China may be preparing to seize some major assets in the African nation of Kenya, as a result of debt-trap diplomacy.
African media reports that Kenya may soon be forced to relinquish control of its largest and most lucrative port in Mombasa to Chinese control.
Other assets related to the inland shipment of goods from the port, including the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi, and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), may also be compromised in the event of a Chinese port takeover.
Kenya has reportedly taken extremely large loans from the Communist government for the development of some major highways, and especially for the SGR, which forms a crucial transport link to and from Nairobi for the import and export of goods through Mombasa.
h/t RWB
Related. (h/t Greg)
There is a simple solution for Kenya. Nationalize all Chinese holdings. 🙂
Tell the Africans that the Chinese smell like fish but taste like chicken.
https://blog.lowmillercg.com/it-doesnt-matter-if-ecuador-can-afford-this-dam-china-still-gets-paid/
China built this dam near a volcano in Ecuador, probability of failure close to 100%. Hopefully they can prove bribery of corrupt officials was involved and fine the Chinese for 2x the loan value.
Wait til the chinese start making similar demands in canuckisting! Trudeau will be more than willing to allow chinese takeover of the western oil sands
Better China than Canada.
Communists don’t play around, you pay or we get it.
The current prime minister of this country would just say, we are welcoming, friendly, warm and fuzzy, people with big hearts Canadians.
I, the prime minister will forgive the loans, the Canadians won’t mind.
It also need to be noted that he wouldn’t pay anything from his trust account, its those other Canadians that work for living that should pay.
Good thing he did not notice the Kenyan scam.
I have no doubt that the crowd who continually decry Western “imperialism” will be all over this like stink on shiite. Any time now. Right?
Because there is simply no way the tribe could be fine with this, since Communism is as good a pathway to One World Government as any other for them…
Lenin and Stalin just didn’t do it right. Mousey Tongue is far better. Even without their assistance.
Actually, they call it internationalism, in other words national socialism with wider reach.
In that case it’s all justified. It’s for the good of all.
That is the process.
Communism or rather communist dominance is the goal.
It’s good for the ruling class and the money class.
Others don’t count, the morlocks.
Just to make clear, those that made their money by working hard, innovating, putting their mind to it, making life easier for some, good for them, in so far as they made their money is not evil.
The evil comes when they and their brownnosers start making rules for others to live by because they know how to put a widget together and the morlocks don’t, while at the same time they themselves are free or feel free of the same rules.
That sounds like you don’t understand it was the Morlocks that were running things in that story. The Eloi were their livestock.
“The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine. By the year AD 802,701, humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks, whereof the Eloi live a banal life of ease on the surface of the earth, while the Morlocks live underground, tending machinery and providing food, clothing, and infrastructure for the Eloi.”
A brief from Wikipedia.
Unless of course the ‘pedia si wrong.
It’s not wrong, but he’s right as well: The price of the Elois’ easy life was that they were, exactly as he said, the Morlocks’ livestock.
Yes. “… the Eloi live a banal life of ease … the Morlocks … providing food, … for the Eloi.”
My stepcat lives a banal life of ease and I supply catfood. Not a big cat, but if it comes to that, I’ll make a soup of her. Sounds like the Wikipedia doesn’t cover how that story ends.
Concur.
Alyric.
It may be difficult to get the fine points out of this. It becomes semantics, you mean that, I mean this.
The descendants of the rich of yesterday are basically Eloi.
They live off the labour of their predecessors and of the labour of today’s morlocks. They have not contributed in any way.
Of course, this is not true in every case.
It would be interesting if the “news journalists” could put together a synopsis on that, of which they have 0 capacity to do, would require actual work.
Anyway, take your pick.
Though I understand you get my drift.
What is the scam when a lender demands payment? I know this is a shock to many raised in a debt financed life style but the lenders are not evil. If the expectation of repayment is done away with any chance of these 3rd world countries have of development will disappear. Unfortunately many progressives will be just fine with that. It is incumbent of borrowers that they do ‘due diligence’ on their loans to ensure an ability to pay. Interest rates, currency flucuation, anticipated revenue … Yup all the standard stuff!
