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Caribbean-Latin America
Caribbean Sea is Mandarin for ‘Chinese Lake’
2021-08-31
I was in Antigua and Dominica last week on a Caribbean cruise. Lovely places, with strict restrictions for getting off the ship. The tour guide on Antigua told us how the Chinese were helping out their small, impoverished little island, independent since 1981. The Chinese finished a new airport there a few years ago and are building several new facilities, including a new hospital. There may be a few Chinese supervisors on these projects, we were told, but the bulk of the work would be done by locals. A few minutes later, I saw several oriental workers doing apparent manual labor.

Someone asked about the white streetlights with little turbines on top, all along miles of highway. Provided by the Chinese, but not all were spinning in the breeze. Perhaps typical Chinese quality?

The next day, we toured Dominica, (independent since 1978) and drove past the "Dominica-China Friendship Hospital", a large, three-story facility. The Chinese will also assist in financing Dominica's international airport. I bet the runways will be long enough to accommodate Chinese jet fighters.

Maybe the Chinese are looking for opportunities for single men and tourists, or perhaps the ‘Belt and Road' initiative will someday turn the Caribbean Sea into a Chinese lake.

I discovered I could read more about these projects on the interwebs. Take a look at the map.
Posted by:Bobby

#12  Foreign cognitive elites? China has 1.3 billion people. They have enough. They're full. They don't need more people. They can educate their own people just fine.
Posted by: Blinky Pholuling8616   2021-08-31 14:27  

#11  Americans have squandered far too much taxpayer money on Third World, so-called "developing" countries that never seem to actually get developed. Now the Chinese think they have something to gain from squandering their own money.

Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2021-08-31 13:32  

#10  The Chinese finished a new airport there a few years ago

"The American government accused Grenada of constructing facilities to aid a Soviet-Cuban military buildup in the Caribbean based on the 9,000-foot (2,700 m) runway which could accommodate the largest Soviet aircraft, such as the An-12, An-22, and the An-124."
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-08-31 09:33  

#9  Yeah, the Chinese will NOT welcome Caribbean people as permanent residents. I bet part of the education deal is "go home when you're finished".
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2021-08-31 08:01  

#8  That's not a bad deal for the Chinese - they get a thin slice of foreign cognitive elites. Nothing wrong with fresh blood.

Aren't Chinese xenophobic like the sea is deep?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2021-08-31 05:09  

#7  The joke with the Chinese educating all these third worlders is, the plan is that they go back to their countries and are suceptible to Chinese influence the rest of their lives. But joke's on the Chinese: once they graduate with their bachelor's degrees, they qualify to work in China. Many stay on, having no plans to go back to the hellhole they came from. Even China looks better to them.

That's not a bad deal for the Chinese - they get a thin slice of foreign cognitive elites. Nothing wrong with fresh blood.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2021-08-31 04:17  

#6  If China wants to waste their money on ungrateful jerks, let them. They'll soon find out they get no thanks, and it'll save our money.

The joke with the Chinese educating all these third worlders is, the plan is that they go back to their countries and are suceptible to Chinese influence the rest of their lives. But joke's on the Chinese: once they graduate with their bachelor's degrees, they qualify to work in China. Many stay on, having no plans to go back to the hellhole they came from. Even China looks better to them.
Posted by: Blinky Pholuling8616   2021-08-31 04:03  

#5  You know all the chicanery European firms used to get up to in terms of paying off local nabobs in these locales? Chinese companies are doing this with CCP connivance. With China becoming a significant market for some of these countries, Beijing has the ability to tank their economies in the short term, thereby making local rulers wary of incurring its displeasure, lest their domestic rivals take advantage of temporary economic discontent to win office in their place.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2021-08-31 03:35  

#4  Monroe doctrine joined biological genders perception?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2021-08-31 03:35  

#3  Oh, I forgot. China is offering free college education, in China, to residents of Antigua. The tour guide said her brother is there.

Where do they get all the money?

It's not that much money. They don't have teachers' protection rackets masquerading as unions there. No racial quotas for incompetents, either.

Re the projects - the Chinese are hoping to do the same thing that car dealerships do to make a profit - they get you with the fine print, which the leader who signs it agrees to because of a fat deposit in his new Panamanian bank account. His successor can similarly be paid off to abide by the agreement's terms - after all, it's only taxpayer money at stake, not his newly established secret bank account.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2021-08-31 03:24  

#2  
Where do they get all the money?

Fiat Currencies use printing presses, China is no different.
Posted by: Snusose Mussolini3286   2021-08-31 01:08  

#1  Oh, I forgot. China is offering free college education, in China, to residents of Antigua. The tour guide said her brother is there.

Where do they get all the money?
Posted by: Bobby   2021-08-31 00:48  

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