Foreign Investment - At What Cost?

World Bank’s Land Strategy: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
by Alice Martin-Prevel

Released on July 22, 2013, the World Bank’s report, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity, provides a ten-step program to “boost governance,” “step up comprehensive policy reforms,” and “accelerate shared and sustained growth for poverty reduction” in sub-Saharan Africa. [1] At first glance, these ambitious objectives, aimed at addressing the ongoing crisis of land grabbing on the African continent seem promising; however, the report’s substance fails to deliver.

Departing from the paradox that although Africa is endowed with vast natural resources yet the continent remains very poor, Franck Byamugisha, the author of the report, identifies “poor land governance” in African countries as the root of the problem. Land governance, according to Byamugisha, refers to “the manner in which land rights are defined and administered.” Thus, the report outlines a program aimed at “scaling-up land administration” in sub-Saharan Africa. Hiding behind this ambiguous goal, the prescribed program is nothing more than World Bank’s old paradigm of enhancing efficiency by “transferring land from less to more productive users at low cost.”
The report rekindles the assumptions that land registration would somehow give farmers access to low-cost credit to invest in their parcels, improve their yields, and that Africa has abundant “surplus land” which should be delineated and identified in order to be acquired by land developers. (In its 2012 report Our Land, Our Lives, Oxfam debunked the myth of Africa’s “unused land,” showing that most areas targeted by land deals were previously used for small-scale farming, grazing and common resources exploitation by local communities. [2]) Not only are these postulations yet to be proven, but they also assume that customary rights and traditional landownership are part of an underefficient system that needs transformation. The report’s recommendations thus include proposals such as “demarcating boundaries and registering communal rights,” “organizing and formalizing communal groups,” and “removing restrictions on land rental markets.”
“An important challenge to policy makers,” adds Byamugisha, “is to balance landowners’ rights with the necessity and capacity of the government to regulate land use in the best interests of society.” Hence, significant pressure remains on African governments to enable foreign investors’ entry in the Continent. The report advocates improving mapping, registration, and efficiency of land administration services and management of expropriations in order to reduce transaction costs of parcel acquisition in Africa.
Previous reports by the Oakland Institute exposed the role played by the World Bank Group in facilitating land grabbing. [3] (GRAIN’s 2012 report Who is behind the Land Grabs? can also be consulted on this issue. [4]) The World Bank’s new report shows that the emperor has no new clothes. Despite the introduction of a new politically correct vocabulary and some shallow proclamations around “land vulnerability” in Africa, the World Bank remains an accomplice in global land grabs.
Bibliography
[1] F. F. K. Byamugisha, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity: A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments, World Bank Publications, Washington DC, Africa Development Forum series 78085, 2013.
[2] K. Geary, "Our Land, Our Lives": Time Out in the Global Land Rush. Oxfam, 2012.
[3] S. Daniel and A. Mittal, (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in Global Land Grabs, Oakland Institute, 2010.
[4] Who’s Behind the Land Grabs? A Look at Some of the People Pursuing or Supporting Large Farmland Grabs around the World, GRAIN, 2012.

        

Source:	Oakland Institute
Short URL:	http://farmlandgrab.org/22606

World Bank’s Land Strategy: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

by Alice Martin-Prevel

Released on July 22, 2013, the World Bank’s report, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity, provides a ten-step program to “boost governance,” “step up comprehensive policy reforms,” and “accelerate shared and sustained growth for poverty reduction” in sub-Saharan Africa. [1] At first glance, these ambitious objectives, aimed at addressing the ongoing crisis of land grabbing on the African continent seem promising; however, the report’s substance fails to deliver.

Departing from the paradox that although Africa is endowed with vast natural resources yet the continent remains very poor, Franck Byamugisha, the author of the report, identifies “poor land governance” in African countries as the root of the problem. Land governance, according to Byamugisha, refers to “the manner in which land rights are defined and administered.” Thus, the report outlines a program aimed at “scaling-up land administration” in sub-Saharan Africa. Hiding behind this ambiguous goal, the prescribed program is nothing more than World Bank’s old paradigm of enhancing efficiency by “transferring land from less to more productive users at low cost.”
The report rekindles the assumptions that land registration would somehow give farmers access to low-cost credit to invest in their parcels, improve their yields, and that Africa has abundant “surplus land” which should be delineated and identified in order to be acquired by land developers. (In its 2012 report Our Land, Our Lives, Oxfam debunked the myth of Africa’s “unused land,” showing that most areas targeted by land deals were previously used for small-scale farming, grazing and common resources exploitation by local communities. [2]) Not only are these postulations yet to be proven, but they also assume that customary rights and traditional landownership are part of an underefficient system that needs transformation. The report’s recommendations thus include proposals such as “demarcating boundaries and registering communal rights,” “organizing and formalizing communal groups,” and “removing restrictions on land rental markets.”
“An important challenge to policy makers,” adds Byamugisha, “is to balance landowners’ rights with the necessity and capacity of the government to regulate land use in the best interests of society.” Hence, significant pressure remains on African governments to enable foreign investors’ entry in the Continent. The report advocates improving mapping, registration, and efficiency of land administration services and management of expropriations in order to reduce transaction costs of parcel acquisition in Africa.
Previous reports by the Oakland Institute exposed the role played by the World Bank Group in facilitating land grabbing. [3] (GRAIN’s 2012 report Who is behind the Land Grabs? can also be consulted on this issue. [4]) The World Bank’s new report shows that the emperor has no new clothes. Despite the introduction of a new politically correct vocabulary and some shallow proclamations around “land vulnerability” in Africa, the World Bank remains an accomplice in global land grabs.
Bibliography
[1] F. F. K. Byamugisha, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity: A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments, World Bank Publications, Washington DC, Africa Development Forum series 78085, 2013.
[2] K. Geary, "Our Land, Our Lives": Time Out in the Global Land Rush. Oxfam, 2012.
[3] S. Daniel and A. Mittal, (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in Global Land Grabs, Oakland Institute, 2010.
[4] Who’s Behind the Land Grabs? A Look at Some of the People Pursuing or Supporting Large Farmland Grabs around the World, GRAIN, 2012.

