China has a long record of helping Africa

Tweet

WikiLeaks cables have added to the western perception of China's self-interested presence in Africa. It is far from accurate

• 
  • Zhang Xiaoying guardian.co.uk, Saturday 11 December 2010
 
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao embraces a local chief standing next to Ghana's then president, John Kufuor, in 2006. Photograph: Li Xueren/AP
It's not surprising that the spotlight has fallen again on China's role in resource-rich Africa. Concerns have been evident recently among NGOs, the media and foreign governments, even before this week's release of diplomatic cables. This, despite the fact that the Chinese presence there goes back to the 1950s.
There is a western stereotype that sees China as a very aggressive newcomer, disregarding human rights and only being there for narrow national self-interest. China's investment in Africa is often characterised as a plundering of mineral resources accompanied by neglect of the welfare of the local populations. And the Chinese government has been criticised for not addressing the "reform agenda" seen as essential to Africa's future stability and prosperity.
Is there any basis to these kinds of accusation? Not at all, in China's view. Given its record of helping African people, the Chinese government and commercial sector are entitled to feel angry. In the 1950s, China and Egypt established diplomatic relations, and Beijing sent the first team of experts from various fields like medicine, agriculture, water conservation, electricity generation and engineering. Since then China and African countries have developed good long-term relationships, supporting each other politically and co-operating economically.
Over this period, China has helped Africa develop hundreds of programmes including the establishment of textile factories, hydroelectric power stations, gymnasiums, hospitals and schools. Among the most well known is the Tazara railway between Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia, which was completed in July 1976 after six years of labour by more than 50,000 Chinese workers, at a total cost of about 1bn yuan (£95m). What Africa has seen in the Chinese workers is a spirit of diligence and sacrifice.
China's aid to Africa extends beyond the technological. China has so far sent medical teams to 43 countries, with a total number of 16,000 people involved, reaching 240 million African people in medical need. It is one way the Chinese people seek human contact with those from other nations, and it has benefited both parties.
With the fast growth of China's economy, economic co-operation between China and Africa is increasing in all areas, alongside the traditional aid programmes. Trade volume between two sides has reached $106.8bn (£67bn) in 2008, twice that of 2006 and 10 times more than in 2000. There are now 1,600 Chinese firms based in Africa. Since 2005, China abolished tariffs for 190 items imported from over 30 of the poorest countries in Africa, thus enabling Africa to double its exports to China.
Boosting aid and training, offering debt forgiveness and zero tariff imports from the world's poorest countries were key Chinese pledges in the September 2010 UN summit on the millennium development goals.
Perhaps it is the very size and scale of this programme of investment and aid that risks a backlash. The west continues to query the morality of China giving assistance to countries with bad human rights records or governance problems. But those who have benefited most from China's aid programmes are the African people. Is it moral to leave African people in dire poverty because of their bad governments? The children of criminals should not be punished for the wrong they have not done. They deserve their share of things.
Then what about self-interest? There is no denying that China will protect its own interests through trade and investment. But when has the west ever thought that free trade was harmful for Africa? And what of its own record in there? China remembers that it was its African friends who voted China into the United Nations. Africa is confident that China will not colonise Africa because China understands the humiliation of colonisation from its own experience.
Maybe west and east should calm down and look at themselves. In the west there has been criticism of a homegrown aid policy model, which places tough terms and conditions on aid. An emerging Chinese way of supplying aid might be another possibility, a challenge to the west, but also an opportunity. It is surely more constructive for the world community to co-operate and make progress. The words of George Bernard Shaw are perhaps more important today than they were even in his own time: "We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth."
As a product of a Chinese education, I was taught about the west's past record of colonisation in Africa. But at the same time, I could also see the movie Out of Africa in which a young Danish woman, Karen Blixen, made her home in Kenya, then British East Africa, and built schools for children there. Blixen is what the west and China have in common. That is the most precious capital.
Newscribe : get free news in real time

China opposes interference with Nobel Peace Prize

Tweet

Play Video

China says it is firmly against attempts by any country or individual to use the Nobel Peace Prize to interfere in China's internal affairs and infringe on its judicial sovereignty.

