermining the “good efforts” of promoting good governance and democracy from the West. A Congolese kid mining is mining for Chinese companies, a gun which shoots innocents is made is China, …. the very very very very … bad China. However we all know that China is not the first supplier of Africa in any thing but infrastructures. I don’t say and even doubt that Chinese sell weapons in Africa. But unless those made in West are made in way they recognize innocents and only kill bad guys, they should not be the first to criticize it.

However this is doomed to fail: Chinese don’t care of the cries from the West and are on their way to Congo, Angola to name two, building roads and all kind of infrastructures quickly and silently. You see a bad Chinese enemy of Africa and a good European friend of Africa on the net and TV and you see in the street a Chinese building road and Europeans working in many so-called humanitarian aid organizations driving Mercedes and BMW in the Chinese made road. What to believe ? What you see or what you heard or read ? “Blessed are those who believe without seeing ” the Bible says but here we can both see and hear.

-Westerners are not stupid, they play all the cards but know which ones can win. They know they are not going to succeed telling to Congolese that Chinese are stealing their minerals if they can see made-by-Chinese roads, rail ways, hospitals,universities and schools. They have heard from long time that their country has got plenty of gold and diamonds and have got nothing from them but their people dying in mines for the past 100 years. Building a hospital and taking tons and tons of gold doesn’t matter for them because they have mined to death for someone else and didn’t see the hospital. What Westerners media haven’t understood is that Africans don’t know the price of natural resources because they have never seen salvation from them. Telling them: “hey look at Chinese they are devouring your diamonds”, doesn’t really produce expected results.

They know that they are doomed to fail and are now seeking for a 1884 Berlin like negotiated solution over the sharing of African resources. They have now to allocate some parts to China and India otherwise they risk loosing all. The “good” idea of not fighting but sharing Africa is again from Germany but not at Berlin but Bonn.

Bellow is a communique for the conferences

**********************

***************************

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

However if negotiations are not yet finished, the new Bismark is going to have many challenges. China have got good reputation in Africa and Africans are willing more than ever not the right to choose their partners because that’s too demanding maybe, but the right to choose their master is seen as a must have one. They West will need to impose their practices to China what it’s impossible because Chinese will not be welcomed in Africa unless they show themselves different from Westerners. Would you hide from a river in the lake ?

China then is in a good position and has high needs and may ask a big part and why not even asking for the whole thing ? The 1884 Berlin participants didn’t get equal portions. India comes also with not a small appetite and they should wait also Russia because it hasn’t said the last word. How if our Brazilian brothers and Sisters join the game ? Maybe it’s not like football, otherwise they should also think twice.

I would like to attend that meeting because it’s not going to be the 1884 Berlin way for sure.Nothing shocking at all will be said. Partnership in helping Africa will be the main topic for sure and it sounds nice and sweet. There is no doubt that the black continent will be invited to attend. I m afraid the true negotiations will have been somewhere else. Wait and see.

Time will tell.

Daniel

By Sam Akaki

Thanks to the dwindling primary natural resources, oil and gas, the West is hounding Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Sudan’s al-Bashir, and heaping blame on Russia and China for protecting them; thus setting the stage for a new Cold War to be fought in Africa.

The last Cold War saw the savage murder or violent overthrow by the British, Americans, Belgians, French and Portuguese of nationalist African leaders including Patrice Lumumba, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Luis Cabral, Eduardo Mondlane, Samora Marcel, Milton Obote, Hamed Sekou Toure, Gamel Abdel Nasser and Ahmed Ben Bella who were dubbed terrorists or Russian and Chinese sympathizers.

The lucky ones — Jomo Kenyatta, Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela were given long prison sentences from which they were never expected to come out, alive. Today, Mandela’s statue stands as a monument of British cynicism, in Parliament Square, London. The statue stood there for three years until last week when the USA finally removed Mandela’s name from the list of international terrorists!

