Chinese tonic a boon for Africa
By Cameron Stewart, The Australian | September 16, 2006
A Chinese teaches in an Ethiopian school as part of a 12-person volunteer service in the African nation starting August 2005.
(Photo: People's Daily Online)
Ordinary Africans have benefited little from the staggering amounts of aid their continent has received, but the commodities boom may help, reports associate editor Cameron Stewart
"I was in Queensland four years after the drought ... you do not die of drought in Australia, so why do they die of drought here in Ethiopia? It is for political and economic reasons.
"But the world is no longer prepared to put up with such disasters. When they see it happen, they help."
For a while, it seemed that Geldof was right. Less than a year after our meeting he helped organise the Live8 concerts that once again thrust the issue of African poverty into our lounge rooms and on to the West's political agenda.
Western leaders promised to write off debt and double aid to the continent, while celebrity musicians reminded us of the plight of those in forgotten countries.
But more than a year after those concerts, Africa has once again faded from the front pages and the grand promises made by Western leaders are already unravelling. The spotlight has moved to hot spots in the Middle East, leaving the continent to fend for itself. Or so it seems.
But while the Western world has been looking elsewhere, another great power is making an unlikely colonial-style swoop on Africa.
China has emerged to become a significant player in African affairs, forging new and lucrative trade routes and establishing relationships with all manner of African governments: the good, the bad and the ugly.
The figures are astonishing: two-way trade between China and Africa jumped from $US4billion in 1995 to $US40 billion in 2005. In the first six months of this year, two-way trade has grown by another 41.6 per cent.
China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have visited Africa this year and will host a summit with African leaders in November. Chinese leaders have dubbed 2006 "the year of Africa".
"The overwhelming feeling towards China (in Africa) is gratitude for support," says Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project to reduce worldwide poverty.
"China gives fewer lectures and more practical help."
It is a relationship that heralds a tectonic shift in the pattern of world trade. It also raises fresh questions about how the outside world should respond to Africa and its problems.
Unlike the West, China is not interested in being paternalistic in its African adventures. China hates foreign interference in its own affairs, especially scrutiny of its human rights failings, so it turns a blind eye to such issues in its dealings with Africa.
Beijing pursues business for business's sake in Africa, all but ignoring the excesses of some dictators. It does not lecture them and it makes no link between financial aid and economic reform or aid and good governance.
China's approach is a breath of fresh air for some African states, which are tired of how the West uses aid and trade to pressure them to adopt economic and political reforms.
But is China Africa's saviour or exploiter? Critics say China's money-only approach has helped create a moral vacuum in Africa, encouraging dodgy leaders to rely on Beijing to keep their economies afloat and cling to power.
Zimbabwe's tyrannical leader Robert Mugabe describes China as a "good friend" and has adopted a "look east" policy for his troubled country, which has been shunned by the West.
China has also been accused of underwriting human rights abuses in Sudan. Its oil investments there have helped prop up the brutal regime in Khartoum responsible for the epic humanitarian tragedy in Darfur. But China's fast-growing influence in Africa is also delivering some tangible benefits to the world's poorest and most troubled continent.
China and India's voracious demand for raw materials and oil, coupled with the world commodity boom, has helped to kick-start economic growth across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that Africa's economy grew by a healthy 5 per cent last year and is expected to do even better this year and the next.
The fastest growing countries are oil producers such as Angola and Nigeria, but even non-resource-rich nations are doing well, with Ethiopia and Uganda growing last year by 6per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
What's more, the much-maligned business environment in Africa is improving. A new report titled Doing Business 2007: How to Reform, co-written by the World Bank and International Finance Corp, reveals that Africa ranks above Latin America in showing the most progress in creating a good business environment.
These improvements came only a year after the Group of Eight club of rich industrialised nations agreed to write off about $US40billion in debt owed by 18 mainly African countries. They also agreed to increase aid by $US48billion by 2010.
But the ultimate effects of this historic pledge remain unclear, with several countries, including Germany and Italy, already saying budget problems may prevent them from reaching aid targets.
The other danger is that this glimpse of light and hope in sub-Saharan Africa will vanish once the commodity boom ends and there is a downturn in the world economy. Much of the growth has been driven by foreign demand for oil and other raw materials, rather than improvements in agriculture, which would be more sustainable and would benefit the population more equally.
Africa has seen many similar false dawns during past commodity booms and it is too early to say if this is another one. Much will also depend on whether the continent can curb its tendency towards conflict and consequential poverty and displacement.
