Exploitation dressed in a suit,shining shoes,and carrying a suitcase full of dollars: What does China want in Africa?

China has provided billions of dollars in loans to African countries with no strings attached compared with Western financial aid. Although the argument that China is exploiting Africa for its resources has often clouded Beijing's continued support for Africa, many African leaders have welcomed China's economic assistance and have begun to see China as a more reliable partner compared with the West. By strictly examining relevant literature on Sino–African relations, this study comprehensively explores the dynamics, implications, and benefits of Chinese investments in Africa. Whether China is indeed exploiting Africa, which will continue to be debated, it is clear that Chinese investments have contributed significantly to the development of Africa and will continue to do so as the West has been replaced by Beijing as Africa's biggest trading partner. African countries are therefore likely to continue strengthening their relationship with China further jeopardising the interests of West in the continent.     

Democracy and decentralisation: local politics,marginalisation and political accountability in Uganda and South Africa

While democratic decentralisation is viewed as an important vehicle for development in sub‐Saharan Africa, its viability in practice is often doubted. Lack of resources, expertise, marginalised populations and the inexperience of local electors are all barriers to successful decentralisation. However, often overlooked are the diverse ways in which local people use the opportunities provided by democratic decentralisation to engage local authorities and demand accountability. Using examples from Uganda and South Africa,¹ this article demonstrates how local people use democratic openings to meet the challenges of marginalisation and demand accountability. While the data is from the mid to late 1990s, the evidence presented here is relevant to the continuing debate over democratic decentralisation for it reveals something that is not always recognised: lack of resources is not necessarily the problem; developing political capacity for demanding accountability for existing resources is what is important. The implication is that for decentralisation to be effective, practitioners must develop a better understanding of local political engagement so that their efforts may strengthen rather than thwart emerging political relations of accountability. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

South Africa's integration efforts within the Southern African Development Community: Regional supremacy or coalition?

Regional integration has manifested itself to be an integral part of Africa's postcolonial economic growth blueprints. It was viewed as a mechanism for African states to enhance their development and work collectively, improve their cooperation, and enhance peace and security. Nevertheless, regional integration initiatives are often seen to succeed when spearheaded by regional hegemons. By narrowing this to southern Africa, from 1994 after the first-ever democratic elections and after also becoming a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), South Africa was regarded as a state capable of spearheading regional integration. This was a result of its relatively robust economy and military power in comparison with other SADC states. As a result, it was poised to utilize these vast resources to the benefit of the SADC. However, over the last two and a half decades, its regional stance has often come under a lot of scrutinizing due to its ambiguous foreign policy doctrine, particularly in southern Africa. Basically, its post-1994 foreign policy projections towards the region have often not been implemented as attested and have often lacked clear articulation. Nevertheless, this paper argues that South Africa has made positive strides in the SADC's regional integration endeavors post its democratic transition. Its vast regional investments and diplomatic and military interventions have played a crucial role in the development and security reforms in the region. Although it is portrayed as a regional hegemon, it has nevertheless used its regional standpoint to the benefit of the region and further contributed to regional integration post the apartheid era.     

Human rights and development: the case of local government transformation in South Africa

Local governments throughout the world are assuming a more important role in economic development of their communities as an increasing number of governments begin to decentralise powers and functions. As these lower levels of government seek sustainable local economic development (LED) strategies the human rights approach towards development becomes pertinent as globalisation accelerates. This article proposes an emphasis on socio‐economic rights as the basis for sustainable LED in developing countries. The article is based on the experience of South African local government in the period after 1994, leading up to the first democratic local government elections on 5 December 2000. Proceeding from the view that the promotion of human rights is necessary for the promotion of economic development, the article critically assesses the role of local government in the promotion of LED through a rights‐based approach. It is argued that the identification in the South African Constitution of local government with basic service provision (recently emphasised by a Constitutional court judgement) will place socio‐economic rights at the centre of LED strategies in South Africa. It is argued that this is indeed the most appropriate cornerstone of LED in South Africa. However, the transformation process that leads the country towards its progressive Constitution needs to be maintained and this article identifies five broad areas for transformation that may still be needed to entrench an adequate human rights culture within the sphere of local governance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

