Chapter 373 The pot calling the kettle black
It didn't take long to reach Soga via the First Railway, and Ernst and his party arrived in Soga before dark. Soga was still under construction, the southern urban area had been completed, and the National Library was built in the south of the center of Soga.
The Sauga National Library is even larger than the Habsburg Royal Library in Austria, the largest library in Germany. It is also dominated by Baroque style, covers an area of 5 hectares and has a total construction area of 39,500 square meters. The 30,000 sets of books that Ernst brought this time were not enough to fill the gaps in his teeth.
Ernst attached great importance to the planning of Soga. At present, the three cities in the Central Province, the First Town City, Dar es Salaam City and Bagamoyo City, are each other's support cities. However, Dar es Salaam City is geographically located to the south of Bagamoyo City and the First Town City. Therefore, when looking at Dar es Salaam City on the map, it always feels that its west side is empty.
The First Town is the political and cultural center of East Africa, Dar es Salaam is the economic center of Central Province, and Bagamoyo is the shipbuilding center of East Africa, each with its own strengths. So Ernst felt that the Central Province still lacked a scientific research center, which was the fundamental reason for the construction of Soga City.
Although Soga City is not in use now, it is better to build it first so as not to be in a hurry to recruit talents in East Africa in the future. Although the education in East Africa has not caught up, the economic crisis is imminent. Ernst believes that East Africa can recruit some talents to develop in East Africa during the economic crisis.
Soga plays the role of settling talents. Ernst believes that science and technology can only play a greater role when they are concentrated. Scientists and inventors living in a city can communicate with each other at any time, inspire inspiration, and correct mistakes.
Therefore, the construction of Soga is carried out according to the highest standards, which are not inferior to the first town in the capital, so that talents who will come to live in East Africa in the future will feel at home.
The first is the living environment. Soga can be called a garden city. There are parks of all sizes scattered throughout the urban area. And because it is located in the tropics, Soga will be full of flowers and green trees all year round.
There is nothing special about the climate. It is relatively stable, with no winter and the climate hovering between spring and summer. In the rainy season, we have to deal with heavy rains that may occur at any time. However, the drainage facilities are quite complete and it is close to the sea, so there is no need to worry too much.
Road construction adopts the highest standards. Now it is mainly brick and stone roads, but the width has reached the standards of later generations. Green belts are also used, which makes the project huge and facilitates the replacement of asphalt roads in the future. This is the main road, and there is a specially designed pedestrian path. Ernst even reserved a motorcycle lane, but the construction workers did not know the purpose of designing an extra lane. The pedestrian path can be explained, and the motorcycle lane is no different from most urban roads in Europe.
The current road design in Europe is very crude. It is just a road with pedestrians, carriages, livestock and everything else crowded together. The divisions are not detailed and the roads are not wide. Even Paris and London do not have such exaggerated urban road construction as East Africa. In the eyes of designers, it is completely extravagant and wasteful. This is why the city of Soga is called Ernst's big toy.
Secondly, Soga City is very convenient for gathering talents. After the opening of the railway, it is less than half an hour away from Dar es Salaam, which is conducive to their travel between Europe and East Africa.
This is very important. If they are not talents trained in East Africa, they will have a great need to travel around the world, including going home to visit relatives, foreign academic exchanges, business trips, and even leaving East Africa after finding a new job. Ernst cannot tie them up in East Africa with a rope.
During the economic crisis, when the employment environment was not ideal, the talents recruited were definitely not their first choice, but they had to go to East Africa for development due to the pressure of life.
Whether East Africa can retain their hearts depends on its sincerity. After all, Africa is synonymous with backwardness, and talents have always flowed to economically developed regions.
Here, Ernst thought that Hefei in the previous life did a very good job, and it was a very important decision to keep USTC in Hefei. According to the layout of Far East Education in the previous life, a country like Anhui had no advantages, after all, it was next to Jinling, and the role of Jinling was to concentrate educational resources in the region, just like Xi'an and Wuhan.
Ernst was very satisfied with the urban construction of Soga, which was a very important step, so he asked his subordinates: "If you were given the choice of living in Soga, would you consider it?"
"Your Highness, if we only consider the environment and transportation, I think there is no city in Europe or the world that is far better than Soga. However, whether Soga can attract people to settle here must first consider the employment issue. Without jobs, there is no source of income, and no one will stay here. Secondly, the hardware facilities of a city. Soga has done very well in this regard, even a little excessively wasteful, but wider roads are not a bad thing. Then there is the climate, which Soga is not bad in this regard. Finally, when living in a place, you have to consider the city's business environment, safety, entertainment facilities, overall citizen atmosphere, and urban culture, etc."
Ernst was very satisfied with this answer, and he continued to ask: "Do you think Soga has any shortcomings?"
"As for the shortcomings, we can't see anything now. After all, this city is still an empty city. What it is like will only be revealed after people come in and live there for a period of time. But, Your Highness, what is the purpose of building this city? I have never been able to figure this out."
Ernst: "You will know the answer to this question in two years. I can only say that Soga City is of great use to East Africa. In your evaluation of Soga City's construction, I noticed the problem of excessive waste. What I want to say is that urban development is changing with each passing day. Now it seems that Soga is a little ahead of its time, but it may not be the case in the future. Think about Paris. It was like this in the past. At that time, many Parisians believed that Napoleon III built a lot of buildings for the sake of face. There was indeed such a reason, but now Paris is a model for transformation all over the world. I think Paris may be replaced by some cities in North America in another 20 or 30 years. It doesn't matter if Soga City starts from a higher point."
"Your Highness is right. Anyway, there are more natives in Africa than ever before, so it doesn't matter if we build more large projects. Besides, this is not Europe. European cities have long been built, and any changes require more consideration than in East Africa. East Africa is a blank sheet of paper, and we can realize our imagination more freely."
The indigenous people made great efforts in the construction of Soga City, and the city was built in a very short time. However, it was much more difficult than the urban reconstruction of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam still retains many previous buildings, including the Zanzibar Palace which was converted into a luxury hotel, while Soga was completely built from scratch.
When he thought of this, Ernst suddenly felt a little bit of pain in his conscience. Before, he didn't mind it when he didn't see it in Europe, but when he came to Africa, he became pretentious and tried hard to suppress the idea of "sympathy" in his heart.
Ernst said: "East Africa's construction cannot be separated from the indigenous people. It is very important for East Africa to use the indigenous people reasonably. There is no need to kill them all like the United States did to the Indians. When some indigenous people reach the end of their lives, we need to find a good next home for them. After all, they have worked for East Africa for so many years, whether it is farming, working on construction sites, digging canals, or building roads. We have also taught them some means of survival in modern society. In the future, they will be able to find some friends to survive when they leave East Africa."
"Your Highness, you are still too kind, but this is also the difference between us Germans and North American animals." He said with a rather proud expression.
What are you so proud of? The pot calling the kettle black when you take fifty steps, at least East Africa has fifty steps less! However, Ernst did not say much. Times are like this. Even if East Africa takes only fifty steps less, it is much better than the Americans. The good ones cannot compare with the Americans, but the Americans still win in terms of the bad ones.
(End of this chapter)
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