What is going on with Africa?

[Ray Schrire]

Did the Colonialism start again and someone had forgot to let me know?

I have just came back from a very short trip in South-Africa and Botswana. these 2 amazing interesting and diverse countries kept me thinking and wondering the whole time and doing comparisons with the other two countries in Africa which I have had the luck to visit- Ethiopia and Madagascar. these Lands are so different but sadly the only common feature that I found was that the Chinese are building all of these countries... huge roads, buildings, airports and forests are getting built all over the countries I have visited- all by the Chinese.

in Ethiopia some one told me that he feels as if it is Colonialism all over again, in Madagascar people were complaining about the loss of forest and land and in Botswana we saw a new Hospital being built in the Okavango Delta- this must be good isnt it??

and well it got me wondering- does this happen in all over Africa? why does this happen? are the locals Happy to get a new road or sad to lose there old land. well I have mainly questions, does any one have the answers?

I would be happy to hear opinions from other Africans, travelers or other Africa lovers- is it only me or can someone just tell me- what is going on with Africa..

a pic of the new Okavango Road being built in Botswana. on this amazing road built on sand you can see many workers running after kids pushing home made toy cars trying to drive them on the new tar road.

[Pater BASABOSE]

Hello dear friend, the work in Rwanda, I may say that it is going on well, compared to last years, I mean that there is a positive change in different sectors of work, and this is due to the made effort of the people of Rwanda and their policies of searching how to overcome the poverty, targeting the welfare of our society. But considering the environmental conservation, development is harming natural resources of Rwanda. Well, this is our task to prevent it happen because prevention is the key to the conservation of biodiversity. It costs far more to repair damage to biodiversity than it does to incorporate biodiversity conservation into planning and development. The key to prevention is understanding the ecological concepts and principles of biodiversity and how to apply this understanding to the conservation of biodiversity. See you!

[Ray Schrire]

Hey Pater, good to hear from you! I am very intrested to know how do you find all of the work being done in Rwanda. is it good? do you feel the people and country is gaining from this?

[Mika Huettner]

Hey Pater,
thanks for your comment. Do you see the Chinese activities in Ruanda rather as a blessing or as a curse?

[Pater BASABOSE]

Hello, I, as African i see these buildings increasing here in Rwanda, the same for all over Africa.
Africa is facing many changes, the demand for the use of natural resources also increases. More forest lands need to be converted to agricultural and industrial use.

[Mika Huettner]

Hey,
I am not African nor an Africa expert, but I think that Chinas engagement in Africa is somehow ambiguous. One the one hand many people might benefit from the economic partnerships and the improved infrastructure. On the other hand Chinas main interest are business opportunities, especially the extraction of raw materials. While these raw materials are more or less direclty exported from the African countries, the economic value of these resources gets exported as well. Timber is a good example: while a m3 of rawlog timber might yield 20-30 USD for the local, the processed sawn timber is worth 400-600 USD or even more on the global market. The same applies to precious metals, rare earth metals, oil, etc....
Thus on the long-term the partnership between China and African countries might not pay off...instead African people are unfortunate players in a bargain sale of their resources. But what would be an alternative to the Chinese business engagement to bring Africa on track for their economy?