The Nobel Committee awarded the Prize at a ceremony in Oslo to Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for engaging in activities aimed at overthrowing the government.

The Foreign Ministry stressed that mutual respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs are the basic norms governing international relations.
The Ministry also said it hopes that relevant countries would abide by the norms and do more things conducive to mutual trust and cooperation.

Related stories

• China hits back at some western politicians' support for Nobel Peace Prize 2010-12-11
• China voices strong opposition of Noble Peace Prize to interfere in its internal affairs 2010-12-11
• Insult of the Nobel Peace Prize 2010-12-10
• Nobel Peace Prize has fallen into disrepute: Norwegian commentator 2010-12-10
• China has backing of 100 countries, organizations on Nobel Peace Prize: Foreign Ministry 2010-12-07
• China says ties with Norway affected by Nobel Committee’s decision to award peace prize to Chinese criminal 2010-12-03
• UAE says Nobel Peace Prize Committee's decision politically motivated 2010-11-10
• Nobel prize has nothing to do with peace 2010-10-24
• Nobel Peace Prize politically distorted 2010-10-20
• Nobel Peace Prize no longer respects Nobel's peace will: Norwegian lawyer 2010-10-15
• Norwegian jurist calls Nobel Peace Prize wrong, illegal 2010-10-13

Namewee is a young man who is ‘grossly misunderstood’, says Minister

 Nazri defends Namewee

Reports by LEE YUK PENG, TEH ENG HOCK and YUEN MEIKENG

Tweet

DATUK Seri Nazri Aziz has defended Wee Meng Chee, better known as Namewee, by saying that the controversial rapper is not a racist, just “grossly misunderstood”.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said he did not think of Wee as a racist, adding that he was just a young man who was misunderstood and misrepresented.

“He has done nothing which may be considered an offence under any laws in this country,” he told a press conference with Wee present at his office in the Parliament building.

Wee had previously made a video which criticised a headmistress in Kulaijaya who allegedly made racist remarks at a school assembly on Aug 12, using obscene language.

Misunderstood: Nazri listening to Namewee’s explanation of 1Malaysia-themed movie.
 

While many were upset that no action was taken against Wee over the clip, Nazri said he looked into the case and agreed with the Attorney-General that Wee had not committed any offence.

“The only person who can take any action against him is the headmistress as she is the only aggrieved party,” he said.

Nazri said Wee was not even a politician and should not be “dragged into something that he didn’t want to be involved in in the first place”.

“He’s only interested in music and how it can spread messages to his peers,” he said.
Wee, he said, had explained to him about what he had done, adding: “I think he has potential. If we can help him, he will be able to become an artiste one day.”

Nazri further described Wee as a young man who wanted to move on with his life and that he fully supported the 1Malaysia concept propagated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The minister said he would inform Najib during the Cabinet meeting today over Wee’s failure to get funding from National Film Development Corporation (Finas) to make a 1Malaysia-themed movie.

“I shall inform the Prime Minister about his visit and Wee’s request to meet him. Once I get a date (of when Najib would meet Wee), I’ll inform Wee,” he said.

Nazri added that Wee, who has the most viewed YouTube account in Malaysia, wanted to promote the muhibbah spirit via his proposed film titled Nasi Lemak 2.0.

“I think Malaysians should always sangka baik (assume what is good first).
“We are multi-racial, so we cannot afford to have the opposite,” he said.

Wee later read a statement to the press, saying that he was a patriot and had even conveyed that Malaysia was the best place in the world through his video “I Want To Go Home”.

Students and More youngers hooked on online gambling lives away to fund habit

Tweet

Students turn to Ah Long to fund habit

By SHARIN SHAIK
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Students as young as 16 are turning to loan sharks to pay off their Internet gambling debts, forcing their parents to settle their huge debts.

This year alone, the MCA Public Complaints Bureau has received seven such cases with a total debt of RM874,800.

In one case, a 45-year-old mother was now being harassed by loansharks as her 21-year-old son had racked up debts of almost RM30,000 since his college days.

