Madagascar’s defense minister has resigned after security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters Saturday, killing 28.
More than 100 have been killed since anti-government protests began two weeks ago.
And what may have been the impetus for the protests? From the BBC:
The final straw for many was the mooted plan to lease one million acres in the south of the country to the Korean firm Daewoo for intensive farming.
Malagasy people have deep ties with their land and this was seen by many as a betrayal by their president.
More on Daewoo’s, ahem, dealings with Madagascar here.
(HT to Microkhan)
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Has there been any mention of this in any Korean newspaper?
Also, with the economic crisis, will Daewoo continue with their plan?
So can we call it neo-imperialism now that the Malagasy people are protesting and dying about it?
Yes this has been reported in Korean news.
Notice the Korean middle school shirt one of the fellows from Madagasgar is wearing in the BBC article photo. Used clothing is likely being imported and sold.
If reporting on Asian neo-colonialism is of interest, check out Fast Company’s 6 part report on China’s resource grab in Africa: http://www.fastcompany.com/mag.....frica.html
You would hope that countries like Madagascar would stop being humped by other countries, especially other countries who have been humped in the past by colonisation. But you can’t really expect the humped to remember what it was like and show some empathy, not when there is money being flashed around. And as a citizen of a country that did a lot of colonial humping of other countries in the past (and arguably in the present), I invite stone throwing.
sorry, colonialisation….
Vince, before we start laying into China for their resource buying, we should remember that they also face serious financial risks in Africa. Ironically, an African socialist government could nationalize assets owned by China. A revolution could do the same thing. China faces the same risks as every other nation investing in Africa.
My crystal ball is working. Called it on the first Daewoo/Madagascar post #10.
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....adagascar/
Apparently not. I remember seeing that, due to unfavorable press coverage, the Daewoo lease has been halted, if not delayed. There is no telling if it is actually a delay or not since negotiations on this are not public knowledge for now.
I held off posting about this because of that. It is reported that Daewoo originally considered bringing in South African labor instead of using locals, thus, though Daewoo would have invested developing the local infrastructure, it is very uncertain just how this would have helped the average Malagasy, who have traditionally had little.
The problem, as portrayed throughout the various sources of news, seems to be more a matter of the leadership of Madagascar having no real plans for helping the average person. “Madar” seems to be closer to describing some of the results of this problem, indeed.
Additionally, considering how ethically deficient parts of Daewoo have been in the past (Burma and illegal armament technology transfer just for one example), I would be very reluctant to this kind of management running around in the world, engaged in business situations that could become embarrassing to the Korean Government and people, but then, is there really any responsible oversight going on?
One wonders which Daewoo it is, perhaps the one that bribed the Myanmar government for oil exploration rights only to have China re-bribe them to have those blocks go to them once oil actually was found? (that would be Daewoo International)
That’s the one. But it operates in consortia with (perhaps as merely a front company for? no, that’s just rumor-mongering) the state-owned Korea Resources Corp.
Asia, especially China, will accomplish in Africa what Western powers couldn’t do since the 1960s independence movements and Non-Alignment. After decades of Western “assistance” worth hundreds of billions of dollars, much of Africa remains a hopeless basket case.
What Africa desperately needs is a non-Western superpower (China) to go all Park Chung-Hee on their perpetually underdeveloped asses and drag them kicking and screaming into the global economy.
The major flaw here in people thinking that what a Korean company is trying to do in Madagascar is somehow analogous to what Japan did in Korea over a century ago is that if things go south, Korea will abandon the project and won’t sent troops.
#12,
Personally speaking, I wasn’t at all thinking of Japan when I thought of this.
What I was thinking, why Madagascar? From my plant studies, I know that arable land is at a premium there – why would DaeWoo want to move into an area where the very land needed for its development/operation is also needed for subsistence living by the country’s inhabitants?
That seems, at the very charitable least, to be a colossal oversight by DaeWoo’s development unit – not sparkling at all.
Can we seriously fucking stop with the “sparkling” thing? Is Korea even still using it?
And if you happen to purchase 50% of their arable land on a 99 year lease and start a revolution that kills hundreds, well, such is life. Those damn savages need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Asian way of life, even if it kills some of them. You could have your very own Yellow Man’s burden!
