Epithets

In the days of the cold war the enemy was described in terms of colour which today seem so very politically incorrect. Reds under the bed, the Yellow Peril, the Black Threat (that was South Africa, of course), etc.

In Africa today there’s something similar going on, though no colourful epithet is required. Just one word is enough: the Chinese.

One must admire the Chinese. When we were in Greece a few years ago we came across a huge shop stacked with the typical Chinese products, cheap clothes, plastic flowers, outrageous ornaments, of which the centre-piece was a miniature rocky landscape, with water trickling down the hill into a tiny pond, all powered by a tiny electric pump. We tried to speak to the shop assistants, but it was clear that they had no Greek – less than even our tiny sprinkling, and not even English. How they had managed to penetrate the arcane jungle of Greek bureaucracy to set up and run such a substantial business was a mystery.

The same happens in the DRC. Recently a new Chinese restaurant opened near our office. The Chinese people didn’t speak a word of French, so their only connection with the outside world, so to speak, was the one waiter who had a smattering of Chinese.

But it’s not for restaurants or shops that the Chinese are famous here, (though there are many of them, and the number increases steadily) but traffic jams. If you’re late for a meeting, you can be absolutely sure that your most absurd excuses will be accepted if you just mutter “Les Chinois”, and give everyone a knowing look. Because, the Chinese road builders have absolutely no qualms about closing a main road for several hours to make their work simpler. There are no deviation routes, no signs, no explanations, nothing. They can use the barrier of language to simply shrug their shoulders and walk away. On several occasions we have driven down a road to find it closed at the end, thus making it necessary to turn round and drive all the way back. It would not be difficult to put a sign at the beginning of the road to say that it was closed, but does anyone do it? No. Why bother?

Near us, there’s a road that was designed as a dual carriageway triumphal way leading towards the Presidential Palace. It carries virtually no traffic, but was designated as one of the roads to be resurfaced by the Chinese, as it was important for ceremonial purposes. Obviously, the advantage of a dual carriageway is that you can work on one side at a time, by diverting the traffic to the other side. Obviously, but not so obvious to the Chinese. They closed both sides at the same time and for more than a week there was no access to any properties along it. When I went to the offices of an important donor which happens to have relocated there last month it was a joke: we tried to get onto the road from five different points, and only succeeded when we were beckoned onto a semi-finished portion by a haughty Congolese labourer with wrap-around sunglasses. He relished the helpless expressions on the faces of people desperate to reach their destination. I think he wanted a small bribe from us, as the road was officially closed, but we hardened our hearts and gave him nothing.

Maybe some explanation is called for at this point. The roads of the DRC had deteriorated to such an extent that its motorable network had shrunk to less than 2,000km – in a country bigger than France and Germany combined. China spotted a gap, and offered a barter deal: we build roads, and you give us mines. Originally the deal was worth $9.2 billion, though later it was reduced to $6.2 billion. The deal went through like a dream, and now, all over the country, there are Chinese road builders. It helps China in more than one way. In addition to buying extremely profitable mines very cheaply, they can employ their prison labour. So thousands of non-violent criminals are imported, put into camps, fed on minimum rations, and roads are built. They use Congolese for some of the labouring jobs to put an employment generation gloss on their work, but all the interesting work is done by Chinese.

Kinshasa is the main beneficiary of the road-building programme. All the main roads are getting the treatment and from the traffic point of view the results are beginning to show. Journey times are down substantially, and will be even better when the major routes are finished by the end of this year.

But no gain without pain. Yesterday I had a call from the dentist. He had had to cancel all appointments that day because access to his surgery had been completely blocked by the Chinese road builders. When I went to see him this morning did he swear and curse? No, two words were enough to say it all, through clenched (and perfect) teeth: Les Chinois.

Maybe the Chinese have realised that their behaviour is not encouraging friendship between the two nations, so it was interesting to come across a new development: “The Chinese Congolese Friendship Association”. It is located quite centrally, but in one of the worst roads in the whole capital. Its name is proudly advertised in freshly painted letters two feet high, on a rough and ready concrete block wall. “Multi-purpose Community Hall” it adds (all in French, of course). To prove the bond between the two countries there is a painting of the two flags which merge fuzzily at the centre. Whether this will make any difference remains to be seen, but I suppose one must give them credit for trying.

But no number of friendship associations will rectify the harm that they do to the environment. You know when roads are going to be “improved” when you hear the horrible buzz of chain saws, and the sickening crash as another mighty tree hits the dust. Systematically the thousands of magnificent old trees that used to line the roads are being cut down. They’re still called avenues, but in truth the new roads are concrete deserts. The Chinese definitely are more yellow than green.