It is estimated that more than 12.5million Africans are presently uprooted from their homes because of war and related famine.
They make up half of the world's internally displaced people.
The signs are mixed, but the potential for further tragedy is all too apparent. Fifteen African countries are experiencing war or post-war conflict and tension. While relative calm has returned to some, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and even Uganda, the situation in others is potentially explosive.
In the Darfur region of Sudan, the three-year-old humanitarian crisis threatens to escalate dramatically with the scheduled departure of 7000 African Union peacekeeping troops at the end of this month. The Sudanese Government has so far refused requests for the AU troops to be replaced by a UN peacekeeping force of 22,000 troops and police officers.
Observers fear that the looming vacuum of authority in Darfur could trigger large-scale ethnic genocide in the region, where non-Arab civilians have suffered attacks by government troops and Arab militia.
The conflict has claimed about 200,000 lives through fighting, disease and hunger, and has displaced at least two million people, many of whom are huddled in unsafe and unclean refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
Africa's other great humanitarian tragedy, the Congo (formerly Zaire), is also teetering on a knife's edge. Congo's first free election in more than 40 years on July 30 was supposed to end a decade of war and misery that claimed the lives of four million people. But so far it has failed to bring peace, with the Congolese army continuing to kill civilians in the lawless east of the country, home to most of its 1.7 million displaced people.
It is estimated that 1200 people still die each day in the Congo, while UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland warned this month that the UN was running out of money to feed the homeless.
But at least there is a glimmer of hope, unlike in Somalia, the world's most hopeless nation, which has had no central government nor vestige of law and order since 1992.
In June, Islamic militias seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, ushering in yet another lawless chapter in a country the West has shunned since its failed rescue attempts of the early 1990s.
And in southern Africa, chronic mismanagement by the Mugabe regime has led to once-wealthy Zimbabwe having the world's lowest life expectancy: 36 years.
More than one-third of its population faces food shortages.
Although Africa's food shortages have eased slightly since the crisis of 2005, it is estimated 200 million Africans remain chronically malnourished. Despite the debate sparked by the Live 8 concerts, there is an ongoing lack of international consensus on what can be done to break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
Western humanitarian aid to Africa remains a fickle beast, with some national tragedies sparking big responses from Western donors while other disasters are all but ignored.
The scourge of HIV-AIDS also struggles to attract the attention it once did despite an estimated 25.8million people living with the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. This represents more than 60 per cent of sufferers worldwide. The epicentre of this tragedy is in southern Africa, where HIV prevalence rates exceed 25per cent in some countries.
South Africa, one of the most advanced countries on the continent, is one of the most culpable on AIDS, having refused for many years to properly recognise the disease, its causes and treatments.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told South Africans this month that HIV and AIDS could be tackled by using traditional medicines and a recipe of garlic, beetroot, lemons and African potatoes.
However, in other parts of the continent HIV rates have largely stabilised, even though the level of infection remains high.
An estimated 17 per cent of those who need antiretroviral drugs are receiving them, which is higher than most people expected a few years ago.
War, famine, AIDS and other diseases jointly account for the fact that Africans have an average life expectancy of only 41 years.
Poverty also remains endemic, with half of all sub-Saharan Africans still earning less than $US1 a day.
And more than half a century after colonial rule ended, many governments are still poisoned by corruption, incompetence and cronyism.
The continent has received about $US1trillion in aid over the past 50 years, yet the World Bank says real income per person in Africa has risen by only 25 per cent in that time, 34 times slower than in East Asia.
"If aid were the solution to Africa's problems, it would be a rich continent by now," says Richard Dowden of the Royal African Society.
Western aid to Africa has largely failed to secure the longer-term political and economic reforms required to make African economies more self-supporting.
However, for now there is a rare glimmer of hope across much of Africa that has nothing to do with Western aid.
Africans are praying that the world's recent insatiable hunger for their raw materials will continue unabated, underpinning solid economic growth.
They hope that this growth, fuelled by booming trade with China, will eventually see the economic benefits flow to ordinary Africans instead of being enjoyed only by the elites.
It is a big dream for a land still wracked by war, famine, ethnic tensions, corruption and poverty.
But, as Geldof says, it is too early to dismiss Africa completely.
Especially now, when the smallest ray of sun is finally shining on the dark continent.