The human, social and economic wounds inflicted on Africa by the last Cold War are still very raw. Mozambique, Angola and Namibia are littered with millions of land mines and other unexploded military ordinances, which will kill people for centuries to come. Algeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda are fighting self-destruct wars, while Somalia ceased to be a state in 1992, thanks to western weapons.

“China is financing infrastructure projects in more than 35 African countries.”

Overall, the last Cold War left Africa on the life-support machine of western food aid administered by the World Food Program, while their leaders pay lip service to cure the patient.

Recently, the Africa Progress Panel (APP), headed by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, issued a report, “Africa Progress Panel responds to the G8 Summit in Hokkaido” which said:

“G8 countries have done little to show how they will fund the shortfall of U.S.$ 40 billion in programmable aid and debt relief identified by the Africa Progress Panel last month…The G8 has yet to present clear timetables outlining future aid provision or to provide increased transparency required to improve the quality of aid.”

On “Global food crisis”, the report said, “The Panel welcomes the commitment of U.S.$ 10 billion to support food aid and measures to increase agricultural input as a necessary first step… More needs to be done, however, to increase the supply of food to the world’s most vulnerable citizens, and immediate measures must be taken to relax export restrictions on commodities such as rice”

On trade, it said “The Panel welcomes the G8 leaders’ commitment to the conclusion of an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive Doha agreement… As WTO negotiations enter this crucial period, all parties need to understand that the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals rest in large part on the ability of the continent to trade its way out of poverty.”

And in conclusion, Mr. Annan declared “The success in supporting African development will not only result in tangible benefits for her people but ensure a more secure and prosperous future for the world. For G8 leaders, helping Africa to help itself is not a question of altruism; it is a matter of self-interest.”

The July 11 UN resolution accused Robert Mugabe of “killing 100 opposition supporters and displacing 2,000”, and called for punitive sanctions including imposing an arms embargo, a clear signal for attacks on Zimbabwe. Thankfully, China and Russia, which were not at the Berlin Conference, rejected the resolution, saying it would “open the way for interference by the Security Council in internal affairs of Members States, which is a gross violation of the UN Charter.”

To disorganize the AU, the International Criminal Court (ICC), is planning to arrest Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, for “leading a campaign of murder, rape and mass deportation in Darfur”. The plan is advancing despite the AU statement, which “reiterated the AU’s concern with the misuse of indictments against African leaders.”

“The Western ruling groups are conceited, full of themselves, ignorant of our conditions, and they make other people’s business their business.”

Incidentally, the conflict in Darfur started 18 years after the one in northern Uganda which killed over 300,000 civilians, caused the abduction of 20, 000 children and drove 2 million into concentration camps. Yet, the ICC never investigated the role of the Ugandan troops in these atrocities, leave alone issuing an arrest warrant for Museveni.

That is not surprising. The West is less interested in human rights in Africa than in justifying and setting the stage for a new Cold War. The BBC reported on 13th July it “has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan’s government militarily in Darfur.”

Yet, China’s real crime is its dominating investments in Africa which now exceeds British, USA, European Union, World Bank and IMF aid budgets, combined.

A recent World Bank confirmed that China is financing infrastructure projects in more than 35 African countries with Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Nigeria, the Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe among the biggest recipients. In the DRC, China has agreed to build thousands of kilometers of roads, several hospitals and three universities. Unlike the West, China gives Africa quality projects on time and much more cheaply.

In their most direct statements yet recorded, African leaders made their views about the West clear during the Chinese Africa summit, held in Beijing in November 2006. Speaking to Lindsey Hilsum of British Channel Four television, former president Festus Mogae of Botswana said, “I find that the Chinese treat us as equals. The West treats us as former subjects (read slaves). Which is a reality. I prefer the attitude of the Chinese to that of the West.”

For his part, President Museveni who is seen as a darling of the West said, “The Western ruling groups are conceited, full of themselves, ignorant of our conditions, and they make other people’s business their business. Whereas the Chinese just deal with you, you represent your country, they represent their own interests, and you do business.”

