Chapter 523 Drought
According to this principle, East Africa can be regarded as a pseudo-power. It can be regarded as a great power in front of ordinary countries, but not in the face of the countries above.
This situation is similar to that of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. In fact, the Far Eastern Empire and the United States can be regarded as two new superpowers confronting each other, and they can be regarded as a unique country. However, some indicators of the Far Eastern Empire do not meet the standards.
…
December 3, 1879.
“Your Highness, according to our archives, the total number of immigrants to East Africa is more than 14.6 million, and the number of black slaves registered is more than 13 million.”
"These are only part of the records in the archives, and they can be used as a reference for East African population data. Of course, they are very different from the actual East African population data. For example, there are no statistics on the newly born population and the population lost due to diseases and wars. Inside.”
“Moreover, there are still a lot of discrepancies in the archives caused by loss and recording errors. After all, some archives are damaged for various reasons due to their age. This makes our work more difficult.”
In this way, Ernst has a general understanding of the population data of East Africa. The number of immigrants alone has reached about 15 million. In the end, without counting black people, East Africa should have doubled or tripled, almost three times. Ten million to more than 40 million levels.
As for the number of black people, it cannot be ignored. The number of black people counted a few years ago was 22 million. East Africa has sent out almost more than 3 million people in these years, so the current number of black people in East Africa should be close to 20 million, not less than 20 million.
Among the less than 20 million black people, there are also 13 million registered black "laborers" in East Africa, which further illustrates the nature of the East African slave empire.
Ernst asked: "Approximately when will your statistics be completed?"
“It will almost take until March next year. After all, the amount of this project is still quite large. We need the cooperation of governments at all levels and a lot of calculations and reviews before we can finally get the results.” Von der Leyen said.
Demography is not an easy task. The population data that von der Leyen provided to Ernst is the easiest to obtain. After all, how many immigrants came to East Africa, and how many slaves were summoned and sold in East Africa each time. East Africa is full of Registered.
This is the same as settling accounts. East Africa also has account books and has a rough calculation of the population of East Africa. After all, the number of immigrants and slaves is fixed, so every time the number of immigrants in East Africa is entered into the account, it will be added to the total in time.
However, this method can only count the number of immigrants who came to East Africa. As for the number of immigrants who came to East Africa, it is not clear. After all, immigrating to East Africa is risky. After arriving in East Africa, there are no people who died unexpectedly due to acclimatization, disease and other reasons. few.
“Well, you don’t have to rush your work, but it must be accurate, especially when counting the population, and you must strictly prevent some people from hiding the population.” Ernst emphasized.
It is not impossible for a country like East Africa to have a hidden population. The hidden population is actually black households. In fact, the largest number of black households may be black people. East Africa is a slave country, and enjoying the benefits brought by slavery, it is inevitable that some For the sake of local development, or laziness, the local area secretly increases the number of slaves. These slaves are "laborers" that are not officially recognized in East Africa and are illegal.
Ernst took a sip of tea and said: "Don't worry about offending anyone. If you are a black person, it means there is no big problem. However, for the sake of fairness, those black people who are hiding will be redistributed by the government."
This is the difference between local government and the central government. Local government takes some extraordinary actions in order to complete its tasks and its own interests, but the central government must crack down severely on this phenomenon. However, Ernst was relatively tolerant of the local government's attitude towards hiding black slaves in many places and could let things go by the wayside. This was because black people had no human rights and could only admit themselves to be unlucky.
“How advanced is the drought now?” Ernst asked.
“The current drought in the eastern coastal plain is within our control, but the situation in plateau dry farming areas is not very good. However, because drought-tolerant crops are mainly grown, the situation is not too bad.”
Von der Leyen continued: "In the coastal plain grain-producing areas, due to the construction of water conservancy facilities in recent years, the reservoirs and irrigation systems we built have played a huge role in combating drought. Fortunately, we have filled the large and small reservoirs with water during the long rainy season. So agricultural irrigation work can now be ensured in a timely manner.”
“However, because the long rainy season is followed by the dry season, we also have water needs. The dry season after the long rainy season lasts for about four to five months. During this period, the reservoir has been in a state of releasing water, and the storage capacity has been reduced by about 20%.”
"When the light rainy season comes, the reservoir will only have 60 to 70 percent of its capacity due to water use and losses. After all, this drought is a special situation, so it has put some pressure on our work, but as long as we persist until March next year , the situation should be greatly alleviated.”
“As for plateau grain-producing areas, the biggest problem is that water conservancy construction has caused some confusion, so the situation is worse than in the coastal plains.”
The construction of water conservancy projects will inevitably affect the original natural form and have a certain impact on wetland ecosystems such as rivers and lakes. This is why the problems in plateau grain-producing areas are greater than those in the eastern coastal plains.
However, when it comes to transforming the East African environment, we naturally cannot care too much about the gains and losses in some details. If things remain unchanged, there will be no need for human society to exist. It would be better to go back to the trees and be a monkey.
So Ernst said to his subordinates: "The water conservancy construction will definitely have a certain negative impact on us in the short term, but the overall benefits once completed are what I really value, so the water conservancy construction must be steadily advanced, which may even affect The development of East African agriculture over the next hundred years.”
Von der Leyen felt a little baffled by Ernst's words. Water conservancy construction is naturally a good thing, but listening to His Highness's wishes can actually be harmful.
After all, we are not thinking about issues in the same era. Ernst’s idea of considering environmental issues would naturally be out of place in the 19th century. Human beings in the 19th century were quite confident and had the belief that “man can conquer nature” firmly imprinted in their minds. Here, this is the huge impact of the Industrial Revolution on human thinking.
In fact, in the 20th century, humans began to think about how to live in harmony with nature again, because conquering nature is an unreachable thing. It is useless to just believe that "man can conquer nature". The more science and technology develops, the more opportunities humans have to discover their own advantages in the face of nature. Small.
But in the 21st century, the crooked path of "environmentalism" has emerged. Of course, Ernst is referring to extreme environmentalism. In the past, people believed in science, but in the 21st century, many people have begun to question science.
So social thinking will adapt to the development of the times, and the human mind is not as strong as imagined. When the overall society encounters a slight setback, it is easy to go to extremes.
The 19th century was an era of great development. At least in the Western world, humans were psychologically satisfied, confident and optimistic. This made it easy to ignore some of the problems and drawbacks that would exist in the future. Ernst wanted to deal with this. East Africa of the times checks and fills the gaps.
(End of this chapter)