African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 373 Fifty Steps Laughing at Hundred Steps

   It didn't take long to reach Suojia through the first railway. Ernst and his party arrived in Suojia before dark. Soga is still under construction, the southern urban area has been built, and the National Library is built in the south of the center of Soga.

The Soga National Library is even larger than the Habsburg Royal Library in Austria, the largest in the German region. It is also dominated by Baroque style. It covers an area of ​​5 hectares and has a total construction area of ​​39,500 square meters. Ernst The 30,000 sets of books brought this time are not even enough to fit between the teeth.

Ernst attaches great importance to Soga's plan. At present, the three cities in Central Province, the first town, Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo are the corners of each other, but Dar es Salaam The city is geographically south of Bagamoyo and the first town, so looking at Dar es Salaam on a map, it always feels empty in the west.

  The first town is the political and cultural center of East Africa, Dar es Salaam is the economic center of the Central Province, and Bagamoyo is the shipbuilding center of East Africa. Each has its own strengths. So Ernst felt that the central province still lacked a scientific research center, which was the fundamental reason for the construction of Soga City.

Although Suojia City is not available now, it should be built first, so that East Africa will not be in a hurry when recruiting talents in the future. Although the education in East Africa has not kept up, the economic crisis is imminent. Ernst believes that in the economic crisis, East Africa can recruit some talents. East Africa to develop.

   And Suojia plays the role of arranging talents. For things like science and technology, Ernst believes that of course they can play a greater role only when they are concentrated. Scientists and inventors live in a city where they can communicate with each other at any time, inspire inspiration and correct mistakes.

  So the construction of Suojia is built according to the highest standards, which is no less than the first town in the capital, so that people who live in East Africa in the future can feel at home.

   First of all, it is the living environment. Suojia can be called a garden city. Large and small parks are distributed in the urban area, and the reason why Suojia is located in the tropics will be full of flowers and trees all year round.

  There is nothing special about the climate. The advantage is that it is relatively stable. There is no winter, and it hovers between spring and summer. During the rainy season, heavy rains may occur at any time. However, the drainage facilities are quite complete and it is close to the sea, so don't worry too much.

The road construction adopts the highest standard. Now it is mainly masonry road, but the width has reached the standard of later generations, and the green belt has also been used, which makes the huge amount of work, and it is convenient to replace it with asphalt road in the future. This is the main road, and There are specially designed pedestrian lanes, and even Ernst reserved a motorcycle lane, but the construction personnel did not know the function of designing an extra lane. The pedestrian lane can also explain that the motorcycle lane is no different from most urban roads in Europe.

The current road design in Europe is very rough, that is, a road where pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages, and livestock are crowded together. The division is not detailed, and the road is not wide. Even Paris and London do not have such exaggerated urban road construction in East Africa. In the eyes of the designers, it was all extravagance and waste, which was why Soga City was called Ernst's big toy.

  Secondly, Soga City is very convenient for the concentration of talents. After the opening of the railway, it is less than half an hour away from Dar es Salaam, which is conducive to their travel between Europe and East Africa.

This is very important. If it is not for the talents cultivated locally in East Africa, then they will have a great demand to travel around the world, including going home to visit relatives, foreign academic exchanges, business trips, or even leaving East Africa after finding their next home, Ernes It is impossible to tie them with rope in East Africa.

   Taking advantage of the economic crisis and the unsatisfactory employment environment, the first choice of talents recruited is definitely not East Africa, but they have to go to East Africa to develop due to the pressure of life.

  Whether East Africa can retain their hearts or not depends on the sincerity of East Africa. After all, Africa is synonymous with backwardness, and talents have always flowed into economically developed regions.    Here Ernst thinks that Hefei did a good job in his previous life, and it is a very important decision to try his best to keep HKUST in Hefei. According to the layout of education in the Far East in the previous life, Anhui does not have any advantages. After all, Jinling is next to it. Jinling’s role is to concentrate educational resources in the region.

   Ernst was very satisfied with Suoga's urban construction, which was a very important step, so he asked his subordinates: "If you were allowed to choose to live in Suoga, would you consider it?"

"Your Highness, if you only consider the environment and transportation, then I don't think Europe and the whole world can find a city that is far better than Suojia. However, whether Suojia can attract people to settle in must first consider the issue of employment. Without work, there will be no income. Source, no one will stay here, followed by the hardware facilities of a city, Suojia has done a good job in this regard, even a little excessive waste, but it is not a bad thing to have wider roads, and then the climate, this point Suojia is not bad either, the last thing to consider when living in a place is the city’s business environment, safety, entertainment facilities, overall civic atmosphere, and city culture.”

   Ernst was very satisfied with this answer, and he continued to ask: "Then do you think Suojia has any shortcomings?"

"As for the shortcomings, I can't see anything now. After all, this city is still an empty city. What is going on can only be reflected after people come in and live there for a period of time. But, Your Highness, what is the purpose of building this city? I've always wondered."

Ernst: "You will know about this problem in two years. I can only say that Soga City is of great use to East Africa, and I noticed the problem of excessive waste in your evaluation of Soga City's construction. What I want to say is Urban development is changing with each passing day. Now it seems that Soga is a bit ahead of the curve, but the future is not necessarily so. Think about Paris. It used to be like this. At that time, many Parisians believed that Napoleon III’s large-scale construction was for the sake of face, and there were indeed reasons for this. But the current Paris is a model for the transformation of the whole world, and I think Paris may be replaced by some cities in North America in another 20 or 30 years, and it doesn’t matter if the starting point for the construction of Soga City is higher.”

"What Your Highness said is true. Anyway, the natives in Africa are simply inexhaustible. It doesn't matter if there are more big projects. Moreover, this is not Europe. The cities in Europe have been built long ago. Any changes need to be considered more than those in East Africa. East Africa is a blank slate, where imagination can be realized more freely."

In the construction of Soga City, the indigenous people made great efforts. The city was built in a very short period of time, which is much more difficult than the urban transformation of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam still retains many of the previous Buildings, including the Zanzibar Palace that was converted into a luxury hotel, and Suojia is a new city built entirely on the ground.

  Thinking of this, Ernst suddenly felt a little pain in his conscience. He was out of sight and out of mind in Europe before, but he became hypocritical in Africa, trying to suppress the "sympathy" thoughts in his heart.

Ernst said: "The construction of East Africa is inseparable from the aborigines. The rational use of aborigines is very important for East Africa, and there is no need to exterminate the Indians like the United States. Some aborigines have reached the end of their lives. We have to find them a good home. After all, I have worked in East Africa for so many years, whether it is farming, working on construction sites, digging canals, or building roads, it can be regarded as teaching them some means of survival in modern society. In the future, they can find some buddies to survive when they leave East Africa. "

   "Your Highness, you are still too kind, but this is also the difference between our German nation and North American beasts." He said with a rather proud expression.

   What are you proud of! Fifty steps laugh at a hundred steps, at least fifty steps less in East Africa! But Ernst didn't say much. The times are like this. Even if East Africa takes only fifty steps less, it is much better than the United States. It is better than the United States, and it is better than the United States in terms of bad.

  (end of this chapter)