Will cast a ballot for a deck of cards
Not trying to recycle the heavily discussed issue of China and Africa, but I completely forgot to update you all on a conversation I had with a former Ethiopian Airlines executive. I’ve already covered how China brings its own people to African countries to do the industrial work that African governments let them do, and I took issue with that because I felt like there was no exchange of knowledge/training between the Chinese and the Africans, thus limiting the growth/advancement opportunities that would benefit some Africans.
Chinese supervisor watches over Ethiopian worker
When I shared my concerns with the former executive, he laughed and said that it all comes back to politics and money. Basically, when bidding on a project, the Chinese will give you the cheapest costs and they will finish the project on time if they use their own Chinese workers. He witnessed that on more than one occasion, and he was impressed with the dedicated/disciplined work that the Chinese bring to any job.
When he came across projects in which Ethiopian workers were mixed with the Chinese workforce, he was amazed by what he observed. He was walking by a road construction site in his neighborhood, and as he was walking near a ditch that was dug for a foundation, he saw 3 Ethiopian workers down there playing cards. He looked around and saw all the other Chinese workers nearby hard at work. The Ethiopians, according to him, had no incentives to work hard. The reason being because they can VOTE. They can be swayed into any direction, and as long as they are capable of casting a vote, they will be taken care of, since they are assets to the local jurisdiction.
I thought that was simply amazing… and to add to it, this is just one of the funniest things I’ve heard in the history construction equipment… the shovels used for these construction jobs were cut down into shorter sizes so that the Ethiopian workers won’t lean on them and take breaks all the time… to which the workers reacted by simply creating makeshift padding of some sort so they can sit down on the shorter shovels. UPDATE: I’ve been told by a friend that recently returned from Addis Abeba, that the shovels look normal. Thank God.
And that ladies n gents, is another spin on the story of Chinese-African issues. Granted this is not something that can be used to draw a strong conclusion… not all workers act as described here, not all projects get finished on time, and sometimes there may be a cost overrun or two… but still, given similar circumstances, you can get a job done on time at low cost, or you can employ an unreliable workforce… what would you do?
Wow. That’s crazy I guess when you give a mouse a cookie he’s gonna want a glass of milk. I hope the next time the Chinese or whoever comes to Ethiopia and gives abesha folks the chance to learn, we’ll take the opportunity a little more seriously.
I like your cookie/milk comment, I think that’s the best statement for what’s going on here. There are however cases in which we do have abeshoch that take the opportunity to learn. For example, several Ethiopians have travelled to China since this cultural/imperial influence began, and they established working relationships with manufacturers of all sorts, thus allowing them to start companies back home and sell products at competitive prices.
We also have several cases in our history, where working relationships with foreigners have allowed us to travel to their countries for education, and go back to help our own.
My biggest fear however, is the fact that we may completely lose our own manufacturing capabilities and be forced to turn into a consumer society, with a services-based economy. If we let others run our industries with their own machinery/workforce, I’m worried about the relatively large population of uneducated farmer families that will be forced into poverty because they can’t contribute to said services economy. There should be policies that allow for the empowerment of our own people, so that we can have a self-sustained workforce in industrial/agrarian sectors.
First of all I’ll admit that I have a deep-rooted suspicion towards all things concerning Ethiopian Airlines, but it doesnt take much to see that this ‘executive’s’ story is a loadacrap! As Judge Judy often says ‘if it doesnt make sense, its not true’ – you dont have to be a *rocket scientist*, or even all that mathematically inclined, to conclude that NO engineer worth their weight in berbere would ever deduce that the steep loss of productivity that would result of these shortened shovel handles would be worth eliminating a few unauthorized rest breaks… after all, these are workers, not slaves, and even the ‘exec’ acknowledges that there are other ways to kick it while on the job (makeshift seats, cards…). In the same vein, the fact that ‘exec’ would think it valid to compare the work habits of a laborer (who puts 12+ hrs of grueling manual labor in all kinds of extreme weather) and a foreign engineer (who spends the better part of the day drinking tela in his Hilux), speaks volumes the intent behind his comments. If the upper management is this bright no wonder Ethiopian Airlines sucks bagels!
Anyways, wrt to this post, I wouldnt go so far as to claim that the Chinese are hindering these workers opportunity for growth, we have a govt that does an excellent job of that already- but for argument’s sake, what kind of knowledge do you expect the Chinese to relay to these workers when a) most times they can barely communicate w/ ea other, and b) the workers have such little education? My cousin in Addis is a civil engineer, and I have overheard him talk, on more than one occasion, about the various tricks and gadgets the Chinese engineers have introduced THEM to- but I’m not sure what else they can be held responsible for. Its clear their government has subversive designs on Africa as a whole, but at the end of the day, [many] of these Chinese expats are going home to flea-ridden qorqoro betoch. IMO they are just pawns in a bigger game.
Damn you REALLY hate Ethiopian Airlines, lol! I may not have been clear, but the exec was comapring Ethiopian day-laborer work to Chinese day-laborer work (not the Chinese engineers). And the civil engineer’s story I think is a good example of an exchange of ideas at the smallest scale. I was thinking that this knowledge could, for example, be passed by manufacturing the construction machinery in Ethiopia, by Ethiopian workers and Chinese+Ethiopian management for example. That would create jobs for the Ethiopians, and pass on the technonolgy… some kind of industrial partnership where both parties benefit. But you’re right though, at a worker level, the Chinese day-laborers/engineers are also pawns in a bigger game.