        

Source:	Oakland Institute
Short URL:	http://farmlandgrab.org/22606

- See more at: http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22606#sthash.r6Mf7jQT.dpuf

the curse of the Congo

In Congo's northeast, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people, including some 10,000 children, mine gold using nothing more than hand tools—and often literally by hand. But their scrappy livelihood may be coming to an end soon. Several foreign concerns, including a subsidiary of AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third-largest gold-mining firm, recently cut deals with the Congolese government to take over the region's lucrative mining operations.

In neighboring Tanzania, AngloGold Ashanti mined $1.5 billion worth of gold from 2000 to 2007, but only 9 percent of that money stayed behind as taxes and royalties. In the meantime, the firm's top shareholder—hedge fund billionaire John Paulson—lives on New York's Upper East Side and summers in the Hamptons.

 Congo has virtually no public health system. AngloGold Ashanti, which has spent millions of dollars prospecting in this desperately poor area—and plans to extract billions in gold—has made only small contributions to a local hospital, schools, and a soccer tournament. "Nothing has been done," complains a local chief.

"We wouldn't have so much trouble if we weren't so rich."  is a common sentiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo's people are desperately poor—not in spite of, but largely because of their nation's fabulous resource wealth.

Withdrawal Of Medical Charity Impacts On 100,000s Of Somalis

Afgooye Hospital, situated in the agricultural town of Afgooye, 30 km southwest of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is one of the many health facilities that used to receive support from the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders. Because of this support the hospital was able to provide free healthcare to the residents of Afgooye and surrounding areas. But it has been almost a month since MSF left Somalia because of security concerns for its staff, and the senior nurse at Afgooye Hospital, Aisha Ahmed, told IPS that the hospital was running out of basic drugs and vaccines.
The 20-bed Afgooye Hospital has only one doctor and seven nurses, who provide what services they can to the hundreds of patients who come through the doors every week.
"This is the place people who want free healthcare turn to, but since MSF left and no agency has filled its place we cannot support the health needs of the people here and in the town's periphery," Ahmed said.

The international charity had been one of the few providers of essential healthcare here for the last 22 years. Somalia has been through almost 20 years of war, and its citizens are affected by poverty and a lack of essential services.
The current government has had to function with limited financial resources and the continued threat of the extremist Islamist group Al-Shabaab, which has waged a number of recent terrorist attacks on the capital Mogadishu despite being ousted from key cities across this Horn of Africa nation.

In an earlier interview with IPS, presidential spokesperson Abdirahman Omar Osman explained that the government's monthly "revenue is roughly three million dollars from Mogadishu's seaport and the airport, and yet the budget we need to execute our daily activities is at least 20 million dollars each month."
The health centres supported by MSF were provided with various services, including free basic healthcare, malnutrition treatment, surgery, epidemic response, water and relief supplies.
MSF said more than 1,500 staff worked for its medical programmes across Somalia, including in Mogadishu and the two outlying towns of Afgooye and Daynille, as well as eight other towns across the country.
"In 2012 alone, MSF teams provided more than 624,000 medical consultations, admitted 41,100 patients to hospitals, cared for 30,090 malnourished children, vaccinated 58,620 people, and delivered 7,300 babies," MSF said in August in a statement announcing its decision to leave Somalia. But Somali doctors warn that the decision will adversely affect the lives of "hundreds of thousands of people".

Mohmaoud Yarow, a health officer in Mogadishu, said the impact of the MSF withdrawal was immediate and health centres that had previously received support from the international charity now have hundreds of people in need of care and many lack the drugs with which to treat them.
"I can understand how difficult it has been for MSF to leave Somalia, but the impact the pullout has had on the country's health sector is enormous … with time this could turn into a deadly health crisis," Yarow told IPS in Mogadishu.
Local media reported in August that Al-Shabaab fighters seized control of a former MSF-funded hospital in Marere, Middle Jubba Region, along with the medical equipment and drugs.

Medical officials also say that the MSF pullout further complicates the polio outbreak the country is facing as the medical charity had provided essential vaccines against the disease. Earlier this year, polio was detected in several areas in Somalia, including the eastern region of Puntland as well as southern and central parts of the country. The World Health Organisation has confirmed 101 cases here and a massive vaccination campaign against the viral disease was launched in August.

