COMRADELY IMPERIALISM
China's winning approach to African investment

Many African decision-makers see their relationships with Europe as recipients of aid, rather than as equal partners on the ground, according to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. DW examines why this gives China an edge.


This expressway in Nairobi, Kenya was built by a Chinese state-owned company

The Nairobi Expressway winds through the metropolis like a giant river on stilts. It stretches over 27 kilometers (17 miles) through the heart of the Kenyan capital and connects the West African country's most important airport with Nairobi's central business district, the National Museum and the Presidential Palace.

Construction under the aegis of China took only two years. Now the toll road is helping to relieve the city's congested traffic arteries.

China's state-owned companies are increasingly ahead of their European competitors with swift decisions and speedy implementation of contracts in Africa. That's according to a study published in June by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, a German organization for liberal and libertarian politics. The foundation is affiliated with Germany's Free Democratic Party, currently in a coalition government with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

IS ZAMBIA SLOWLY BECOMING CHINESE?
Railway of friendship
When the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) project was completed in 1976, it was China's largest single foreign-aid package and a symbol of Beijing's support for newly independent African countries. China dispatched nearly 50,000 engineering and technical personnel to work on TAZARA. However, this mighty project has been waning since the late 1990s. Now the train transports more copper than people.
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Europe exports values

More than 1,600 decision-makers from 25 countries were surveyed, including top managers, employees of NGOs and civil servants.

Their answers paint a picture of a Europe that seeks above all to export its values to Africa, while loans, excavators and workers come from China.

"The Clash of Systems" is how the foundation describes the results of the online survey conducted by Kenya's Inter Region Economic Network think tank.

China also financed a railway that was launched in 2019

Europeans are perceived by decision-makers as having an edge on most performance indicators, according to Stefan Schott, a project manager for East Africa and the Global Partnership Hub at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Social standards, the provision of jobs for locals, environmental standards and the quality of products stand out, he said.

On a list of 17 criteria, Chinese companies come out ahead on only four indicators — they make decisions more quickly, implement projects faster, interfere less in internal affairs and have fewer qualms about using corruption.

UGANDA: A BATTLE FOR SACRED LANDS AS NATURE WINS NEW RIGHTS
Guardians of the land
Alon Kiiza, an elder of the area's Indigenous Bagungu community, lives in the rural Buliisa district at the epicenter of this ongoing, foreign-led scramble for the continent's natural resources. The 88-year-old is among many there watching the industrial hubbub with concern. "Drilling for oil will disturb the ecosystem," he said. "The spirit of the land does not connect well with these machines."
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'Paternalistic behavior' a problem

"Obviously, these are the most important factors; there is no other way to explain the success of the Chinese in Africa," Schott said in an interview with DW.

Europeans would have to draw their conclusions from this. It also affects their reputation for imposing regulations, he said.

"The paternalistic behavior of the Europeans is a problem; the Africans have difficulties with that," Schott emphasized.

Watch video03:28
Is China Africa's new colonial power?

In view of this realization, what is the recommendation for German and European Africa policy?

"We would never advise throwing the European values of democracy, human rights, sustainability overboard. That would damage Europe's position," said Schott.

But countries would have to examine whether one should approach conditions in Africa with European standards.

"If the best standards are so high that the Chinese always receive the bid for business, you haven't done any good for the social situation," he said.

The European Union talks about values, he said, but if a constructed road leads to a village, that's also a value.
A European investment bank for Africa?

Schott also brought up the idea of a European investment bank, with a mandate for quick decisions. To facilitate this speed, all 27 EU member states would not have to be consulted in advance.

The partnership at eye level, which European politicians like to emphasize, must definitely be examined.

"The survey participants don't see that, but rather perceive Africa as an aid recipient," Schott added.


The EU wants to invest in Africa — but puts strong values on good governance before any finances are agreed

For James Shikwati, a Kenyan economist and co-author of the study, this is precisely the crux of the matter: Europeans are stuck in their outdated view of Africa, Shikwati told DW.

They dictate to Africans what they need and are trapped in their own value system, which holds them back. Europe emphasizes governance, while the Chinese focus on "hardware," the concrete infrastructure to touch.