And Russia is an enemy because it is sitting on huge gas and oil reserves, and opposing not only the expansion of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to its borders, but also US plans to build Missile Defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Given the devastation of the last Cold War, won’t a new one be a double crime against humanity exceeding not only the massacres by the Germans of 6 million Jews, but also the genocide committed by Belgians in Congo in the last centaury, and the slave trade?

Aren’t African leaders facing a simple choice: stand firm and tell the west not to touch al-Bashir, or keep silent and wait to be picked off one by one?

Sam Akaki is Executive Director, Democratic Institutions for Poverty Reduction in Africa (DIPRA).
(The African Executive)

Wang Gang, a smiling, bespectacled man who goes by the name “Steel,” moved to Senegal from China five years ago and set up a shop in Dakar. He sells footwear, scarves, shawls and an assortment of other low-priced “Made in China” goods.

Although his business is small, he is part of an army of Chinese shopkeepers in Africa that paved the way for big Chinese investors who have funded gigantic infrastructure projects there.

“Long, long ago, my friend came here for business and introduced me to Dakar to sell Chinese products,” says Wang, who adds that his name in Chinese means steel. “I hope I can make a big market in Africa in the future, and maybe I will have good luck.”

Outside in the sweltering Senegalese heat, female shoppers dressed in brightly colored boubous, the traditional voluminous West African gowns, rummage through piles of shiny trinkets and Chinese knickknacks in a market stall.

Adama Gaye, a Senegalese author and commentator, says Chinese merchants were the vanguard of Beijing’s major investment in Africa. These shopkeepers, fanning out over the entire continent, were the pioneers who preceded big business from China. “These people represent a new form of colonialism with an Asian face that is coming to Africa,” Gaye says.

“The influx of Chinese business people onto the streets of Dakar is quite a phenomenon,” Gaye says. “One street, the Boulevard General de Gaulle — named after the French wartime leader — could be called Boulevard Mao Tse-Tung, because it is dominated by the Chinese,” he says with a smile.

China has adopted a subtle approach to wooing Africa — unlike the continent’s original colonial masters. When they came to Africa three centuries ago, they used the barrel of the gun,” Gaye says. “They came with boats, they controlled ports and forts and physically dominated places. The Chinese did it in a soft way.”

The Chinese merchants, he says, were “the advance force that has allowed opening up of new territories, including Senegal, and they were followed up later on by the big companies and then the political leaders.”

These ordinary people became China’s eyes and ears in territories such as Senegal. “They are very useful in the grand strategy that China is deploying across the world,” Gaye says.

But cheap, mass-produced Chinese imports like those that Wang sells are flooding African markets and crippling some local industries, including textiles.Africa cannot compete with the eye-catching Chinese fabrics and African prints that sell at a fraction of the price. Factories are closing down, and jobs are being lost.

But many shoppers in Senegal, like Khady Sall, point out that the Chinese stores are affordable. She fills a bag with headscarves, sandals and perfume — “imitation though,” she says with a laugh, “but cheap.”

With Senegal’s rising cost of living, Sall says, the Chinese goods are an excellent value and suit everyone’s wallet. “Everyone can afford to buy something,” Sall says. “They’re quite cheap and pretty good quality.”

Trade between Africa and China topped more than $55 billion in 2006 — up fivefold since 2000. That’s still well below the more than $70 billion in U.S.-Africa trade. Beijing hopes two-way trade with the continent will hit $100 billion by 2020.

Wang, the Chinese shopkeeper, wants to be part of that boom. He says he expects to spend another few years in Senegal. “We’ll see — maybe one, two, three, four, maybe more if the market is suitable for me. Maybe I can stay here for a long time,” Wang says.

Dozens of Chinese-owned shops and market stalls line a wide avenue in Centenaire, an area of Dakar. Ten years ago, there was only a handful. Wang says the glut of shops has hurt his business. “The competition is more than before — for everything,” he says.

