AFRICA :NEWS,CULTURE, CHINA/AFRICA/WORLD

(Photo A Kenyan boy looks at the East African Marine Cable (TEAMS) fiber optic cable from the ship Niwa outside the Portuguese built Fort Jesus in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, June 12, 2009. The cable has taken 18 months to reach the Kenyan coast by sea from the Middle East and is set to improve information and communication technology in Africa. REUTERS/Joseph Okanga (KENYA BUSINESS IMAGES OF THE DAY)

China, an emerging global superpower which will likely become the world’s biggest economy within fifteen years, has planted itself deeply into the vast continent of Africa — a land of huge untapped natural resources and incredible growth potential.
It would seem to be an ideal marriage — China possesses immense intellectual capital and an inexhaustible appetite for commodities to keep its economic engines running, while much of Africa remains poor and in dire need of external assistance.

The two-way trade between China and Africa is expected to exceed $100-billion this year — but that is only a pittance of what the future holds.
China’s interests in Africa is nothing new, of course, but only in the past two decades have these giant entities established a firm and burgeoning economic cooperative.

It could be argued that China moved into Africa only after the U.S. and Russia began to scale back their presence on the continent after decades of using it as a ‘Cold War’ chessboard.

In October 2000, Beijing created the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which regularly holds summits between Chinese leaders and various African rulers to discuss and formalize deeper relations. China has become one of the continent’s leading investors and creditors.

From constructing a housing project in Algeria, to running a huge mining and infrastructure complex in Guinea, to an iron ore project in Liberia, to a massive dam enterprise in Ghana, to a highway construction endeavor in Rwanda, China has its fingerprints all over Africa. Indeed, China has established joint committees in at least 43 African nations to discuss and deepen economic and trade relations.

Of course, China’s incursions into Africa has drawn much criticism, particularly from the West which fears that China is simply using Africa to feed her own economy at the expense of indigent Africans (which, of course, was the same charge leveled at the European colonialists for centuries).

Chinese officials have also come under attack for their lack of transparency and accountability regarding its numerous activities in Africa and its apparent unwillingness to reduce political corruption on the continent.

In response to such criticism, Fu Ziying, the senior trade official in charge of China’s Africa portfolio, was recently quoted as saying: “China’s presence in Africa is becoming more and more market-driven, the actors operating there are diverse, there are many models, and the areas they are in are broad.

The Chinese government is more and more aware that as the economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa evolves, there need to be some laws and protections in place.”

In fact, China herself developed and modernized its own economy back in the 1970s and 1980s by talking loans from wealthier powers (in this case, Japan, among others) in exchange for mineral resources and oil. Within a few decades, China became an economic heavyweight and correspondingly became a net importer of commodities, rather than an exporter.

It would appear that the Chinese are now doing something similar with resource-backed lending in Africa (with China now as the dominant benefactor).

In “The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa” a book by Deborah Brautigam, a professor at American University and an expert on China-Africa relations, she points out that while the Chinese presence in Africa is largely benevolent, there are many problems associated with this complex relationship. For one thing, working conditions in many China-funded projects in Africa are very poor; and the Chinese do not seem to view the destruction of the ecosystem and environment with much concern.

However, she also indicates that China has made tremendous infrastructure investments in countries like Rwanda, Kenya and Senegal, which lack significant commodities — thereby refuting the notion that China seeks only to ‘exploit’ Africa.

Moreover, China’s financial investments remains far below the capital that flows to the continent from Western sources.

Brautigam estimates that in 2007, Chinese investment in Africa totaled about $1.4 billion, far smaller than the outlays by the U.S., European Union and World Bank of $7.6 billion, $5.4 billion, and $6.9 billion, respectively, for that year.

Nonetheless, China will surely deepen its involvement in Africa in the years to come. Only time will tell how much the Africans benefit from this relationship.

Nairobi, Kenya - An impressive finishing kick by Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba won Ethiopia’s first gold of the 17th CAA Safaricom African Athletics Championships at the Nyayo stadium in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday. 
In the other highlights of day four, Nigeria’s Oke Tosin leaped 17.22m to win the men’s Triple Jump, but missed the championship record by just one centimetre. Algeria’s Hadj Lazib took a surprise win in the men’s 110m Hurdles ahead of Nigerian favorite Selim Nurudeen. And Egyptian Abdel Mohsen Anani won the men’s hammer beating South African five-time champion Chris Harmse.

Dibaba saves the day for Ethiopia

With just two silver and two bronze medals from the first two days, traditional powerhouse Ethiopia started the fourth day of the championships without a gold and were in danger of returning home empty handed if they failed to reach the top of the podium in the women’s 10,000m.

