invest in China

As an ex federal employee, I have a small inestment in the government Thrift Savings program

A couple years ago, Tsp planned to invest in high risk questionable  overseas funds including some in china

https://401kspecialistmag.com/tsp-still-investing-in-shady-chinese-companies

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-federal-retirement-fund-is-about-to-invest-in-china-some-former-us-military-leaders-object/2020/04/27/9cd30280-84dd-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html

senators tried to stop it over the objections of certain unions, but Trump heatd about it and stopped it.

Much of the objections were that the money would support the Chinese govt, but the lack of transparancy was also noted.

But the usual suspects lamented how this interfered with the ability of federal employees to make good investments...but we were not informed about it.

But other US pension funds did invest in Chinese companies.

So now that Evergreen and other chinese companies are going belly up, I will have to start googling if US pension funds are affected.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/business/economy/china-tsp-federal-retirement-fund.html

This article is from last month

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/kudlow-china-list-sanctioned-americans

Last month chinese propaganda said invest in china

http://t.m.china.org.cn/convert/c_yBSHWQBB.html

China in Ethiopia

 Global voices has a long article about China in Ethiopia:

Many of what is reported is what we see here in the Philippines:

Promising jobs but importing their own laborers, pushing vaccine diplomacy, promising infrastructure, flooding shoddy imports.

read the whole thing. 

Neocolonialsm at it's best and something rarely reported in the western media, 

covid in Africa

 fast forward to 23 minutes:

............

also discusses the new Marburg virus outbreak.

Chinese neocolonialism in Africa

 StrategyPage has a long article about Chinese investments etc. in Asia and Africa.

they invest in projects but bring their own people to do the work (so no local jobs). And afterward, the Chinese stay to take over the economy. They mainly work with corrupt governments who will take their bribes to do so.

and then the locals protest.

Hmm... sounds familiar. they are doing a lot of this in the Philippines. heck, even the last buybust drug raid in our are resulted in the death of a "chinese national" who was running the drug gang.

Because of this, China is increasingly seen as a supporter of evil governments and that has generated widespread African hostility towards all things Chinese.

 

This has led to anti-Chinese riots in some countries and a general animosity towards the Chinese at the grass roots level. Thus when these countries go through their next rebellion, Chinese are likely to be a popular target and a major loser if the rebels win.

 

These problems exist, to a lesser extent, in the Middle East and Asia. China has been at this for since 2002. This really kicked into high gear when China declared 2006 was officially "The Year of Africa." China went all out to make a favorable impression on African governments and increase Chinese economic and diplomatic activity in Africa that year. To that end, about a billion dollars-worth of debts, of African nations to the Chinese government, were forgiven. The year before, Chinese commercial and government organizations invested over $13 billion in Africa. This was less than one percent of China's GDP but by African standards, it was a huge investment.

 

However, there was some blowback. The Chinese were mainly after raw materials, especially oil. A lot of that $13 billion was bribes for local officials.

well, duh. 

As usual, the average African was getting screwed by these deals. China is also flooding African markets with inexpensive goods. This and imported Chinese workers are hurting local businesses and causing unrest among African business owners and workers. As a result, it's become common for opposition parties in Africa to accuse China of "neo-colonial exploitation." The accusation fits, and the Chinese will pay for it down the road, as will peacekeepers brought in to help clean up the mess.

 

millet and teff and Sorghum oh my

PhysOrg article on alternative cereal crops in Africa.

Actually our farmers in Zimbabwe often planted these crops as an alternative if the rains were not enough to get a good harvest of maize. Also, we advised moms to make sadza for babies with them because maize was hard for malnourished kids to digest.

another article on the cereal grains of Africa.

Millet Before maize was introduced to Sub Saharan Africa, millet was the most widely eaten grain across the continent. In fact, up to 50 years ago, it was still the grain of choice. Millet, particularly pearl millet, is said to have originated in Africa prior to being exported to Asia. In fact, according to the National Research Council, it has been documented that pearl millet was domesticated over 4000 years ago in West Africa. Other types of millet include fonio and finger millet (rapoko). Millet is highly nutritious and provides far more to the African food economy than maize does, however, due to the amount of scientific research and investment in cultivating maize, the use of millet as the main staple has been surpassed by that of maize. This is unfortunate because the plant is highly resistant to droughts, requires less irrigation than maize does and is a viable option for the provision of food security.