The mother, who identified herself as Madam Yong, said at a press conference yesterday that Ah How had been involved in Internet football gambling since last year when he was in college. She has not seen him for two months now.

Yong said she paid Ah How’s RM2,000 debt the first time.

“He promised never to gamble again, but did not keep his word,” she said. Yong said to fund his betting, Ah How sold the shares she had bought in his name.

On Dec 2, she received a call from a debt collector called “Ah Boon,” telling her that her son still owed him RM26,500.

“I am speaking out so that other parents can be aware of this issue,” said Yong at the MCA Public Complaints Bureau. “Anyone can fall victim to Internet gambling and loan sharks.”

According to bureau chief Datuk Micheal Chong, many parents had come to him with the same problem “and all involved boys aged between 16 and 20”.

“My worry is that this is mostly happening to Chinese students,” he said.
Chong said he suspected that a syndicate was working with bookies and loansharks to lure students into illegal gambling.

“It is easier to target the youngsters by commissioning other students to encourage them to gamble online,” added Yong.

Chong said these bookies and loansharks were not concerned over students not paying up because they know that their parents would.

“It is the parents who suffer the most,” he said.
“Prevention is better than cure; so please advise your children not to get involved in online gambling.”

More teens gambling lives away

By Elizabeth Zachariah , elizbeth@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: More and more young adults are turning to gambling for fast and easy money.
MCA public services and complaints department head Datuk Michael Chong revealed yesterday that his department had received seven such cases this year alone with debts totalling RM874,800.

"The cases we see nowadays involve teenagers as young as 18," he said at Wisma MCA, adding that this was just the tip of the iceberg as many cases went unreported.

Chong said one of the cases he received involved a 20-year-old student who became an online gambler, running up a debt of RM800,000.
He said as was the case with all the others, the youth had tried paying it off by lying to his parents that he needed the money for studies.

He finally confessed to his parents when the debtors called his home demanding for payment.

His parents, who could not afford to pay back, approached Chong's department for help.

Their son had since gone into hiding to escape the debt collectors' harassment.

Chong said the young gamblers, all male, were described as hardworking, obedient and studious by their families.

"But because they mixed with the wrong crowd, they found themselves in hot water."

He said most of the bookies were classmates and ex-schoolmates of these gamblers.

"Students are easily taken in by the syndicates who use their peers to lure them into gambling," he said, adding that their actions could have a detrimental effect on themselves, their families and careers.

One such student is Ah How, 21, who first became an online gambler last year while he was studying at a college in Petaling Jaya.

His mother, who wanted to be known only as Yong, said she helped him pay off the RM2,000 debt.

But the second time around early this year, Ah How found himself in debt again and borrowed RM8,000 from his friend and used up RM15,000 worth of investment to pay his debt.

Last week, Yong received a call from a debt collector who informed her that Ah How owed him RM26,500.

"He promised me that he would never gamble again after the first time, but he doesn't seem to be able to stop," she said of her eldest son.

Yong said she came forward as she wanted her son's case to serve as a lesson to other young adults who were hooked on gambling

Read more: More teens gambling lives away http://nst.com.my/nst/articles//18gamb/Article/#ixzz17h7NdlFV

Confucius Peace Prize Snubs Nose at Nobel Peace Prize, in Battle of Ideas!

Tweet

Confucius Prize could be weapon in battle of ideas

By Liu Zhiqin

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee won Liu Xiaobo while losing the trust of 1.3 billion Chinese people. They support a criminal while creating 1.3 billion "dissidents" that are dissatisfied with the Nobel Committee, which is definitely a bad decision.

However, the Chinese people's discontent or questioning will not change the prejudice of the proud and stubborn Noble Prize Committee members.

On the contrary, China's opposition could inspire their pride as heroes or sense of accomplishment because it has become the mind-set of the current Westerners that they will oppose whatever China supports and support whatever China opposes. In order to make them change their mind-set, more appropriate ways need to be adopted.

We often stress the need to fight for the right to speak. In fact, this is a good opportunity and China's civil society should consider setting up a "Confucius Peace Prize," launching the evaluation and selection and finding the real Peace Prize winners from all over the world.