While the influx of Chinese capital might be attractive, Gaye warns that China knows what it wants from Africa and “has come with a strategy.” Africa, he says, has not done the same homework. “There is no strategic continental approach that African countries have adopted,” Gaye says. “No think tank, no task force, no inclusion of Chinese language into universities, no coordinated approach. This should be the role of the African Union.”

“Overall,” Gaye says, “it’s an unbalanced relationship in which China knows what it wants and has a clearly defined agenda. The question, indeed, is what is Africa doing in the face of these challenges?” Gaye says. “Nothing. It’s as if African countries are rushing to China, bowl in hand. And China naturally is in a best position to take advantage, whereas African countries are almost powerless and just expecting China to be the new messiah.”

Gaye compares the renewed global interest in Africa’s raw materials and markets with suitors lining up to court the continent. China, hungry for all the natural resources it can get, is determined to win Africa’s hand, he says.

“China is in a position to be in the heart of Africa,” Gaye says. “And the West? They are losing out. If Africa plays its cards well, I think Africa has never been in a better position.”

But Gaye says it’s up to Africa to make the most of the marriage with China.

By Malia Politzer

As host of this year’s Summer Olympics, China and its growing influence in the world have received much media attention. China’s business and trade ties to Africa are among the topics that have come under scrutiny, with some questioning whether China is monopolizing Africa’s oil, gas, and mineral resources and in the process supporting governments the West has tried to isolate and “colonizing” the continent.

Since China first established diplomatic ties with some African countries nearly 50 years ago, Chinese-African trade and Chinese presence on the continent has increased exponentially.

In October 2000, the first Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting brought together ministers from China and 44 African countries, representatives from the African and Chinese business communities, and regional and international organizations. This meeting, according to the forum, “charted the direction for the development of a new, stable and long-term partnership.”

The third ministerial meeting, in November 2006, was the largest diplomatic forum in modern Chinese history with representatives from 48 African countries. Among the goals outlined: more high-level dialogue, trade, development assistance for Africa, cultural exchanges, and tourism.

Economic cooperation is clearly working. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1 billion in Africa, and two-way trade reached US$73.31 billion, a sevenfold increase since 2000, when the forum was established. Also in 2007, more than 234,000 Chinese traveled to African countries.

These closer ties have precipitated a new wave of migration between the two regions — from China to Africa and from Africa to China —that is only expected to grow as economic ties become stronger.

China-Africa Migration in Perspective

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) the first Chinese ships sailed to Africa. Among the most famous Chinese mariners was Zheng He, who landed on the East African coast and brought back exotic goods as well as animals.

According to legend, one of two Chinese trade vessels sank near the island of Lamu. Survivors are believed to have settled in Kenya and married local Kenyan women. In 2005, Chinese experts “confirmed” a Kenyan girl’s Chinese ancestry, and the Chinese government gave her a scholarship to study medicine in China.

The most well-known Chinese population in Africa is the South African Chinese who date back to the 17th century. The first wave of Chinese immigrants to South Africa was small (only 17 Chinese names were on a convict list dated the year 1724) and consisted largely of convicts and ex-convicts banished from Indonesia to South Africa under Dutch colonial rule.

The Dutch were unable to convince the Dutch East India Company to bring Chinese to South Africa in larger numbers to fill a labor shortage, so Chinese presence remained limited. Chinese convicts who did come over were considered “black” and largely treated as slaves, although some free Chinese did come of their own accord. Those who became free often returned to Asia.

The second small wave of Chinese migration to South Africa occurred when the British took over the South African colony in the early 19th century. The British imported small numbers of Chinese workers to work in public infrastructure and agriculture.

However, there is very little scholarly or empirical research on recent Chinese migration to Africa. Even less data exists on the increasing number of African migrants in China.

The BBC reports the Chinese presence in South Africa to be as large as 200,000. Some Chinese South Africans are descendents of migrant workers who arrived in the late 19th century to work in the gold mines around Johannesburg.

