WEST woos EAST! AFRICA is NEXT!!

The WEST is wooing The EAST! SOON, it will be AFRICA!!

Most of their think tanks didn't see it coming. The few that saw hardly believed it. So, the West was caught unawares by the ultimate rise of the East - especially India and China! The oil & gas boom of the last 12 years and the rebound of Russia under Vladimir Putin, as well as the slow recovery of the Japanese economy (the West's key ally out there!) completed the tripod of new reality.

The rise, fall, and rise of the "Asian Tigers" made the East a new commercial and economic zone sooner than forecast, and lessened the gravity of the recent world economic meltdown. Now we are having big multinationals and several billionaires coming from the East, and petro-dollars from the Middle-East finding home in Asian countries.

This better investment climate has attracted western manufacturers and services, many of which do most of their production and delivery in the East. Western countries are protesting this "export of domestic jobs”, politicians are proposing all sorts of diplomatic, legislative, and retaliatory measures, including possible rejigs of WTO codes. Well, the prime lesson from the world economic crisis/credit crunch is that nothing is sacrosanct or beyond rewrite. There is no "one-size-fits-all" anywhere - a lesson the World Bank/IMF oligarchs learnt too late, at grave cost to Africa!

Brazil, under President Lula DaSilva, beat the western think-tank radar. The South American giant joined Russia, India and China - the BRIC countries - as a counterpose to western hegemony. Add to that the emerging assertiveness of the global force called Non-Aligned Movement, and you have a world reinventing itself.

Triggered by 9/11, the Republican years under President George W Bush saw America in its most brazen show of force, and acts of expansionism - including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, heightened face-offs with Iran, North Korea, Hamas, Cuba, Venezuela, China and Russia. The US fell out with most of Europe over Iraq, repudiated the Kyoto Agreement and held up WTO and other protocols in very unusual self-adulation. As the natural leader of the so-called free world, these tensions and sustained discordance have inevitably weakened the west. The Obama Administration is now trying to pick up the pieces.

In the meantime, things have changed rapidly and inexorably on the global turf. Not much is the same anymore! The world economic crisis, triggered by failed subprime loans and other financial services infractions, the failure of regulatory agencies, the near-colluding political authorities, and the horrendous costs of remedies (the so-called packages) brought the age-long reputation of western capitalism to its knees. The US must rely on foreign capital (especially China, India, Russia and the Gulf/Arab States) to finance its huge deficits. Troubled European countries are now dealing with the IMF/World Bank. It is quite surreal.

Recently, David Cameron, the new British Prime Minister, went in search of Indian investors - India, its former colony! Well, we shall see more! And, why not? Most former colonies are the resource belts and strategic zones of the world. They provided the hunting grounds for the Slave Trade in Africa, and for modern day Cheap/Child Labour for western multinationals. Just like America, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand, India is now a favourite destination for British FDI quests. No matter. More delegations from the West will follow. Let the East play and enjoy its role, its turn. We need each other!

The next destination is Africa. No question. Who knowest not? If you insist, let's share a few "whys": Raw materials and huge mineral and human resources, including a diverse and well-endowed Diaspora. 52 nations of a soon-One-Billion-souls market. By 2010, submarine broadband cables will surround Africa; by 2012, all of Africa will be “wired up” with the latest Internet Technology - bye to the sinful digital divide! In the next 5 years, ICT will explode in Africa; in the following 5 years, Africa will be a new frontier - it will create, re-create, generate and service its own unique needs. The GSM Revolution in Africa is on the home stretch, dovetailing into its Data successor.

With the global agitation and heightened crusading against corruption, including some tough actions and heart-warming repudiations from the West - traditional safe-havens for Third World looting - African leaders are sitting up. This is freeing its resources for its development. More importantly, the West is helping Africa hunt down its looters - rightly so! If the East follows suit - we're sure China/India/Russia will bond on this - soon, there'll be no hiding space for these betrayers. ASEAN must join the EU in this regard. As the new Obama initiative brings in NAFTA, the noose tightens. With the help of the UN and Brazil, as well as the new Africa-South America Summit & Treaty, that region will soon be hostile to Africa's looters and plunderers.

When Africa begins concerted value-added industrial, agro-allied and mineral production, and the emerging leadership and governance transformation takes inexorable hold, it will deal as it is dealt - building on the Eastern example. It will not be long.

The moral: Repair past damages! Be partners, not plunderers! Court, not cut, Africa - it will hurt both ways! Have the past ways changed yet? Are old habits hibernating? Are global think tanks reading the real radars? We wonder.

As the next Frontier, maybe the Final Frontier, for global geopolitical positioning, may world leaders read their maps right, and each country cast their every vote right. The facts have spoken.