"They ask: Which road should be built from where to where? But the Europeans first check how many insects walk over it," said Shikwati, laughing. "It doesn't work that way in Africa," he added.
Rethinking required on both sides

Europe needs to tailor its investment plans and approaches to engagement to specific regions and manage them flexibly, he said.

For Africa, that means offering competitive and strategically focused policies rather than fighting existing ones, Shikwati added.

That's the old Europe, he said, but what's needed is a new way of thinking. "It's not just about migrants coming from Africa, but the incentive should be the huge opportunities that exist in Africa for investment and development."

Only 4% of Chinese investment flows to Africa, the economist said. The rest goes to the United States, Europe and other regions.

But that 4% has produced a lot in poor African countries in just under 20 years — while consolidating China's influence as the continent's most important trading partner.

How many elections a government holds and how human rights are respected is important, Shikwati stressed.

However, this will not bring about a major turnaround for African countries.

This article was originally published in German

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA+AFRICA

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA+IMPERIALISM

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA+STATE+CAPITALISM

Bukharin on State Capitalism and Imperialism | Leftcom

https://www.leftcom.org/.../2020-08-21/bukharin-on-state-capitalism-and-imperialism

2020-08-21 · As we have already noted, for Bukharin, imperialism and state capitalism were linked to militarism and the inevitability of more wars. As he says in the article which follows, …

• Estimated Reading Time: 14 mins

Joseph Schumpeter, State Imperialism and Capitalism (1919)

panarchy.org/schumpeter/imperialism.html

Imperialism is not seen as the most advanced stage of capitalism but as the clear sign that pre-capitalistic (i.e. feudal) aspects survive in capitalism. This results from the subservience of …

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Reading …

https://www.socialistrevolution.org/imperialism-the-highest-stage-of-capitalism-a...

2022-02-02 · Lenin has already explained that imperialism is not a feature or attitude of capitalism: it is the highest state of capitalism itself, an inevitable outcome of free …

China’s State Capitalist Imperialism | Socialist Alternative

https://www.socialistalternative.org/2021/05/09/chinas-state...

2021-05-09 · US imperialism was the leader of the capitalist bloc following WW2, in a Cold War against primarily the Soviet Union, but also China. The latter two were non-capitalist bureaucratically planned economies ruled dictatorially by …

Imperialism and the Final Stage of “Capitalism” - Liberal Currents

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/imperialism-and-the-final-stage-of-capitalism

2018-05-10 · The idea that imperialism was a natural part of the internal “logic of capitalism

 

PLO Lumumba | Why Africa is Attractive To China | China Is Africa's New Colonial Master | Part 1

Jun 7, 2020

Africa Web TV

China is Africa's new colonial master according to PLO Lumumba. He is a staunch Pan-Africanist who has delivered several powerful speeches alluding to or about African solutions to African problems.  Lumumba is the director of The Kenya School of Laws. 

He is an admirer of Patrice Lumumba and Thomas Sankara, the deceased and assassinated revolutionary leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burkina Faso, respectively. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba has referred to and quoted them several times in his speeches.

This speech on how to make Africa work was delivered in Ghana in 2019.

0:00 Africa is Attractive

2:48 Globalisation

6:45 Africa can be great again

10:54 New threats 

12:50 Learning from China

14:42 China taking over African minds

16:20 Africa agenda 2063

21:01 African leaders

 Part 2 is here - https://youtu.be/EgsiZO_8xE8

A solar storm is coming. Should we be worried?

Is the upcoming solar storm going to wipe out our internet infrastructure?

A solar storm is headed toward Earth later this week

Earth is set to experience a solar storm on Thursday and Friday, a week after undergoing what some scientists have dubbed a "sun burp" — also known as a "coronal mass ejection."

If you live close to the Northern or Southern Hemispheres, you might be able to see the northern lights sometime over the next two days, and the Earth could experience some minor geomagnetic effects.

The intensity of solar storms are classified into five levels by the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): G1-G5. The G stands for the geomagnetic effects triggered by the plasma cloud. Level 5 corresponds to a very strong effect, while level 1 corresponds to a "minor" effect.

