The Chinese in Africa.

A tricky one this. Is the huge investment in Africa by the Chinese a good thing for Africa?

Let's start with what little I know. Firstly the Chinese will happily invest in any country, human rights issues are not even considered. Then there is the type of investment. Which mainly seems to be, build the infrastructure to ship natural resources out of Africa and Chinese products back into Africa.

Though it seems the infrastructure in many places is the bare minimal needed. Often built and run by the Chinese with only low paid jobs for the African nationals. There are sometimes big local companies set up with the local government. Presumably to give the impression that it's a local business. Then again it's not going to be hard to let corruption and miss-management of funds run the company into the ground. Then you can come in and buy the company, install a Chinese workforce for all the skilled jobs and you now own a huge company that is more than likely a monopoly.

Obviously you give the local government their cut with tax and sweeteners. After all having the same dictator or 'only option' elected leader in power for a long time allows you to do long term planning. Like invest in a railway to get to the mine. Invest in the mine to improve investment. Take control of the mine to improve profitability. Invest in the railway to meet maintenance costs. Buy the railway to make it profitable.

Within a decade or two you can help set up a national monopoly and privatize it while making it look like you are just trying to help. Then you can ship all the resources you like back to resource poor China to make all those cheap products. To then ship these products all over the world, including Africa. For there comes another drawback to the Chinese deal. The more Chinese you have working in these new industries, the more services run by Chinese you have. Shops, doctors, banks and entertainment run by the Chinese for the Chinese. Some of these can even under cut the locals with Chinese food or cloths shipped in from China.

Just like the west did for the last couple of centuries the Chinese seem to be taking and giving very little back. Yes you may get some perks like better roads or a mobile phone network. Also the local government will get more money but this is unlikely to filter down to the poor. Along with this you have jobs being replaced by technology and foreigners.

The only real advantage is that better roads, phone networks, internet connection or any other kind of communication infrastructure helps the local start up business. Good communication is important to business and any good business person can utilize good communications to make money and grow.

I guess the question is are more people disadvantaged by the Chinese or are more people better off?

Wrong advert for a tsunami

While the Japanese tsunami was unfolding I was watching live TV from Japan on http://www.ustream.tv/

Every time I dropped in to watch it the above advert was playing followed by images of the awesome destructive power of water.

To go from happy fluffy kids playing around in water to images of water destroying buildings and washing away thousands of lives seemed quite disturbing.

Definitely did not make me want to rush out and book a holiday.

I think in hindsight it may not have been the best advert for the time and content. 

Don't ask!

If you don't ask you don't get.
If you do ask you don't get.

Why the no-fly zone is the wrong move.

Hello. It's the 21st century.

Let's have a look first at the no fly option.

1 Will take ages to set up.
2 Will be controversial.
3 May not stop the problem.
4 Very, very expensive.
5 Decisions and enquiries will all be secretive.

Basically your looking at planes permanent flying over the country, refueling planes flying about. Ships and massive movement of people.

Now here is my high tech option.

Step one.

Satellite. Probably already been done anyway.

Get a snapshot of the country. Eliminate all the areas where there are definitely no airplanes or helicopters.

Step two.

Droids. Probably also already done.
Send in high altitude drones to monitor the active areas. Locate and track airborne vehicles.

Step three.
Open source.
Open the droid feeds. Tell the whole world what they have, where they are and how often they have been used since surveillance started. Broadcast live(ish) feeds of the big threats. So if they are used the world knows.

Obviously you may be saying they will shot down the droids. Maybe but they are relatively cheap and no humans will die. It will show they have something to hide if they do start shooting. There is always the option that they may not shot. Maybe their technology will not be as agile as the droids. Maybe they will think the publicity would be bad. Maybe they will flee realizing the game is up.

Step 4
Missiles.
Hands up if you have seen on tv someone explaining how we have missiles that can be flown for many kilometers and hit a car in a field.

We have some very smart weapons. Unfortunately often with dumb humans controlling them.

You plan out the best way to target and destroy the aircraft. Be it from planes, ships or another continent.

Announce when you will do it. Noon on a clear day would be best.

Keep the droids monitoring the situation in case of hostages being amassed around crafts. Leaflet the areas making sure everyone knows the times and places.

If everyone does the sensible thing of getting the hell out of the area. You blow them all up.

If they gather round the crafts to protect them. Well then they can't be used. So double win.

Step 5
Compensation
After the trouble has settled down. You use the money you saved to pay the (hopefully) new government for their loss.

Which does not have to be used for military purchases.

Can't quite see the Yanks or Brits governments going for this though and you know the French and Russian governments will object.

It may have flaws, but it's got to be worth a shot as a cheap option.

Videos I've previously posted to Facebook. Pt2

Music



























Toys



Content pulled by stupid companies.

Michael Franti & Spearhead - Say Hey (I Love You)
Butthole Surfers - Summer in the City

Stupid fun















Movies





Others







Not embedable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hgTLQBKe4k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8EEWWi3ABk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpMMjz4yQPM

http://www.youtube.com/chromefastball

The aliens are stealing Brighton's beach huts!