 

Sorghum Sorghum is sometimes used interchangeably as millet, however, it is a different grain. It is popular in countries such as Botswana and is used to make pap or sadza, known in Botswana as bogobe. It can be fermented and made into a sour porridge known as ting.

In Zimbabwe we ate maize but rice was eaten in Liberia. The article does not mention rice even though there was an alternative rice domesticated in west Africa.

the article also mentions teff, but that is grown in the horn of Africa where I did not work.

More here: Foods of Zimbabwe.

Stopping the desert

 Atlas Obscura has an article on projects in Senegal that are hoping to stop the spread of the desert along the southern edge of the Sahara.

LINK

The garden is the latest iteration of the pro

ject known as The Great Green Wall, first envisioned as a viridescent belt squiggling thousands of miles across the Sahel region, from Senegal to Djibouti. Launched in 2007 by the African Union with backing from the European Union, World Bank, and the United Nations, the project was initially meant to help stave off desertification by stymying the Sahara as it wandered south. ... The drivers of desertification include climate variability and climate change, overgrazing, the construction of river dams, and conflicts that displace people and spur shifts in land use. Long droughts can leave fertile soil vulnerable, and winds and rains can whisk it away. “Deforestation can accelerate the process, because trees serve as windbreaks,” Okolie says. That’s where the Great Green Wall concept came in. The initial plan emphasized trees as an anchor for soil and a buffer against the encroaching sand. Some elements of the idea made sense, says Geert Sterk, a geoscientist at Utrecht University who studies land degradation. “Tree and shrub roots hold soil, [and] the canopies trap raindrops before reaching the soil surface and reduce strong winds,” curbing erosion by wind and the region’s relatively rare but fierce rain,

............

it is not just a problem in Africa: China worries about the Gobi.

 

Uganda covid

 

covid in Africa

 

covid information: Ivermectin use in Zimbabwe

 

.....

in the west, it is the sick, elderly, and those with chronic illness such as diabetes or renal failure who are dying.

But in Africa, those HIV positive are at risk.

CDC report from Zambia.

The effect of HIV infection on COVID-19 outcomes is unclear. Studies in South Africa (1) and the United Kingdom (2) found an independent association between HIV infection and COVID-19 mortality; however, other studies have not found an association between poor COVID-19 outcomes and either HIV status among hospitalized patients (3–5) or HIV-associated factors such as CD4 count, viral load, or type of antiretroviral therapy (ART) (6). The effect of HIV infection on COVID-19 outcomes remains an urgent question in sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries are experiencing dual HIV and COVID-19 epidemics, and capacity to treat severe COVID-19 is limited. ... those with severe HIV disease were more likely to develop severe COVID-19 or to die of COVID-19 compared with those with controlled HIV disease.

translation: If you have severe HIV, you are at higher risk. 
If your HIV is under control (e.g. by taking treatment) your risk is normal.

the big problem is keeping HIV positive people taking their anti HIV medicine during the pandemic. 

Mozambique update

 StrategyPage has a summary of terrorism in Mozambique, and the presence of US experts to train the local military.

few Yanks know about their history: all the skilled folks left and the civil war after independence killed a million people (starvation and disease). So the Frelimo communists took over, meaning that they set up an oligarchy to steal everything in sight.

the Muslim uprising here is about the Frelimo oligarchy controlling all the wealth from the new natural gas/oil fields and leaving the locals poor. It is in an area where there are a lot of Muslims, so voila, guess who is willing to help them?

Anyone who noted how this worked out in the rest of Africa realized this was going to make some Mozambique politicians very rich while everyone else remained poor.

 

That got the northern Moslems receptive to calls for rebellion and that led to Islamic terrorists taking the lead, as they often do in Moslem majority areas. It only took a few years for several small Islamic terror groups to get organized and then agree to merge to form the larger Ansar-al-Sunna group. Starting out with less than a hundred gunmen and even more unarmed supporters, it took about four years of fighting, growth and a few spectacular victories for Ansar-al-Sunna to reach nearly a thousand gunmen. At that point the Moslem rebels decided to become an ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) affiliate called ISCAP (Islamic State Central Africa Province).

Terrorism in Mozambique

 StrategyPage discusses the ISIS like Islamic terrorism in Mozambique, that attacked an oil facility.

LINK

several notes: They came from the outside via Tanzania, so are not locals.

The oil facility is bringing in money, but the problem is that they brought in outside help, since such facilities require skilled workers, and locals can't do the job. So there is a resentment against them. 
There are some jobs for locals, but of course they went to the friends and relatives of the local big shots. So as in Nigeria, corruption means local resentment, which facilitates terrorism.