There was also pressure on Kenya’s world 10,000m champion Linet Masai with a capacity home crowd expecting the host’s sixth gold medal of the championships.

But the athletes from the two distance running powerhouses had little interest in pushing the pace in the opening eight laps with Tanzanian Restuta Joseph opening a large gap of about 20m on a reluctant chasing pack composed of Kenyans Masai, Pauline Korikwang, and Doris Changeiywo and the Ethiopian trio of Dibaba, and World Championships silver and bronze medalists Meselech Melkamu and Wude Ayalew respectively.

The pack finally caught Joseph after eight and a half laps, but even then, none of the top contenders took an interest in taking up the pace before eventually reaching the halfway point in a tactical 16:39.01.

After urging her teammates to push the pace from the front, Masai moved to the head of the pack with 11 laps to go and picked up the pace on her own. She ran the next 1000m in 3:01 and the increased pace only helped to drop her compatriots Korikwang and Changeiywo, with the three Ethiopians hanging on without any problems.

Another searing 1000m, 3:03 this time, saw Ayalew drop off with five laps to go with Melkamu and Dibaba sticking behind the Kenyan with consummate ease. The trio ran shoulder to shoulder for the next four laps before both Dibaba and Melkamu kicked at 400m leaving Masai trailing behind. Dibaba started to move away from Melkamu at 200m before stopping at the finish line in 31:51.39 with Melkamu coming home in second for an Ethiopian one-two in 31:55.50 ahead of Masai, who ran a season’s best in 31:59.36. Dibaba’s final 400m was timed at 61 seconds, not as quick as her 58 second final lap at the 2005 World Championship 10,000m but good enough to send a small contingent of Ethiopian supporters based in Nairobi over the roof in ecstatic celebrations.

“All the injury troubles I had last year have gone away this season,” said Dibaba, who is now undefeated in all her seven career races over the 10,000m. “I knew that Linet would be strong at running laps and I prepared for that. I am very delighted about victory here. There was a lot of pressure coming into the race because we had not won gold. I did not want us to go home without gold.”

17.22m for Tosin in Triple Jump

Earlier in the day, Nigeria’s Oke Tosin won the men’s Triple Jump with a leap of 17.22m, a personal best which was just one centimetre shy of Ghanian Andre Owusu’s 17.23m championship record from Dakar, Senegal, set 12 years ago.

The 29-year-old, who holds a dual Nigerian and UK citizenship, was only one of two Africans (the other is South African Tumelo Thagane who led the African lists with 17.09m before the start of the championships) to have jumped beyond 17 metres this season with a leap of 17.05m in London in June. But after leaping 16.70 in his opening round and jumping 16.87 in both his second and third jumps, he unleashed his winning effort in the fifth round, but then skipped his last attempt knowing gold was secured.

Behind him, Thagane had a bad day on the jumping peat only managing 16.64m with his second attempt, which was only good enough for bronze behind Cameroon’s defending silver medalist Huge Lucien Schlek-Mamba, who jumped 16.78m for silver.

“I felt a bit tired after the fifth attempt and that’s why I passed my last one,” Tosin said. “I am happy about achieving a personal best and I hope to continue improving this season. The objective here was to do above 17 metres and I am happy with that.”

Anani beats Harmse in men’s hammer

The surprise of the day came in the men’s hammer where South Africa’s Chris Harmse, who has won the last four hammer titles in the African championships and overall has five victories in the event, suffered a rare defeat at the continental level to Egyptian Abdel Mohsen Anani.

In earnest, Harmse had a day to forget with only one throw beyond 70 metres and four fouls. But that should not take the credit away from Anani, the 2004 World junior silver and 2006 African championship bronze medalist, who threw better than 70 metres in all his six attempts and took victory with 74.72m. A disappointing Harmse won silver with 72.56m ahead of another Egyptian Mostafa Hesham El Gamel, who threw 71.40m for bronze.

Viljoen defends, Simpson returns

In the day’s other events, South Africa’s Sunette Viljoen defended her women’s javelin title with a championship record of 63.33m, five metres shy of the African record she set last month in Ostrava (66.38m). Compatriot Justine Robbeson was the only other thrower to manage above 60 metres with 60.24m ahead of Egyptian Hanaa Omar Hassan, who won bronze with 55.14m.

Ghana’s Margaret Simpson, the 2005 World championship bronze medalist, improved South African Junice Joseph’s championship record to take the women’s heptathlon with 6031 points ahead of South Africa’s Janet Wienand (5500 pts) with Lesotho’s Ts’oalei Selloane winning her second medal of the championships after the high jump gold taking bronze (5302 pts).

