By Dr. Ravinder Rena Eritrean Institute of Technology
The 19th-century scramble for Africa saw great imperialistic powers rush to the continent to exploit natural resources. Today, the scramble continues as Africa is still a vital arena of strategic and geopolitical competition among the United States, France, Britain, China, and India. The key question for many is: will the exploitation of Africa's rich resources benefit the continent?
Oil is perhaps the most important lure. It attracts more than 50 per cent of all foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2006, annual FDI rose to a historic high of USD38.8 billion, exceeding record levels of 2005 — a growth of 78 percent from 2004. According to the U.N. World Investment Report, FDI cash was concentrated in a few industries, notably oil, gas and mining and six oil-producing countries — Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Sudan — hogged around 48 percent of it.
European firms represent roughly two-thirds of the total FDI in Africa. More than half of European investment originates from the U.K. and France, going mainly to countries with which they have historic ties. French oil companies such as Total, locked out of the Middle East through France's opposition to the Iraq war, have made large investments in Francophone countries such as Cameroon, Chad, and Gabon.
Africa is becoming strategically important to the U.S. because of its oil production (a cheap and reliable alternative to oil in the volatile Persian Gulf), and China's increasing regional influence. West Africa already supplies about 12 percent of U.S. crude oil imports, a share that is projected to rise to 25 percent by 2015. As is often the case with oil, military involvement follows. In February 2007, the U.S. set up an Africa command (Africom) base. It has established bases in and signed access agreements with Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Gabon, and Namibia.
Despite its big backyard, China is generally resource-poor. Africa offers the natural resources vital to fuel its rapidly growing economy. China looks to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia for copper and cobalt, to South Africa for iron ore and platinum, and to Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) for timber. For oil, it has been wooing Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea. China is the second largest consumer of crude oil after the U.S, and was responsible for 40 percent of the global increase in demand between 2001 and 2005. Indeed, it imports 25 percent of its crude oil from Africa.
Beijing has charmed African rulers with arms sales, debt cancelaltion and soft loans. President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited 10 African countries, consummating the relationship at the China-Africa summit in October 2006, when Beijing rolled out the red carpet to almost 50 African heads of state and Ministers.
The global demand for natural resources will increase FDI and, as exports grow, improve balance of trade figures. One of the main concerns however is the scramble's fuelling of corruption, environmental degradation, internal dissent, reduction of a state's incentive to impose a free and just taxation system, and spending on the military.
Africa is being fragmented into many pieces by developed countries keen on exploitating Africa’s rich resources. A recent OECD report indicates that the world's major donors, 22 member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), provided USD 103.9 billion in aid in 2006, falling by 5.1 percent from 2005. This figure includes USD 19.2 billion of debt relief, notably exceptional relief to Iraq and Nigeria. Excluding debt relief, other forms of aid fell by 1.8 percent.
The fall was predicted. ODA was exceptionally high in 2005 due to large Paris Club debt relief operations (notably for Iraq and Nigeria) which boosted ODA to its highest level ever at USD 106.8 billion. In 2006, net debt relief grants still represented a substantial share of net ODA, as members implemented further phases of the Paris Club agreements, providing a little over USD 3 billion for Iraq and nearly USD 11 billion for Nigeria. Excluding debt relief, ODA fell by 1.8 percent. Preliminary data show that bilateral net ODA to sub-Saharan Africa rose by 23 percent in real terms, to about USD 28 billion. However, most of the increase was due to debt relief grants, excluding debt relief for Nigeria, aid to sub-Saharan Africa increased by only 2 percent.
Charities and NGOs working on the issue believe that even governments that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are reluctant to investigate allegations against western companies of corruption or complicity in human rights abuses.
In Equatorial Guinea — where U.S. companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron are active — the regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been accused of torture, electoral fraud, and corruption. Despite this, President Nguema was welcomed at the U.S. State Department by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in April 2006 and described as a "good friend."
The environmental impact is also alarming. The clearing of forests for timber exports increases vulnerability to erosion, river silting, landslides, flooding, and loss of habitat for plant and animal species. Gas flaring from oil production, where unusable waste gas is burned off, pumps large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is estimated that flaring in the Niger delta emits 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The environmental and social impact of extractive industries is already acknowledged as a key factor in conflicts in Sudan and Nigeria. There is a fear among NGOs that access to natural resources will fuel the kind of violent conflict seen in Sierra Leone, the DRC, and Liberia. A number of initiatives have been launched in an attempt to deal with the resource 'curse.'
Africa's biggest challenge is to compete in the global economy. It is a known fact that economic strength depends on command over natural resources and quality of the labour force. Besides the ability to cope with complex production techniques and technological changes that are cropping up in thr global arena, Africa requires not only a healthy and an educated citizenry, but policies supporting the poor — such as credit being more widely available particularly to the rural people, investment in rural roads, and support for small-scale enterprises.
It is no time to sit and cry that Africa is under assault. It is no time to watch as other nations 'eat' the African cake. African elites ought to figure out how they can take advantage of the new scramble for Africa to reap profit.
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Many western entities indirectly fund some of the conflicts in African countries. See the blood diamond conflict to know what I'm talking about.
Posts: 1219 | From: North Carolina, USA | Registered: Jul 2004
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Saturday night my husband and I were in San Francisco and we paused at a gas station and we literally couldn't believe our eyes — $4.24 a gallon," said Sen. Barbara Boxer
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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It all boils down to math and fundamental principles of economics. It also boils down to fundamental principles of organization in government, society and industry all geared towards the growth, development and sustainment of the nation, all of which originates IN AFRICA, in EGYPT. There is nothing magic or mystical about it. This is a natural pattern of human growth and development that is required for the sustainment of any nation. However, modern economics in Africa is based on an unnatural pattern, which has a NEGATIVE impact on the sustainment of African nations, but this is no accident it is DIRECTLY the DESIRED result of the last 500 years of colonial activity in Africa and elsewhere.
Modern economics boils down to the need to generate capital. Capital is the life blood of modern industrial economies. Without capital, these economies would cease to exist. There is no magic. It is all about generating as much capital as possible and putting that capial to use within the economy as fuel for growth and development. But the trick is to keep more capital coming into the economy and controlled by the banks of the country, than capital going out and being controlled by foreig banks. This is the FIRST AND FOREMOST REASON for the rise of colonialism. European countries realized that by TAKING the land, labor and resources of countries in Africa, Asia and America, they could generate MUCH MORE CAPITAL than they could ever make by playing "fair". It is not simply a matter of trade or supply and demand, it is about who makes MOST of the capital from the demand for a particular resource, product or service being produced, by controlling the supply and manipulating the demand. It is also about keeping the cost to produce low, by maintaining a steady flow of cheap labor and new sources of raw materials. Competition is the name of the game in capitalism, with fair play and altruism having no place in a dog eat dog world of economic power. The competition is for MONEY, in terms of PROFIT from the global trade in any particular product or resource.
The plain and simple answer is that growing economies need CAPITAL and capital does not come from international aid organizations like the world bank. The world bank and such organizations are the antithesis of growth and development. They are really only investment arms of the banks in industrial countries, who use the world bank to force underpriviledged countries to make deals that guarantee more CAPITAL for the host nations, banks and companies that make up the World Bank. The world bank, therefore, is a business, that guarantess a HIGH RETURN on ANY INVESTMENT made in a developing country. This means that they are COMPETITORS for CAPTIAL and in the business of GENERATING capital FOR THEMSELVES and their CONSTITUENTS, which GOES AGAINST their self proclaimed role of "helping" underpriviledged countries. You dont help an underpriviledged country by giving them a few tens or hundreds of million dollars, but forcing them to give up land and resource concessions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in return. So called deals like that only GUARANTEE that those underdeveloped countries will STAY underdeveloped. In reality, if they were trying to HELP they would be making loans with reasonable rates of interest and NO STRINGS ATTACHED in terms of BOGUS deals that GUARANTEE foreign companies ACCESS to billions of dollars of mineral and other types of resource wealth.
Capital and the kind of growth that is needed in the economies of Africa, only comes from KEEPING the money and profits MADE off the land, labor and resources of Africans IN THE HANDS OF BLACK AFRICANS. All of this implicitly acknowledges that Africans MUST own or control most of the LAND in their own countries. They must also own or control MOST of the mines, farms and industries of their own countries. In other words, Africans need to learn to focus on #1, meaning THEMSELVES and THEIR OWN economic and industrial well being, as opposed to being USED to generate the wealth and economic well being of EVERYONE ELSE. It is therefore NECESSARY and CRITICAL that African rulers be corrupt and dictatorial, as it makes it EASY for foreign countries to PAY THEM OFF, in order to CONTINUE to reap the MAJORITY of the capital off the land, labor and resources of Africa. The corruption in Africa has ALWAYS been driven mostly by foreign interests, as MOST corrupt Africans have NOTHING to show for the years of corruption, as MOST of the money is going into the hands of those foriegn capitalists who are financing them in the first place. This should seem odd, especially considering the fact the politicians in almost every other industrialized country are ALMOST ALWAYS associated with wealthy industrialist families and companies, meaning they EXPLICITLY use politics to further the growth of their own BUSINESS INTERESTS.