The current solar storm is classified as G1, according to the NOAA. Most will hardly notice — only a few will register it as a luminous natural spectacle.

In other words, the world isn't going to end anytime soon, even if some news reports make it sound that way. Every now and then a solar storm rushes to Earth, prompting a barrage of articles warning about potential disruption of the global power supply and phone and satellite communication.

These claims can be overhyped. But it would be a mistake to fully dismiss them as mere alarmism.

Solar storms make northern lights, like these pictured in Norway,

 much easier to detect in the night sky

Peak in 2025

The sun is on 11-year solar cycles. The current one will peak in 2025, scientists say, by which time flares will be more intense and extreme.

This could be cause for some concern. Our existing internet communication structure is vulnerable to violent solar storms, according to a 2021 University of California-Irvine study.

According to author Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, if a particularly strong solar storm crashed into the Earth, it would have the power to not only disrupt power grids and satellites, but also to paralyze the internet long term. She said our internet infrastructure is not designed to withstand severe solar storms.

Communication via unprotected satellites (like GPS navigation systems) and undersea cable repeaters, which are installed every 50 to 150 kilometers to amplify communication signals over long connection routes, is especially vulnerable. A very strong electromagnetic interference could completely paralyze the sensitive system.

And should the internet go down for just one day in the United States, the damage would be an estimated $7 billion (€6.9 billion) in the US alone.

What happens during a solar storm?

During a solar storm, the sun ejects large amounts of electrons and protons, causing a cloud of cosmic rays to fly toward the Earth.

By deforming the Earth's magnetic field, solar storms amplify the polar lights visible on the edges of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The charged particles of the solar wind are derived from the Earth's magnetic field and flow along the field lines to the Earth's poles, where they cause light bands or arcs of different colors north or south of the polar circles.

Earth hasn't seen the full impact of solar storms

As early as 1843, astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe discovered that solar activity follows certain cycles, peaking about every 11 years.

The strongest solar storm measured on Earth to date was the so-called Carrington Event in 1859, when the arrival of the charged particles caused failures in North American and European telegraph networks and polar lights could be observed as far as Rome and Hawaii.

More than a hundred years later, in March 1989, a solar storm in the Canadian province of Quebec paralyzed the entire power grid. Flashovers in electrical distribution systems left some 6 million people sitting in the dark for nine hours.

Studies say Earth has not yet seen a massive solar storm with the ability 

to seriously impact our telecoms infrastructure

In July 2012, an extremely powerful "Carrington"-caliber solar storm narrowly missed Earth, according to NASA.

"If the solar flare had happened just a week earlier, Earth would have been right in the line of fire," the NASA study said.

Suggestions for a more robust internet

Today, an eruption like the Carrington Event could paralyze the digital infrastructure in large parts of the world within a few minutes. For months, if not years, Jyothi estimates, large areas would be without communications and power supply.

Jyothi also provides concrete suggestions on how the internet infrastructure could be made more robust. One possibility, she said, would be to shift the internet infrastructure to the south, for example to Central and South America, because the northern latitudes are more susceptible to solar storms.

She also suggests shorter and therefore more resilient internet connections, such as in Europe and Asia, and the implementation of additional overhead cables, which are less vulnerable than long submarine cables requiring many repeaters.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Heat waves: What are the alternatives to air conditioning?

As climate change exacerbates heat waves, more and more people rely on energy-guzzling air conditioners to keep cool — a vicious cycle. Experts say passive cooling could alleviate some of the pressure.

Air conditioning is ubiquitous in some parts of the world — but there are better options

Kuwaiti summers are oppressive. Baking heat radiates from every corner of the city, making even the lightest of exercise excruciating. That is, unless you are lucky enough to live in an air-conditioned bubble. 

"In Kuwait, you're in your air-conditioned apartment or your air-conditioned car to go to your air-conditioned place of work or the air-conditioned mall," said Alexander Nasir, who used to live in the Gulf nation. "Of course it was absolutely atrocious for the environment, but it was the only way to avoid the inferno outside."