The local anger at the new natural resource bonanza is a common phenomenon in Africa, where most nations with oil or natural gas or any valuable exportable raw material see most of the export income stolen by corrupt politicians. This is the rule, not the exception in Africa. Big promises were made to nearby inhabitants, but governments crippled by corruption fail to deliver the promised benefits. Add the fact that Mozambique’s minority Moslem population is concentrated in the north, to provide the Islamic terrorists with recruits and some local support and you have potential problem. This can create a classic long-term problem sustained by fanatic Islamic terrorists.

this time it's the muslim terrorist vs the French and local corrupt officials etc. 

read the whole article, which relates the sad history of Mozambique and it's many wars... and the Russian/communist history for good or evil is mentioned.

One hopes Biden will not decide to get involved, since this should be Europe's sphere of influence.

And not just Europe:

the Chinese are aware that they could face similar attacks in countries where they have similar facilities... they even have their own Rambo type propaganda film that ends with the promise that China will defend their people no matter what. Heh. in the film he rescues all those Chinese working in a local factory... you mean no locals working/ Well never mind.  But you see the potential problem. Neocolonialism: only skilled workers can develop resources, but locals are not skilled, and the money goes to the corrupt local politicians, a good way to get a war started.

And the reason Angola had so many Cuban soldiers in the olden days was to let the government, run by a minority tribe, get all that lovely loot. And then there is Nigeria....sigh.

 

Sttarting the covid shots

 Reuters article says that Zimbabwe is getting the vaccine from China India, and Russia

the chinese vaccine gives 50 percent protection but China is giving it to a lot of poor countries to push their image of the savior country.

Ironically, the Russian Sputnik vaccine works: It is based on the old fashioned adenovirus type vaccine and reviewed in the British medical literature as being 90 percent effective.

the Indian vaccine is less tested and relies on the old fashioned technology of using an inactivated virus. more info on it's Wikipedia page.

the article says that less than 2000 people have died from Covid, which is a low number given the many other diseases there killing people, for example a large HIV positive population.

Alas, I haven't heard from my friend there in two years: And she never picked up the last two wire money I sent her, so I can't get a first hand report on what is going on.

and now they canceled Australis

The tech companies are blocking mainstream conservative stories, no problem.

But now facebook is saying they will block any news from Australia.

Something to do with their copyright law.  

And Australia investigating them under anti trust laws. 

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/australia-strips-googlefacebook-to

And they are going after google too.

https://youtu.be/Fsu4dQbHKOc

Last month, China tried to bully Australia into submission and lost.

Fertilizer? We don't need no stikin' fertilizer

 that is sarcasm and refers to this meme

in recent years, the Chinese have moved to Africa in search of mineral resources and farmland. 

In Zimbabwe, they took advantage of the self righteous "sanctions" against Mugabe, who "stole" the farm land of the white farmers (who of course had stolen their farm lands a couple of decades ago from the local Africans). But China ignored the sanctions, and was not above giving gifts to move in.

I am ambivalent about Chinese investment: They are neocolonialists when it comes to exploiting the mines (so Chinese exploitation instead of European exploitation) and their shops sell cheap Chinese goods that make local factories uncompetitive (something we see here in the Philippines).

 But China is helping the agricultural sector by introducing modern high yield methods (fertilizer, "green" hybrids and GM hybrids and working with farmers who own their own land, 

and yes, Bill Gates is helping supply the much needed fertilizer in some areas.

this goes against the meme of the powerful "organic" ecology movement. of course who see traditional practices as sustainable and pollution free (just ignore the kids dying of kwashiorkor).

The modern "green revolution" hybrids (that required fertilizer) and especially now the even more productive GM seeds have been discouraged by some governments in Africa, because of powerful NGO's and church groups that believe in the myth that change is bad, and primitive farming methods and tribal customs should not be changed.

NatGeo on China who now has pollution problems (but hey they are feeding their people). But when it comes to Africa, note that one lady scientists said they can't afford it.

“Africa cannot afford massive amounts of fertilizer,” says Sieglinde Snapp, a crop scientist at Michigan State University. A more sustainable approach, she says, is greater reliance on nitrogen-fixing plants.

Summary: Fertilizer? we don't need no stinkin fertilizer. (pun).

