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They build mega cities that no one lives in. Ghost towns.
They pollute the hell out of the skies and rivers, yet continue to build coal power stations at an unprecedented pace.
They have a population of 1.4 billion, yet re-introduce the two child policy.
They promote a rigorous national pride, yet covet everything and anything from the West.
The ruling Party lives in splendorous wealth, whilst 80 million plebs live in dire poverty.
And they can't manage to make baby formula.
It's like Bizarro world.
We've actually got two people in Australia stocking up on formula for us. Joe is one of them. We have enough to get through until we get to Australia, then once we're there we'll have to scour the countryside for our own after our stash runs out.....
Little Austin consumes about a can a week now, they should limit sales to two cans per customer.
There's always the breast...
Its a shame that we can't trust the milk here, but there are too many clowns taking a short term opportunistic view here. Just the other day they shut down a vermicelli plant for making entirely synthetic noodles....i mean WHO DOES THAT RIGHT
Interesting interview on future battlegrounds the US (and allies) are already heading into: Africa.
TomDispatch (http://www.tomdispatch.com/ ) regularly carries articles from Turse who has been covering AFRICOM and the command heirarchy and US Special Ops in general for a couple of years now.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram:_nick_turse,_africom's_gigantic_"small_footprint"
The first inklings I heard of it was when those US Special Forces guys were killed in Mali with prostitutes in their car in 2012.
The US is in there along with the Europeans (especially the French) making a mess everywhere they touch. To see which European countries are involved look back at who was involved in Libya bombing ops in 2011. To see the kind of trouble they have raked up, merely look at Libya today which is neatly divided in two, or Yemen. Basically doing a great job of killing everywhere they shouldn't be while letting the likes of Boko Haram run wild.
Africa represents a relatively open frontier to China and they get a lot of bang for their buck. Anecdotally, I have heard that various Governments and regimes in Africa are getting investment from the Chinese SOEs on stuff that Western companies couldn't touch due to environmental/ethical concerns. For example in Rare Earth space.
There are a lot of Chinese enclaves in cities all over Africa that have no other foreign presence.
To be honest, I think the move is smart on Chinas part, spending their FX reserves on real assets where the spending is most optimal. Their so called "resource diplomacy" is several notches better than the sort of "diplomacy" Western colonialists carried out on that continent for centuries.
Seems like China is preparing the sea lanes to bring the goods from Africa home. Heard they're very active in Sri Lanka with infrastructure and port investments, buying off a few generals and the former president... same in Mayanmar until the US thought to bring it in from the cold else China will secure it as an alternate supply route.
That's how they do business. That's how all 3rd world countries do business.
the difference is that you now throw your support/money/arms to another local general/future despotI thought you could only do stuff like that in colonial times way way way back a few decades ago.
the difference is that you now throw your support/money/arms to another local general/future despot
No one will cry for the former in any case and a rotten scumbag is replaced by another rotten scumbag...
Part of the deal will be an oil concession or similar;
And the day democraty is given a chance, you end up with a bad (to the western world) surprise: Egypt for the latest example
we all agree there !
but the takeover of African resources by China is well in its way;
The US/france/UK may have the receptions/embassy dinners and arms sales but the fields oil and ports are now chinese and it will not be long before they put their own puppets too.No opinion there, just looking at facts and not sure I blame the Chineses for this either
Chinese lease Darwin Port.
Only because it gives such a good return on their investment. 1% I think.
Stupid Australia.
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