There is no magic to any of this. Until Africans stand up and decide to OWN and CONTROL the MINES and LAND of their own countries and USE the money from such operations as the BASIS of the economic development of THEIR OWN countries, they will CONTINUE to be exploited. Africa has been KNOWN to have massive amounts of every natural resource known to man for THOUSANDS of years. NOBODY should pretend that there is something NEW about resources in Africa being the KEY to global economics and industry or being in HIGH demand. Therefore, ANY African government that IS NOT looking to CONTROLLING these resources by DEVELOPING AFRICAN OWNED industries and mines to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the demand for African resources and generate CAPITAL, is NOT practicing ANY sort of economic COMMON SENSE. We KNOW that the demand for resources WILL BE THERE for a long time to come, so therefore, by creating companies to SUPPLY the demand and REAP the profits from the demand for such resources, Africans can generate the capital and wealth needed to grow their own economies. This is the basic economics of supply and demand, pure and simple. No foreign country is going to Africa SIMPLY to get access to resources. They are going there to PROFIT off the demand for these resources FOR THEMSELVES, by starting COMPANIES that generate profit for the HOME COUNTRY, as well as the raw materials they need. This pattern has been in place since the COLONIAL expansion of Europe into Africa and the WHOLE PREMISE was to open up the resources of Africa, in terms of land, labor and raw materials, for USE by FOREIGNERS to generate WEALTH for themselves. And this is EXACTLY what the pattern they try to KEEP IN PLACE, where MOST of the MAJOR ECONOMIC benefit from ANY labor, land and resources in Africa goes to FOREIGNERS, not to Africans themselves.
Keep in mind the following basic questions:
1) How much money is generated from the land, labor and resources of any particular African country? 2) How much of that money is going into the hands of black Africans? 3) How much money is needed to build roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure? 4) How much money is available in African countries that can be used to finance business development of all sizes? 5) Where will the money come from?
The answer to ALL those questions is CAPITAL generated from the LAND, LABOR and RESOURCES of Africa.
Posts: 8895 | Registered: May 2005
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Africa was and still is the richest continent in terms of natural resources. Native Africans took advantage of their own resources and became wealthy. So wealthy that they were admired/envied by Europeans for their wealth. Not surprisingly after the European take-over Africans have not gained full control over their economy ever since.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Myra Wysinger: Saturday night my husband and I were in San Francisco and we paused at a gas station and we literally couldn't believe our eyes — $4.24 a gallon," said Sen. Barbara Boxer
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Whew, I thought this was YOUR husband you were talking about Myra. You almost broke my heart Posts: 336 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: What it all boils down to is economic imperialism!
Africa was and still is the richest continent in terms of natural resources. Native Africans took advantage of their own resources and became wealthy. So wealthy that they were admired/envied by Europeans for their wealth. Not surprisingly after the European take-over Africans have not gained full control over their economy ever since.
death to Seth!
He should be ashamed of himself. For all the stealing and looting of Osiris's dead body for the past 2000 years... he still envies Horus. Posts: 3423 | From: the jungle - when y'all stop playing games, call me. | Registered: Jul 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Nice Vidadavida *sigh*:
quote:Originally posted by Myra Wysinger: Saturday night my husband and I were in San Francisco and we paused at a gas station and we literally couldn't believe our eyes — $4.24 a gallon," said Sen. Barbara Boxer
Whew, I thought this was YOUR husband you were talking about Myra. You almost broke my heart
you're sweet
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Interesting facts: The price of gas around the world, in US dollars
Oslo, Norway - $6.82 a gallon
Rome , Italy $5.80
Brussels, Belgium $6.16
Hong Kong $6.25
Tokyo, Japan $5.25
Sao Paulo , Brazil $4.42
Buenos Aires , Argentina $2.09
Mexico City $2.22
Sidney , Australia $3.42
Johannesburg , South Africa $3.39
United States: $3.02 (average)
New Delhi , India $3.71
Here's the kicker!
Caracas $0.12
Kuwait $0.78
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia $0.91
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
^Comes to show that economic imperialism doesn't just pertain to the West but even Middle Eastern countries.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: What it all boils down to is economic imperialism!
Africa was and still is the richest continent in terms of natural resources. Native Africans took advantage of their own resources and became wealthy. So wealthy that they were admired/envied by Europeans for their wealth. Not surprisingly after the European take-over Africans have not gained full control over their economy ever since.
death to Seth!
He should be ashamed of himself. For all the stealing and looting of Osiris's dead body for the past 2000 years... he still envies Horus.
Actually Osirus was the culprit for raping Seth's sister Posts: 336 | Registered: Apr 2007
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The main issue is that FOREIGN NGOs, the WORLD BANK, FOREIGN AID and DEBT are seen as the SOLUTION for African poverty. MY point is that THEY ARENT. They are NOTHING but schemes that are CONTINUING to persue the colonial imperialist economic agendas of foreigners IN AFRICA. They do so by attaching strings to any money, aid or any other "assistance" they give Africans, which nomrally means concessions for land, minearals or resources that amount to hundreids of BILLONS of dollars. This then generates a NET LOSS OF CAPITAL against the economic well being of Africans as the BILLONS going OUT is not mathced or replaced by the few millon or billions these schemes put in. These SCHEMES are CON GAMES, as they make 10 times as much IN RETURN as they put INTO Africa, which means that they are FAKE altruistic WOLVES feeding off Africans using "AID" as the sheeps clothing. Which IS NO COINCIDENCE as ALL of them are purposely designed to further the GOALS OF FOREIGN INTERESTS, NOT AFRICANS. But any FOOL who understands BASIC MATH would see that it is FRAUD and this is why they need CORRRUPT LEADERS TO ACCEPT SUCH BOGUS DEALS in the first place. As I said, the ANSWER is simple, African ownership and African control of the MAJORITY of the CAPITAL generated from their labor, land and resources are THE KEY to Economic growth in Africa. That is the ONLY solution and it is based around SOUND ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES that drives growth EVERYWHERE ELSE, which means MAKING MONEY trhough ENTREPENEURIAL BUSINESS ACTIVITY. Any plan that DOES NOT promote the INCREASE of the AMOUNT OF CAPITAL that STAYS in Africa from the land, labor and resources in Africa, due to INCREASED ENTREPENEURIAL activity among BLACK AFRICANS, is a plan that is NOT solving the problem of POVERTY in Africa. And I dont mean MICRO BUSINESSES, I mean ALL SCALES of businesses from micro to super macro. The world bank, ngos and other such agencies and foreign debtors are more concerned with CONTINUING to TAKE CAPITAL OUT of Africa than they are in keeping the capital generated by the land, labor and resources IN AFRICA, which is PRECISELY why they went into Africa and OPPRESSED Africans in the first place.
quote: he suggestion by Mr. Joseph Henry Mensah, chair of Ghana’s National Development Planning Commission that “Ghana rejects World Bank's crafted policies,” by making development policies that have “Made-in-Ghana” inputs, as carried by the Accra-based “Statesman”, comes in the face of the growing discussions on Africa’s history, norms, values and experiences being factored in Africa’s policies. Dr. Y.K. Amoako, former chair of the U.N’s Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), observes that Africa is the only continent with foreign dominated development paradigms. This partly explains the distortions in Africa in the face of rich values.
quote: An eminently mining country, the Republic of Congo is the centre of numerous exploitations of most diverse metals in a multitude of mines and quarries. Its soil harbours a wide variety of mineral species with facies of often very high esthetical quality.