The other day, while walking along the seafront, I noticed there was a missing beach hut.

A few days later another one. Strange

And again, a few days later on...

Next a whole row of them went!

Then EVEN MORE!!! What is going on!

I started to notice there was a flickering light on the front which moved each time the huts went.

I tell you ALIENS are stealing our beach huts in some twisted experiment!

Look here they have taken down the wall too and left a cryptic message!!!

Run to the hills!!!

Egypt.

Well I know a lot has been written about the Egypt situation. I say situation because no one seems to know what to call it. A crisis seems to severe, a revolution maybe to presumptuous and troubles seems to negative.

What we currently have is the overwhelming majority of the country is crying out for a change. The President Hosni.Mubarak came into power about the same time as we got Margret Thatcher, since then we have changed leader four times. That's with both Thatcher and Tony Blair serving two and a half terms. Both of them had lost popular support because people get bored of the same views and opinions all the time, even bored of the same face. Also if you look at them at the start and end of their terms you can see they both aged beyond the length of their terms. Running a country is hard work and stressful. Maybe less so in a dictatorship where you don't have to win public opinion or fight elections.

But the power does get to them. The more power you have the more people will think 'if something happens to them, I could have that power'. So you have to watch your back and fight off the paranoia. This power and paranoia seem to make leaders think that the country will crumble and fall if they were to go. I think that's all Hollywood, just like in every gritty film where a few city blocks get a power cut is followed by looting and rioting. When in fact when New York had days without power, people piled into the streets sofas in hand and partied, got to know their neighbors and got on with their lives. Obviously if this was permanent power loss it might have been different over time. As long as people know it will get back to normal or even better in the future, then they can put up with quite a bit.
But keep telling people lies and giving them no hope. Well then you have a right to watch your back.
Back to Mubarak. His crime is not staying in power so long. His crime seems to be giving the people living there no hope that thing will get better, lining his own pockets while some of 'his people' are starving and stopping anyone getting big enough to oppose him.

Even now he had declared he will step down, providing he actually intends to, its not for months because he doesn't want to leave a power vacuum.

What power vacuum?

So what do our leaders actually do? They don't directly collect tax or spend it, they don't police our streets or teach our children. At most they could be the person who makes the rules, or changes them most likely, but even that its generally a body of people who turn their ideas into something that might work. But their main role seems to be to stop anyone else taking their place and meeting up with other leaders.

So in the awful worst case situation where everyone who assumes the role of leader instantly drops down dead leaving you with no leader. The country can still function quite well. Tax can still be collected by tax collectors and spent as before on schools, social services and policing the system. Lawyers and courts can still apply the current law.

A few months of no government is not going to turn your country into a anarchistic state overnight. In fact you will probably find the people will PARTY as long as they know sometime will step in and 'run the country' again.

So in Egypt Mubarak stated he will go sometime in the future hoping the crowds would die off and the call for change would become murmurings again. Though the people know if they return to their homes and back to their daily lives, it would be oh so easy for Mubarak to pay people to 'disappear' a few people. Or even quite a lot of people. So a few days after the announcement of his departure and after time for it to sink in. With no more violence after the obvious paid thugs that stirred it up earlier and the international condemnation that came with it. People are starting to think safety in numbers. Get him out before he can exact his revenge and even more people than before the announcement are piling into the city centres. If you are going to go. Go now.

But there is a few other problems that is sopping the rest of the 'Western world' calling it a glorious revolution. Firstly there is the great Muslim threat. The fear that the Muslims will gain control and turn the country into a different kind of dictatorship. One 'The West' will not be on friendly terms with. While it is unlikely anyone will be able to set up another dictatorship after this show of strength. Whoever takes control need to make life better for the people or they will be kicked out too. So it's likely that they will get democracy and probably quite a few different governments and bias over the coming decades.

In the immediate future the rest of the world leaders don't want the world to see that a country can be run without a leader. They don't want their own people thinking about things like that.

There could be elections in a month. Weeks even if the whole world did everything it could to help. The problem is the rest of the world wants to work out who to back and see who is the best candidate for them. Dig up a bit of dirt on the opposition. Basically work out how to stop the Muslims getting control. Think about what the worlds reaction would be if this was North Korea and the people were calling for a change with the army refusing to stop them. Would 6 months be fine?

But it's not really even a Muslim thing. It's control and power. As old as the history of Egypt. It is almost the center of the world. People and goods travel through Egypt and in the past few decades it has also played its role as an Israeli prison guard helping keep the Palestinians in the worlds largest detention camp.

Almost certainly one of the first and most populist moves the next government could do would be to tear down the walls between Palestine and Egypt and let trade flourish there. A more hardline government might even cut the 20% of fuel Egypt supplies Israel.

With Palestine and Egypt friends Israel would find it much harder to do offensive maneuvers inside their territories. Along with the fact Israel seems to be having trouble holding together a government, a free Egypt could equal a weak Israel. Which could happen as power already seems to be heading east.

The whole world could once again be changed by Egypt and Egyptian history gets another chapter in the worlds history books.

I must visit one day.