 BBC report from 2014.

as for the Chinese takeover/looting of Africa's mineral resources: This is from StrategyPage:

February 3, 2021: China has continued to expand its dominant control of African raw materials. Currently Chinese firms control about 70 percent of Congo’s mineral deposits and mining industry. Chinese state-owned firms own most of this, which includes substantial portions of the global supplies of copper and cobalt. Since 2012 Chinese companies have invested at least $12 billion in Congolese mineral assets.

Some of those billions go to enrich Congolese officials who make possible Chinese ownership and protect it from local or foreign interference. The eagerness to gain control of so much cobalt is driven by Chinese plans to become the major producer of electric vehicles. Congo is the world’s biggest cobalt producer, each year producing between 55 percent or 65 percent of the world’s total cobalt. 

Chinese companies control around 40 percent of Congo’s cobalt deposits and means of extraction. Cobalt is critical as a stabilizer in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. It takes about ten kg (22 pounds) of cobalt to manufacture an electric car battery. China is committed to producing electric vehicles (EVs) of all types.

Nigerian massacres

GetReligionblog discusses the many sources of the killing of mainly Christian peoples: by the Islamic militants and the tribal conflicts between the Muslim cattle herders and the Christian farmers.

Of course, both these terrorist groups kill fellow Muslims, but not so much.

The press coverage is spotty of course.

sad.

But of course they left out the terror by southern "terrorists" who mainly are Christian and object to the oil wealth being siphoned off.

And I'm old enough to remember when the mainly Christian Biafiran tribe sought to seceed and were literally destroyed by the government forces (estimated 2 million killed by famine) (rumor: with the help of the western companies that wanted their oil wealth). This is worse than it seemed since the tribe was also highly educated. Ironically, the best coverage of this was by the Irish, since many local missionaries were from that country.

Rwanda: Big brother?

Global voices, a site that publishes independent bloggers, has a report about how Rwanda is monitoring all their citizens.

a story complicated by their history of the massive slaughter during their civil war, and the impressive rebuilding of the country.

I have no expertise here so advise you just to read the story.

covid in Zimbabwe

An article in Global voices (independent bloggers) on Covid in Zimbabwe, and the protests against corruption (stealing money meant to go to the folks suffering from the virus).

and AlJ has an article on the crack down on dissenters.

Chin'ono is accused of inciting public violence. He denies the allegations and says journalism is being criminalised.
He has written articles alleging corruption in multimillion-dollar deals to combat coronavirus that have been awarded to powerful individuals close to the government.

Coronavirus in Africa

AlJ link

There are 183,474 confirmed infections and 81,367 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts warn fragile healthcare systems in many African countries could be overwhelmed in the face of a severe outbreak of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

if you believe that the number of "confirmed" cases is the same as the actual number of cases, then you are a fool.

most of the cases are in Egypt and South Africa. Ah, but how many are dying in villages or in the neighborhoods and aren't getting a diagnosis? Especially if they are elderly (and in Africa, elderly means 50 years old) or have HIV.

One thing I haven't read much about: is the use of Chloroquin being done as prevention? Are people still taking Chloroquin for malaria prevention (even when I worked in Africa, Falciparum malaria was becoming resistant).

And what about those taking retroviral drugs for HIV? Are they dying at a higher rate (HIV affects T cells, which are the cells that fight Covid) or are the retroviral drugs protecting people?

Just wondering.

Black Lives matter (but not if they live in Africa)

StrategyPage summarizes the latest news from Central Africa.

Ebola is back, alas.

 While Ebola is one of the most lethal epidemic diseases ever encountered, a much less lethal visitor from China has recently shown up in Congo. The covid19 has, in three months, inflicted around 3,400 confirmed cases of covid19 virus in Congo and 72 confirmed deaths. That’s 37 per million people and 0.8 deaths per million. For all of Africa (including North Africa) there have been 120 cases per million and 3.4 deaths per million people. That’s far lower than anywhere else...

the only problem: the numbers are not accurate you know.

 There may be more cases in Congo but the country has little or no access to modern medical care and people regularly die of undiagnosed afflictions. Since most of these involve a fever, caused by the immune system trying to fight off some kind of infection, people call many fatal conditions an unspecified fever, and such fatal fevers are common.

Sigh. This is probably true here in the Philippines too. One of our neighbors had a fever and shortness of breath but died in the hospital of a "heart attack". I am pretty sure that he had Covid, but they didn't test him. I have no proof, but maybe because if a known case was found in that (private) hospital then no one would go their for routine illnesses.

Africa covid