Justin Podur on Trevor Noah on China in Africa. Why Comparing Chinese Africa Investment to Western Colonialism Is No Joke.

The West colonized and enslaved Africa for centuries at the point of a gun, and then sought to continue its colonization through financial weapons. The wealth and power of Europe was created through extraction and colonization. China has no history, need, or desire for colonization. It developed independently and has had amicable and equal relations with Africa for millennia. The CPC has supported African liberation movements, unlike the west, which violently suppressed them.

Justin Podur on Trevor Noah on China in Africa. Why Comparing Chinese Africa Investment to Western Colonialism Is No Joke.

Creative Associates International (CAI): It’s Not Exactly the CIA, But Close Enough

CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND — You have likely not heard of them, but Creative Associates International (CAI) is one of the largest and most powerful non-governmental organizations operating anywhere in the world. A pillar of soft U.S. power, the group has been an architect in privatizing the Iraqi education system, designed messenger apps meant to overthrow the government of Cuba, served as a front group for the infamous Blackwater mercenary force (now rebranded as Academi), and liaised with Contra death squads in Nicaragua. As such, it has functioned as “both as an instrument of foreign policy and as a manifestation of a broader imperial project,” in the words of Professor Kenneth Saltman of the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Creative Associates International (CAI): It’s Not Exactly the CIA, But Close Enough