The Somalia government has said that it was "deeply saddened" by the MSF decision to withdraw and has reiterated its commitment to providing a secure working environment to all aid agencies in the country. Abdelaziz Qafiifo, spokesperson for Somali Ministry of Human Development and Social Services, which is responsible for the health sector, told IPS: "It is unfortunate that the withdrawal of MSF is having an impact on the lives of the Somali people. We understand the reasons for its pullout but that decision, whatever may have been its justification, is now causing huge suffering in Somalia."
The Somali government said that the MSF decision has created "a critical vacuum that needs to be filled" and could "lead to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis", and has urgently called on the international community and donor countries to offer their support. But until support comes, many here will have to live without access to treatment.

From here

This Land Is Whose Land? Reclaim The Commons

There was a time when 'land' used to refer to those parts of our habitat that were cultivated for food, grazed by animals for hide, wool, meat, milk and fertilisation, forests from which timber, firewood and food were collected and where communities lived sharing the common wealth. Now, as with everything else one can imagine, land is just another commodity to be bought and sold at the best possible price, to be acquired whatever the consequences for long-term incumbents. As land is a commodity so too is everything it can offer – food, fuel, minerals and water – with the added bonus of investment and speculation.

The phenomenon of 'land-grab', well known now, was originally seen as a way for food insecure and rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and China to gain access to foreign farmland in order to meet the food needs of their own populations. Then came the big push for biofuels following targets agreed by governments at a succession of meetings on climate change. In a recent report from Worldwatch Institute rural populations have been pushed off prime land in 25 sub-Saharan countries for the production of biofuel crops for foreign nations. In other examples food is grown on an industrial scale solely for export, disenfranchising local populations and turning them into wage labourers if they are lucky and forcing them into urban areas and likely penury if they are not.

The most exciting opportunity now for big money seeking even bigger money is that of investment and speculation in both food and land. Pension schemes, universities, bankers and large investors are jostling to invest in land for speculation. According to one spokesperson for a large company fund it doesn't matter if nothing is grown for ten years, you'll still 'turn a good profit.' Pension funds globally run to around $23 trillion. Their investment in land and agriculture is relatively recent but growing fast and admitted by some investment bankers and civil society organisations to be a major cause of rising food prices globally.

At the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal an appeal against land-grabbing was launched. By the following September over 650 organisations had endorsed it. Estimates of land the size of western Europe (227 million hectares) have been sold, leased or licensed in the last decade. One Oxfam case study found at least 22,500 people lost both homes and land in Uganda when they were evicted in favour of a British company, the New Forest Company. There were conflicting versions from the company and the evicted but a high court order to restrain evictions was sidestepped and the company put the responsibility onto the Ugandan National Forest Authority. There are numerous accounts of promised benefits to displaced persons and communities not materialising even after several years of waiting. Efforts to draw up and implement regulations for the protection of local populations, even voluntary ones, have been less than robust.

The countries of Africa have been a major target for land-grab with agriculture on an industrial scale reaping substantial profits for investors. Corporate agriculture, however, is not about food production or satisfying the needs of the undernourished or downright starving but about producing profit. How long can it be at this rate before its limits are reached – disenfranchised millions starved to death in favour of a tidy accumulation for the few? A lengthy study by the Oakland Institute in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Mozambique, Zambia and South Sudan looked at the viability of industrial scale farming compared with small family farms. What they found was that where 100,000 hectares of plantations would employ 1,000 workers traditional agriculture of the same area would sustain 50,000 families, that is between 200-250,000 people. In addition a 2009 UN report concluded that industrial agriculture is responsible in large part for climate change, species extinction, poisoning of the environment, water shortage, disease and poverty.

This land is our land. Reclaiming the commons for the peoples of the world is a necessary step in the pursuit of socialism. Join us for a revolution.

JS

 

Accumulation? Capitalism Is The Name Of The Game

Land grabbing is a topic not covered widely in western media but for local populations in countries where it is happening it is mostly a traumatic event culminating in lost livelihoods, eviction from homes and derisory, if any, compensation. The winners are shareholders and owners of big companies - mining, logging, monocrop agriculture, investment companies, pension funds and the like together with state or government actors using their position for pecuniary advantage. Note the quote at the end from the District Agriculture Officer compared with opinion from local farmers. Accumulation however, wherever, whenever, from whoever - capitalism is the name of the game.
JS
 
Farmers in Bombali and Tonkolili districts in northern Sierra Leone have said that land grabbing by multi-national companies and massive timber logging are some of the barriers to sustainable agriculture in the two districts.

One of the aggrieved farmers, Jaria Jalloh, said they are worried that there would be no land for their children to farm in the future as investors, with the aid of government, have grabbed large swathe of land in the districts.

"We have nowhere to farm or even fetch firewood. We are worried that our unborn children will not have land to farm too," she cried, adding that their land was being taken from them with little or no compensation.

Madam Jalloh opined that another hindrance to agriculture was indiscriminate logging in both districts, with the attendant negative effect of soil erosion caused by massive deforestation.

