Friday, September 7, 2012
Dispelling the Myths of China's Presence in Africa
Follow me on Twitter @D_Brautigam. Professor and Director, International Development Program, Johns Hopkins University/SAIS; Visiting Professor, University of Bergen, Norway; and author of The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa (Oxford U. Press, 2009, 2011). A China scholar, I first went to Africa in 1983 to research Chinese engagement and never stopped. © Deborah Brautigam 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.
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8 comments:
Congratulation to you for your new post. Chinese CCP official newspaper People's Daily just published the interview with you. I was then realized you have a new job. IMHO they should have done the interview much earlier. Anyways, better late than never! The Chinese version of the article is here:
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2012-09/07/content_1109692.htm
wei
Thanks Wei,and thanks for the link to the People's Daily article.
Your article is behind paywall, those who do not pay don't get to read what you have written.
Hello,
I´ve found a link where you don´t have to pay to read the article:) http://allafrica.com/stories/201209051194.html
regards,
Blanca
Many thanks to Blanca for the non-paywalled link !
I listen to BBC world-service radio broadcast, and several months ago they had a "Africa Forum" that repeated much of the "yellow peril" propaganda that we hear so often in the Western media.
They even invited 'audience' that agree with their "yellow peril" pov.
I run businesses in Africa - I know better.
But to those who are not from Africa or never had been to Africa, they might be tricked into believing, after hearing the BBC radio broadcast - that the "evil Chinese" are going to Africa to enslave the Black Africans.
I am not talking about any 2-bit broadcaster. I am talking about BBC - a 90-year-old broadcaster with a great reputation for "fairness" and "truthful".
If a "truthful" broadcaster can broadcast such lies, can you imagine what kind of "news-worthy items" they would do, by other 2-bit media outlet?
I remember the incident where the German media printed photos of "Chinese police beating up Tibetans" on their newspapers / websites. The only flaw is that those "Chinese police" in their photos were not "Chinese", they were Nepalese police.
If the German media could go to the extend of publishing photos of Tibetan protesters crashing Nepalese police as "Chinese police beating up Tibetan peasants", what is there to stop them from spreading even more "Yellow Peril" lies?
Speaking of BBC - they have definitely done it again.
This is the link to their podcast on their "Business Daily" program which was broadcast yesterday - Thursday, 20th, September, 2012
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/bizdaily/bizdaily_20120920-0926a.mp3
In the above link (which will last until 19th of October 2012) you can listen for yourself how they demonized the Chinese presence in Africa.
BBC seems to have a big axe to grind about the Chinese (and China). In their report of Chinese (and China), no matter on what news background - they never have any good thing to say. BBC always manages to horn into an angle to make the Chinese look guilty, spooky, and evil.
In the case regarding Africa - history already stated very clear how much exploitation had been carried out by others (from the Arabs who enslaved the African natives and sold them off to the Europeans to the Europeans themselves who broke up the continental Africa into their own colonies) for the past several centuries.
And what Africa got in return? Nothing.
Infrastructure wise, there is nothing Africa can be proud about.
Education / Innovation wise, again, due to the lack of education to the people, there is an absolute vacuum when comes to innovation / education contributed from Africa.
These are not a reflection of the inability of the Africa. Instead, it's a result of intentional neglect by the Western powers to ensure Africa stays backward and poor.
Even after the establishment of the United Nations, things essentially stayed the same.
The only aid that the West gave to Africa are in the form of "food, medicine, humanity". And this is by no means coincidental.
It is by design.
They (the West) purposely made Africa backward and poor, so that they can go back to Africa - even after "giving freedom to Africa by letting them to become independent countries" - as "Masters", as "Saviors", the one with food and medicine to help the "poor ignorant black Africans".
It has been a repeated ego trip by the Western powers for the past 60 years or so.
But now Africa wants to stand up. Africa wants to start developing its own infrastructure. Africa wants serious education for its people. Africa wants to be on par with others.
And to do that, Africa gets help from China, which unlike the West, does not attach a lot of strings to their loan packages.
Instead of congratulate Africa for finally able to stand up on their own, the West tries to sow seeds of distrust, seeds of discontent, seeds of hatreds, in between the native Africans and the Chinese - in order to stop Africa from having a chance of real development.
This is not only about the anti-Chinese stance by BBC (and other Western media).
This also reflects how the Western powers behave - as long as you are weak, they can be the "Savior", and they like it that way.
The above link I post will last until 19th of October 2012. Listen to the segment about Africa, and hear for yourself how they demonized the Chinese there.
Again, I need to be anonymous to avoid any unnecessary retribution from the power that be.
If Africa did not have somthing that the Chinese want do you really think they would be their building and helping you really think they care about Africa?
To Anonymous September 20, 2012 12:02 AM
[I remember the incident where the German media printed photos of "Chinese police beating up Tibetans" on their newspapers / websites. The only flaw is that those "Chinese police" in their photos were not "Chinese", they were Nepalese police.
If the German media could go to the extend of publishing photos of Tibetan protesters crashing Nepalese police as "Chinese police beating up Tibetan peasants", what is there to stop them from spreading even more "Yellow Peril" lies?]
I totally agree with you that CNN messed up big time with the photo. I think you will accept the the fact that Tibet was in lock down with no foreign media or independent monitors allowed. But what you think was happening inside Tibet? Chinese police giving candies to the Tibetan protestors? Look at the world with open eyes and heart.
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