Earlier this week I brought you the good and the bad that has come out of China’s role in Africa, today we are focusing on the truly ugly. Violence and Abuse A large portion of China’s investments in Africa have been targeted at the extraction of valuable metals. Over the past few years a number of disturbing reports have come out of several co [...] Keep reading »

Yesterday we looked at the good coming out of China and Africa’s relationships, but today we are looking at a few of the conditions that seem less than desirable for Africa. One of the complaints about China’s development of infrastructure in African countries, is that it seems to be largely self-serving. China might build a freeway, but it hea [...] Keep reading »

Today we’ll be looking at how China’s influence is growing in Africa, and what might be a few of the positives coming from this relationship. This will be followed up tomorrow with the downsides (the bad), and the next day with the ugly. Brief history The most important thing to remember in China’s current African Empire, and yes I mean it wi [...] Keep reading »

It seems that despite my thorough explanation of why China is not a rich country, even though it has the second highest GDP in the world, major governments have started to cut aid to China. The UK’s department for distributing foreign aid actually had it’s budget grow by 1/3 this year, so it’s not just budgetary reasons for cutting their aid [...] Keep reading »

It’s no secret that China has environmental problems (my other posts about China’s environment), today even the Environment Minister acknowledged that “In China’s thousands of years of civilization, the conflict between humankind and nature has never been as serious as it is today.” Also on Sunday Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in an onli [...] Keep reading »

My wife and I try to limit ourselves to a budget similar to what a Chinese family might earn. That’s about $400 a month for the two of us, which would be average for a Chinese teacher, and at the low-end for people working in my hospital (In China it’s not considered rude to talk about money, so I’m pretty open about it). After a few months h [...] Keep reading »

Yesterday I lead you through a crash course in Economics, and showed you that China’s GDP doesn’t mean that it’s a developed country, I would suggest reading that first. I think for many American’s (and probably many Europeans) China’s rise is met with mixed feelings. On my recent trip to the States something felt different this time when [...] Keep reading »

Today’s post is a crash course in economics (for people who don’t like economics). The truth is that we get a lot of numbers thrown around in the media about China, but I don’t think they are as meaningful as CNN or Fox news want you to think. Let’s get one thing clear straight out of the gate, China is obsessed with GDP. You can’t go mor [...] Keep reading »

2011 has already set record highs for food prices, and that means another step backward for development. Now add to that news that China’s wheat-producing region (one of the largest in the world) is bracing for the worst drought in a century, and you have the makings for a disaster. In 2008 the world saw record high food prices. They led to r [...] Keep reading »