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This article is related to one that Curtis posted. Basically, China has a monopoly over "rare earth metals" which are vital for " wind turbines, advanced batteries, disc drives, flat-screen TVs, smart bombs," etc. The point being: it would be very bad if the rest of the world was cut off from these materials, especially for green-energy. Currently there is worry that China will become the new Saudi Arabia, except with rare earth metals instead of oil. However, we should carefully examine the facts before we brand China as the big bad materials-hog. There are some very interesting points on multiple sides of this debate in the article.

So apparently my post on Jack's article about the new 5-year plans was a little wrong. China plans to boost consumerism as well as seriously up their green industries. Which is good for them, but bad for the rest of the world. It is a little bit sobering to think about how green technologies do rely on mining - even green things still have negative environmental impacts. I guess almost everything does; maybe the least environmental impact would come from switching back to pre-industrial era technology, but that's awfully inconvenient. People have developed these technologies because they work really well and/or make our lives so much easier and more comfortable.

Argues that the "incompetence" of the ANC has not been conducive for economic growth and has angered South Africans because "too little wealth trickles down" due to less economic competition from ANC's corruption. Says that the ANC needs more political competition, or should split to accurately reflect it's composition for voters: "the populist left and the fat-cat right". Contrasts this political one-sidedness with the rest of African countries. As I read this article, I wondered how the political conflict will affect the country--probably not to the point where development regresses, but it serves as a reminder that NICs have their own problems.