The worked deposits are distributed over Precambrian massifs bordering, to the south, east and north-east, a vast sedimentary central basin. Thus, in counterclockwise sense, one encounters successively, from south to north: diamantiferous exploitations of Kasai ( Mbuji-Mayi, Tshikapa ), as well as a few copper deposits ( Tshiniama, Lubi ); the copper-bearing arch of southern Shaba, also rich in cobalt and uranium with the mining centres of Kolwezi ( Cu-Co ), Likasi ( Cu ), Kambove ( Cu-Co ), Shinkolobwe ( U ) and Lubumbashi ( Cu ), not forgetting the mine of Kipushi which yields zinc, copper and germanium. Still in Shaba, when ascending northward, one comes across the tin granite of Mitwaba and the stanniferous pegmatite of Manono. The province of Kivu, enclosing the region of Maniema, is particularly rich in tin deposits ( Kalima ), often accompanied by columbo-tantalite. The pegmatite with beryl, the columbite and uranium of Kobokobo also found here, as well as gold placers of the Mobale river. In the north of the province of Kivu, there are outcrops of carbonatite of Lueshe, rich in pyrochlores, while at the Rwandan border, the region of volcanos contains lavas in which several new silicates have been discovered. In the north of Congo, in the Oriental Province, there are the famous gold exploitations of Kilo-Moto. At the western extremity of the country, to the west of the capital Kinshasa, the Lower Congo encloses a few deposits of zinc and lead vanadates ( Kusu-Senge ), whereas the massif of Niari is the centre of fine examples of mineralizations in copper silicates, mainly, however, on the territory of Congo-Brazzaville.
From a mineralogical point of view and more particularly with regard to the esthetical value of the specimens, the names of deposits and their principal resources in nice minerals are indicated in the following list:
Southern Shaba
- Kabolela: black, shining reniform masses of heterogenite.
- Kakanda: mammillary pseudomalachite, green crystals of libethenite and pink cobaltiferous calcite.
- Kalongwe: copper and uranium deposits offering fine examples of associations of cuprosklodowskite in needles and dark green vandenbrandeite in etcher's prisms.
- Kambove: fibroradiated plancheite in crusts and rosettes and centimetric crystals of carrollite.
- Kamiaba: deposit of pink to brown almandin garnets forming crystalline crusts.
- Kamoto: type locality of kolwezite, double carbonate of copper and cobalt in beige to black nodules. Very rare prismatic and tabular crystals of sea green roubaultite occur in the K.O.V. quarry. The oriental part of this deposit contains an uraniferous mineralization where the new minerals astrocyanite-(Ce), françoisite-(Nd), kamotoite-(Y) and shabaite-(Nd) were discovered, containing also rare earths minerals.
- Kamoya: association of copper silicates, plancheite, shattukite and light-blue masses of ''katangite'' with conchoidal fracture.
- Kasompi: another deposit of rare-earths minerals such as schuilingite-(Nd) and gyisinite-(Nd). We also find arborescent pale-green lodes of glaukosphaerite.
- Kipushi: exceptional association of secondary minerals of zinc, lead and copper, such as smithsonite, hemimorphite, aurichalcite,veszelyite ( bright-blue octahedrons ) and emerald green kipushite. The primary mineralization is rich in germanium with renierite and briartite. Green sphalerite and rhenium molybdenite are also found, as well as gallite. The paragenesis is very close to that of Tsumeb in Namibia.
- Likasi: beside cuprite accompanied by native copper, we find here a fine example of the association of buttgenbachite and connellite in bright-blue acicular prisms, of likasite in blue stacked plates and of sea green gerhardtite.
- Ludjiba: type locality of ludjibaite, a polymorph of pseudomalachite.
- Luishya: kyanite in blue tablets is associated with classical secondary minerals of copper.
- Luiswishi: mineralization with copper and uranium, with, namely, cuprosklodowskite in fibres, vandenbrandeite in crystals in burins and sengierite.
- Mashamba: exceptional red gem cuprite in centimetric crystals, but also testaceous malachite, duhamelite in yellow fibres and an uraniferous association of tyuyamunite and carnotite.
- Mindigi: cobaltiferous deposit of mammillary heterogenite and crystalline varieties with metallic lustre among which the polytype 2H.
- Msesa: shining crystals of green libethenite, crystallized pseudomalachite and light-blue claringbullite of which this is the type locality.
- Musonoi: locality especially famous for its uranium selenites: demesmaekerite, derriksite, guilleminite and marthozite. Also renowned for its cobaltiferous malachites and kolwezite.
- Shamitumba: collecting site of the julienite in blue needles.
- Shangulowe: fine examples of associations of copper silicates ( plancheite-shattuckite ) and presence of barite pseudomorphosed in plancheite and in malachite.
- Shinkolobwe: one of the most famous uranium deposits in the world. It has furnished, namely, the raw material with which the first atomic bombs were made. Tens of new species were discovered here. The mine has been closed in the beginning of the 1960s.
- Star mine ( Lubumbashi ): cornetite in blue rosettes.
- Swambo: prospecting site for uranium rich in yellow squat crystals of soddyite and type locality of swamboite.
- Tantara: site of the very spectacular association of green dioptase and bright-pink cobaltiferous calcite.
Kivu
- Bengo-Biri: wolfram deposit enclosing crystals of ferberite and pseudomorphoses in anthoinite.
- Kobokobo: beryl and columbite pegmatite of which a zone is mineralized in uranium. The latter presents a particular association of uranium and aluminium phosphates rich in new species. They are quoted under the heading dedicated to type species preserved in the Royal Museum of Central Africa, in Tervuren.
- Lueshe: carbonatite characterized by an abundance of pyrochlores, and type locality of lueshite in octahedral crystals.
- Maya-Moto: this deposit contains a rich association of bismuth minerals: native bismuth, bismutite, bismuthinite and bismite.
- Mwenga: auriferous district of the river Mobale which has yielded voluminous nuggets.
- Messaraba-Munkuku: deposit of crystallized cassiterite, which is one of the localities of varlamoffite, yellow and powdery hydrated oxide of tin.
- Volcanos: the volcanic region straddling on the border with Rwanda contains lavas from which several new species have been described: andremeyerite, combeite, götzenite, delhayelite and trikalsilite.
The remaining provinces of Congo do not contain such spectacular associations, with the exception of the rich diamantiferous deposits exploited in the kimberlites, the eluviums and alluviums of the region of Mbuji-Maji ( mainly industrial diamonds ) and the gold mines of the Upper Congo ( Kilo-Moto ).
Now, with ALL OF THESE MINES, how much CAPITAL do you think has been GENERATED over the last 50 years and taken OUT of the country? I would go so far as to say into the hundreds of billions if not trillions. And how could ANYONE think of any OTHER solution to the POVERTY problem than AFRICANS getting MOST of the money from the mines in countries like Congo today. The reason they are POOR is BECAUSE they are being EXPLOITED BY FOREIGNERS who MAKE MOST of the money off of these resources. There is NO OTHER REASON. Corruption only is a facade that is used by MULTINATIONAL MINING CONCERNS from OUTSIDE AFRICA to HIDE BEHIND, because they PAY OFF the government officials so they can KEEP TAKING THE MONEY. And it is funny how no matter how VIOLENT things get, these MINING OPERATIONS are not impeded and doesn't stop FOREIGNERS NEW discoveries that make THEM RICH. The only thing this VIOLENCE DOES is STOP AFRICANS from DISCOVERING and OWNING THEIR OWN WEALTH. With ALL the money in minerals in Congo they could rebuild the entire country 50 times over, with no problem, with palaces and mansions made from all sorts of exotic marbles and stone as well as all kinds of gold, diamond, silver and platinum fixtures. The fact that every time someone talks about POVERTY in Africa they talk about AID, is the BIGGEST LIE in the WORLD TODAY. They dont need aid, they need the MONEY that is coming from their own land, labor and resources.
Posts: 8895 | Registered: May 2005
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Now to put two and two together note the following:
quote: Kinshasa - Mineral exports from Congo's eastern Kivu provinces restarted on Thursday after the government granted shipment licences to 11 companies, ending a two-week ban, exporters said.
Mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo suspended exports from its North and South Kivu provinces - which produce cassiterite, tungsten ore and coltan - last month to ensure "counters" which process and export minerals had licences.
"We have already started exporting today," Antoine Bizi, managing director of Amir, one of the mineral-exporting companies which operate in the provinces, told Reuters.
The ban on mineral exports from the Kivus announced on April 19 was part of an effort by Congo's new government to tighten mining regulations following the former Belgian colony's first free elections in four decades last year.
The government, installed in February, required companies to apply for licences that showed minerals were processed in Congo.
"We found that 11 (companies) had processing facilities. They met the requirements. The minister signed their documents on Tuesday," Deputy Mines Minister Victor Kasongo told Reuters.
Mining in the Kivu provinces is largely small-scale. In order to qualify for permits, counters must show they have the equipment necessary to wash, crush and treat minerals.
Amir's Bizi said his company had continued to buy and stockpile minerals while the ban was in force.
But other exporters operating in the Kivus complained that they had not been granted licences.
Gilbert Makilele, director of the minerals exporter MH, said his company had been operating within Congo's laws, even though it had no treatment facilities of its own.