ETHIOMEDIA.COM - ETHIOPIA'S PREMIER NEWS AND VIEWS WEBSITE
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| A Chinese teaches in an Ethiopian school as part of a 12-person volunteer service in the African nation starting August 2005. (Photo: People's Daily Online) |
"I was in Queensland four years after the drought ... you do not die of drought in Australia, so why do they die of drought here in Ethiopia? It is for political and economic reasons.
"But the world is no longer prepared to put up with such disasters. When they see it happen, they help."
For a while, it seemed that Geldof was right. Less than a year after our meeting he helped organise the Live8 concerts that once again thrust the issue of African poverty into our lounge rooms and on to the West's political agenda.
Western leaders promised to write off debt and double aid to the continent, while celebrity musicians reminded us of the plight of those in forgotten countries.
But more than a year after those concerts, Africa has once again faded from the front pages and the grand promises made by Western leaders are already unravelling. The spotlight has moved to hot spots in the Middle East, leaving the continent to fend for itself. Or so it seems.
But while the Western world has been looking elsewhere, another great power is making an unlikely colonial-style swoop on Africa.
China has emerged to become a significant player in African affairs, forging new and lucrative trade routes and establishing relationships with all manner of African governments: the good, the bad and the ugly.
The figures are astonishing: two-way trade between China and Africa jumped from $US4billion in 1995 to $US40 billion in 2005. In the first six months of this year, two-way trade has grown by another 41.6 per cent.
China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have visited Africa this year and will host a summit with African leaders in November. Chinese leaders have dubbed 2006 "the year of Africa".
"The overwhelming feeling towards China (in Africa) is gratitude for support," says Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project to reduce worldwide poverty.
"China gives fewer lectures and more practical help."
It is a relationship that heralds a tectonic shift in the pattern of world trade. It also raises fresh questions about how the outside world should respond to Africa and its problems.
Unlike the West, China is not interested in being paternalistic in its African adventures. China hates foreign interference in its own affairs, especially scrutiny of its human rights failings, so it turns a blind eye to such issues in its dealings with Africa.
Beijing pursues business for business's sake in Africa, all but ignoring the excesses of some dictators. It does not lecture them and it makes no link between financial aid and economic reform or aid and good governance.
China's approach is a breath of fresh air for some African states, which are tired of how the West uses aid and trade to pressure them to adopt economic and political reforms.
But is China Africa's saviour or exploiter? Critics say China's money-only approach has helped create a moral vacuum in Africa, encouraging dodgy leaders to rely on Beijing to keep their economies afloat and cling to power.
Zimbabwe's tyrannical leader Robert Mugabe describes China as a "good friend" and has adopted a "look east" policy for his troubled country, which has been shunned by the West.
China has also been accused of underwriting human rights abuses in Sudan. Its oil investments there have helped prop up the brutal regime in Khartoum responsible for the epic humanitarian tragedy in Darfur. But China's fast-growing influence in Africa is also delivering some tangible benefits to the world's poorest and most troubled continent.
China and India's voracious demand for raw materials and oil, coupled with the world commodity boom, has helped to kick-start economic growth across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that Africa's economy grew by a healthy 5 per cent last year and is expected to do even better this year and the next.
The fastest growing countries are oil producers such as Angola and Nigeria, but even non-resource-rich nations are doing well, with Ethiopia and Uganda growing last year by 6per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
What's more, the much-maligned business environment in Africa is improving. A new report titled Doing Business 2007: How to Reform, co-written by the World Bank and International Finance Corp, reveals that Africa ranks above Latin America in showing the most progress in creating a good business environment.
These improvements came only a year after the Group of Eight club of rich industrialised nations agreed to write off about $US40billion in debt owed by 18 mainly African countries. They also agreed to increase aid by $US48billion by 2010.
But the ultimate effects of this historic pledge remain unclear, with several countries, including Germany and Italy, already saying budget problems may prevent them from reaching aid targets.
The other danger is that this glimpse of light and hope in sub-Saharan Africa will vanish once the commodity boom ends and there is a downturn in the world economy. Much of the growth has been driven by foreign demand for oil and other raw materials, rather than improvements in agriculture, which would be more sustainable and would benefit the population more equally.
Africa has seen many similar false dawns during past commodity booms and it is too early to say if this is another one. Much will also depend on whether the continent can curb its tendency towards conflict and consequential poverty and displacement.
It is estimated that more than 12.5million Africans are presently uprooted from their homes because of war and related famine.