The majority of the current South African Chinese community immigrated from Taiwan — which maintained diplomatic relations with South Africa during apartheid — during the 1980s and 1990s. Many became entrepreneurs. In recent years there have also been increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants from mainland China.

Other long-standing Chinese populations in Africa can be found in Reunion and Madagascar, islands off the southeastern coast of Africa, and Mauritania in western Africa.

Both modern Chinese-African relations and immigration trends have their roots in Chinese international policy under former Chairman Mao Zedong. China’s first official bilateral agreement with African countries took place in 1956 with Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, and Guinea, and focused primarily on trade relations.

By the 1960s, 19 African countries had official ties to Beijing. To help cement new diplomatic relations, Mao sent a number of Chinese to the continent in the 1960s, as well as 150,000 technicians between the 1950s and 1970s, to work in agriculture, technology, and infrastructure. Most returned to China after completing their contracts.

In northern Namibia, small Taiwanese businesses emerged as early as the 1970s, and Chinese textile firms were established in the Newcastle region of South Africa and Lesotho around the same time. These businesses established networks that current entrepreneurs still tap into when arriving in Africa.

Current immigration trends are linked more directly to China’s liberalized migration and economic policies in the late 1970s, which permitted Chinese to leave the country and allowed for foreign investment.

Official estimates of the number of Chinese in Africa vary dramatically. Political scientist Sasha Gong reports official numbers to be only 100,000 Chinese workers in Africa — or 15 percent of the total overseas Chinese workforce. About 35 percent of those in Africa work in manufacturing and about 30 percent in construction, with the number of manufacturing jobs decreasing and construction jobs increasing over the past five years. Gong acknowledges that the official number is likely only a fraction of the whole.

An Ohio University database estimates the total number of Chinese in Africa at 137,000, the same figure Taiwan’s government provided in 2001 (Taiwan’s estimate in 2004 was 154,000).

Political scientist Emmanuel Ma Mung estimates the number to be between 270,000 and 520,000, with between 70,000 and 80,000 contract migrants. However, Xinhua, China’s official news agency, estimates the total population to be significantly larger — as many as 750,000 Chinese working or living “for extended periods” on the continent.

In Angola, 2,500 Chinese work for Chinese companies financed by an oil-backed loan China granted to the Angolan government. University of Nairobi economist Francis M. Mwega anticipated a total of 30,000 Chinese workers for the project.

Political scientist Barry Sautman compiled press reports that estimate 1,000 to 3,000 Chinese in Cameroon, 5,000 in Lesotho, and as many as 50,000 in Nigeria (all estimates are for 2005). According to the Southern African Migration Project at Queens University, as of 2006 there were as many as 40,000 Chinese in Namibia on work visas and residence permits.

In a 2007 New York Times article, Chad Chamber of Commerce Director Renaud Dinguemnaial estimated an “influx of at least 40,000 Chinese in coming years” to Chad.

Perhaps one of the most telling signs of increased migration between the two regions is the rising number of weekly flights between China and Africa. In 2007, Chinese airlines began launching one flight per week between Beijing and Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city.

Currently, three Chinese air companies offer routes to Africa: China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines, which offers nonstop flights from Beijing to Cairo three times per week and a route from Beijing to Johannesburg via Guangzhou twice per week.

In July 2008, Emirates airline also began offering six flights per week to Guanghzhou, with connections in Dubai for those coming from Cape Town, Lagos, Cairo, Addis Ababa, and Nairobi.

Trends in Chinese Immigration to Africa

Modern Chinese immigrants to Africa can be divided into roughly four different categories: temporary labor migrants linked to Chinese development work in Africa, small-time entrepreneurs, in-transit migrants, and agricultural workers. There is also rising tourist traffic to the continent.

The largest of these four categories is undoubtedly temporary labor migration. Official Chinese government sources indicate 800 Chinese companies operating in 49 countries throughout Africa, where they work in infrastructure, public works, oil, and mining operations. These companies often rely heavily on Chinese migrant labor although they also hire Africans. Migrants generally stay for the duration of the contract and return to China.