"We don't export untreated minerals. There are companies who do have facilities and we pay a percentage to treat (our minerals) there," he said.
It was not clear how many more licences the government would grant.
The eastern border provinces exported 5 300 tons of cassiterite and 499 tons of tungsten ore, or wolframite, in 2006, and North Kivu alone exported 40 tonnes of coltan.
But due to widespread smuggling, in many cases by armed militia and the Congolese army, official exports represent only a fraction of the minerals that make it over the border
Who do you think are behind these militias and WHY would they need to SMUGGLE THEIR OWN RESOURCES? Why dont they JUST MAKE THE MONEY BY OWNING THE COMPANIES? Because they are WORKING FOR THE FOREIGNERS. They have NOTHING TO SHOW for the TONS OF MINERALS being smuggled, which is BECAUSE of the FOREIGNERS who are USING THEM to STEAL their OWN WEALTH and BIRTHRIGHT, leaving THEM and THEIR COUNTRY poor.
Now note this:
quote: NYONGERA, Congo (Reuters) -- "I buried my child in the forest," said Jeannette Nyirarukundo, who fled her village in eastern Congo when it was attacked by the government army meant to protect it.
Six-year-old Moise starved to death before the family reached the safety of a camp at Nyongera, 70 kilometers (44 miles) from North Kivu's provincial capital Goma.
Some 113,000 civilians have fled fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu since February, and the province now has 600,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA. 'They came for us there, too'
"We slept in the forest for two weeks, and then they came after us there too. It wasn't safe anymore, and we came here," said Nyirarukundo, 28, who was accompanied by her husband and three surviving children.
Eastern Congo is no stranger to violence, but ironically the latest surge in killing started with a deal designed to bring peace to this corner of the vast country nearly four years after a nationwide accord officially ended a 1998-2003 war.
Laurent Nkunda, a dissident Congolese army general, led his two brigades into the bush in 2004, vowing to protect his fellow ethnic Tutsis. He is under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes after his men occupied Bukavu, South Kivu.
After last year's historic polls saw President Joseph Kabila become Congo's first democratically elected leader in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began negotiations to bring Nkunda and his soldiers into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.
But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo. Mixed brigades kill, rape, force civilians from homes
"There's more and more movement every day ... If this military strategy continues, we could be looking at another 280,000 more (displaced)," said Luciano Calestini, emergency specialist for eastern Congo for U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF.
"The next six months is going to be a disaster. It's going to be catastrophic," he said.
Human rights observers accuse the mixed brigades of killing, raping and forcing civilians from their homes.
Soldiers from the mixed Bravo Brigade arbitrarily executed at least 15 mostly Hutu civilians in Buramba village about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Goma, the human rights division of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission said in a report.
Bravo Brigade commander Colonel Sultani Makenga blamed the massacre on the FDLR.
"What we did was separate the population from the FDLR. That's why the villages are uninhabited," Makenga told Reuters in an interview. "We evacuated the civilians in order to fight the FDLR alone ... It was to protect them." 'We are in the hands of a killer'
Makenga said operations would continue until the FDLR were chased out of Congo or destroyed.
Dominique Bofondo, territorial administrator of Rutshuru, where Bravo Brigade is based, said civilians now lived in fear of the mixed brigades.
"These are the same soldiers who killed people, who raped women. And now they are here to take care of us? ... We are in the hands of a killer," Bofondo said.
In Nyongera camp, Nyirarukundo said she is still afraid to return home but says her surviving children are hungry and sick.
"For now, we have nothing. There's no food. Nothing. We just want security, so we can go home," she said.
So as soon as they start allowing exports from the Kivu provinces, WAR breaks out, FORCING OUT the PEOPLE from their OWN LAND, but I BET that MINING OPERATIONS and SMUGGLING continue. And dont forget we arent talking about a few pounds HERE AND THERE. This is an INTERNATIONALLY organized campaign that requires coordination and effort to SHIP OUT TONS of RAW MATERIALS through NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES who are ON THE PAYROLL. This is NOT SIMPLY the actions of a FEW LOCAL MILITIAMEN. The tactic is the same here as EVERYWHERE ELSE in Africa. When MINERALS are found, WARS, disease and STRIFE break out, so that the PEOPLE are FORCED to leave the land WIDE OPEN for FOREIGNERS TO KEEP TAKING ALL THE WEALTH.
And at the end of the day, what kind of money do these "rebels" have for all the minerals they have smuggled? What are they fighting for if NOT THE CONTROL, in terms of a MAJORITY share of the WEALTH of such MINERAL OPERATIONS? If they are NOT FIGHTING FOR THIS, then it is a FAKE REVOLUTION, which is designed more for FORIEGNERS than the SO CALLED REBELS and THEIR PEOPLE.
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Note the following study on activities in Congo:
quote: Observers who have studied the dynamics of corporate rule and imperialist machinations over the last decade know full well the sophistication and flexibility that these forces employ when confronting their various adverseries. They will try repression if they can get away with it; they will attempt cooptation if it is viable; they will retreat, just like Lenin advised revolutionaries of a bygone era, in order to ultimately advance.
Tiomin and its supporters in Kenya know full well that even though there is widespread opposition, this opposition is still relatively weak, disjointed and financially challenged; it is clear as mud that so far the fight against Tiomin has largely focused on the technical, legal, environmental aspects rather than what some of us see as the kernel of the whole I think that we should see Tiomin as symbolizing another wave of corporate invasion in Kenya in an ongoing imperialist assault on Kenyan national sovereignity. It is literally a question of national independence.
Those who think that I am overstating the case need only glance briefly at the events in the Democratic Republic of Congo where a war rages to decide how this fabulously wealthy African nation will be balkanized among various competing corporate and Western interests.
recolonization of Africa, I again urge them to look at the unfolding story in Congo and the pivotal role that Canadian mining companies and expertise is playing in that conflict. For further corroboration, people should look at the savage war in Sierra Leone and the central role of Canadian firms- both mining and security operations- in that theatre of carnage.
Tiomin may not, in itself, be much of a threat or a factor in Kenya. Many of us believe that Tiomin may not have the expertise or sufficient capacity to take advantage of the economies of scale in mining titanium in Kenya. It could very well be what some people have called a "stalking horse" for darker interests such as Anglo American or the George Bush-fronted Barrick Gold.
Again, what I am saying here is not the stuff of science fiction fantasy thrillers. Please read the following excerpt and tell me why it is so difficult for the same situation to develop in Kenya: ".... The Corporate Invasion .... At the heart of the invasion of Zaire's mining properties, are the Canadian mining companies and the Oppenheimer family-run Anglo American Corp., which often takes the Canadian companies under its wing in joint ventures. The Canadian mining companies started an invasion of Zaire in 1994, which reached a flood tide in 1996. This was the opening shot of the "Second Great Scramble." The Canadian mining companies represent forward beachheads for the Commonwealth-centered British Empire (see EIR Special Report, May 24, 1996,`The Sun Never Sets on the New British Empire'). Behind the companies, lurks the shadowy presence of the Oppenheimer family's Anglo American Corp., the linchpin of the Club of the Isles' raw materials cartelization strategy.
We look at three examples.
First, the takeover of Sominki, in Kivu province, by Toronto-based Banro Resource Corp.
Zaire has three eastern provinces: Haut Zaire, in the northeast; Kivu, in the center-east; and Shaba (formerly Katanga), in the southeast. Kivu province is second in richness of raw materials, after Shaba. The leading mining concern in Kivu is the Societe Miniere et Industrielle de Kivu, or Sominki. Sominki was formed in 1976 as an amalgamation of nine companies that had been operating in Kivu province since the early 1900s. It operates 47 mining concessions, encompassing an area of 10,271 square kilometers.
In 1996, Banro Corp. of Toronto bought 36% of Sominki, raising some of its money for the purchase by floating shares in Singapore. Banro was previously a small financial institution, with little apparent aptitude for mining. The impression is that it was reconfigured as a company for the special purpose of this purchase, perhaps acting as a front for someone. (Who that someone is, will become clear.)
Another large chunk of Sominki was bought by the Belgium-based company Mines D'or du Zaire, or MDDZ. Owning 60% of MDDZ is Cluff Mining Co. of London, and controlling 65% of Cluff is Anglo American Corp., the world's largest mining company and a key component of the Club of the Isles.
On Sept. 21, 1996, Banro and MDDZ announced their merger, with Banro selling its shares to MDDZ. The new Banro-MDDZ company consolidated a 72% stake in Sominki, while the government of Zaire holds 28%. The Banro-MDDZ entity has announced that it plans to acquire that 28% from the government. The overall enterprise is essentially a vehicle for Anglo American.