She called for an immediate response from government in a bid to rescue farmers from poverty, and enhance sustainable agricultural practice in the two districts.

The two districts house mining giants African Minerals and Addax Bioenergy, who enjoy a long period of ninety years land lease agreement with the government. The companies have had to contend with agitations from communities, many of whom are aggrieved that they have lost their livelihoods, while being given ridiculous amounts for land rents.

Meanwhile, the District Agriculture Officer in Bombali, Joseph Tholley, said many companies are in the district with a view to invest in agriculture, but that the ministry was careful not to go into agreement with dishonest companies.

"We have been approached by individuals and companies who have vested interest in investing in agriculture in the district,but we are careful that we do not want to go into arrangement with dishonest ones," he said.


BY ALUSINE SESAY

Source: Concord Times 

 

Eviction Of Thousands Into Poverty Is Just Another Externality

Africa needs ‘ethical land policies’

By Polycarp Machira from The Citizen

Dar es Salaam. African countries should have ethical economic land policies to save the continent from land conflicts, international land conference was told on Wednesday.

African land needs clear stewardship for the benefit of both current and the future generations. This should put into consideration interests of small-scale farmers by involving them in any decisions made on the use of land. The observation was made by Dr Camillu Kassala from Christian Professionals of Tanzania Research Fellow, Interfaith Standing Committee for Socio-economic Justice and Integrity of Creation, when presenting a paper at a conference in Dar es Salaam.

He said land holds the social-cultural attractions of many African communities; therefore forceful eviction of locals from their land in the name of investments interferes with social identity of people. “There is a lot more that needs to be considered before any decision to evict people from their land is made, but apparently our government does not even give the locals opportunity to express their wishes,” he said.

According to Dr Kassala, the government is never neutral when it comes to acquisition of land by investors and only thinks of how to remain in power.

He accused the government of always working in the interest of influential members of the private sector who often give irrational demands.

For his part, the University of Dar es Salaam lecturer, Dr Ringo Tenga, basing on his previous research, said land grabbing is very much evident in Tanzania as the government tries to downplay the reality.

Same old story. Local people seen as externalities - they get in the way of the few to make money. Tanzania, just one of Africa's many separate countries, is typical of the recent frenzy of land acquisition by foreign agricultural and investment companies, all primarily interested in reaping profit from the land either from food crops for export, from crops for biofuel production or simply investment for future profit. The common thread is disenfranchisement for many small farmers and total loss of home and access to livelihood. The scale is enormous and growing annually - just another part of capital's accumulation process. Nothing but world socialism will put an end to such atrocities.
JS
 

US - Crisis Management Strategy In East Africa's Red Sea Region

Interesting perspective from Thomas Mountain, US journalist, resident for a number of years in Eritrea. A dominant global power, resource control, destabilisation of large areas, control at any cost - far removed from any basic principles of democracy. JS

 

Destabilizing Egypt is part and parcel of Pax Americana’s “Crisis Management” strategy in Africa. The USA wasn’t about to sit back and watch as the beginnings of a transition to an independent government in Egypt was taking place under the Morsi led Muslim Brotherhood so voila! coup de grace! 

Pax Americana always preferred the brute force policy of Mubarak and following the popular explosion in January, 2011 that brought down their vassal they were waiting in the wings ready to bring back the old regime.

The Egyptian military didn’t have to think this one up on their own, they got it right out of a manual at one of the many sessions they have attended for the past 30 plus years at various military war colleges in the USA. Cut off electricity during the hot weather, deliberately restrict fuel supplies and of course full watts of propaganda on how “25 million people signed a petition against” the Morsi government. Classic destabilization campaign.

To be blunt, the USA will cause the Egyptian people to wage war against themselves before it will allow any sort of transition to an independent government in Egypt. The Egyptian Army will still get its salaries and if matters become so unstable that it can no longer be relied upon to “protect” the Suez Canal, through which all the trade between Europe and Asia flows, then there are always UN “peacekeepers” to do the job. So let the Egyptians kill each other, its called crisis management, as in create a crisis and then manage the ensuing chaos to better enforce Pax Americana in a most critical region of the world.

The USA’s destabilizing of Egypt is just a part of the greater “crisis management” strategy in East Africa’s Red Sea region, the best example of which is the giant “Millennium Dam” being built by Ethiopia on the Nile river.

It wasn't that long ago that threats of war were being made by heads of state here alongside the Red Sea over the threat posed by cutting off Egypt's historic use of the Nile waters by Ethiopia’s new mega dam. A closer look at this new dam, something one will not find in the western media, reveals that it was the creation of the World Bank, 51% owned by the USA. The dam itself is supposed to produce 6000 megawatts when its is done, yet no one has tried to explain who is going to use this huge energy surplus. To start with 75% of Ethiopia’s 80 million+ people have never, ever, had electricity and there are no plans let alone multi billions of dollars to build an electrical distribution system for over 60 million people. And even if they did the rural, agricultural based Ethiopian economy would still only need 2000 megawatts. Ethiopia could build two or three dams a fraction of the size and price of the “Grand Millennium Dam” that would be more than sufficient for its needs and would not threaten Egypts use of the Nile waters.

