主题：【原创】一计不成 又生一计 西媒集体发难中国新动向 -- 平天下

While the success of failure of China's policy in Africa is still a debate and waiting to be seen, the failure of western policy in Africa could be seen quite clearly.

The bottom line is, China's treat Africa as equals, the west treat Africa as children. Africa need more respect, to decide for themselves what they want and don't want. With China, they have the last word on the establishment of a business deal, with the west, they depend on the mood of the "parents".

In my opinion, its better to build roads, schools and hospitals and then worry about whether or not they can benefit the people, rather than waiting for the country to self-transform into a political utopia first while a few million starve to death while waiting for it.

iewgnem, toronto, canada

Ultimately, we all are held accountable for keeping our governments accountable - if not by each other, then by the consequences of having our governments attend to priorities that are not ours.

What is important are the day-by-day minute-by-minute choices people make and whether they are

a) made locally or with intent to show solidarity with fellow citizens and

b) symbolic of holding a government accountable for following our priorities or simply keeping one's head below the parapet.

An academic reply but critical. If you startle a group of impala, they scatter in all directions. That is one choice. The other is to immediately close ranks and out stare what startled you. To do that requires trust that the other 'impala' will close ranks with you, otherwise you are left standing alone trying to out stare a threat.

A practical way forward is to learn Mandarin. That alone is a gesture of standing firm.

Jo, Olney, UK

"Western moralising may sometimes be hypocritical, but it is surely preferable to the absence of any morality at all in dealing with the likes of Mugabe"

-- should that be something that the Africans should decide for themselves? Maybe the African nations are not "recoiling" from Western hypocrisies, a short-coming that all human beings possess, to varying degrees. Instead, maybe they are recoiling from Western Chauvinism - the assumption that we are smarter and more capable of making the life-and-death decisions for the Africans than the Africans themselves. Maybe that is why the Chinese practicality is more attractive: they are there for trade and nothing else. They do not try to impose their values and they are not there to topple governments or instigate revolutions. That is for the Africans themselves to decide. Maybe that is what all of the third world wants from the west also -- to just be left alone to find their own ways. They see what we did to Iraq, and they know better.

Mario Savio, Berkeley, California

Well said, Dan.

Many people (the disciples of Rhodes, I suppose) are still bitter over the loss of their "rightful" loots in Africa, and all too happy to brand anyone cooperating with their former victims as "thieves" or the new "colonialist". I guess according to these high-moral priests people in Africa should put up with occasional missile launched into their pharmaceutical factories from the Indian Ocean, or occasional outbreak of extreme violence funded by the oil mercenaries. A whole set of Encyclopedia Africana can be written on how Britain alone butchered, raped, and looted the continent. Righteous people have long memory.

Ian Summers, Birmingham, UK

"Beijing offers them a real alternative to dealing with the West and its heavy moral baggage "

Unfortunately the west has lost its moral currency in Africa.

Look at west's endorsement of Ethiopia's and Kenya's Elections

Look at the suffering of the Somalis that is being instigated by the west encouraging Ethiopia to do their dirty job. I can go on .....

African's see west's moral out rage when it just suits them.

Dan, London, UK

Thank you for reminding us of how benign old style colonialism was. I am gladdened to hear that Heart of Darkness, the Zulu wars, the India Salt Act of 1882, the use of poison gas in Ethiopia, the invention of the concentration camp in the Boer Wars, and the North American slave trade were just figments of the collective imagination.

Theresa Yarmouth, Chicago, IL, USA