According to various Banro corporate reports and news releases, Banro was anxious to get its mining operations started as quickly as possible. However, the Sominki mining zone that Banro acquired started in the town of Bukavu, the center for the major camp for Rwandan refugees who had fled to Zaire, with nearly a million people. To get mining started, the entire zone would require clearing. Suddenly, as Uganda launched its invasion of eastern Zaire, near Bukavu, in mid-October, there was firing on the Bukavu refugee camp, supposedly against "Hutu rebels" who were hiding there. The military attack on the camp forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee Kivu province, back to Rwanda.
But, who did the firing? While a clear answer is not forthcoming, it may have involved portions of the newly acquired Sominki apparatus itself. For, in acquiring Sominki, Banro did not just acquire a company; it acquired the effective governmental structure of the entire Kivu province.
infrastructure which includes repair shops, machine shops, electrical shops and a large fleet of Land Rover vehicles. In addition, it operates six hydroelectric sites, a number of air strips, and 1,000 kilometers of roads. Sominki is virtually self-sufficient. The company has about 5,000 employees." The release added, "In fact, Sominki is {the de facto government providing all the essential services for the Kivu Province}." (emphasis added).
Banro/Anglo American effectively stole a good chunk of the government of Kivu. This is the British model for the Second Great Scramble. As a mining company, Sominki has its own explosives supplies and access to weapons, i.e., it has the capability to carry out such an attack, or is in a commanding position to influence, those who fired on the refugee camps.
The second example Arkansas, but run from Canada. AMF has acquired from Gecamines the Kipushi copper-zinc mine, one of the world's premier copper-zinc mines, located in Shaba province (copper and zinc are often mined together). The Belgians developed Kipushi and began mining in 1925. At its peak in 1988, the Kipushi mine produced 143,000 tons of zinc, and 43,000 tons of copper. Its total known and probable reserves stand at 22.6 million tons, grading 2.1% copper and 13.8% zinc. AMF is the brainchild of its owner, Jean-Raymond Boulle, a former executive for DeBeer's Diamonds. In turn, AMF signed an agreement with Anglo American, which allows Anglo American to invest up to $100 million in any AMF venture in Shaba province, representing up to a 50% equity stake in the venture, including the Kipushi mine. Once again, ubiquitous Anglo American shows up.
The third example, is that of tiny Consolidated Eurocan of Vancouver. In 1996, Eurocan finalized a deal that will allow it to purchase from the state mining company Gecamines, a 55% interest in the Tenke-Fungurume copper-cobalt deposits. Eurocan will pay a quarter of a billion dollars over 72 months for its stake, but the stake is worth potentially tens of billions of dollars in revenues. According to a Eurocan spokesman on Dec. 18, Tenke-Fungurume, located in Shaba province, represents the largest operating cobalt reserves in the world. It has geological reserves of 222 million tons of copper and cobalt, with potential reserves of 1 billion tons.
Consolidated Eurocan is owned and run by Canadian wheeler-dealer Adolf Lundin. One U.S. mining source reported, "There is no way that Eurocan can develop the mines on its own. It doesn't have the capabilities. It will have to sell off shares to established mining companies, most likely Iskor and Gencor, to work the properties." Iskor and Gencor are both South African companies, and part of the British raw materials cartel.
Thus, these Canadian companies, in some cases stalking horses for Anglo American, are gobbling up Zaire's gold, copper, zinc, and cobalt reserves.
Add to this, the Barrick Gold purchase of a huge concession in Haut Zaire, and the fact that there is now discussion of opening up the major government-owned diamond mining company, Societe Miniere de Bakwanga (MIBA), to foreign investors. MIBA accounts for 40% of Zaire's official diamond exports. The remaining 60% are developed by artisanal miners, i.e., prospectors, who then sell the gems to "Israeli diamond buyers and to [international gem dealer] Maurice Templesman," according to a knowledgeable source. The Belgian-born Tempelsman, who squired around Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis before she died, is an international tycoon. He is former president of the U.S. Africa Society, a group that is influential in the shaping of U.S. government Africa policy...."
-"British-backed mining companies are stealing Zaire's patrimony", by Richard Freeman, article in Economic Intelligence Review, Jan. 1997.
The key here is that these operations are largely fronts for Anglo American corp, the American/British mining concession that is also behind the Apartheid companies of South Africa. DeBeers is part of AngloAmerican corp. Therefore, when you talk about the oppression of Africans for their land, labor and resources, talk about the Americans, as they are a MAJOR PLAYER in this process, along with the British, while using Canadian and Belgian companies as a FRONT for their efforts.
quote: What, then, is Barrick Gold Corp.? - The destruction of Africa -
It is understandable that Bush did not wish to advertise his ties to Barrick. The company is not only an important corporate element of the London-centered Club of the Isles and the British global raw materials cartel--a British link that might prove embarrassing to Sir George, at a point when Anglo-American relations remain at a low point, and when British propaganda organs are leading an all-out assault upon the U.S. Presidency. But, Barrick, along with the South Africa-based Anglo American Corp., is engaged in a strategic metals grab in Central Africa, which is being abetted by the greatest genocide per capita in modern times.
From April 1993, when Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, on behalf of London, launched the genocide of the Hutu majority in Rwanda, through to the ongoing invasion by the same Museveni-led forces in eastern Zaire, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa have been turned into a killing field. Local, British-sponsored "countergangs'' have been unleashed to depopulate a region that possesses the world's richest strain of precious metal deposits, while a string of Club of the Isles metals cartels, including Barrick, moves in for the kill.
As you will read below, the invasion of eastern Zaire, by the combined armies of Rwanda and Uganda, which began in September 1996, coincided with the Barrick and Anglo American metal grabs in the very same area. The net result of the invasion, and the simultaneous launching of an "internal'' rebellion by longtime British provocateur Laurent Kabila, was the depopulating of a string of camps that were holding Rwandan Hutu refugees. Thousands of those refugees were killed in the fighting between the British-backed invaders and French-supported Hutu guerrillas; at least another quarter of a million refugees were driven into the wilderness, to face death by disease and starvation; and another half a million fled back across the border into Rwanda, to face likely extermination at the hands of the Tutsi.
{EIR} first exposed this policy of genocide on Aug. 19. 1994, in a cover story titled "The British Hand Behind the Horror in Rwanda.'' Then, on Oct. 28, 1994, in a {Special Report} titled "The Coming Fall of the House of Windsor,'' we revealed the existence of the secretive Club of the Isles, the House of Windsor-led oligarchical institution centered upon a tightly knit alliance of European princely families, London-based financial and insurance houses, and food and raw materials cartels. The Club of the Isles in turn deploys the resources of the global environmentalist movement, headed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund), and its funding arm, the 1001 Club, as a propaganda and paramilitary arm of their one-world "New Dark Age'' agenda.
Under the WWF umbrella, the British Crown has built up a string of strategically located nature preserves and national parks, which serve as staging grounds for cross-border incursions, as training grounds for terrorist gangs, and as command posts for British "former'' SAS commandos to direct the killings in every part of sub-Saharan Africa.
As we document below, in joining the advisory board to Barrick Gold, and throwing his political clout into facilitating Barrick's worldwide strategic metals grab, George Bush, has cast his lot with a collection of very unsavory characters, including Barrick's chairman, Peter Munk, and with the entire Canadian Bronfman gang. Barrick and the South African Oppenheimer family's Anglo American Corp. are at the cutting edge of a Club of the Isles drive to recolonize a severely depopulated African continent, by busting up the post-colonial nation-states, beginning with Zaire; and then creating privately owned micro-states, in which what is left of the indigenous population is impressed into slavery. The novelist Joseph Conrad described these conditions graphically in his 1899 book {Heart of Darkness}. Unless the oligarchy is stopped, Bush and his friends intend to reimpose those conditions.