Entrepreneurs are also a growing presence. Numerous international newspapers report Chinese setting up restaurants and selling a variety of goods, from ice cream to bicycles to clothing and electronics, in a variety of African countries. Such entrepreneurs come both directly from mainland China, as well as from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and various other Chinese migrant communities — notably France, Italy, and Spain.

According to research and press reports, these entrepreneurs tend to cluster in one part of a city, catering to locals and possibly planting the seeds of future Chinatowns (which in Europe, North America, and Oceania/Asia are home to both Chinese immigrants and businesses). In Dakar, Senegal, Chinese shops line the Boulevard Charles de Gaulle, and in Kampala, Uganda, a “baby Chinatown” (so named by Chinese journalism students this spring) is emerging on Williams Street.

In 2002-2003, geographers Jorgen Carling and Heidi Hauben examined Chinese entrepreneurs in Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony off the coast of West Africa. The wave of Chinese entrepreneurs began in 1995, when the first Chinese shop opened.

Carling and Hauben found that newcomers often opened their own shops after working for another entrepreneur. Competition among an increasing number of Chinese shop owners, which also occurred in Eastern European countries in the 1990s, caused shop owners to drop their prices, expand their presence to other areas of the country, and, in some cases, leave for countries like Angola and Mozambique, where fewer Chinese meant less competition.

Africa is also drawing more and more workers from rural China. In a 2007 speech, Li Ruogu, the head of China’s Export-Import Bank, urged poor farmers to move to Africa, promising to support migration with investment, project development, and help with the sale of products. “There’s no harm in allowing [Chinese] farmers to leave the country to become farm owners [in Africa],” he observed in a BBC interview in 2007.

According to Liu Jianjun of the China-Africa Business Council, a Chinese firm that primarily seeks to identify agricultural business ventures in Africa, several thousand Chinese farmers have already taken advantage of this opportunity. His organization has helped thousands of farmers from Baoding in Hebei Province find work in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Senegal over the past few years.

The group of migrants hardest to document are Chinese migrants in transit to other regions, often Europe or even North America. These migrants generally enter on legal tourist or business visas, then overstay.

Because of their informal status, it is very difficult to estimate the total number of in-transit migrants. Some, according to Ma Mung, are able to find work with Chinese compatriots while in Africa — becoming street vendors, delivery men, fritter-sellers, etc. — and others even eventually legally establish themselves, finding full-time work as entrepreneurs or tradesmen.

Generally speaking, Chinese migrants to Africa still come from long-standing points of origin, namely Southern provinces such as Guangdon, Fujian, and Zhejiang, according to Ma Mung. Since the 1990s, however, those from cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai have migrated, in particular entrepreneurs. The number of migrants from the Dongbei region, Lianing, and Hubei in central China has also increased.

According to Gong, (both official and unofficial) Chinese migrants use four methods to travel to Africa.

The first method is through government-to-government agreements, which send professionals and laborers for training; few migrants use this route.

The majority of temporary migrants use a second method: government-licensed private employment agencies that find and recruit workers. These agencies help workers obtain proper visas and travel documents.

Most workers hired by agencies end up working in government-run projects such as railway and highway construction, oil fields, and mines. By the end of 2005, there were 1,609 such licensed agencies throughout China, most operating out of Beijng, Sandong, Jiangsu, Liaoning, and Shanghai according to Gong.

A third method comprises informal social networks, such as relatives or other personal connections, and illegal or semilegal unlicensed employment agencies. Such agencies often charge very high fees — sometimes as much as a year’s earnings — and often make false promises to potential migrants about wages and benefits.

Those who cannot obtain legal means go through “snakeheads,” or human smugglers. Although there is little information available on specific routes through Africa, smugglers have been known to charge as much as $25,000 per person for Chinese going to Europe and $30,000 to smuggle Chinese to the United States.

