The Next Chinese Empire

Howard French’s Atlantic Monthly piece, The Next Empire, is the best I’ve seen yet on China’s ongoing efforts at expanding it’s African holdings. 

One of my college roommates is in Tanzania right now working on a development project that depends on the cooperation of NGOs, universities, and government personnel.  Despite his experience working for years at one of the world’s top consultancies where he helped numerous businesses speed up their operations, he feels somewhat impotent in Tanzania because many government officers and private contractor he is working with are dragging their feet on very simple tasks in an effort to collect additional fees.  The passive corruption he’s encountering is baffling because the project he’s working on would, if succesful, directly benefit the people that are deliberately slowing it down.

Reading Howard French describe the Chinese built high rises going up in Dar es Salaam, how they make the English built part of the city seem backward by comparison, I can’t help but think that my friend’s plight may very well end up in vain.  The standards of what constitutes a helpful project have gone up since the Chinese upped the ante.  So to have the average ’tipping’ rates. 

I encourage you to click on over to the Atlantic Monthly website and read French’s piece.

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