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The point of the above posts is to point out the REAL problem of IMPERIAL ECONOMIC control in Africa and why the SOLUTION starts with AFRICANS CONTROLLING THE TRADING, SELLING and PROFITS made from THEIR OWN land, labor and resources. There is NO WAY Africans can continue TO EXIST as long as they allow FOREIGN COMPANIES and INTERESTS to CONTINUE the genocidal and abusive EXPLOITATION of Africa and Africans for their resources. To claim that LACK OF INTERNATIONAL AID is the problem is to be deaf, dumb and blind, because you are IGNORING THE THIEF, who is STEALING ALL YOUR MONEY. The AID organizations, donor institutions, NGOs and the World Bank are PART OF THE SAME CARTELS IN THE FIRST PLACE. These corporations DO NOT operate in AFRICA's interests. They operate in EVERYONE ELSE's interests, which is but the LATEST phase of a series of operations that started in colonial times. It is RIDICULOUS to expect companies that have been PROFITING off African SUFFERING to somehow now be BENEFICIAL to Africa. It is a TRAVESTY to see such operations CONTINUE to OPERATE, aided and abetted by AFRICAN LEADERS who are SELL OUTS. And yes, this does INDEED include South Africa, which is STILL OWNED AND OPERATED by EuroAmerican mining cartels. It is RETARDED that 400 years after Africa started being RAPED, PILLAGED and LOOTED by Europeans for the WEALTH generated by its minerals, land, labor and resources, AFRICAN leaders DO NOT talk about TAKING OVER a MAJORITY of these OPERATIONS for THEMSELVES. They turn a BLIND EYE to operations that are KILLING THEM and KEEPING THEM POOR. This shows how FAR the INFLUENCE of such operations extends into the POLITICAL REALM of Africa. THE FIRST priority should be to GAIN BACK control of the wealth from such operations and CONTROL over ACCESS to such operations, as THIS IS THE BASIS for the suffering and oppression in Africa, NOTHING ELSE. The activities of MANY of these operations are CRIMINAL in nature, supporting WAR, DISEASE, OPPRESSION and STARVATION of the people and SLAVE working conditions for Africans. Yet NONE of these people who ARE TRULY BEHIND the GENOCIDE, RAPE, PILLAGE and LOOTING are in JAIL? They continue TO FUNCTION UNIMPEDED and the AFRICAN LEADERS ALLOW IT AND ACTUALLY SEEM to LOVE THEM or TREAT THEM AS PARTNERS!!! HOW RIDICULOUS is that? They are NOTHING but PUPPETS for these cartels, NOTHING MORE. And people wonder why Africans are STILL IN POVERTY. The ONLY one who shows ANY sign of STANDING UP to these people is ROBERT MUGABE, even though he has his OWN AGENDA to some degree. But the POINT should that SHOULD NOT be lost is that the FIRST PRIORITY in the struggle against POVERTY and SUFFERING is the CONTROL of RESOURCES and the BREAKING UP of the FOREIGN cartels and INSTITUTIONS that continue to WREAK HAVOC on Africa and its people. Africans CANNOT COEXIST with these INSTITUTIONS as they ONLY EXIST to DESTROY Africans and African well being. It is NONSENSE to think otherwise,just as it is NONSENSE to think that South African industrial cartels CARE about BLACK AFRICANS or that by NOT TAKING OVER DEBEERS and the OTHER MINING OPERATIONS in South Africa OUTRIGHT, blacks will somehow BENEFIT. They WONT and how can they? How can you LIVE with a LEECH sucking blood from your ARTERIES? This has nothing to do with GOD as GOD has NOTHING to do with it. Dying because SOMEONE ELSE is STEALING all your money and LEAVING YOU POOR AND DESTITUTE does NOT get you into HEAVEN. It is RIGHTEOUS to ALLOW OTHERS TO STEAL FROM YOU THE LIFE BLOOD THAT YOU NEED TO LIVE. IT is RIDICULOUS TO THINK OTHERWISE.... ACTUALLY RETARDED, to think that those cutting you UP to be SOLD LIKE MEAT are HELPING YOU in ANY FASHION or that YOU ARE BENEFITTING FROM IT.
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quote: [Source: U.S. Geological Survey; EIR; various research sources]
May 24 (EIRNS)--TWENTY-SEVEN RAW MATERIALS COMPANIES, MOST REPRESENTING THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH raw materials cartel, dominate between 80 and 90% of all African metal and mineral output and refining. This excludes energy generation. The table below provides the list.
AMAX, U.S.A. America Mineral Fields,* Canada Anglo American, South Africa Anglovaal, South Africa Ashanti Mines, Ghana Banro International,* Canada Barrick Gold, Canada Broken Hill Proprietary, Australia BRPM and OCP, state companies, Morocco Consolidated Goldfields, South Africa Debswana and BCL, state companies, Botswana Delta Gold,* Australia Gecamines, state company, Zaire Gencor, South Africa Inco, Canada International Panorama,* Canada and British Cayman Islands Iskor, South Africa JCI, South Africa Lonrho, England Phelps Dodge, U.S.A. Rio Tinto Zinc, England Rembrandt Group, South Africa Royal Dutch Shell (minerals), England & Netherlands SOMINKI, Kivu province company, Zaire Tenke Company* (formerly Consolidated Eurocan), Canada Union Miniere, Belgium ZCCM/Zimco, state company, Zambia
* denotes a junior company
Notice three features of this list. Only two of the 27 companies with significant mining projects in Africa, are American: AMAX (formerly American Metals Climax), and Phelps Dodge. Phelps Dodge's engagement arises from a single investment, in the Black Mountain Mineral Development in South Africa, which produces copper, lead, zinc, and silver. Contrary to the story that American firms are gobbling up Africa, the American presence is very small.
Second, five of the entities represent state mining companies. Four represent the federal mining companies of the nations of Botswana, Morocco (a big producer of phosphate), Zaire, and Zambia. A fifth entity, is the mining enterprise of Kivu province, Zaire, called Sominki. Laurent Kabila is facilitating the privatization of most of the rich holdings of Zaire's Gecamines, and Sominki. As the May 9 meeting between Kabila and financiers in Lubumbashi, and other events make clear, the raw materials cartel companies are snapping up these properties. Likewise, in Zambia, privatization is beginning. Among the bidders for Zambia's copper properties are Anglo American Corp. and Rio Tinto Zinc. Thus, soon, only two state enterprises, those of Botswana and Morocco, may exist in their current form.
Third, of the remaining 20 entities on the list, 19 are headquartered in either Britain, Canada, South Africa, or Australia (Union Miniere of Belgium, the 20th company, is part of this network, as is also the nominally American company, AMAX). The British Commonwealth companies dominate and produce the lion's share of Africa's resources: The 27 companies produce between 80% and 85% of all of Africa's metal and minerals output, and the Commonwealth raw materials cartel component produces at least four-fifths of that amount. (It is estimated that the South Africa-based Oppenheimer family's Anglo American/DeBeers empire controls one-quarter of all of Africa's raw materials output, all by itself). Since Africa has little manufacturing or infrastructure, this places the life-or-death existence of most African nations, including the export earnings of several nations, in the cartel's hands.
The cartel, which is consolidating those properties it does not already own, is moving to dispense with the nation-state, and to gather up those parcels of land where the raw materials lie. The genocidal policy of depopulating much of the continent, whose people the cartel views as superfluous, and even as interfering with its project, goes forward. This policy was spelled out in U.S. National Security Memorandum 200, in 1974, by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
With respect to destroying this cartel, Lyndon LaRouche stated May 17: "If the President moves against the genocide in Africa, the President must move against that [raw materials] cartel, one of the most powerful assemblies of international corporate power, which, like a pack of hyenas, is feeding on the corpse of Africa, the hyenas who are gobbling up the concessions, the raw materials concessions, the gold concessions, the diamond concessions, the strategic minerals concessions, the petroleum concessions, like George Bush and his friends. This includes Anglo American [Corporation] of South Africa; it includes Oppenheimer-DeBeers of South Africa; it includes, in fact, the hard-core of the entire British Commonwealth apparatus, centered upon the City of London, and backed by, and associated with the Privy Council of the British Monarchy. These are people who kill, like George Bush" (emphasis in original). [ref]
But I would argue, as posted earlier that Americans DO control a LARGE share of these enterprises, but through FRONT COMPANIES in Canada and elsewhere. Anglo American IS a American/British corporation and is a MAJOR player in Africa's mineral sector and WAS BEHIND the genocide of South African blacks.
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quote: When the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency hosted it's one-day symposium on the privatization of national security functions in sub-Saharan Africa, the guest list included five representatives of Sandline/Executive Outcomes, Eeben Barlow, Michael Grunberg, Col. Bernie McCabe (USA-ret.), Tim Spicer, and Nic Van Den Bergh. The British targeted the special forces capabilities of the famed South African Defence Force 32 Battalion, which worked with Savimbi in Angola to hold the large Cuban troop presence there at bay. With its disbanding, elements went into the Executive Outcomes hiring hall data base, for potential service for the mining cartels, and others were used for the countergang teams that conducted the blind massacres in the early 1990's. In both cases, the deployments signaled that there was a faction of the Afrikaner elite, putting itself, like General Smuts, at the service of the Empire. In a recent interview, Van den Bergh, spokesman for EO, poured out derision for the United States, lying that it was the U.S. who had replaced one dictator for another in Zaire, a blatant falsehood which covers for Britain's central role in the Great Lakes genocide.