This is the best opportunity for the Chinese to declare China's view in peace and human rights to the world.
Through such evaluation and selection, people around the world can have the most direct, sensible and comparative opportunity to observe, analyze and understand the Eastern and Western values.

With China's growing economic strength, Chinese culture and ideas will also be spread.

With the establishment of "Confucius Institutes" all over the world, the ideas of Confucius are understood and accepted by more and more people throughout the world.

Against such a good background, the establishment of a worldwide "Confucius Peace Prize" will be welcome by people in different countries. Of course, this step needs the long-term accumulation of different sides, but it is essential for China to step into the world.

While carrying out "Confucius Peace Prize" selection, China can learn more things from the world, especially how people of different cultures, different religions and different political systems think, build their nations and enable their people to live and work in peace.

We should also teach Westerners how to cultivate their own spirits and kindly treat people that have different national values and lifestyles. Only in this way could China and the West really work together to create a harmonious and tolerant world.

In a recent editorial, the Global Times looked "forward to the Nobel Prize Committee that really belongs to the world." I am afraid this good wish will not be realized. At least we should not rely on the members of the Peace Prize Committee. We have suffered too much loss already.

We would rather do something within our power than expect others to change, such as establishing through civil society a "Confucius Peace Prize" Committee and inviting internationally renowned persons to join. Thus the world will surely look at China with new eyes!

The author is the Beijing chief representative of Zurich Bank, Switzerland. globaltimesopinion@ yahoo.com

Confucius Peace Prize Snubs Nose at Nobel Peace Prize Honors

 Confucius Peace Prize - just three weeks after the idea for the honors were first publicly mentioned, isnow a reality. The Confucius Peace Prize is the Chinese snub-nosed attempt to cobble together its own peace prize - and the Confucius Peace Prize will be awarded the day before the Nobel Committee honors an imprisoned Chinese dissident in a move that has enraged Beijing.

Since Liu Xiaobo's selection, China has vilified the 54-year-old democracy advocate, called the choice an effort by the West to contain its rise, disparaged his supporters as "clowns," and launched a campaign to persuade countries not to attend Friday's ceremony in Oslo.

The government is also preventing Liu - who is serving an 11-year sentence for co-authoring a bold appeal for political reforms in the Communist country - and his family members from attending.

Amid the flurry of action came a commentary published on Nov. 17 in a Communist Party-approved tabloid that suggested China create its own award - the "Confucius Peace Prize" - to counter the choice of Liu.

Three weeks later, The Associated Press has learned, China is doing just that.

Named after the famed philosopher, the new prize was created to "interpret the viewpoints of peace of (the) Chinese (people)," the awards committee said in a statement it released to the AP on Tuesday.

Awards committee chairman Tan Changliu said his group was not an official government body, but acknowledged that it worked closely with the Ministry of Culture.

He declined to give specifics about the committee, when it was created and how the five judges were chosen, saying it would be disclosed later.

The first honoree is Lien Chan, Taiwan's former vice president and the honorary chairman of its Nationalist Party, for having "built a bridge of peace between the mainland and Taiwan." A staffer in his Taipei office said she could not comment Tuesday because she knew nothing about the prize.

Lien was chosen from among eight nominees - some of whom are regularly mentioned for, or have already won, that other peace prize: including billionaire Bill Gates, former South African President Nelson Mandela, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism.

While China regularly disparages the Dalai Lama, the religion's spiritual leader, the current Panchen Lama is a 20-year-old who was hand-picked by Beijing. The original boy named by the Dalai Lama has disappeared.

"We should not compete, we should not confront the Nobel Prize, but we should try to set up another standard," said Liu Zhiqin, the Beijing businessman who suggested the prize in The Global Times.

"The Nobel prize is not a holy thing that we cannot doubt or question. Everyone has a right to dispute whether it's right or wrong." Liu said in the phone interview that he was not involved in setting up the new awards.

Tan, who leads the awards committee, acknowledged that the new prize, which comes with a purse of 100,000 yuan ($15,000), doesn't have international recognition: "It needs to grow gradually, and we hope people will believe the award is of global significance."

