The first person to stand me lunch as a reporter was a Chinese commercial attaché.
It was Swaziland and 1993.
My first week on the national newspaper of the tiny African kingdom had taken in a roadside fist fight between two rival evangelical congregations, lots of cattle rustling and a drugs case in which the defendant had argued, unsuccessfully, that the ample quantity of marijuana found in his possession was for medicinal use - for his donkey.
It was a tabloid journalist's dream. It was a business journalist's nightmare.
Nothing of commercial interest seemed to cross the business desk of the Times of Swaziland of which I was sole reporter, editor, photographer and occasional picture developer - fumbling blindly in the dark room on deadline when the photo editor had come down with another nasty and recurring dose of absenteeism.
In the late evening, yawning paste-up ladies arrived to sit in silent rows at the back of the sweltering news room, where rattling fans democratically distributed passive cigarette smoke for the benefit of all.
Dead-eyed assassins of the written word, they edited copy using big pairs of scissors you could cut an Axminster carpet with. If the column they had to glue on to the page was too long, they would simply snip off the end, mid-sentence, to make it fit.
On the rare occasion that news from the tiny kingdom made it into the international press, it was invariably a story about HIV, then affecting about one in four of the adult population, or the annual reed dance, when the king would inspect a mass gathering of the country's "maidens" and sometimes pick one as a wife.
It seemed hard to imagine this pineapple and paper pulp exporting sub-Saharan outpost attracting the interest of many international investors - much less figuring in the corridors of power in Beijing.
Of course the country had commodities. But the sort you might find as toppings on a Hawaiian pizza, or in the box that was used to transport it.
They didn't have many of the really good ones used to power industrialised economies and create vast current account surpluses.
Still, 20 years ago the Chinese were already established in a whole range of agricultural-based knowledge transfer projects in Swaziland and many other countries up and down the continent besides.
There never seemed to be much of an agenda during those lazy lunches all those years ago in that Chinese restaurant in Mbabane, the capital.
We would while away the hours with our jolly banter about agricultural knowledge transfer and the footie. It was a soy-flavoured marriage of journalistic convenience. My Chinese host didn't seem to have any other reporters to take to lunch and I didn't have anyone else willing to buy me lunch.
The Chinese have been playing the long game in Africa for decades. Now Japan wants to join the race to secure the commodity feedstocks that it is hoped will propel the world's third-largest economy out of years of stagflation and economic marginalisation.
But there is something of the hare and tortoise parable in this contest between Asia's two great economic powerhouses.
This month the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe pledged about US$32 billion to Africa over the next five years, raising the stakes in its intensifying competition with Beijing.
It seems a massive sum, but not when you compare it with the $138.6bn in annual trade between China and Africa - or about five times the value of Japanese trade with the continent. There is clearly a lot of ground to be made up, some pacing to be done and many lunches to be bought if the Japanese hare is not to run out of puff somewhere between Cape Town and Algiers.
They say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But in Swaziland in 1993, there was - as long as you liked Chinese food. The Japanese, playing 20-year catch-up, may find sushi proves more of an acquired taste in Africa.
scronin@thenational.ae
Aston martin DBX specs
Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Top speed: 291kph
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: Q2, 2020
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Drivers’ championship standings after Singapore:
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - 263
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - 235
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - 212
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - 162
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari - 138
6. Sergio Perez, Force India - 68
Ramy%3A%20Season%203%2C%20Episode%201
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Results
5pm: Wadi Nagab – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,200m; Winner: Al Falaq, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
5.30pm: Wadi Sidr – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: AF Majalis, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: AF Fakhama, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
6.30pm: Wadi Shees – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Mutaqadim, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 – Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Bahar Muscat, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Wadi Tayyibah – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Poster Paint, Patrick Cosgrave, Bhupat Seemar
ORDER OF PLAY ON SHOW COURTS
Centre Court - 4pm (UAE)
Gael Monfils (15) v Kyle Edmund
Karolina Pliskova (3) v Magdalena Rybarikova
Dusan Lajovic v Roger Federer (3)
Court 1 - 4pm
Adam Pavlasek v Novak Djokovic (2)
Dominic Thiem (8) v Gilles Simon
Angelique Kerber (1) v Kirsten Flipkens
Court 2 - 2.30pm
Grigor Dimitrov (13) v Marcos Baghdatis
Agnieszka Radwanska (9) v Christina McHale
Milos Raonic (6) v Mikhail Youzhny
Tsvetana Pironkova v Caroline Wozniacki (5)
THE 12 BREAKAWAY CLUBS
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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The biog
Born: near Sialkot, Pakistan, 1981
Profession: Driver
Family: wife, son (11), daughter (8)
Favourite drink: chai karak
Favourite place in Dubai: The neighbourhood of Khawaneej. “When I see the old houses over there, near the date palms, I can be reminded of my old times. If I don’t go down I cannot recall my old times.”