I concur.
But just to play devils advocate for a moment, what if the lenders goal wasn’t to be a lender but to use the debt owed as a means to obtain that which they desire without a military invasion?
Let me take this further.
If the US sees this as a security threat, would they intervene by buying our debt to the Chinese and in return make Canada a protectorate of the US?
If this scenario seems right out there in technicolor land, I will accept that as a valid comment. But then I would counter that the steel and aluminum tariffs that where put in place due to a similar security threat are still in place.
I’ll end with this comment.
If the only choice we have due to excessive government debt is that we become a province of a foreign power, the question is not if, that choice came and went when PET became PM, its which foreign power do you want to be a province of?
The scam is (if) the Chinese knew the railway (which they lent Kenya the money to pay China to build for them) could not cause enough economic development to pay back the loan, and they somehow (bribes to key individuals) got the Kenyans to sign a loan agreement that waived sovereign immunity (a highly irregular thing) on seizure of other Kenyan public infrastructure (the Port of Mombasa) as well as the railway that was built with the loan.
Or maybe the Chinese just got lucky, I don’t know, who is head of Kenya’s government? Do they have a branch of the Trudeau family there?
They had a branch of the Obama family running things in Kenya (actually the root).
Kenya is running on a fairly new constitution and is set up as a republic with a president and regional representatives in a parliament not unlike many western countries.
Two families from different majority tribes have been in leadership for most of the time since independence from Britain in 1963.
The leaders of the smaller Luo tribe from which Obama is connected have only attained opposition status. In the contentious 2007 election, the only way to appease the opposition was to give their guy the title of Prime Minister. The divide in ideologies falls in a similar line to what is happening in North America with a few local variations added for good measure.
As for infrastructure, very little real improvements have been made to what the Brits left behind over 50 years ago. Most improvements have been gestures of good will by other benevolent western countries but highways and until recently the railway are Spartan remnants of colonial times. What does seem to improve though is the size of homes built by the well connected. Often dwarfing the modest accommodations of the colonials who built the country.
Canada spends 4.28 Billion in Foreign Aid (2017) and they were adding another 2 Billion in 2018. Total loan of 4.98 Billion.
In this case, I think it would be worth a few Commonwealth Countries time and effort to pay a few years of the loan and some of the principal. The Kenyans (fellow Commonwealth members) made a mistake in who they borrowed from. But handing the Chinese a port and influence like that is a mistake. Between Canada, UK, NZ, Aus, Singapore and even India (who would have a big strategic interest) its hard to believe they couldn’t put together a 2 Billion package over 10 years, 200 Million a year between 5/6 “friends” to take the burden off the Kenyans and stuff the Chinese influence out.
My father-in-laws remote, modest family farm in Ontario just sold to a Chinese buyer. His is not the first in this area to go to Chinese buyers, who are happy to take 80-100 acre farms, along with massive purchases, like the largest ranch in the world located in Australia, one-at-a-time.
A little Googling about Chinese international agri purchases can give you days of good reading.
Here is a paragraph that should be read first:
“At the same time, the Chinese Government seeks to steer investors toward ventures that achieve national goals by offering various incentives, arranging deals, and setting up strategic plans.”
These transactions are government backed by the Chinese.
Think for a moment about the situation that is being created when one country’s government controls the worlds food and distribution of it.
The issue, of course, would be how would the Chinese enforce it if the local government decides to go another direction. Not a pleasant thought, but some Central American governments can probably speak to their experience, or even Hawaiians.
Or one could ask the Kenyans:
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3605624
But then I’m sure someone will step up and take the Chinese to task for so taking advantage of a fourth world culture…
Or not…
Errrr… Never mind. Brain fart.
We used to call this Colonialism.
It’s colonialism if Europeans or Americans do it. It’s called “freedom” and “progress” if it’s done by the commies.