Nasir moved to Berlin in 2014, but he hasn't been able to escape sweltering temperatures. Though the German capital has much milder summers, he has already experienced heat waves of up to 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) — temperatures that felt more intense because German homes are rarely air-conditioned.  

"I can't and don't want to resort to AC again," he said. "But it's getting worse every year and we're not really adapting." 

Many Kuwaitis spend their summers in an air-conditioned bubble

Demand for space cooling is soaring 

The climate crisis has made heat waves more likely and more intense around the world. Even in 2018, the use of air conditioners and electric fans made up 10% of global electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency.

And that although air conditioners were only widespread in a few countries like Japan and the United States — where more than 90% of households have them — and only available to 8% of people in the hottest parts of the world. 
 
But as the summers get hotter demand for space cooling is soaring, especially in emerging economies. Electricity demand could more than triple by 2050, using as much energy as all of China and India today just to cool buildings.  

To break out of this loop, scientists point to passive cooling strategies that control the temperature using little to no energy. 

"Passive cooling is so promising because it's less expensive, it averts intensification of urban heat island effects, it increases survivability by diminishing reliance on air conditioning," said Alexandra Rempel, assistant professor of environmental design at University of Oregon in the US. "It also takes pressure off the electrical grid."

Demand for space cooling technologies like air conditioners is skyrocketing

Simple solutions for increased cooling 

In Mediterranean climates, surviving extreme heat can be as simple as opening the windows at night to let in cool air and drawing the shades when the sun hits the window during the day.  

Rempel authored a study that found natural ventilation and shading alone can lower indoor temperatures by about 14 degrees Celsius and reduce the load on air conditioners by up to 80%. The study made these simulations using data from a 2021 heat wave that killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest region, usually known for its mild weather.  

Old cooling tricks can make a significant difference if they are communicated properly and facilitated, according to Rempel. This shows the Pacific Northwest, one of the few US regions where air conditioners aren't yet ubiquitous, can avoid adopting air conditioning or at least minimize it even as extreme heat becomes more likely, she said.

Wind catchers are very common in the Iranian city of Yazd

Designing buildings to be more energy efficient 

Passive cooling can also be integrated into a building's design. Some methods, such as wind catchers in North Africa and the Middle East, have been staving off heat for centuries.

These towers with open windows are positioned on top of buildings and, as the name suggests, are made to "catch" the wind. They direct the fresh air indoors and push the warm air back out through the tower. Though traditional wind catchers are largely out of use, commercial models using the same technology can be used in modern buildings.

Other features that help keep buildings bearable include louvered shading devices that block out the sun, double glazing that limits the amount of heat gained or lost through windows and water fountains that lower the air temperatures through evaporative cooling.  

Residential buildings in the United Arab Emirates could reduce their annual energy consumption by more than 20% through the use of passive cooling, according to a study by the British University in Dubai that looked at eight strategies. 

The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco is an example of a building that made air conditioning a last resort. With its insulating green roof, louvers that open and close throughout the day and a ventilation system that makes use of natural air currents, the structure puts passive cooling at the forefront.

Medellin's 'green corridors' have reduced average temperatures in the Colombian city

What about the outside? 

But passive cooling isn't only about directly lowering indoor temperatures — it's also about reducing surface temperatures on the buildings and surrounding areas. Because it's not easy to stay cool in concrete jungles with little shade. 

"When the streets and sidewalks are just basking in heat all day, those materials are perfect thermal storage mass and continue to radiate heat back to the environment all night," said Rempel. "So that takes away some of the night ventilation resources and makes air conditioners work harder."

The solution to that is straightforward: more trees, more shade. In Medellin, Colombia, authorities have planted so-called "green corridors," vegetated passages keeping pedestrians and cyclists out of the direct sun. They have helped reduce the city's average temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius.  

Japan's capital, Tokyo, has also introduced pavements that stay cool with an insulating coating. And in tropical Singapore, dense vegetation on some skyscraper facades keeps them from heating up as much.

"By having at least 10 meters of greenery on the front of your buildings, you can reduce the surface temperature by 5 degrees Celsius," Ayu Sukma Adelia, an architect from the Cooling Singapore Research Project, told DW's Global 3000. 