If planning is everything,maybe it's nothing

Where planning does not measure up to expectations, which is almost everywhere, planners are handy targets. They have been too ambitious or they have not been ambitious enough. They have perverted their calling by entering into politics or they have been insensitive to the political dimensions of their task. They ignore national cultural mores at their peril or they capitulate to blind forces of irrationality. They pay too much attention to the relationship between one sector of the economy and another while ignoring analysis of individual projects, or they spend so much time on specific matters that they are unable to deal with movements of the economy as a whole. Planners can no longer define a role for themselves. From old American cities to British new towns, from the richest countries to the poorest, planners have difficulty in explaining who they are and what they should be expected to do. If they are supposed to doctor sick societies, the patient never seems to get well. Why can't the planners ever seem to do the right thing?     

Development in sub‐Saharan Africa: cultural influences and managers' decision behaviour

We explore the relevance of national differences in values to development in sub‐Saharan Africa using data from two recent global surveys. The evidence indicates a shared black African culture that emphasizes hierarchy, embeddedness and mastery in contrast to egalitarianism, autonomy and harmony, in keeping with the literature on Africa. Further evidence reveals that African managers stress reliance on formal rules and superiors in reaching decisions, as predicted by their cultural profile. Comparisons with Western European samples indicate that these nations have the opposite cultural profile and that their managers stress self‐reliance and consultation with subordinates. Implications of these contrasts for development in Africa and effective collaboration within donor agencies and multinational firms are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advocating social marketing as ultimate weapon to fighting HIV/AIDS propagation,and related discrimination and stigmatisation

The spreading of HIV/AIDS in the African continent and related discrimination and stigmatisation towards people living with the virus have become a major issue to be addressed by communities, health organisations and governments in Africa. An effective way to successfully overcome these plagues necessitates the application of social marketing techniques and campaigns. However, when it comes to funding and supporting social marketing activities, African leaders deny the important role that the government could play in achieving the ‘HIV/AIDS free generation goal’ as well as making African societies a non‐discriminative and stigmatisation places for infected people. The present study intend to demonstrate through analysis of empirical data that social marketing is crucial in changing people's sexual behaviour and battling misconceptions that lead to discrimination and stigmatisation of infected people. In this light, African political authorities such as Congolese leaders need to understand the relevancy of this discipline in their HIV/AIDS policy.     

‘Land grabbing’ or harnessing of development potential in agriculture? East Asia's land-based investments in Africa

Abstract

Large-scale foreign investment in Africa's abundant but largely underutilized arable land has been criticised by international NGOs and social movements as ‘land grabbing’, which limits access of smallholder farmers to land, deprives local people of their livelihoods and threatens local and national food security across the continent. By way of contrast, many host governments and some leading international development agencies regard land-based investments as beneficial for development in terms of providing the necessary capital and technological know-how for modernising the region's neglected agriculture including take-off in agribusiness and agro-industrialisation, which is vital to much needed economic diversification in many African countries. East Asia's participation in the global land rush on Africa is examined from the standpoint of these two different perspectives: while China's growing presence and involvement in trade and investment in mining, energy and infrastructure in Africa is well known, less recognised is its involvement and those of other East Asian countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in agriculture through large-scale land acquisitions. The development consequences and policy implications of these foreign land-based investments are analysed from a political economy perspective, which identifies motives, interests and benefits of the different actors and addresses the question of governance in terms of transparency and appropriate institutional arrangements to safeguard land rights and food security. In the bigger picture, the paper argues that the negative consequences of land grab has to be seen alongside the benefits flowing to Africa from growing economic relations with China and other dynamic East Asian economies and learning from the development experiences of those countries. African countries however need to re-assess the current approach and relationship with foreign land-based investors and decide how best this trend can be used to forward their economic and social agendas.     

