Joseph didn't quite catch what Joe Ga said, but he gave a thumbs up in praise of the American-educated Xiao Hei's "foresight," then casually pointed to a girl with an afro sitting in front of him and asked, "You, what's your name?"
"OK, Enya, assuming the coal is in, what should we do next?"
Enya was taken aback and awkwardly looked down to check her phone, then chuckled and said, "Iron smelting requires pulverized coal and coke."
Joe Ga didn't call out the girl's embarrassment, he just gave a thumbs up and said, "You're right, the coal needs to be processed, so do we need a coke factory? Does this mean a lot of people will have jobs?"
Without waiting for Enya to respond, Joe Ga pointed to another young person and asked, "You, what's your name?"
"OK, Hasan, now we have iron ore and coke, what should we do next?"
Hasan nervously twined his hands together, thought for a long time, then stuttered, "We, we should build a steel plant, to smelt, smelt steel..."
Joe Ga didn't care about these so-called students' lack of basic knowledge; as long as they spoke up, he would give them a thumbs up to encourage them.
"OK, now we've turned the iron ore into steel, and now comes the most profitable part. Do you know what that is?"
Enya, who had been browsing on her phone, suddenly raised her hand excitedly like Hermione in a magic class and said, "I know, rolling steel, we need to transform the steel material into marketable products...
Rebar, structural steel, wire rod, sheet or coil, heavy plate...
Africa needs all these things everywhere!"
Joe Ga, seeing Enya's 'please praise me' expression, laughed and gave two thumbs up, then said, "What then? You missed the most crucial part."
As Joe Ga watched Enya start searching on her phone again, looking clueless after a long hunt, he smiled and said, "Stop looking, it's not there.
I'll tell you, when all this is successful, we will have made a fortune!"
Joseph finally started to realize something and looked at Joe Ga incredulously, saying, "We?"
Joa Ga spread his hands and said with a smile, "Of course, us. Did you, the local elites, really expect a foreigner like me to revitalize your steel industry?
I'm the owner of the iron mine; I'm only responsible for processing the iron ore into iron powder to sell to you, and then you take charge of turning it into more valuable steel materials. Then, through waterways and roads, you send it to Congo, Cameroon, Uganda, Chad...
You can exchange these steel materials for money!
You're getting rich, and at the same time, you can provide jobs for many people, and then they too will have money.
Once people have money, their demand for goods will grow, and then business will pick up.
They will buy clothes, shoes, cell phones, appliances. Do you understand what this means?
It means that you people, who got the news first, even if you just invest in real estate in the new Sangha Town, you can become millionaires.
Of course, I will be the biggest millionaire because I had the plan drawn up, and most of the land outside of Sangha Town is mine.
I will build many houses there for my miners to live in. With houses, they'll have families, dignity, salaries, and purchasing power. Their children will be the next generation.
Those children can get an education and become even more talented, creating greater benefits for me!
They will be richer, their demand for real estate will grow, and their demand for all kinds of consumer goods will continue to expand. Do you see where the benefit lies here?"
Actually, Joe Ga was just painting a big picture. His iron mine wasn't big enough to reap profits from the locals over two generations, but he wasn't going to toil here for the rest of his life either. When the mine's resources gradually depleted, he could naturally find another way out or simply leave.
However, his words were indeed motivational. By "uniting all the forces that could be united," he shifted the focal point of conflict from control to the distribution of interests when he was genuinely considering the issues for the locals.
Making money and gaining respect might be the most exhilarating things in the world. When Joe Ga made it clear that he only wanted to exchange the iron ore for money,
when Joe Ga laid a clear path in front of these people and was prepared to help them along it, it was hard for them not to be excited!
Because the mine can't run away on legs, any promise Joe Ga made had to be fulfilled; otherwise, he couldn't sell the iron ore.
Anyone with a bit of sense knew that Joe Ga had tied himself to Sangha Town and future partners, creating perhaps the world's most unbreakable alliance, because they were all grasshoppers on the same rope, missing one part would break the chain!
When a person with superior armed forces who is supported by the governing authorities chooses to share the profits, what's left to say?
Looking at a bunch of young people with gleaming eyes, Joe Ga chuckled and had Xiao Huang display the first conceptual map of the city, saying, "Do you still think this is a dream now?"
Joseph had tears in his eyes from excitement, but he still couldn't believe it, so he looked at Joe Ga carefully and asked, "Sir, us? You mean us?"