For Nasir, who was dealing with another particularly hot day in Berlin, the idea of passive cooling sounds appealing.

"I welcome any solution so I don't have to sweat anymore," he said as he sat in a dark room and sprayed himself with water. 

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

Trump 2024 comeback would 'solve all of Russia's problems'

Although Russia may be bluffing with its new offensive, it's crucial for Western cohesion that Ukraine retake its south — particularly if Donald Trump were to make a comeback, says political scientist Francis Fukuyama.

Francis Fukuyama is best known for his book 'The End of History and the Last Man'

Francis Fukuyama is best known for his book "The End of History and the Last Man," where he argues that liberal democracy and free-market capitalism are the final point of society's evolution.

At the end of June, Russian authorities banned the American political scientist and philosopher from entering Russia. DW spoke with him just days after he joined the advisory board for Anti-Corruption Foundation International, newly formed by imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.

DW: You are now on the entry ban list in Russia.How do you feel about being on this list?

Francis Fukuyama: I regard being on the list as an honor. All the important foreign critics of Russia and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have been put on the list, and I was actually wondering why it took them so long to get to me.

Months before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, young political scientist 

Francis Fukuyama declared 'the end of history'

Why did you recently join the board of the Anti-Corruption Foundation?

I am a great admirer of Alexei Navalny, I met him in Warsaw in 2019. Corruption is a very great problem in Russia and around the world, and I am very happy to support his foundation in any way possible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said, "We have only just begun," referring to the war in Ukraine. Is he bluffing?

I think he's lying, as he is about many things. Western military analysts who have looked at the Russian force posture have noted that right now, Russia is experiencing a very severe manpower shortage. They've also lost perhaps a third of all of the forces that they originally massed to defeat Ukraine. Estimates of Russian casualties are uncertain, but it's possibly 20,000 dead and maybe 60,000 wounded. With prisoners on top of that. And for a country the size of Russia, that's really pretty much a military disaster.

So I think that actually, given that the Russians have only made very marginal gains in the two months since they started focusing on Donbas, I don't think they've got a lot in reserve, and I think that Putin is bluffing when he says that they haven't even started.

What do you think might be a successful strategy for Ukraine?

The most realistic strategy at this point is to focus on the south, to reopen Ukraine's access to the Black Sea by retaking Kherson and other ports on the Sea of Azov. That's more important than the Donbas. I think retaking the Donbas is going to be quite difficult to accomplish in the next few months. But by the end of the summer, you could see some real progress in the south. It's really, really important for Ukraine to recover that access, so that it can resume exports of all of its agricultural commodities out of its Black Sea ports and to break the Russian blockade of Odesa.

How could the situation change if Donald Trump were to be reelected as US president?

If Donald Trump makes a comeback in 2024, that solves all of Russia's problems because he's apparently committed to pulling the US out of NATO. Russia will have achieved its major objectives simply by this change in American politics. And that's why I think it is really important that Ukraine make some progress and regain military momentum over the summer, because unity in the West really depends on people believing that there is a military solution to the problem in the near term.

If they feel that we're simply facing an extended stalemate that's going to go on forever, then I think the unity will start breaking, and there'll be more calls for Ukraine to give up territory in order to stop the war.

How do you see Russia in a broader global perspective? What kind of political regime is it?

More than anything else, it actually resembles Nazi Germany at this point. Its only ideology is a kind of extreme nationalism, but even less developed than that of the Nazis. It's also a very poorly institutionalized regime. It really revolves around one man, Vladimir Putin, who really controls all of the big levers of power.

Many believe the January 6 investigation will damage Trump enough to prevent reelection in 2024

If you compare it to China, they're very, very different. China has a big Communist Party with 90 million members, it has a lot of internal discipline. In Russia's case, you don't have that kind of institutionalization.

So I don't think it's a stable regime. I don't think it has a clear ideology that it can project outwards. I think that the people that align with it are simply people who don't like the West for different reasons.

After 30 years, do you have an update on your concept of the end of history?