Executive Outcomes' famous contracts in Angola and Sierre Leone were coordinated by SAS veteran Tony Buckingham with EO's Eeben Barlow. Buckingham had been set up with a pocket oil company, Heritage Oil and Gas in Oman, a traditional British Intelligence/SAS staging point. George Bush's intelligence shadow, Theodore Shackley, worked closely with the British and the Lord Cayzer freight/shipping empire apparatus out of Oman. Shackley supervised Dutchman John Deuss's oil smuggling to South Africa, which was supplied in large part from Oman. Sitting on the board of Heritage was Privy Council member David Steel. Steel spent his teenage years at the Prince of Wales school in colonial Nairobi, Kenya--in the middle of the so-called Mau Mau rebellion--where his father was head of the Church of Scotland.
Much of EO's armament came from former East Bloc suppliers. EO head Eeben Barlow, stationed in Europe in the mid-1980's for the Civil Cooperation Bureau, maintained contact with East Bloc intelligence services. Given South Africa's sale of the G5 into the Iran/Iraq weapons bazaar, which was jointly supervised by Bush and Thatcher, and the KGB and STASI, such a procurement channel should be of no surprise. The Soviet Union was also a prominent supplier of oil to South Africa, under the watchfull eye of the notoriously British influenced Africa Institute in Moscow. The East German STASI officer for black market and covert weapons sales, Schalck-Golodkowski, preferred to do much of his weapons dealing via South Africa. His point man for this, Dieter Uhlig, coordinated closely with the Empire's Lonrho concern, as the January 1986 protocol of Uhlig's meeting win London with Lonrho's executives, in the possession of EIR, documents. Defense Systems Ltd protected several Lonrho plantation operations in Mozambique, in one case using their Gurkha subsidiary.
In both Angola and Sierre Leone, diamonds and DeBeers were the name of the game. EO's armaments and officers were the core, with the addition of some local soldiers, which moved rebel groups out of dimaond areas. DeBeers runs in London the 4,000 employee strong Central Selling Organization (CSO) which maintains the global monopoly structure of the diamond business. It runs one of the most sophisticated intelligence organizations in the world, using the full gamut of tools of the trade, dummy front companies, covert spying capabilities, private intelligence firms, etc. Executive Outcomes's contracts, nominally with the respective governments, and, in part underwritten by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank arrangements in the finances of the target countries, were paid off with diamond concessions to a Buckingham front company, Branch Energy. Although not formally DeBeers, Branch operates within the contractual domain of the CSO, like many other so-called independent diamond operations. Later, Buckingham took the Sierre Leone and Angola Branch diamond concessions onto the Vancouver stock exchange, as DiamondWorks, for purposes of stock puffing and probable money laundering. Robert Friedland, a former convicted LSD trafficker from his hippie days, set up DiamondWorks for Buckingham. And, yes, in the course of events, some South African ex-special forces people got to risk their lives, and pick up a fat paycheck too.
It is most likely that EO, basically a several man office with a computer data base, will operate in the shadow of such London SAS firms like Defence Systems Limited (DSL), which has been insidiously digging itself into every disintegrating region and nation of the world--like a maggots into rotting flesh. The more serious question than EO per se, is just how much of the Afrikaner establishment has signed on board to the British game of decimating Africa, it's nations and population, and recolonising with WWF style game preserves and mining domains, heavily protected by private security, as zones of stability in the midst of Terra Incognita of death and conflict. This question goes equally for the ANC and Nelson Mandela. Numerous reports point to the South African government tolerating opportunistically the foreign combat deployments of Executive Outcomes. Although the government is currently drafting legislation against mercenary deployments by South Africans, it will probably only mean that the cartels must train "natives" to do the dirty work.
quote: .... Now the British Empire today, contrary to what most Americans are misled to believe, is still an empire, but of a very special form. It's called the Commonwealth. Most people don't know how the British Empire functions. They think--they believe a silly fairy tale, that the British Parliament runs Britain. It's not true. They believe that the Queen of England is a figurehead. It's not true. They don't know what's going on. The Parliament is a joke. It's an adaptation, a reform of the Monarchy. It does not run the Monarchy. The Queen runs from the top down, through a Privy Council. Number One on the Privy Council, after the Queen, is the Church of England, the head of the Church of England, and then a whole lot of other people, about 500. These 500 people run the British Empire, including the apparatus of its old Colonial Office. The Colonial Office was never disbanded. They call it the Overseas Development Office now. The Crown Agents who ran the colonies still function. They operate whole countries around the world. The mercenary forces we see in Africa and elsewhere are British mercenary forces, under the personal, direct command of the Queen through a thing called the Corps of Commissionaires; that is, these are generally retired military veterans, officers and high-ranking non-coms usually, both from the British Commonwealth system; that is, the various members of the British Commonwealth, or people like Americans, who are ex-GIs, officers and soldiers, who are, as was the case with Ollie North, and people like that, under George Bush, were recruited as mercenary auxiliaries within the British mercenary system.
While a lot of the rest of that page is American propagandist garbage, some parts are true, as we can see the effects of these operations in the news articles and current situation of Africa today.
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Doug makes good points that should be top agenda items at every session of every African Student Association at every university. I strongly feel if the students who will one day man the companies, or act as laisons between the companies and the governments, are the only ones who can really effect meaningful change on the equation.
Yesterday France had some kind of commemoration for the abolition of slavery(1848?)and your posts on the ongoing pillage of Africa's resources with the bought-off complicity of those neo-colonial governments reminds one of the 300 year pillage of African labour resources for the Americas and parts of Africa(Cape Verde, Sao Tome, Angola,Mozambique and South Africa, especially)by the same Europeans. Official name: "The African Slave Trade".
No wonder they feel, act and talk so superior! It's as if they are saying: we can fool them 1,000 times and they will do nothing! This is just intolerable!
Maybe you need to attach your stuff over to Mbeki. I believe one can get to him by e-mail. The others--except Kadaffi perhaps--are half-asleep most of their waking hours.
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I hear you lamin. Mbeki is as much of a sellout as any other neo-colonial leader. And I wouldn't mind sending an email to him. The ACTIONS are what give this away. If you are NOT promoting BLACK African control and ownership of resources and business interests in Africa, then you are promoting genocide. Genocide because OTHERS will deem Africans as NO LONGER NEEDED in the world economy, because they are IN THE WAY of FOREIGNERS extracting money and resources off the land. Africans would be useless except as side show tourist attractions or houseworkers and menial wage laborers, therefore it will promote and foster genocidal schemes to kill off Africans and make way for the greater prosperity and development of FOREIGNERS. If AFRICANS are not standing FOR THEIR OWN PROSPERITY and WELL BEING, SEPARATE from and INDEPENDENT of FOREIGN MANIPULATION that goes AGAINST African interests, then they are complicit in their OWN destruction by these same forces.
quote: National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM200) was completed on December 10, 1974 by the U.S. National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger. Its full title is National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests. It was adopted as official U.S. policy by President Gerald Ford in November of 1975. It was originally classified, but was later declassified and obtained by researchers in the early 1990s.
The basic thesis of the memorandum was that population growth in the Lesser developed countries (LDCs) is a concern to U.S. national security, because it would tend to risk civil unrest and political instability in countries that had a high potential for economic development. Some have interpreted the policy as an attempt to impede the industrialization of their economies, for the reason that industrialization would tend to make them stronger, more self-sufficient, and more apt to consume their own raw materials which are considered to be strategically important to the U.S. economy.
13 countries are named in the report as particularly problematic with respect to U.S. security interests: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. These countries are projected to create 47 percent of all world population growth.
The report advocates the promotion of contraception and other population reduction measures. It also raises the question of whether the U.S. should consider preferential allocation of surplus food supplies to states that are deemed constructive in use of population control measures. The report advises, "In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion."
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And dont forget the endless pleading for AID for Africa. Africans dont need aid, they need a majority of the CAPITAL generated from their minerals, land and labor.
From today's news:
quote: BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- The world's biggest industrial countries are failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa, rocker-activist Bono said Tuesday, calling a new progress report "a cold shower" for the Group of Eight.
G-8 members in 2004-2006 contributed less than half the amount needed to make good on promises to double Africa aid to $50 billion by 2010, according to a report released by DATA -- Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa -- an advocacy group founded by Bono, the 47-year-old frontman for Irish band U2.