The men’s 110m Hurdles title went to Algeria’s Hadj Lazib in 13.77 with Nigeria’s Selim Nurudeen (13.83) and South Africa’s Ruan de Vries (13.98) taking silver and bronze respectively.

Kiprop and Jepkosgei fastest in qualifiers

In the day’s preliminary races, Olympic 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop was fastest in qualifying for the men’s 1500m in 3:43.33. South Africa’s reigning silver medalist Juan Van Deventer, Kenyans Silas Kiplagat and Nicholas Kemboi, Moroccan Amine Laalou, and Ethiopian Mekonnen Gebremedhin all qualified easily for Sunday’s final.

Kenya’s Olympic and world silver medallist Janeth Jepkosgei also looked impressive in qualifying for the women’s 800m final. Moroccan duo Halima Hachlaf and Btissam Lakhouad, bronze medalist in the 1500m, are also through to Sunday’s final.

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF

The tickets for the Bafana Bafana friendly against Ghana set for Soccer City on August 11 are already on sale.

The tickets became available yesterday (Friday) at Computicket and according to SAFA communications director Morio Senyane, tickets are selling at R100 each.

Speaking in a media briefing in Johannesburg on Friday, Senyane urged soccer lovers to rush to buy tickets as early as possible and keep the spirit of the recent World Cup going.

“After an hour we had already sold about 250 tickets and only urge the media to help in terms of promoting the match between Bafana Bafana and Ghana at the Soccer City on August 11.”

South Africa has announced the abolition of six of its thirteen kingdoms. President Jacob Zuma says they are relics from the Apartheid regime. The successors of the six kings and queens will only be recognised as principal traditional leaders.

The decision comes after six years of research into the traditional monarchies. According to President Zuma some of them were used by the former Apartheid regime to keep the black population divided among itself. The regime propped up existing political structures in exchange for their support to the government.

Bantustans
The white rulers created nominally independent homelands for various black ethnic groups, the so-called Bantustans - and instated their rulers, but these ‘countries’ were never recognised by any other state. The Bantustans were abolished after the end of Apartheid in 1994.

The six monarchies which are to disappear are not accused of collaborating with the Apartheid regime. Mr Zuma says the move is intended to “Reduce historical tensions between rival leaders”. And it is also an austerity measure: each monarch receives an annual allowance from the state.

Ceremonial
Today’s monarchs have a purely ceremonial role and hold no political power whatsoever. The monarchies which will continue to exist include Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and Xhosa King Zwelonke Sigcawu, who jointly represent the two largest population groups in the country.

King Zwelithini is known for the annual Reed Dance festival, in which thousands of Zulu virgins collect reeds from the river bank and in a long procession present the freshly cut reeds to the king; an event which each September results in many lovely snapshots.

Secession
King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo of the AbaThembu-clan will also be allowed to stay on his throne. Last year, he caused quite a stir when he called on about half the country – including Johannesburg - to secede from the rest of South Africa.

He made his appeal after he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for involuntary manslaughter, arson and acts of violence. The king has appealed against his sentence. His appeal for secession was ignored by most.

- Radio Netherlands

Puma City will rise again in Boston for the second time in just over a year.

The athletic gear company’s portable 11,000-square-foot store and nightclub, constructed with 24 red shipping containers, is being erected on Van Ness Street in the shadow of Fenway Park [map], the Boston Courant is reporting.

A spokeswoman at Puma’s North American headquarters in Westford confirmed the report, but declined to say when Puma City will open, what events will be held there or whether it again would be a temporary “pop-up” destination.

“The three-story structure will, like the original, house a Puma store and a bar, complete with drinks and traditional bar eats,” spokeswoman Kristina Fields said. “As construction is still under way, opening day and special events are still being determined and will be announced within a few weeks.”

Puma City was unveiled in 2008 in Alicante, Spain, for the start of the Volvo Ocean Race. It made its U.S. debut on Boston’s Fan Pier last year for three weeks in conjunction with the boats arriving in Boston Harbor after the sixth leg of the nine-month race.

An “evolved” version of Puma City was created in New York’s South Street Seaport to celebrate the World Cup from June 11 to July 11. It included two mobile container stores and a “village” atmosphere with a soccer pitch, the Puma Social Club and a beer garden.

Each of the 40-foot steel shipping containers that will comprise Puma City in Boston weighs 11 tons.

When it was at Fan Pier, the mobile space included an upper-level deck and hosted events including a burrito-eating contest, restaurant industry nights, DJs spinning tunes and happy hours.