It was all Pax Americana’s doing to start with, helped along by some “Abyssinian Imperialist” ambitions, that now posses such a serious threat to Egypt's survival that dire threats of regional warfare were made. Its called “crisis management”, take a perfectly solvable problem and turn it into a potential explosion that will prevent any further attempts at regional economic and political integration ie Pan African cooperation.

That the USA is behind the destabilization of Egypt is no secret here along the Red Sea with senior leadership from our region speaking publicly about the problem. Pursuing peace is never popular with Pax Americana, especially along strategically critical choke points like the Suez Canal and the “Gate of Tears”, Baab Al Mandeb, the mouth of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. Crisis management won't allow it. The saying goes “All Roads to Peace in the Horn of Africa and Red Sea run through Asmara”, Eritrea which is trying its best to promote principled dialogue and diplomacy to try to prevent the damage inflicted upon us under the strategy of “crisis management” by the purveyors of destabilization and violence, the USA.

Thomas C. Mountain

from here 

Botswana misery

Almost half of Botswana are born into abject poverty .

The report also says many children and infants in Botswana die of preventable diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia. The report observes that malnutrion levels are high among children under five. The UNICEF report also says the prevalence of  wasting, stunting and obesity were 12%, nine percent, 31% and 15% respectively.

The Madness of Capitalism

The only psychiatrist, Dr Egip Bolsane, working in the African country of Chad has his work cut out to convince patients their issues are medical, rather than spiritual.

"Public opinion here thinks that it means something is really wrong in your head, it might be because you're possessed. We need to demystify the more or less diabolical image of psychiatry."

Mental health problems are poorly understood by the majority of Chadians who tend to conceptualise illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia as having a spiritual, rather than a medical cause. Many people believe in the existence of witchcraft and curses, and phrases such as having a "hot head" or persistent headaches are often euphemisms for much more serious problems.

It is easy to see people whose mental health issues have been left untreated, and whose families can no longer cope, living rough on the streets of the capital. The biggest obstacles to changing attitudes to mental health - and getting people to understand that it is an illness and not possession - is lack of education.

"Mental health issues are not talked about in society," he said. "I often find when people come to see me that they don't know how to discuss their problems with anyone."

"The human being is not a machine which can just be easily repaired. Trying to understand the full range of the human experience, how emotion links to health, is one of the most exciting and challenging things anyone can do," he said, explaining his motivation and dedication.

Chad’s 12 million people have lived through many years of war and have enormous need for psychiatric help. Chad endured a seemingly unending succession of civil wars, rebellions and coups which have left many thousands of people traumatised. Under the 1982-90 brutal dictatorship of Hissene Habre some 40,000 people disappeared and many more thousands were tortured and imprisoned without charge. Both rebel groups and the national army are known to have persistently used child soldiers.

Dr Bolsane believes this background helps to explain what he's observed about the occurrence of certain illnesses. "I have observed that cases of schizophrenia here are much more common that you would find elsewhere, and my theory is that it's linked to what the country has gone through." He has also noticed unusually high numbers of cases of paranoia, possibly brought on by substance abuse, and stress within family relationships.

Very few of these people have ever received professional medical help. Anyone wishing to study psychiatry still has to go to France. In a country which is currently battling an outbreak of malaria with 14,0000 new cases over just a few weeks, where polio and measles are still very real threats to children, and where the under-five mortality rate is 169/1000 live births, it is easy to see how resources will not be directed at mental health issues.

Dr Bolsane is disappointed that the country's new found oil wealth has not contributed more towards improving all aspects of health provision in Chad - the country has earned some $10bn from oil sales in the last 10 years but many of the country's hospitals are still in a terrible state.

To Hell with Shell

Niger delta communities devastated by giant oil spills from rusting Shell pipelines have unanimously rejected a compensation offer from the company, calling it an insult, and cruel and derisory. A court in London is now likely to decide how much the Anglo-Dutch firm should pay 11,000 fishermen and others from the Bodo community who lost their livelihoods when the 50-year-old Shell-operated trans-Niger pipeline burst twice within a few months in 2008.

Chief Patrick Porobunu, leader of a Bodo fishing community, said: "Shell is cruel, very wicked. It has given us nothing again. People here are very angry. All we have is poverty because of Shell. We have no electricity, no health. Our suffering goes on."

Estimates of how much oil was spilled ranged from around 4,000 barrels to more than 300,000. Communities this week reported that no cleanup had been done and that water wells were still polluted. Five years after the spills the creeks and waterways around Bodo have an apocalyptic feel. The air stinks of crude, long slicks of oil drift in and out of the blackened, dying mangrove swamps and a sheen of oil covers the tidal mudflats. "It's everywhere. The wind blows the oil on our vegetable crops, our food tastes of oil, our children are sick and we get skin rashes. Life here has stopped," said Barilido,

Shell offered the communities £30m, or around £1,100 for each person affected. Martyn Day, a partner with the UK law firm Leigh Day who represented the those communities, said Shell's offer was rejected unanimously at a large public meeting in Bodo. "The amount offered for most claimants equated to two to three years' net lost earnings whereas the Bodo creek has already been out of action for five years and it may well be another 20-25 before it is up and running properly again. I was not at all surprised to see the community walk out of the talks once they heard what Shell were offering."

