Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all my readers! Here are some Christmas thoughts from Beijing, on behalf of my new company, Honest Films.

It's all about Angola

Poster for the China-Africa Summit, Beijing, 2006

Last year I was around in Beijing when the China-Africa summit was on. The summit was deliberately orchestrated to prove China's commitment to the African nations. China is dealing with regimes the West boycotts on political and humanitarian grounds. As these regimes have few other rich nations to trade with left, China has stepped in to buy their natural resources at bargain rates. Angola is one of those countries and is now China's main supplier of oil, having overtaken Saudi Arabia. But China is also involved in the political and economic life of these countries, training future African government ministers in Beijing alongside future Communist Party cadres and Chinese companies building new 5 star leisure complexes for the elite across the continent.
China's involvement is realigning world politics but we hear very little about it in the West. This Radio 4 programme highlights some of the political, social as well as economic ramifications of China's relationship with Africa.
You can listen to the programme here.

hugs in China

Free hugs in China



Free hugs in Amsterdam

I think it's clear what exactly this campaign is about but in case you want to know more check out the Free Hugs website here.

Today's lesson:

1) everyone is suspicious of wierdos on busy streets
2) there's soft hearted exceptions to everything
3) web 2.0 includes China