I’m reminded of what happened in Viet Nam after the fall of Saigon (and, no, I won’t call it Ho Chi Minh City). The Americans left some excellent military facilities and equipment behind. Among them was the naval base at Kam Rahn Bay. When the USN pulled out, the Soviets moved in. Apparently, the locals didn’t like the Russkies as much because, unlike the Americans, they didn’t spend any money in town.
Africa is slowly finding out the same thing about the chicoms.
The other thing that Africa will be finding out about the Chinese is just what real racism looks like.
Nah. Didn’t you know that non-whites are incapable of racism?
Kenyan government wave their sovereign immunity when they took out these loans.
So the Chinos, loan vast amounts of money to an unsuspecting sucker nation, then claims the collateral put up to cover the default.
That is buying up a country at a huge discount with tons of humiliation to boot. Looks good on the Kenyan’s finance minister … Isn’t that the homeland of the other great financial wizard, Barack H Obama?
Some cultures can to math because education is a prority and others are just stupid twits available for screwing over at will.
It should be mentioned that the USA used this same tactic many times, but not in quite as evil a way as the communist, totalitarians of China … where lives are cheap like borscht. We do ‘catch and release’. Not sure why.
The point is, that’s the plan. That’s how imperialism works.
It’s not any better if it is communist imperialism, the communist imperialism brings poverty, in the past, now and in future, Period.
The Chinese ought to have known, likely knew by design that the poor Africans can’t pay back anything.
Corruption is the everyday business, it’s how business is done, in Africa and to a lesser degree or not in China.
They knew that, they had a plan.
Of course it’s just a coincidence that the port is linked to the railway and the railway to the road systems all built by the Chinese to get Chinese products in and African resources out. Kind of brilliant actually, but then imperialists think these things through.
Are all the Chinese owned empty apartments/condos in Vancouver actually Chinese troop barracks?
The Chinese refer to whitey as barbarians. I wonder what they call blacks because they sure as white on rice have them on a lower strata than the evil pale bastards.
Blackie don’t like to pay his bills. Probably thought the chicoms were suckers like whitey LMAO
Having lived and worked in EA for some years and having dealt with African and Chinese government businesses during that time, all I can say is that this may be a good thing. Africans need to learn that elections and business done by the “elected” has consequences. They then need to learn to operate the businesses that China invested in properly, generate a return on the investment and repay the loans. New loans can be structured so that income from the asset is the lender’s only recourse. They then become interested in a well performing asset. And if that doesn’t occur, they put in their management and labour and can stabilize things. Shades of the East India Company, the Opium Wars & Hong Kong. The good outcome is that while the assests are being made productive, the standard of living is rising and the people are learning.
However, modernizing African business operations will require elimination of petty and grand corruption and that will not occur in one generation or two. It is cultural, related to tribalism and not seen as corruption. It is merely “Our turn to eat.” at the trough. It will also require the replacement of the top down Socialist mind-set shich is aligned with tribalist principles with a more individualist, private property, profit oriented mind-set. Again, this won’t be achieved except in more than 2 generations.
Tanzania went down the socialist route in the 60s after their independence. They forcibly relocated people into newly created villages of 10 families in an africanized version of the ideology.
Didn’t work out so well.
Nowadays they have cleaned up their act with agriculture and tourism.
The adjectives I hear now from friends visiting both countries is that Tanzania is friendly, Kenya leaves people unnerved.
You are very correct that it will take some time for Africans to establish a more stable society. After all they went from loin cloths to Gucci in a relatively short period of time. The solutions unfortunately will come from attending the school of hard knocks.
China can buy up the whole damn continent. They would run it better than it is being run now. Africa has never been militarily or strategically important for anything. Its got no oil. Agriculture is yeah whatever. Its got some metals but there are lots of metals to be mined elsewhere. And no one truly needs diamonds.
I found it ironic when lefties were hollering and screaming about South Africa and apartheid 40 years ago. South Africa was strategically important at that time not just because of the Cape of Good Hope and how that location controlled maritime shipping in the region. It was a source of an important alloy that’s used in jet engines–titanium, I think.
