Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Report: China's Belt and Road loans are putting borrowers and Chinese banks in danger | DW news" video.

You have actually hit an important point. Thinking through what you really expect out of a project and then HONESTLY evaluating if it will deliver. I'm an engineer and its not simply a matter of what worked and what didn't work in China its a matter of what were they actually doing with these projects in these countries. Were they actually building stuff that would help or were they building stuff that would be a series of debt burdens? This is something all countries have to deal with at times. I'm an Australian engineer and we have lists of projects that were great successes and lists of stuff we'd really not want anyone to know about. I did my degree in America and its the same there. If you dig around you'll find it in every developed nation. The difference usually comes from POLITICAL DESIRE. What are the politicians looking to do. Most of the time its attention and prominence. As an engineer I can tell you there is nothing more profitable than a clown with other people's money who wants to put their name on brass plaque and nail it to some edifice.
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That's a fairly good summation mate. I'm an engineer and I totally support any nation that is building out its infrastructure BUT as many countries have found out if its not done right then what should be an investment in a nations future prosperity becomes an anchor around its neck. I'm actually Australian and we have had some great projects we've all benefitted from and also some utter catastrophes that people should have known were going to be catastrophes. I did my degree in America and that have lists of great success and lists of catastrophes too.
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@GardeningZ I get your point, the problem is its so hard for engineers to get heard by political leaders. When there's a difference between what's best to do technically and what's best to do politically politics wins every time. I have proposed to my own government (Australia) projects that its own consultants said were good or high priority and for political reasons I got nowhere. I did my degree in America and saw the same thing happen there. This happens all over the world and China is finding out (like many others have) that when you put politics ahead of reason it does not work out well.
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@GardeningZ I have been watching a few of Mariana Mazzucato talks about her new book "The Big Con" regarding how consultants like KPMG, McKinsey, PwC,... have done insane levels of damage to how our governments operate. I think she's absolutely on the dot. About the only thing she doesn't go into much is the insane behavior of the media. She does mention it but doesn't put it in the same category of importance as the consultants, while I think they are just as important as the consultants because the consultants can't be what they are without the media.
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@GardeningZ Yeah well that just proves one of the greatest issues of our time - journalists who have no idea how to be journalists. The other day a friend said to me: "Journalists used to present us with facts and let us decide what they mean. Now they present us with opinions and expect us to work out what the facts are."
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@GardeningZ That's NOT a Chinese lesson that's a lesson that's been REPEATED by almost every society that ever developed trade. Eventually somebody gathered all the wealth to themselves and the rest rose up and took it from them. French Revolution, Russian Revolution and American Revolution were all poor working class people fighting back against a tyrannical regime. I'm Australian but went to college in America. I did engineering but a bunch of my friends were pre-law and we had many discussions about why the US Constitution is the way it is. This is why I am so frustrated with America these days. The American people have forgotten who they are and why they threw the British out.
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