Participatory environmental management: Contradiction of process,project and bureaucracy in the Himalayan foothills

Using comparative Asian experience of organizational change, this article analyses the experience of an Indian organization responsible for environmental management in the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in moving from a standard Indian public sector approach to rural development and environmental management, to a new participatory approach. Successive World Bank funded watershed management projects in the Himalayan foothills were widely held not to have achieved and sustained their full potential in the past, largely due to an absence of effective local management of assets after the projects' end. On the other hand communities and groups have shown on a small scale a capacity to manage resources in a sustainable way. The Government of Uttar Pradesh's (UP) European Union (EU) funded Doon Valley Project has been through a first phase in which a participatory method of village level planning has been initiated. The article addresses the required changes and constraints involved in this first step of transformation. These include issues to do with organizational structure and procedures, training, gender and other social issues, and the dynamics of organizational change. The implications of a participatory approach are far reaching. The ‘off the shelf’ schemes that Government has offered to individuals, groups and communities in all watershed management as well as other rural development programmes are challenged both by the specificities of the Himalayan environment, and by the adoption of a genuinely participatory approach. Allowing people to decide how they will manage their hillsides requires an ability to facilitate that process. Facilitators need to have the flexibility and creativity to offer a variety of technical and managerial possibilities such that individuals, groups and communities can choose what suits them best. Constraints derive partly from the Government's set procedures and schemes in rural development, and from its advocacy of particular well worn technology packages. Constraints also derive from the way in which the whole project has been handled by Government and the Commission of the European Union from the beginning, and from the way in which technical assistance has been organized. It is important that governments and donors learn from such experiences so that future participatory environmental management work can have a greater chance of success.     

科学发展观视野下的高校反腐倡廉建设

科学发展观是发展中国特色社会主义必须坚持和贯彻的重大战略思想。高校反腐倡廉建设必须坚持以科学发展观为指导,把反腐倡廉工作放在学校事业科学发展的全局中来谋划和部署,以反腐倡廉建设促进高校的可持续发展。高校要把反腐倡廉工作融入教育改革发展的重要政策和措施之中,对学术失范、学术腐败现象必须“出重拳,零容忍”,构建高校风清气正的发展局面。要抓住苗头性、倾向性问题,加强反腐倡廉战略性、前瞻性和系统性问题的研究;要贯彻统筹兼顾的方略,落实与时俱进的要求,加强纪检队伍建设,推进高校的可持续发展。     

China's multinational corporations in the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining industry: An Afrocentric critique

China's entrance in Africa in the early 2000s through the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation has apparently signalled several mutual beneficial agreements. However, there is a view that the Asian tiger's (China) arrival on the African soil was driven by its national interests. Such interests were particularly in the continent's rich mineral resources complex, which are deemed significant for its own economic boom. This observation reflects that scholars and practitioners alike have not uniformly understood China's engagement with Africa. Therefore, this paper problematizes what is often cited as the second “scramble for Africa” within the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It argues that Chinese mining companies' operations in DRC are no different to the early colonial masters who only came to Africa for nothing else but mineral resources in order to develop their own nations at the peril of Africa's own development. Based on Afrocentricity as the alternative theoretical lens, this paper seeks to critique the involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in the mineral resources complex of DRC. Methodically, this paper relies on document review and analysis in its broadest sense.     

Do the “Dragon’s Gifts” Improve China’s National Image? An Empirical Analysis of the Economic Relations and Public Perceptions of China in Africa

Using a multivariate framework and the most recently available data that include numerous African countries, this investigation has produced the first extensive statistical evaluation of China’s image in Africa based on China’s various economic relations with Africa, including aid, trade, FDI and contracts. We find that China’s economic development assistance, contracts, and to some degree, trade with African countries contribute to a positive image of China in Africa. In addition, we find that people in African countries of a smaller population, poorer livelihood, less open economy, and better governance tend to have positive views of China’s political and economic influence. With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese economic activities in recipient countries have been increasing. The implications of this research shed light on how BRI may be received in the host countries and the likelihood of its success or failure.