We're in a different situation than we were 30 years ago, where there have been setbacks to democracy across the board, including in the United States and India and other big democratic countries over the last few years. But the progress of history has never been linear. We had huge setbacks in the 1930s that we survived. We had another set of setbacks in the 1970s, with the oil crisis and inflation in many parts of the world. So the idea of historical progress is not dead.

Sometimes you do have setbacks, but the underlying institutions and ideas are strong and they've survived over a very long period of time, and I expect them to continue to survive.

Is the war in Ukraine and other burning political crises overshadowing the more global, and more dangerous, climate crisis?

Obviously, short-term energy needs have led to a revival of fossil fuels and slowed down the progress toward reducing carbon emissions. But it is a temporary setback. And I think both of these issues have to be dealt with, it's not a choice of one or the other. You're really going to have to take both of them seriously.

But the climate crisis is a slowly unfolding one that will continue to be with us for the next generations. And so I don't think the fact that we're going backwards right now is necessarily the final position we will end up in.

Francis Fukuyama is political scientist at Stanford University in California.

The interview was conducted by Mikhail Bushuev, and it was condensed and edited for clarity by Sonya Diehn.

Mammals became warm-blooded later than thought: study

Being warm-blooded allowed mammals -- like this snow-covered deer -- to thrive in colder climates / © AFP/File

Author: AFP|Update: 20.07.2022 

The ancestors of mammals started to become warm-blooded around 20 million years later than previously thought, researchers suggested Wednesday, after analysing inner-ear fossils hoping to solve "one of the great unsolved mysteries of palaeontology".

Warm-bloodedness is one of the quintessential characteristics of mammals, along with fur, but exactly when they first evolved the feature has long been a subject of debate.

Previous research has indicated that the ancestors of mammals began evolving warm-bloodedness, or endothermy, around 252 million years ago -- around the time of the Permian extinction, known as the "Great Dying".

However figuring out the timeline has proved difficult.

"The problem is that you cannot stick thermometers in your fossils, so you cannot measure their body temperature," said Ricardo Araujo of the University of Lisbon, one of the authors of a new study in the journal Nature.

He was part of an international team of researchers that found a new way to determine how body heat changed throughout time, by examining the semicircular canals in the inner ears of 56 extinct species of mammal ancestors.

Fluid runs through the tiny ear canals, which help animals keep their balance.

The researchers realised that as body temperatures warmed up, so did the ear fluid.

Araujo gave the example of oil used to fry hot chips.

Before you warm the oil up, it is "very viscous, very dense," he told AFP.

"But then when you heat it up, you'll see that the oil is much runnier, it flows much more easily."

The runnier ear fluid led to animals evolving narrower canals -- which can be measured in fossils, allowing the researchers to track body temperature over time.

Unlike previous research on this subject, the team developed a model that not only works on extinct mammal ancestors, but also living mammals, including humans.

"It can look at your inner ear and tell you how warm-blooded you are -- that's how accurate the model is," lead study author Romain David of London's Natural History Museum told AFP.

Using the model, they traced the beginnings of warm-bloodedness to around 233 million ago, in the Late Triassic period.

- 'Not a gradual, slow process' -

Michael Benton, a palaeontologist at Britain's University of Bristol who was not involved in the study, said the new metric "seems to work well for a wide array of modern vertebrates".

"It doesn't just provide a yes-no answer, but actually scales the 'degree' of endothermy in terms of actual typical body setpoint temperature," he told AFP.

Benton, whose previous research had given the 252 million years date, said the transition to warm-bloodedness likely took place in stages, and "there were several significant prior steps before this semicircular canal switch".

Araujo said the new research suggested that warm-bloodedness came about simply and "very quickly in geological terms, in less than a million years".

"It was not a gradual, slow process over tens of millions of years as previously thought".

David said it seemed unlikely that warm-bloodedness would begin around the extinction event 252 million years ago, because global temperatures were extremely hot then.

That would have been a disadvantage for warm-blooded animals -- but they could have thrived as temperatures cooled in the following millions of years.

"Being an endotherm allows you to be more independent of the whims of the climate, to run faster, run longer, explore different habitats, explore the night, explore polar regions, make long migrations," Araujo said.

"There were a lot of innovations at the time that started to define what a mammal is -- but also ultimately what a human being would be."