That's for sure. Anybody who starts a flamewar, as leebigez has done, has no cause to complain if he gets singed. At least you are honest enough to admit that the West has been exploiting Africa for generations. Besides the cruelty of the Western countries, do you know the biggest difference between what they have done for centuries in Africa and what China is doing now? The answer is, the West has been robbing Africa by force, whereas China has been peacefully offering fair deals. The West has been playing Empire in Africa for centuries, and is still doing it. As we have recently seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, one way for an empire to grow is to trash a country, causing immense suffering to its people. Then force a cowed and compliant government on the devastated nation. When peace returns at last, the empire's carpetbaggers can move in to steal the country's resources. This, with variations, is what has happened all over Africa. With the West in seemingly unassailable dominance, the Chinese had to do something different to obtain some minerals from Africa. As they were much weaker militarily than the U.S., they could not use the normal evil tactics of empire. (To be honest, they probably recoiled at the thought of doing it, as not so long ago they were also on the receiving end of Western love.) So the Chinese asked themselves, "Why not actually offer the Africans a fair deal?" And that is what they have been doing. They have been building infrastructure everywhere, thereby improving living standards all over the continent. They are even training African engineers, so that eventually the continent's development will be self-sustaining. Thanks to nearly inexhaustible manpower, China can do this and the U.S. cannot. In return, China gets a small fraction of the continent's minerals. This is an amazingly fair deal, so fair that Dikembe Mutombo (a Congo citizen) was beyond ecstatic in 2008 when he heard of it. The U.S. of course has been viewing China's encroachment with alarm. The sweet, sweet resources may no longer be free if the puppet governments get uppity. The U.S. cannot hope to match the hordes of Chinese infrastructure workers in Africa, so what to do? The Bush Administration's solution in 2007 was to form the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). Now you know why there's been so much recent blather about China's military presence in Africa; this is laughable to anyone who knows that China has no significant military outside its borders. No, the propaganda is a cover for the establishment of AFRICOM: the U.S. is planning to break some African skulls while lying about China doing the same. I'll repeat what I said to leebigez. Notice that China's economic advance in Africa, greatly benefiting Africans, is being met by a military response from the U.S. China offers improved infrastructure and living standards to Africans; the U.S. offers the war's desolation. If you are African American and you support what the U.S. has done and is still doing in Africa, you are one messed up puppy.
All you have managed to do is prove that you have a reading comprehension problem. Get help, or hire a better ghost writer.
I see you're too much of a coward to be specific about your objections. All you have to offer is a feeble, generalized slam.
Lets stop derailing and get back to the original purpose of this thread "Yao's Journey to Africa" Yao's also scouting for the next Dream for his Sharks team:grin:
Any Awareness and or Assistance that Yao can provide to the World on Poaching is not necessarily a waste of a person's time but more likely a contribution of one's time. Only he can answer his reasons for focusing on this particular issue compared to other Atrocities just as Significant if not More So such as Major Human Rights violations within his and my native country. Yao Ming is Very Influential to many people around the world and hopefully there will be Solutions to these issues Sooner than later...
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Say “No” to Rhino Horns! <a href="http://t.co/vFbnty1iKy" title="http://intlrhinofoundation.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/say-no-to-rhino-horns/" org_href="http://bit.ly/Wp719q">bit.ly/Wp719q</a></p>— Yao Ming (@YaoMing) <a href="https://twitter.com/YaoMing/status/306454754882629632" data-datetime="2013-02-26T11:24:41+00:00">February 26, 2013</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
"You are no better" - is this the best you guys can get to turn a thread of good deed from a former Rockets into train wreck? I know Yao is Chinese, so all game is fair game. Nowadays, it's a politically correct thing to blame China on everything, especially in US. Instead of action and results of action, now we start to argue about intentions. We are all so certain how and what others are planning for. LOL. You can certainly find a position within communist party, coz that's what they did best, during Culture Revolution for instance.
Imagine if he were still an active player and this were part of our season opening lift off video. Epic!