     

De-agrarianization, <Emphasis Type="Italic">re</Emphasis>-agrarianization and local economic development: Re-orientating livelihoods in African artisanal mining communities

This article contributes to the debate on livelihood diversification in rural sub-Saharan Africa, focusing specifically on the growing economic importance of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the region. The precipitous decline in the value of many export crops and the removal of subsidies on crucial inputs such as fertilizers have made smallholder production unviable, forcing many farmers to ‘branch out’ into non-farm activities to supplement their incomes. One of the more popular destinations for poor farmers is the low-tech ASM sector which, because of its low barriers to entry, has absorbed millions of rural Africans over the past two decades, the majority of whom are engaged in the extraction of near-surface mineral deposits located on concessions that have been demarcated to multinational corporations. The efforts made hitherto to control this illegal mining activity, both through force and regulation, however, have had little effect, forcing many of the region’s governments and private sector partners to ‘re-think’ their approaches. One strategy that has gained considerable attention throughout the region is intensified support for agrarian-orientated activities, many of which, despite the problems plaguing smallholder agricultural sector and challenges with making it more economically sustainable, are being lauded as appropriate ‘alternative’ sources of employment to artisanal mining. After examining where artisanal mining fits into the de-agrarianization ‘puzzle’ in sub-Saharan Africa, the article critiques the efficacy of ‘re-agrarianization’ as a strategy for addressing the region’s illegal mining problem. A case study of Ghana is used to shed further light on these issues.     

Cost-utility assessment: Planning with local decisionmakers in developing countries

In the past decade countries and donor agencies have endorsed health policies which (1) give a very broad definition of health, (2) see the pursuit of health as part of the development process, and (3) emphasize the local community's and local decision-maker's participation in the planning of health projects. Despite these broad principles, health delivery systems in developing countries have access to a very limited set of resources. Health planners are faced with the dilemma of creating cost-effective programmes while recognizing the need to take into account the broad definition of health and the importance of local participation in planning. This dilemma has led to a division between those planners who put greater emphasis on the use of cost analysis techniques in which the decision-making process rests more with professional planners (often outside consultants) vs those who emphasize greater local control of the decision-making process. The purpose of this paper is to present a study in which two alternative approaches to cost utility analysis were used. Consideration was given both to the actual cost analysis strategy and to the integration of the cost variable into the total decision-making process. Finally, major emphasis was placed on including local decision-makers in the planning process and providing them with feasible and understandable decision-making tools.     

Rural development projects in LDCs: Appraisal,participation and sustainability

Evidence on the performance of development projects shows that sustainability is seldom achieved. Project sustainability is influenced by ecological, social, political and economic systems. However, the blueprint approach to project choice tends to incorporate sustainability into the project cycle by considering only economic and environmental systems. This is done by adopting elaborate methodologies such as expanded CBA and EIA. This approach is unlikely to lead to sustainable projects. The ‘participation approach’ is more sensitive to the social and political systems than the blueprint approach. It involves people in decision-making and sees the achievement of sustainable projects as the result of people's empowerment and self-reliance. However, under certain circumstances, this approach can lead to environmentally unsustainable projects. Smaller scale projects tend to bring about sustainability, but government control might be needed to ensure this. Social obstacles exist in implementing participation but occur for top-down projects as well. Problems exist in combining the bottom-up and top-down approaches.     