Trends in African Migration to China

Despite scarce reliable statistics on African migration to China, few doubt the trend is growing. In a recent interview with Foreign Policy, J. Stephen Morrison, head of the Africa program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there will “..certainly…[be] an increase in [African] migration in the direction of China, because China is offering opportunities to increase life chances, skills, and income.”

Unlike Chinese migrants to Africa, African immigrants to China tend to be highly educated. The three main types of African migrants to China are businessmen, students, and English teachers.

Perhaps the largest group of Africans in China is businessmen. A Nigerian Embassy spokesman estimated that Nigerians possibly make up the largest group of Africans in China, with about 2,000 to 3,000 Nigerians in Guangdong in 2006. Most businessmen only stay temporarily.

Although accurate data is difficult to come by, Sautman estimates there are about 10,000 Africans — mostly businessmen — in Guangzhou alone. However, a report in the Guangzhou Daily estimates as many as 100,000 Africans in Guangzhou, a number that the newspaper reports has been increasing at an annual rate of 30 to 40 percent since 2003. One district of 10 square kilometers in Guangzhou, Hongqioa, has earned the nicknames “Chocolate City” and “Little Africa” among local Chinese, according to one Guangzhou newspaper report.

Estimates of the number of Africans living in larger cities — Beijing and Shanghai, for example — have risen from hundreds to thousands over the past 10 years, according to Sautman. Many of these businessmen are interested in buying cheap Chinese goods they can sell in African markets. Others come to China to facilitate trade in raw materials, primarily oil and minerals.

Students are another significant migrant group. According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, China has provided more than 17,000 scholarships to students from 50 African countries since the 1950s. According to ministry statistics, 3,737 African students studied in China in 2006, 40 percent more than in 2005.

Despite these increases, however, African students only constitute 2.3 percent of the total student body at Chinese universities. At the 2006 Africa-China Summit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised to increase the number of scholarships 20-fold, from 200 to 4,000 annually.

An increasing number of African English instructors, most of whom come from anglophone African countries such as Ghana and Kenya, teach in Chinese schools, according to Tongkeh Fowale, a consultant and teacher living in China who has published articles on African migration to China for American Chronicle.

Perhaps the smallest group of Africans is composed of entrepreneurs who work in informal markets and deal drugs. However, they frequently receive the most press coverage in local Chinese media outlets, and they are the number-one target of Chinese law enforcement, according to Fowale.

As more Africans become educated in Chinese language and culture, more are likely to migrate to China. Currently, more than 120 schools in 16 African countries offer Chinese-language courses, and six Beijing-sponsored Confucian Institutes offer Chinese language and culture courses.

Conclusion

As the economies of China and African countries become more integrated, the movement of students, business people, and temporary workers will grow.

However, history shows that permanent settlement brings integration challenges. For instance, Chinese in South Africa faced discriminatory laws throughout the 20th century. They did not get the right to vote until after apartheid ended in 1994.

In addition, African countries have a history of cracking down on foreigners deemed an economic threat to natives, most notably the expulsion of Asian Indians from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s and the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

African countries could also opt to limit immigration from China. Although Cape Verde was considering such a measure at the time of Carling and Hauben’s paper, published in 2004, the Cape Verdean government now sees the Chinese shops as a benefit to the local economy.

With more Africans living and working in China, China most likely will have to confront integration issues. Already, as noted earlier, Africans in China receive disproportionately negative media attention.

Perhaps African and Chinese leaders could recognize such obstacles and place migration issues on the agenda of future ministerial meetings, allowing them to build on the progress they have made in other economic and social areas.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The government of Rwanda issued a report accusing senior French officials on Tuesday of involvement in the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people, naming a former president, François Mitterrand, and a former prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, as among those involved. The French Foreign Ministry said officials were reviewing the accusations. French officials were accused in the report of giving political, military, diplomatic and logistical support during the genocide to Rwanda’s extremist government and the Hutu forces that slaughtered minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. “French soldiers themselves directly were involved in assassinations of Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis,” said the report, which was compiled by a team of investigators from the Justice Ministry