next disaster, have China do the rebuilding

The U.S. Congress should re-evaluate the wisdom of dumping billions
of dollars into the hands of private companies sucking money from
the rebuilding of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. For a mere
$3.5 billion, Chinese contractors are building a completely new town
in the African country of Angola.

A Chinese firm has begun building a satellite town for the Angolan
capital of Luanda that will house more than 200,000, in the largest
project of its kind that China has ever contracted abroad. The
groundbreaking ceremony, in what is now a rural area, took place
Aug. 31. According to Chang Zhenming, general manager of the China
International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), the project
will offer more than 10,000 jobs to local labor. Angola has an
unemployment rate of 65 percent.

When the project is complete in 2011, the new town will have
20,000 apartments, 24 kindergartens, and 17 primary and middle
schools, as well as power transformer stations, water supply
stations, sewage treatment plants, and related infrastructure.