China almost bankrupted Rome through its aesthetic craving for imported silks, and wrenched the British Empire apart with the chemical high of costly teas. Now the West faces a metaphysical addiction to its “toys.”

[Photo: Digging for scraps of metal ore in a mountain of mining waste, Daily Mail Online]
More from the China-Africa symposium at IU: The general outlook of most speakers is reservedly optimistic about the prospects of China’s engagements in Africa. If the last fifty years of Western-sponsored development on the continent have borne so little fruit—and [...]

(Photo: Chinese boss hollerin’ at his ditch diggers in Kabwe, Zambia)
Presently at Indiana University in Bloomington, attending an academic symposium on China’s rapidly expanding investments in Africa, and the implications it will have for the continent’s long-term development.
I am also buying buckets of fireworks. Or seriously considering it. Indiana has some of the laxest fireworks [...]