You know slightly related to that, Taro Aso, prime minister of Japan, said this controversial thing that Asians have no problem working in the middle east because they didn’t have blonde hair and blue eyes. I guess he was implying that since Asians don’t have a history of middle eastern imperialism, they are more well received. But I think that the only reason Asians don’t have a history of imperialism in that part of the world is just because they haven’t had a chance yet! But given time, Asian imperialism can become just as hated as British imperialism, have no doubts about that.
It would be wonderful if China (and Korea) could help make Africa a better place. And maybe they will in the long run. But the continuing, pressing issue in Africa is corruption so permeated into the culture of power and governance it appears at every level of interaction with officals. From bouncers in nightclubs, police officers in the streets, all the way to the leaders of the country. It’s accepted and self perpetuating. Apparently, first world powers no longer see the need to involve themselves directly and associate with such obtuse dirty business. Instead they let China be the middleman: bribe the African powers that be, turn a blind eye to the oppression of the African people, harvest the resources, bring the raw materials to China, turn them into products and sell at the biggest mark up as possible to Americans, Europeans, Japanese, etc. China (and Korea) have seen some seriously dark times in the past 40 years that their leadership lived through as adults, first hand. They can live with this kind of arrangement in a way the First World types cannot. While George Bush, Bill Clinton and their European counterparts were smoking pot, scoring hippy chicks in their GTOs/Mercedes and listening to Jefferson Airplane, what was happening with the future leaders in China and Korea and their families? Hint: People were routinely starving to death or being executed by mobs. Plus, we still have a lot of poor people here in China and Korea, so what’s the shame in looking out for your own?
The solution is not simple. A top down approach: create a system to keep business transactions transparent, international commitment to stop supporting dictators with bribes, and overhaul the educational system for these countries to include concepts of human rights and ethics. Not likely to happen anytime soon…
Note that nowhere in today’s Joongang article does it mention whether Daewoo has actually MADE any investment yet.
Possibilities:
- Daewoo has paid nothing yet. (If this were true, I think they would have announced it, as it would be good PR.)
- Daewoo has paid only grease money so far (To the President’s side, not the Mayor’s, obviously. If this is true, we’ll never hear of it.)
- Daewoo has already started making legitimate payments on contracts, deposits on MOUs, or investments to upgrade needed infrastructure. (If this is true, they’ll want to keep it quiet, since this money way well face 100% loss and make Daewoo look foolish. But eventually, someone will leak it.)
#15
But the continuing, pressing issue in Africa is corruption so permeated into the culture of power and governance it appears at every level of interaction with officials.
Corruption is the oil that greases the engine of doing business in the highly underdeveloped regions of the world. It is a fixed reality of Africa and the rest of the Third World. Crying about it doesn’t make it go away. Question is: give that it is a fact that won’t change overnight, do you accept it for what it is or do you not?
There are at least two ways of understanding corruption: from a moral perspective or from an objective economic perspective. Yours is a simplistic moral perspective: corruption is bad. Africa is corrupt. Therefore, doing business in Africa is bad.
The economist sees corruption as an inefficiency in the market. Some markets are more inefficient than others. Given a choice, it is better to do business in an efficient environment than a non-efficient one. However, by the same token, it is better to do business in a highly inefficient market than simply doing no business at all. That is the choice that Africa faces.
Apparently, first world powers no longer see the need to involve themselves directly and associate with such obtuse dirty business.
In this sense the First World is like the prissy high-maintenance woman who refuses to do dirty, hands on work because it would spoil her nicely manicured fingernails. It is an effeminate attitude and highly out of place in the context of the Third World.
The job of the developed world is to bring work, enterprise, capital, and know-how to Africa, not moralistic posturing.
“The job of the developed world is to bring work, enterprise, capital, and know-how to Africa, not moralistic posturing.”
There are lots of nice people from the developed world doing good things in Africa. But they, by and large, aren’t involved in corruption. But since you’re a okay with a bit of grease (but probably not investing in Africa directly yourself) why don’t you do a favor for all those honorable captialists who are paying off the African forest service? Go buy some illegally harvested teak furniture for your condo. But you’d better hurry before it runs out, There is a reason there are harvest limits (regulations). Oh wait. I bet your credit line is frozen like everyone else… the result of 8 years of deregulation and the kind of stewardship you seem to promote. Maybe there’s a good reason the economy has gone to shit. The people with more money than sense are now broke and can only do less damage to society.
I came across a comment on Globalvoicesonline that is quite interesting:
Based on what I can read, the guy does make some good points.
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