Lessons from China for Africa

[Kitia]

Found this article somewhere and thought I might share it with you. Nyerere was very much inspired by China, and in many ways tried to apply the Chinese model to Tanzania. Can we still learn from the Chinese? Read on.

 

[Pundit]

The potrayal is one sided, at best not proportional enough.You cannot speaking about China's growth without speaking critically about the dear cost of that growth.China is abusing its environment (e.g Yangtze River).The fast economic growth is causing a huge environmental catastrophe, from toxic algae on freshwater lakes and reservoirs to a surge in nitrogen and phosphorus to pollution, human rights (not only by supporting rogue regimes such as Darfur, but also by oppressing its own people in Tibet and using prison labor among other things).You cannot speak about China's "openness" to the world without touching on anti competitive business tendencies such as China artificially manipulating its Yuan.You cannot speak of China as a world business leader without touching on the lack of quality control there which has been compared to the Chicago beef industry of the early 1900s. Shall we emulate these operations and standards too?

OK Hong Kong is Asia's NYC, buthe rural urban disparity is not Eexplored,

Confucian Ethics
Pro
The Confucian ethic and focus on diligence is definitely a much needed plus

Con
It's ritualistic, almost dogmatic code can be anti-progressive.A story is told of an Asian student who could not advance into the next question on a multiple choice question because he encountered a difficult question early, costing him much time.The determination to succedd, almost to solve the question by brute force of thinking is admirable, the lack of strategy (i.e to solve all easy questions first and skip hard questions so as to maximize the number of questions asked, then answer hard questions) was a cause of failure

Bottom line, flexibility within reasonable morality is something we can benefit from.

....

 

[Kuhani]

The potrayal is one sided, at best not proportional enough.You cannot speaking about China's growth without speaking critically about the dear cost of that growth.China is abusing its environment (e.g Yangtze River).The fast economic growth is causing a huge environmental catastrophe, from toxic algae on freshwater lakes and reservoirs to a surge in nitrogen and phosphorus to pollution, human rights (not only by supporting rogue regimes such as Darfur, but also by oppressing its own people in Tibet and using prison labor among other things).You cannot speak about China's "openness" to the world without touching on anti competitive business tendencies such as China artificially manipulating its Yuan.You cannot speak of China as a world business leader without touching on the lack of quality control there which has been compared to the Chicago beef industry of the early 1900s. Shall we emulate these operations and standards too?

OK Hong Kong is Asia's NYC, buthe rural urban disparity is not Eexplored,

....

Ndugu Pundit,

Ahsante kuniunga mkono ishu fulani fulani huko nyuma lakini hapa umechemsha, na ninavyokuona sidhani utaghafirika ukipingwa. Ripoti aliyotundika yule Kitia kuhusu China imetulia.

Kwa kuanzia, unadai haikusema kuhusu uharibifu wa mazingira. Sijui umeisoma?

Ukurasa wa 18 wa ripoti, kuhusu mazingira

Limiting environmental damage While China provides some interesting positive lessons for other developing countries, of course it is not the case that every aspect of Chinese policy has worked out well. Hence, China also provides some negative lessons. In general, there has been more increase in inequality and social disparities during reform than was necessary. Water pollution has developed into a major problem. Probably most serious of all the problems is the situation with air pollution. Early in the reform period China developed some of the most air-polluted cities in the world. The use of coal for power, industry, and homes combined with the rapid growth of the economy created very serious air problems. By 1982 total suspended particulates averaged about 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter in...

Pili, kuhusu tofauti ya maisha mjini na vijijini, ameongelea anachotaka kiigwe.

Ukurasa wa Sita wa ripoti, kuhusu tofauti za mijini na vijijini

A fourth important lesson is the role of agricultural and rural development, complemented by rural-urban migration. China is a densely populated, resource-scarce country that started reform with 80% of its population rural. Grain output per hectare was already pretty high. So, raising incomes for the large rural population required a number of complementary measures. First, the shift to private entrepreneurship started in the agricultural sector, well before it came to cities. The “household responsibility system” was the initial step in a process of continually strengthening land tenure rights for farmers. Second, agricultural markets were liberalized, culminating in China’s commitment to a very liberal agricultural trade regime when it joined the WTO. These first two measures were complemented by strong efforts in agricultural research and extension. The result was some modest further improvement in grain productivity, plus very dramatic increases in diversification and earnings from products such as fruit, tea,meat, and milk...

