(The Bank of Japan with its old office building and new one, near the Tokyo Station; Knock on the door for the yen?)GETTING HOT EVERYWHERE?
Some Japanese voters now start to think that they are betrayed by new Prime Minister Mr. Naoto Kan.
He is going to close the National Diet Session without holding and attending Q&A sessions in budgetary committees of both the Houses. He thinks it is good for the ruling DPJ in fighting the coming Upper House election.
Though I think that every new prime minister of Japan should experience a budget-making process at least once, namely at least for one fiscal year, it is not good to shut up the Oppositions without giving them a chance to check how much lawmaker Mr. Naoto Kan is prepared for premiership since he took it over from Mr. Yukio Hatoyama a week ago or so.
Yet, I think the Kan Cabinet will survive for a year or so like Mr. Hatoyama's, since the largest opposition party LDP is still in a state of being with awe, in shock, incompetence since the great regime change in the summer of 2009 (like the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election).
SECTION I: China and South Africa
China directly invested $3 billion to South Africa in 2008.
China directly invested $5.5 billion to whole Africa in 2008.
(The Japan's direct investment position reached $3.3 billion to whole Africa as an average over five years at the end of 2008, though the actual value in 2007 is about $1.3 billion. [http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/ticad/report/status/PR000319.html]
[http://www.joi.or.jp/Tokusyu/0809-01.pdf])
(Click to enlarge.)In addition to South Africa providing iron and other minerals, Angola, Sudan, and Congo, all once war-torn nations, export crude oil to China. Now, their growth in GDP is almost parallel with China's GDP.
(Click to enlarge.)http://www.thebeijingaxis.com/upload_files/download/201002/20100212200339nntq.pdf
So, is China a savior for African nations and people?
You had better check what independence, freedom, welfare, and education various people in the Chinese territory are enjoying.
First of all, democracy and freedom of religion and expression must be introduced to China.
SECTION II: G7's Aid to Africa
Before China came to Africa, Japan and other G7 countries had provided various official development assistance (ODA) to Africa.
And the scale of G7's involvement in Africa is still 10 times or so larger than China's.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/summit/toyako08/doc/pdf/africa_japan_0805.pdf
Also read:
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How did the G8 do for Africa? The Final Report Card
Jan 9th, 2009 12:40 PM UTC
By Josh Lozman
...
So, what are the final numbers?
The final figures reveal that in total, donors provided $83.05 billion in development assistance in 2007 of which $27.5 billion (33.1%) was directed to sub-Saharan Africa. The preliminary data released in April revealed a collective increase of $837 million for sub-Saharan Africa from G8 donors between 2006 and 2007. When totaled with previous annual increases, this resulted in a total G8 increase in ODA for sub-Saharan Africa of $3.04 billion since 2004 meaning that the G8 had thus delivered 13.7% of the total increase committed. The finalized data reveal that the 2006-2007 increase was slightly higher at $1.04 billion and thus the three year cumulative total increase was $3.16 billion. This total represents 14.5% of the total increase committed, slightly better than preliminary estimates showed, but still far off track to deliver the full amount by 2010.
http://www.one.org/international/blog/how-did-the-g8-do-for-africa-the-final-report-card/
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It is time to arrange some coordination for cooperative development in Africa.
Yet, it is true that China is now playing a role that no G7 countries did before.
Maybe China is a little better than Western colonialists for Africans, since Japanese businesses have had a strong tie with them.
*** *** *** ***
President Mr. Barack Obama said as televised in Japan, too, "One place we have already begun to take action is at the agency in charge of regulating drilling and issuing permits, known as the Minerals Management Service. Over the last decade, this agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility – a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves.
At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favours, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.
When Ken Salazar became my Secretary of the Interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency. But it’s now clear that the problems there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow. And so Secretary Salazar and I are bringing in new leadership at the agency – Michael Bromwich, who was a tough federal prosecutor and Inspector General..."
Mr. T. Boone Pickens said in response about something on a pilot following every procedure in the air and a cockpit. But the issue is that even a corrupt pilot would follow every procedure in the air and a cockpit. And, an accident could happen on a plane due to his corruption if he is on the ground and someone else is flying the plane.
I really think the keyword in this era can be "Eradication of Corruption."
(http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/standby.htm )
Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mat 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.