It emerged that Shell had offered the communities only £4,000 shortly after the two spills occurred in 2008-9. "Shell continue to treat the people of Bodo with the same contempt as they did from the start when they tried in 2009 to buy us off by offering the community the total sum of £4,000 to settle the claims," said Chief Kogbara, chairman of the Bodo council .

Chief Tal Kottee, Bodo elected regent, said: "We had been expecting a good settlement from Shell. Our livelihoods here have been totally destroyed. It's an outrage that it has taken so long for a cleanup and to get compensation."

Shell is the largest firm on the London stock exchange with a market capitalisation of £141bn, for what they called its "meanness". They accused Shell of financial racism and applying different standards to cleanups in Nigeria compared with the rest of the world.

"Is it because we are Nigerian and poor that they offer so little for the damage they have caused?" said one fisherman at the Bodo meeting.

"It is a big shame on Shell that they are unwilling to pay a fraction of their profit as compensation after subjecting the people and the environment to such unthinkable harm they would not dare allow in their home country," said the Nigerian environmentalist and chair of Oilwatch International, Nnimmo Bassey.

Tanzanian Journalists Murdered By Police

Today (2nd September 2013) marks exactly one year since journalist Daudi Mwangosi was brutally murdered at the hands of the Tanzania Police. His only crime was being a journalist. As the sole breadwinner, his demise meant a new life of suffering for his dependants.

To the media fraternity, Mwangosi’s assassination was to become only the first of many attacks on journalists. A community radio journalist, Issa Ngumba, was found dead in a forest in Kakonko, in the northwestern region of Kigoma, on 8 January, three days after he went missing. It was clear from the injuries on his body that he had been murdered. Furthermore, a reporter for Radio Kwizera, 45-year-old Ngumba, left his home on the evening of 5 January to look for medical plants for his second job as a traditional healer. After he was reported missing, police and civilian volunteers searched extensively until his body was found in nearby Kajuluheta Forest.

A month earlier, on the night of Tuesday 4 December 2012, Shaaban Matutu, a journalist with Free Media Limited - publishers of the Tanzania Daima newspaper – had been shot by police. This happened at Matutu’s home in Kunduchi Machimbo after an alleged altercation with police officers, one of them firing and hitting Matutu in his left shoulder. It was, however, the attack on Absalom Kibanda, the Chairman of the Tanzania Editors’ Forum in March 2013 that sent a strong message of intent and put the recent crackdown against the media and freedom of expression into context. The June 2012 indefinite ban on Mwanahalisi and brutal attack against Dr. Stephen Uliomboka, had seemed like isolated incidents.

Within the last 12 months, Tanzania has gone from being the beacon of hope in the region, to becoming one of the worst human rights offenders.

For a country going through a constitutional review process, these attacks on the media are counterproductive as they have a chilling effect on any meaningful debate of the issues raised by the draft constitution and active involvement of the citizens in the subsequent democratic processes, including elections.

For all these attacks, no one has been held accountable, despite the various promises by the state, including the personal pledge by President Jakaya Kikwete after the attack on Mr. Kibanda. The journalists, like all citizens have a right to free speech and free expression without threat of attack, and the state has a duty to thoroughly investigate the reported cases of abuse and violations of these rights to their logical conclusions and bring the culprits to book.

The right to freedom of expression is not a preserve of the media alone. Any violations and attacks on the media have far reaching consequences on the enjoyment of all other rights exercised by citizens. The government of Tanzania must demonstrate its commitment to the protection of freedom of expression as proposed in the draft constitution by first; ensuring that journalists are safe from all kinds of attacks, apprehend and hold all those implicated in these attacks, including its own officers accountable; as well as allowing for meaningful dialogue.

The time for political rhetoric is over. For Mrs. Itika Mwangosi and her children, the wait to see justice for those responsible for killing her husband should not be a lifelong experience. The same applies for Dr. Uliomboka, Kibanda, Matutu and others who have been brutally attacked in the recent past.

* Paul Kimumwe works with the freedom of expression group, ARTICLE 19, in Eastern Africa, which first published this article.


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The Aim Is Always Profit - Brazil In Africa

Africa in Debt to Brazil: Forgiveness Isn’t Always Free
by Fabiana Frayssinet
from here

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 10 (IPS) - The Brazilian government projects the cancellation of nearly 900 million dollars in debt owed by a dozen African countries as a gesture of solidarity. But others simply see an aim to expand the economic and political influence of South America's powerhouse.

The decision by the left-wing government of Dilma Rousseff, which is now being studied by Congress, will especially benefit the Republic of Congo, which owes 350 million dollars, Tanzania (237 million), and Zambia (113 million).
The other beneficiaries are Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal and Sudan.

The decision was described by Rousseff as a "two-way street that benefits both the African countries and Brazil." But it was not interpreted the same way by the opposition, and some lawmakers are seeking to block congressional approval.
Cases that have been called into question include those of Republic of Congo, Gabon and Sudan, which are facing international legal action for cases of corruption and even genocide.Authorities in those countries are "corrupt figures who buy Louis Vuitton and Mercedes Benz luxury cars. Writing off the debt of governments that enjoy such privileges sends the wrong message," said Senator José Agripino of the opposition Democratic Party.