While those lefties cursed the evils of capitalism, they still lived in a society where they could freely express their opinions. That was because communism was kept at bay by the air forces of free and democratic countries in the west. Those air forces often flew jet aircraft, the same jet aircraft that were propelled by engines that used the titanium that came from South Africa.
Of course, to figure that out requires logic, which the left clearly demonstrates time and again that it lacks or, if it has it, refuses to use it.
South Africa was the closest thing on the continent to a real Wakanda. The irony.
First heart transplant. First rate universities, a working nuclear program, can you say Ubuntu and other very successful software ventures. When under seige by the well-meaning they became totally self sufficient in military supplies.
Sad that the best and brightest from all over Africa have left. Most had their education paid overseas by countries with limited means but have chosen either to not give back or find their homelands to unstable.
When under seige by the well-meaning they became totally self sufficient in military supplies.
During the Angolan civil war over 40 years ago, South Africa sent troops into the country from Southwest Africa (now called Namibia) in response to Castro’s soldiers being there. The SA troops were supported by artillery which included ordinance designed by Dr. Gerald Bull.
Gerald Bull. There’s a named from the past.
Wasnt he a shadowy arms manufacturer- a Canadian murdered by the Mossad?
I’d almost forgotten him. I guess being murdered gets you outa the news…
Here’s more on Bull:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Bull
The general speculation was that he was killed by the Mossad for working on Saddam Hussein’s supergun. Frederick Forsyth, in his novel Hammer of God (a rip-snorting book–I read it in 3 days), suggested that it was Saddam who ordered the hit on Bull in order to keep him quiet about the gun.
Bull was also the subject of the HBO movie The Doomsday Gun.
Chromium is the metal you are looking for, and is used in jet engines and in ball bearings, with South Africa and the former USSR having most of the worlds supply.
You might be right about the material being chromium. All I remembered was that South Africa was a major source and that it was used in jet engines.
Africa has no oil unless Nigeria and Libya are in Africa. There is mineral wealth elsewhere but that doesn’t make Africa’s worthless, especially to China, which seeks to supply it’s economy and technology to make itself the dominant world power.
The European colonial powers found that Africans with professional leadership, firm discipline, and proper training become good fighting troops. Certainly good enough to bring the North African Arabic countries to heel if necessary. The Chinese will already be aware of this. They are planning for land and job opportunities for their grandchildren.
Libya and Nigeria? LoL. Good luck getting any oil from there. Completely unreliable suppliers.
I’m sure the ChiComs will find ways to MAKE those suppliers suitably reliable: for their African partners failure to deliver that oil will not be an option…
There has been drilling off the Atlantic coast of Africa in recent years. I can’t remember exactly where, but Angola comes to mind. I think there’s also been activity further north towards the Gulf of Guinea.
Also oil in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Egypt (Nile delta, Western desert). I’d expect that Africa will also be shown to have shale gas and oil.
That’s what I thought but I couldn’t remember where.
I think that Chad also had a lot of drilling activity a while back. Towards the end of my time as a post-secondary educator, I remember seeing a number of people from there at the institution I was at, taking courses there.
They thought Whitey was an evil, cruel colonialist?
Just wait.
Quite often, the chicom companies that move in don’t bother hiring local labour, but bring in their workers from you-know-where.
That’s because the locals are not suitable workers, yeah I know I’m not being PC , but I have seen firsthand the quality of “the educated African” and it is sorely lacking in work ethic.
BTW most of the chicom money is probably residing in Switzerland where it is used to pay for lavish lifestyles and European call girls.
You left out … “privileged”
When an enemy is making a mistake…
Africa will win again, it is beyond fixing, you can bank on that.
A buddy of mine was in Venezuela when Hugo nationalized the oil industry. Some companies took the offer of .10 cents on the dollar.
Conoco Philip’s said no and walked. They lost it all.
Maybe the Africans will do the same to the chicoms.
Talisman, a Canadian company found oil in Sudan. They were prevented from capitalizing on their discovery by socialists here in Canada and China is now reaping the benefits for peanuts.
How will Chinese seize these assets?