Empire of Dust (2011) review

The Chinese government is in the Congo in order to ra― ... sorry, mine for materials there (ahem) but Lao Yang, who works for the Chinese Railway Engineering Company and is supposed to help rebuild a road there (with Eddy there as his 'translator') is frustrated by the constant problems that come up: unmotivated workers, materials being stolen, equipment being broken, being sold sick chickens for food, a lack of gravel, etc.  I'm not sure if Van Paesschen wanted to be objective or not (?), but this is anything but: from Yang's point-of-view, he's plagued by a lack of efficiency, clueless locals who just stand around or don't know how to use the machinery (or ruin it), government officials not fulfilling promises ... but if you look at it from the side of the Congolese, here's another petulant superpower coming in and telling you what to do (would you willingly work as a slave for another culture?).  The director is Belgian, so he should have some awareness of the abuses perpetuated by his own country in the African nation decades prior, and he still sides with Yang, who views the locals with total contempt.  Yes, he is correct in that the Congolese haven't exactly done much in terms of infrastructure and modernization - that is on them, sadly - but China isn't exactly without problems, either: overpopulation, pollution, an artificially inflated economy, censorship, political corruption and so on.  Everyone everywhere has issues: try to get along, you know?