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?

.. or $5.72, I don’t have the receipt on me to double-check, but it really doesn’t matter… the question is, what did you spend on your lunch today? did you work for that lunch? how hard exactly did you work for it? would you be willing to search for pieces of copper or cobalt by scraping through mountains of mining waste, and then washing your findings in cholera-infested waters, all for your lunch? would you be willing to kill for it? all this to earn some food… all this to earn $3.00 (on a good day)… even less than the $5.71 or $5.72.. whatever.

You think ppl in the last commodities bubble got it bad, when they lost their investments, think again. Some Congolese and Zambian men, women, and children, are working til they drop, sacrificing safe working conditions, so that they could take the few ounces of metal and sell them to their local Chinaman (We all know how hungry China is… see my posts below). What’s worse is the fact that these poor victims were somehow convinced by their overseers to block roads to their mining camps and stop any journalists that would report on their dire conditions, at all costs, even death. Because whoever convinced them, told them that if the world finds out about their plight for survival under such dire conditions, then the mining operations will be closed, and they would not get their $3.00 (and that’s on a good day).

It hurt me deep inside when I thought about my Subway lunch today… shameless exploitation for $3.00/day so that the Congolese and Zambian government officials (among others) can keep their political and economic commitments in this abusive relationship with China… cuz if they don’t there will be no cash for their countries (or their fat pockets).

Across the pond, we can print billions of dollars to bailout the greedy that bit a little more than they could chew, but we cannot improve on our aid commitments (the US ranks in the bottom 3 out of 21 countries). We easily turn our backs at such exploitations, because Africa has nothing to offer for us. Where is the human conscience and its dignity? I think it also needs a bailout.