Tatu, ukandamizaji wa haki za binadamu wa China pia ishu tofauti na kitu ambacho mwandishi anakiongelea hapa - Siasa za Uchumi zilizopelekea mfumuko wa maendeleo. Rekodi ya Uchina katika Haki za Binadamu hata mimi naichukia kwa sababu ilituathiri hata sisi Nyerere alipozima siasa zao alipomtembelea Baba Mao Mhimidiwa mwaka 1964. Lakini hii ripoti haikuwa na nia ya kuongelea mabaya ya Uchina ambayo hayahusiani na Uchumi.

Nne, tano, sita na kuendelea ni kwamba viwango vya bidhaa wanavyowauzia Wamerekani, siasa zao juu ya Tibet, na Siasa za kuminya thamani ya pesa yao Yuan, na siasa zao juu ya Dafur japo zinatapikisha hasisemi lolote kuhusu gharama za maendeleo yao.

Umenga'ng'ania kusema "...huwezi kuongelea kuhusu Uchina bila kuongelea Tibet na lile na hili.." lakini hapa ripoti haiongelei Uchina. Inaongelea siasa za Uchumi za Uchina.

Ukurasa wa nne wa ripoti, kuhusu lengo la ripoti

While the main theme of this paper is that there are positive lessons that other developing countries can draw from China, it is also the case that there are some negative consequences of rapid growth that have not been dealt with as well in China as they could have been...

Unakubali?

 

[Pundit]

Hakuwa critical enough on China.Unatuambia tuwaige watu walioshindwa kuthamini mazingira na uhuru wa watu kama vile dunia imekosa watu wa kuiga?

 

[Manda]

Bahati mbaya nimeshindwa kuisoma hiyo link ambayo Kitia ameweka 'coz the time nimejaribu kuifungua ikagoma!

Lakini naweza changia machache kutokana na wachangiaji hapo juu (walio ipitia). Binafsi naona we as Africans as a whole, kuna mengi ya kujifunza kutoka sio tuu China alone bali pia East Asia Tiger Economies countries, ambazo pace yake ya maendeleo ni ya kujivunia.
Lakini what we should note is that the times/era ambao hawa wenzetu wali-develop kwa haraka kiasi kile its not similar to our recently times/era, with different global development hampers, different accruing problems, different environment among the rests, to kindle the development pace as such they did can be so trickly!
Tunaweza mawili imitate mawili matatu lakini i dont think that we can be in a good position to catch up as quickly as how this fellas did!

Kuhusu suala la uchafuzi wa mazingira, i personal think that there is no way that you can develop without endangering environment in one way or another, not in China alone tumeona pia nchi kama USA kuwa ndio wachafuzi wakuu wa mazingira as much as they are superpower!

What to be done i think for them to adhere to the international convention on procteting environment as far as Kioto protol is concerned among the other protocols. Sio tu kwa uchina bali pia kwa nchi zote ambazo zi-strive for dlvpt including sisi ku-ensure tuna kuwa na sustainable development!

About human rights abuse, Yes China ni violater mkubwa lakini we should not forget pia USA, UK, etc pia nao ni vinara, when it come to comparison, what differs ni kwamba USA na washirika wake are a big human rights abuser outside there territory!

Sisi kama Tanzania i think lets us take yale mazuri ambayo tunafikiri yanaweza kutusaidia, we shouldn't abandon kila kitu, ambacho wenzetu wamefanya na kujiletea matunda lets us copy!

[Basically my reply have base on Pundit and Kuhani replies, from them i have tried to imagine how the article was all about.]

 

[Membe S K]

Tumeiga vingi na vimetushinda, tumeiga democracy ya vyama vingi na sasa inatutokea puani. Tumeiga uchumi wa gulio huria na sasa gap kati ya Chengez/Lowassaz na walalahoi inazidi kupanuka.

Tz can only develop from her own type of political and economic policies that factor-in unique composition of factors of development. China's development success can't be excluded from her unique culture, history, and economic composition.