They make up half of the world's internally displaced people.
The signs are mixed, but the potential for further tragedy is all too apparent. Fifteen African countries are experiencing war or post-war conflict and tension. While relative calm has returned to some, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and even Uganda, the situation in others is potentially explosive.
In the Darfur region of Sudan, the three-year-old humanitarian crisis threatens to escalate dramatically with the scheduled departure of 7000 African Union peacekeeping troops at the end of this month. The Sudanese Government has so far refused requests for the AU troops to be replaced by a UN peacekeeping force of 22,000 troops and police officers.
Observers fear that the looming vacuum of authority in Darfur could trigger large-scale ethnic genocide in the region, where non-Arab civilians have suffered attacks by government troops and Arab militia.
The conflict has claimed about 200,000 lives through fighting, disease and hunger, and has displaced at least two million people, many of whom are huddled in unsafe and unclean refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
Africa's other great humanitarian tragedy, the Congo (formerly Zaire), is also teetering on a knife's edge. Congo's first free election in more than 40 years on July 30 was supposed to end a decade of war and misery that claimed the lives of four million people. But so far it has failed to bring peace, with the Congolese army continuing to kill civilians in the lawless east of the country, home to most of its 1.7 million displaced people.
It is estimated that 1200 people still die each day in the Congo, while UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland warned this month that the UN was running out of money to feed the homeless.
But at least there is a glimmer of hope, unlike in Somalia, the world's most hopeless nation, which has had no central government nor vestige of law and order since 1992.
In June, Islamic militias seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, ushering in yet another lawless chapter in a country the West has shunned since its failed rescue attempts of the early 1990s.
And in southern Africa, chronic mismanagement by the Mugabe regime has led to once-wealthy Zimbabwe having the world's lowest life expectancy: 36 years.
More than one-third of its population faces food shortages.
Although Africa's food shortages have eased slightly since the crisis of 2005, it is estimated 200 million Africans remain chronically malnourished. Despite the debate sparked by the Live 8 concerts, there is an ongoing lack of international consensus on what can be done to break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
Western humanitarian aid to Africa remains a fickle beast, with some national tragedies sparking big responses from Western donors while other disasters are all but ignored.
The scourge of HIV-AIDS also struggles to attract the attention it once did despite an estimated 25.8million people living with the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. This represents more than 60 per cent of sufferers worldwide. The epicentre of this tragedy is in southern Africa, where HIV prevalence rates exceed 25per cent in some countries.
South Africa, one of the most advanced countries on the continent, is one of the most culpable on AIDS, having refused for many years to properly recognise the disease, its causes and treatments.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told South Africans this month that HIV and AIDS could be tackled by using traditional medicines and a recipe of garlic, beetroot, lemons and African potatoes.
However, in other parts of the continent HIV rates have largely stabilised, even though the level of infection remains high.
An estimated 17 per cent of those who need antiretroviral drugs are receiving them, which is higher than most people expected a few years ago.
War, famine, AIDS and other diseases jointly account for the fact that Africans have an average life expectancy of only 41 years.
Poverty also remains endemic, with half of all sub-Saharan Africans still earning less than $US1 a day.
And more than half a century after colonial rule ended, many governments are still poisoned by corruption, incompetence and cronyism.
The continent has received about $US1trillion in aid over the past 50 years, yet the World Bank says real income per person in Africa has risen by only 25 per cent in that time, 34 times slower than in East Asia.
"If aid were the solution to Africa's problems, it would be a rich continent by now," says Richard Dowden of the Royal African Society.
Western aid to Africa has largely failed to secure the longer-term political and economic reforms required to make African economies more self-supporting.
However, for now there is a rare glimmer of hope across much of Africa that has nothing to do with Western aid.
Africans are praying that the world's recent insatiable hunger for their raw materials will continue unabated, underpinning solid economic growth.
They hope that this growth, fuelled by booming trade with China, will eventually see the economic benefits flow to ordinary Africans instead of being enjoyed only by the elites.
It is a big dream for a land still wracked by war, famine, ethnic tensions, corruption and poverty.
But, as Geldof says, it is too early to dismiss Africa completely.
Especially now, when the smallest ray of sun is finally shining on the dark continent.
ETHIOMEDIA.COM - ETHIOPIA'S PREMIER NEWS AND VIEWS WEBSITE
© COPYRIGHT 20001-2006ETHIOMEDIA.COM. EMAIL: webmaster@ethiomedia.com