China is not the first nation to be rankled by a Nobel Peace Prize. During Nazi Germany era, Adolf Hitler created the German National Prize for Art and Science in 1937 as a replacement for the Nobel. He had forbidden German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from accepting his Nobel awarded in 1935.

This year, China's clampdown against Liu and his supporters means the Nobel medal and money won't be handed out for the first time since that period. Nobel officials say the prestigious $1.4 million award can be collected only by the laureate or close family members.

In the meantime, China is chipping away at the Nobel: It succeeded in persuading 18 other countries to boycott the upcoming ceremony, including longtime allies like Pakistan, Venezuela and Cuba as well as business partners Saudi Arabia and Iran, Nobel officials said Tuesday.

Beijing sharpened its denunciations, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu accusing the Nobel committee of "orchestrating an anti-China farce by themselves."

"We are not changing because of interference by a few clowns and we will not change our path," she said.
But Beijing's hastily arranged efforts to provide a distraction to the Nobel ceremony are counterproductive, said Oxford University China scholar Steve Tsang.

"The whole thing is too obviously being rushed to counter the Nobel Prize to Liu Xiaobo. People will see it for what it is. That being the case, it's not going to be very credible," he said.

If anything, China's heavy-handed reactions in the wake of the announcement, which include putting Liu's wife and other supporters under house arrest and barring dozens of activists from traveling to Oslo, "simply give the rest of the world the impression that human rights is really in trouble in China," he said.

American Imperialism! US declared financial war to the world Prof Dr Michael Hudson

Tweet

US declared financial war to the world Prof Dr Michael Hudson 

Asian American Men Face Discrimination in Job Market

Tweet

Source: American Sociological Association (ASA)

Research Exposes Racial Discrimination Against Asian American Men in Job Market

Newswise — A new study by a University of Kansas sociologist shows that U.S. employers fail to pay Asian American men as much as similarly qualified white men.

“The most striking result is that native-born Asian Americans — who were born in the U.S. and speak English perfectly — their income is 8 percent lower than whites after controlling for their college majors, their places of residence and their level of education,” said ChangHwan Kim, an assistant professor of sociology at KU, who led the study.

Full results of the study — “Have Asian American Men Achieved Labor Market Parity with White Men?” — appear in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.

According to Kim, who co-authored the study with Arthur Sakamoto of the University of Texas at Austin, the findings show that the U.S. falls short of the goal of a colorblind society.

“As an individual, you can reach as high as president,” said Kim. “But as an ethnic group, no group has reached full parity with whites. That’s the current status of racial equality in the United States.”

Kim and Sakamoto combed data from the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates to investigate earnings — numbers that have not been used previously in research on Asian Americans.

Among their other notable findings:

- First-generation Asian American men, who were born and completed their education overseas, earn 29 percent less than white men in the U.S.

- 1.25-generation Asian American men, those who earned their highest degree at a U.S. institution, but were born and previously educated in a foreign country, had incomes 14 percent lower than those of white men.

- The only group to have achieved earnings parity with white men is 1.5-generation Asian American men. Though foreign-born, these men came to the U.S. as children, so therefore speak perfect English and have U.S. educations.

Kim said that 1.5-generation Asian American men could benefit economically from their parents’ immigrant work ethic: “They see their parents struggle, and they understand that their achievement in the United States is actually their parents’ achievement. It’s not their own goal, it’s the goal for their whole family,” he said. “They actually have a burden of success.”

Despite the disparity in income levels, Asian American men are less disadvantaged than before the Civil Rights era in the U.S. Advancement towards an end to racial discrimination continues, according to Kim.

“The 8 percent difference is large, but it is small compared to previous Asian American generations,” Kim said. “Previous generations had income levels much lower, so in this sense we’ve made progress.”

About the American Sociological Association and the American Sociological Review
The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The American Sociological Review is the ASA’s flagship journal.

The research article described above is available by request for members of the media. For a copy of the full study, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA’s Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org.

Newscribe : get free news in real time