"The G-8 are sleepwalking into a crisis of credibility. I know the DATA report will feel like a cold shower, but I hope it will wake us all up," he said. (Bono talks to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta about Africa, poverty and promises Video )
Bono is urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chairs a G-8 summit in Germany next month, to ensure that members contribute what they said they would.(Go to CNN's podcasting page to download Dr. Sanjay Gupta's interview with Bono)
The report shows the G-8 increased aid by $2.3 billion but says the nations need to increase aid by an additional $3.1 billion to substantially help the people of Africa.
"These statistics are not just numbers on a page," Bono said. "They are people begging for their lives, for two pills a day, a mother begging to immunize her children, a child begging not to become a mother at the age of 12."
The DATA report said aid money that does arrive has an effect. "Every day 1,450 Africans living with AIDS are put on lifesaving drugs," the organization said, and 20 million African children are going to school for the first time, thanks in part to debt cancellations and aid increases.
Still, Bono warns that insufficient increases in aid could reverse progress already made. DATA says the G-8 must contribute $7.4 billion this year alone to reach its goal. If Germany makes good on its promises to help Africa, he said, the other G-8 members will do the same.
Britain and Japan have contributed most of the aid increase so far, it said.
They always say give more AID to Africa, but NEVER address the REAL problem, which is the the LACK of CAPITAL that STAYS in Africa from the WEALTH of Africa. If you look here, at the USGS Minerals site, you can find out how much output of various minerals was reported for a given year, in a year book for a certain mineral. You can also look up the output by country.
Keep in mind that a lot of the resources being mined arent on these lists, including coltan. However, the data here, when combined with yearly price information for various minerals shows how much money is being EXPORTED from Africa every year. Combined with the fact that much of this material is being stolen and PURPOSELY underreported, you can see that the PROBLEM is not AID the problem is THEFT, OPPRESSION and murder, by the same international groups that went into Africa for "capitalist" purposes 100s of years ago and JUSTIFIED killing and oppressing Africans to GENERATE capital for themselves. Aid is nothing more than cocaine, which is designed to make Africans dependant on handouts and NOT designed to PUT the CONTROL of the resources of Africa into the HANDS of Africans, which is the TRUE struggle for liberation and independance that Africans have NOT YET acheived.
Posts: 8895 | Registered: May 2005
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quote: Africa's borrowing itch a theme in Shanghai POSTED: 12:35 a.m. EDT, May 18, 2007 Adjust font size: Decrease fontDecrease font Enlarge fontEnlarge font
SHANGHAI, China (Reuters) -- Africa's itch to borrow to hasten development is producing a flurry of ideas to limit the risk that the world's poorest continent could once more drown in a sea of unserviceable debt.
After debt write-offs by international financial institutions and Western governments of nearly $50 billion, some African states have the headroom to start borrowing anew. Others do not.
Charting a way for both groups to tap the funds they need without repeating the mistake of over-borrowing was a key theme of this week's African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meeting in Shanghai.
"It is true that there are a few low-income countries who are not able at this point to carry too much debt on their books in a sustainable way. We all agree that we have to be extremely careful with that category of countries," Donald Kaberuka, the bank's president, said.
"But for countries able to carry debt on their books -- because of their potential, because of their growth -- if they can access capital markets or Chinese outward investment, it's a good thing so they can build railways, roads, dams and so on," he said.
Ghana plans to tap the eurobond market in July and bankers say Nigeria could well follow before the end of the year.
While recognizing that Africa is in dire need of more infrastructure, some Western donors are uneasy about the prospect that too much of the tide of cheap global money could wash up in Africa.
"Now we must avoid a new debt crisis, and a common understanding of what constitutes sustainable debt must be reached and respected," Anne Margareth Fagertun, who headed Norway's delegation, said.
The eagerness of global investors to diversify their portfolios in exotic markets and of some governments, including China's, to lend with few strings attached compounds the unease.
"There is serious concern over recent developments in which some donors, both bilateral and multilateral, undertake lending activities which do not take the debt sustainability of the borrowing countries into account," Shigeyuki Tomita, Japan's senior vice minister of finance, said.
Pierre Jacquet, chief economist at the French development agency, suggested that the Debt Sustainability Framework (DSF) could become a coordinating mechanism to prevent a new round of over-borrowing.
The DSF, set up by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 2005, provides guidance on new lending to poor countries whose main source of financing is official loans.
Jacquet said creditors should stop lending if jointly agreed thresholds were breached, a discipline that he said borrowing countries should be willing to accept.
"A debt sustainability framework is vital, but it poses a collective action problem for lenders, so there's a need to coordinate," he said.
He also proposed a new counter-cyclical lending instrument linking a country's principal repayments to its export revenues.
Instead of the conventional 10-year grace period on a 30-year concessional loan, Jacquet advocates a five-year fixed period and another five years of a "floating grace period".
In the case of an export shock -- defined as a drop in export earnings to 95 percent of the average of the past five years -- the borrower could suspend principal repayments for that year. Mitigating risk
The AfDB is working with the African Union to set up an African Petroleum Fund to absorb the debt impact on oil importers in the event of an oil shock, according to the AfDB's chief economist, Louis Kasekende. The AfDB has already developed a loan linked to the prices of commodities.
The bank is also spearheading the development of local bond markets and has issued debt in the currencies of Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. But Kasekende said the main obstacle is the lack of swap markets for most African currencies.
Brad Koen, director of global markets at Standard Chartered Bank, proposed an Africa bond fund similar to one in Asia, which invests $2 billion of currency reserves in local debt markets.
Another proposal to mitigate poor countries' risk was that they should issue bonds backed by aid money promised by donors.
AfDB Treasurer Thierry de Longuemar was skeptical. "How can we guarantee that donors will pay over 30 years?" he asked.
And how can donors, a new generation of bond buyers and keen government lenders like China be sure that Africa, despite improving economic fundamentals, will use fresh money wisely?
"The difference is a better understanding of the dynamics of the world. The leaders are much more attuned to the prerequisites for success in the world," said Ghana-based Ebenezer Essoka, who heads Standard Chartered in Central and West Africa.
"Given the reforms we have in place and the systems and processes we have in place today, I don't foresee African countries repeating the experiences we've had in the past."
And to think, after 400 years of being raped so that others could claim the resourcs of Africa as a basis for their wealth, the first thing so-called "free" Africans want is AID. What happened to gaining control of the resources and wealth STOLEN from them for 400 years? Reparations even? It is absofucking retarded to see Africans who have some of the most abundant natural resources on the planet, generating hundreds of billions of dollars a year in wealth BEGGING for aid. The charade is over, everyone knows that Africa is being raped, but Africans, at least their leaders, seem to be the ones that dont know it.....
Posts: 8895 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
^Why can't these African countries do what India did, which is first getting rid of all the colonial crap that plagues their society-- much of this crap was designed by Europeans to keep them in lowly positions in the first place. And also ending the widespread government corruption that is also a remnant of colonial power.
Instead of borrowing money from other non-African nations, why can't they reform their economy to take back control of all the rich resources their lands already have instead of getting in debt to other nations?? Also where does all the money go to anyway-- the people, or the crooked politicians??
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Countries like Namibia and Botswana have taken care of their economy quite well almost no corruption, the only problem is the rate of HiV infection otherwise their growth is staggering.
quote:Botswana has maintained one of the world's highest economic growth rates since independence in 1966. Through fiscal discipline and sound management, Botswana has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of $11,200 in 2006. Two major investment services rank Botswana as the best credit risk in Africa.
posted
Doug No objection to your mention of Bono. But here's a drug-addled near illiterate person who sings some tasteless tunes who has been catapulted into media prominenec by the Western media and their backers.
Given the recent publicising of the recent Wolfowitz scam at the World Bank it's time that African nations seek a withdrawal a la Chavez from those instruments of Western econmic hegemony--the IMF and the WB. Note that there is a serious reason why only Europeans and Euro-Americans can be directors of those 2 Bretton Woods institutions--yet they claim to be "fighting poverty in Africa".
The truth is that there are too many of those small African states with small populations--all the deliberate product of European colonialism.
As Nkrumah argued these weak statelets could gain some force by forming real--not just on paper--economic unions with single currencies and single supranational identities. See Nkrumah's "Africa Must Unite"--still relevant in 2007. Add to that the African Development Bank becoming Africa's Central Bank. Latin America is moving in that direction.
The problem is that the vast majority of Africa's heads of states and governments have been thoroughly mis-educated. They know little of African history and have never read the works of neither Nkrumah nor Cheikh Diop. Their intellectual geography is not only very narrow bit also very shallow. For the most part these individuals just exist to take orders from the IMF and the WB and to meet with Bush, Blair, Chirac or Merkel--after intense lobbying by their expensive Western PR consultants. Example: Omar Bongo of Gabon reportedly spent $9 million just to arrange a meeting with George Bush!
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