A statement issued by Brazil's foreign ministry says  the forgiveness of the debt is based on the rules and principles of the Paris Club of rich creditor nations, aimed at easing the debt burden of poor countries. The communiqué said the move was not just something that occurred to Brazil in a vacuum, but formed part of "an international practice with clear objectives to keep the debt burden from being an impediment to economic growth and anti-poverty efforts."
In an interview with IPS, political scientist Williams Gonçalves at the Rio de Janeiro State University said the argument raised about dictatorships and "supposedly corrupt governments…has nothing to do with international relations."

Gonçalves said the critics "were not scandalised" when the United States and other economic powers "protected and financed dictatorships in Latin America."
"And today they are protecting similar regimes in the Middle East," he said. "Nor are the defenders of human rights and democracy raising their voices."
Brazil's foreign policy defends respect for national sovereignty, Gonçalves said.
"Attaching political strings and interfering in local political systems is a common practice by the United States and other major powers," he said. "Just as we don't want anyone to meddle in our political life, we suppose others feel the same way."

There are other aspects to the controversy.
Senator Alvaro Dias of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party mentioned the economic objectives.
Cancellation of the debt would reopen credit lines at Brazil's National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) and bolster the involvement of leading Brazilian business consortiums in the African countries in question.
Trade between Brazil and Africa climbed from five billion dollars in 2000 to 26.5 billion dollars in 2012, according to foreign ministry figures.
In Africa, Brazilian public and private enterprises have invested in sectors like oil, mining and major infrastructure works.

Marcelo Carreiro, a history professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told IPS that Brazil's Africa policy has "strategic objectives" such as "the extension of a strategic security area and the expansion of market access."
That is reflected by the selection of countries, many of which are in West Africa, geographically across the ocean from Brazil's impoverished but fast-growing Northeast, he said. That could give rise to "the creation of a geostrategic Brazilian sphere in the south Atlantic, responsible for conceptually expanding this country's frontier towards the African coast," he said. This would safeguard "not only its strategic pre-salt area (the ultra-deep oil reserves hidden under a thick layer of salt off the coast of Brazil) but also the vast extension of Atlantic coast, in a ‘mare brasiliensis'," protecting this country from future access by enemies to its territory.

The history professor said "this new carving up of Africa" is indicated by the inclusion of "the only country on the planet governed by a leader facing genocide charges," the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court. "Sudan is triply attractive for Brazil: it is rich in oil, in need of civil construction, and hungry for industrial and agricultural goods," Carreiro said. "It is possibly the most advantageous market in Africa, for the Brazilian economy," he added.

Closer ties would bring additional advantages, such as support for Brazil's aspirations to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
But Gonçalves is not shocked by this interpretation. "The forgiveness of the debts of small states by large economies is a common thing," he said.
"The technical explanation for this cancellation is clearing the slate for those countries to pave the way for loans from the BNDES that favour the activities of large (Brazilian) companies," he added. But the political science expert does not see this as running counter to the principles of aid. "Solidarity and cooperation are carried out by means of loans and the implementation of projects," he said.
"International economic relations occur under the capitalist system, which means the aim is always profit," he said.

But the analyst believes that unlike other kinds of aid, "these projects will be carried out under financial conditions and with social objectives that do not awaken the interest of the big industrialised economies." Investments by South America's giant also reach Africa through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), with a total of 50 million dollars in projects in agriculture, health and education in 2010. Carreiro pointed out that shortly before the debt cancellation plan was announced in May, the Rousseff administration reported that ABC would be overhauled, and its aid would be increased by 300 million dollars, mainly for Africa.
"But that was apparently seen as too little, and Rousseff decided to speed up the decision, directly buying influence in key countries in Africa," he said.
"Earmarking 300 million dollars for cooperation projects and writing off some 900 million dollars in debt for corrupt governments are two contradictory practices in a chaotic foreign policy," Carreiro said. A 2012 study by the Don Cabral Foundation showed that Brazil's presence in Africa was growing, with 34 Brazilian multinational corporations operating in the continent. In the view of 44 percent of the companies surveyed, the government's foreign policy over the last decade has fuelled expanding international involvement by Brazilian firms.

Curse Charity

I worked as a school manager at Bridge International Academiesfrom  2010 to mid this year. The company’s business is educating the less fortunate in society at an affordable cost. Most of the company's schools are constructed using iron sheets. And they are located in the slums.

Workers (teachers, school managers) in these schools are poorly paid, work for long hours and are not represented in any trade union. The proprietor of these schools is a top American capitalist. Profit is his main theme, though from time to time high quality education is dangled to parents and in prospectuses to attract them to the schools.

Workers are paid per the pupils who pay that month. Those who pay later on don't count for this and the money remains the profit of the company (worker's sweat). Any worker who makes a slight attempt to as complain or show displeasure is shown the door.

Morale has been low and prospects of employees scaling the corporate ladder are slim as there is no upward mobility in the firm. The company pays US nationals handsomely while Kenyans are left to feed on crumbs.

