The West is running helter skelter like a headless chicken. Although the Chinese have an agenda for Africa (positive or negative), the West is not very impressed with Chinese dominance in the region. Why is the West not complaining of the surveilance network they have build in Africa? Facebook, Yahoo, Google, and massive cloud infrustructure - this are all conduits used in the PRISM saga. But again, do we care about our privacy and security? Do we encrypt our communication? How often do our governments use say gmail or yahoo for critical communication? NB: Using Huawei or ZTE technologies in the region is inevitable moreso because of the low cost, and financing offered by the Chinese. Kenya is actually moving full blast to the East On 11/08/2013, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
Listers
This is an interesting article about the Chinese Telco Giant, Hauwei.
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei may have been all-but-barred from doing business in the U.S. over allegations that it's basically an intelligence agency masquerading as a tech business. In Africa, however, Huawei is thriving.
From Cairo to Johannesburg, the Chinese telecom has offices in 18 countries and has invested billions of dollars in building African communications networks since the late 1990s. The company's cheap cellular phones today dominate many of Africa's most important markets - and that was before Huawei teamed up with Microsoft earlier this year to launch a low-cost smartphone on the continent. Just in the past few months, the firm closed a pair of telecommunications deals in Africa each worth more than $700 million, part of an African business that brings in more than $3.5 billion annually for the Chinese firm. According to Huawei's marketing materials, the projects are all part of a mission of "Enriching [African] Lives through Communication." But current and former U.S. officials - as well as outside security analysts - worry there could be another agenda behind Huawei's penetration into Africa. They suspect that the Chinese telecom could be wiring the continent for surveillance.
http://ictafrica.info/FullNews.php?id=10422
This article may have come straight out of a Cold War Propaganda manual by the West - Since they are also very involved in cyber surveillance for both economic and national security purposes. Still one wonders whether we are not seeing the Scramble for Africa - Part II.
Ali Hussein CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd
+254 713 601113/ 0770 906375
"The future belongs to him who knows how to wait." - Russian Proverb
Sent from my iPad
-- ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva twitter.com/lordmwesh kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know