TIDBIT

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y December 2014, the dust will have settled on infrastructure built for the year’s big sporting events, but a mighty new construction project will just be starting in Nicaragua. So, at least insists HKND Group, the Hong Kong company with a 50-year concession to build and run the Nicaragua canal. This would serve as a link between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, with a supposed price tag of $40billion (a rough guess, really). A backlash is already evident. Opposition politicians object on constitutional grounds. Others say there is already a serviceable link between the Pacific and Atlantic shipping routes, the Panama Canal, which is one third the length. Environmentalists have their own concerns. Results of a feasibility study are still pending. None of these seems to bother the mysterious Chinese company behind the project. Those who fret about China’s growing influence in America’s back yard may recall that a century ago the United States flirted with building a canal across Nicaragua. It opted for Panama instead.