The future of Tibet: A Chinese dilemma

Conclusion In a recent speech Amartya Sen argued that democracy had become a universal value. He argued that at this time the burden is on those who would deny democracy to justify their position. He argued that this was a historic change from not long ago when the advocates for democracy in Aisa or Africa had to argue for democracy with their backs to the wall. In Asia, China has historically championed the fight against imperialism and has celebrated the fact the the Chinese people have stood up to take their much-deserved place in the world. For China, which as worked so assertively to bring its nation into the modern world, it is a sign of failure if Tibetans, and even Chinese, have to continue to argue for genuine democracy and self-government with their backs against the wall. The Tibetans really face no dilemma since they are offered no choice except to defend their basic interest. But at present the Chinese leaders face a profound dilemma whether to embrace the modern values that are consistent with their own development and reform process or to continue to defy, especially in respect of Tibet, the very values they have championed in their relationships with the rest of the world. It is with regard to these universal values, against imperialism and in favor of democracy and self-rule, that solutions to the Tibetan problem should be found. To subjugate the Tibetan people is not only inconsistent with contemporary values but is also in contradiction of the pressures for change being spawned by China’s own emerging order in its reform era. It is within China’s power at present to set about solving the issues it confronts with Tibet. It can do so in ways that are consistent with its long-term developmetn interests or, alternatively, insist on old style imperial domination at the long-term costs of fostering a territorial and political structure for development that is inadequate both for itself and Tibet.     

The production of poverty

The idea of cultural resistance has been taken up in combative analysis of metropolitan racist situations. It is a legacy from analyses by combatants in anti-colonial struggles. Fanon's were among the most searching of such analyses. His writings indicate an unusual concept of culture and of a people. The concept is at the same time of a political subject and of a the formation and direction of psychic energies. What he wrote on violence and counter-violence should not be abstracted from his concepts of culture and its colonial situation. That situation as it is described in Fanon's writings and then the concept of culture and people are elaborated and then extended so that their application to metropolitan racism can be tried.     

Denying Citizens Their Rights? Indigenous People,Mining Payments and Service Provision

Indigenous Australians have a growing capacity to extract monetary payments from mineral development on their traditional lands. Considerable controversy surrounds the possible use of these payments to fund services such as health, housing and education for the Indigenous groups concerned. Critics of such an approach argue that government should provide basic public services to all citizens, and that use of 'mining payments' for service provision denies Indigenous people specific compensation for the negative impacts of mining and an important opportunity to enhance their economic status. There is also a danger that government may reduce its existing spending on services, leaving Indigenous people no better off as a result of allowing mining to occur. This article argues that while there are certainly risks involved in using mining payments to fund services, Indigenous groups can generate substantial net benefits by doing so. Mining payments can leverage additional government spending; fund services at a level or of a sort that government will not provide; give Indigenous people greater control over service provision; and help develop Indigenous organisational skills and governance capacity. A strategic approach is required to minimise risk and maximise the available benefits, and the article identifies policy principles that can be applied to secure such an outcome.     

Metaphor,analogy, and the discourse of originality: five Iranian case studies

This article explores the roles metaphors and analogies play in architectural design thinking. Architects, planners, and designers use these cognitive tools extensively. While the linkages between metaphors, analogies, and design thinking are not new, how architects use them is not systematically explored. Metaphors and analogies are used idiosyncratically. What a particular metaphor or analogy signifies varies from person to person and could mean different things to different people. In this study two key findings emerge from the interviews with five prominent Iranian architects, who have used metaphors or analogies in their projects. First, this study confirms the other findings that designers use metaphors/analogies in three ways: problem solving, problem definition, and explaining a problem to others. At times architects post-rationalize metaphors or analogies, or use them after the fact instead of during the conceptual design stage; second, arguably, metaphors and analogies shed some light on broader issues of public concern, that is, the authenticity (originality) vs. imitation debate. This latter debate remains contentious within the Iranian architectural circles.     

Imperial subjects,national citizenship,and corporate subjects: cycles of political participation/exclusion in the modern world‐system

This article examines the cycles of political participation/exclusion in modern history. It juxtaposes three cycles of political participation/exclusion—the imperial subject, national citizenship, and corporate subject—with three cycles in the structure of accumulation—the imperialist/colonialist, nationalist, and globalist structures of accumulation. The article argues that the contemporary system of accumulation has dismantled the nation state as the vehicle of economic development and diluted citizenship through neoliberal policies. With eroding state protection, working class people are subordinated to corporations for jobs, consumption, investment, and culture. In order to counter this situation and to achieve emancipation from the capitalist pursuit of profit and rampant consumerism, it is necessary to create alternatives to the contemporary corporate‐dominated system. The article explores sustainable community development as an alternative.