Out of the 210 schools, 75% are profitable but this profit doesn't get to those who make this a reality (teachers and school managers).

If that's the way capitalism operates, then damn the system. It's ugly and repugnant. Companies ought to realise that without their workers the wheels of their operations would grid to a halt.

Patrick.W.Ndege, 
Nairobi, Kenya.

SUPERMARKETS OR SOCIALISM?

As South Africa has grown more urban, so have poverty and hunger migrated to its cities. Sixty percent of South Africa's population is now urbanised, and this figure is projected to reach 80 percent by 2050. In Cape Town, a 2011 survey found that over 80 percent of households were either moderately or severely food insecure in sampled low income neighbourhoods. In addition to overall caloric food insecurity, households were found to have limited dietary diversity.

The government of South Africa sees increasing penetration of supermarkets into poorer neighbourhoods as a way to encourage economic development and increase access to food. One group sees "food deserts," or the lack of food retailers in poorer neighbourhoods, as the primary driver of hunger and malnutrition in urban areas. Another group views the growing spread of large supermarkets in cities of the Global South with suspicion. Their primary concern is that large food retailers will displace smaller, traditional shops that better cater to the needs of the poor.

The problem is that the supermarket model, even if it is modified, may never really be able to reach the poorest of the poor. Such households often have irregular cash flows, meaning that they must purchase food in small quantities or buy items on credit when there is no money to be had. While small shops can meet such demands, supermarkets cannot. Furthermore, small shops were not charging more for the food they sold than the big retailers even though the items they sold came in much smaller quantities.

 This market-oriented solution to improving urban food access is inherently limited because it just cannot meet the needs of the poorest of the poor. The real solution to South Africa's urban food insecurity problem is poverty alleviation.

Source

A Tangled Web For Resource Control In Sudan

No apologies for posting the whole of this article from a Tanzanian freelance journalist and writer. Each section is inseparably linked and important for grasping the intricacies of the situation. JS

from Countercurrents.org

Sources say the peacekeepers are struggling with equipment problems, poor training of some contingents and the reluctance by some governments to send their soldiers into combat zones. When seven Tanzanian peacekeepers in Darfur, western Sudan, were killed and 17 seriously wounded in an ambush by gunmen, the incident sent shockwaves throughout the country. For the first time public was made aware that all was not well with their men and women deployed in the war-torn Sudan as part of the UN peacekeeping forces. The deadly attack on 13 July this year occurred when the soldiers were in a convoy searching for their vehicles that were reportedly stolen by a rebel group. The Tanzanian soldiers sustained heavy fire from machine guns and possibly rocket-propelled grenades. Among the wounded were two female police officers. No group immediately claimed responsibility. But a UN report in February said that some armed opposition groups are angry about the presence of peacekeepers and have called the force ‘a legitimate target.’

In the Tanzanian official circles scanty information was released, but some local journalists contacted the peace-keepers in Darfur. One of them said, on condition of anonymity, that a week ago unknown assailants attacked members of the army and disappeared with four vehicles. ‘It is really traumatising here; I can tell you the rebels are fully armed with sophisticated weapons,’ he lamented.

Immediately, questions were raised about the United Nations African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) whose task is to maintain peace and protect civilians from insurgents. Some asked if there was any peace to maintain in the first place.

The Tanzanian contingent of 875 military and police personnel has been stationed in Darfur for some five years as part of the UNAMID, which has strength of 16,500 troops and military observers plus 5,000 international police. Yet the latest casualty was not an isolated encounter by the solders on peace mission in Darfur.

Peacekeepers have been targeted at various times since the international force began its work in the region in 2008. In April this year gunmen shot and killed a Nigerian peacekeeper. Prior to the July attack, 150 people associated with the UN mission in Darfur had been killed while on duty in the region, according to the force's website. Following the latest attack, Tanzania is now seeking a stronger mandate for peacekeepers in the Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, so as to ‘deal with the current condition.’ The demand is to equip the peacekeepers with heavy weapons such as APC, artillery and helicopters. Army spokesman Colonel Mgawe said, ‘We want our troops to have more capacity to defend themselves against insurgents’. He said currently their rules of engagement, under Chapter 6, forbid the use of ‘excessive’ force. Now they are going to negotiate with UN for Chapter 7 so as to give the troops more fire-power to defend themselves. That means use of heavy weapons as is the case with Tanzanian forces in DRC. In fact some Tanzanians have questioned why give them heavy weapons in DRC and not in Darfur. Whether, with such armaments, they have succeeded in wiping out M23 is another question. 

The pertinent question for Darfur, however, is whether the peacekeepers there are now going to pursue the rebels and fight them on their turf or are they going to fight back when attacked. If it is the former then actually it means there is no peace to maintain and so stationing peace-keepers there is paradoxical

It has been suggested that the better solution for stopping the attack on peacekeepers would be to cut off the supply line of heavy weaponry to the rebels, especially if the supply comes from outside the Sudan.

Meanwhile, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has asked President Omar al-Bashir to investigate the latest incident and ensure that the perpetrators are apprehended and brought to justice.The question is whether Bashir has the ability to take any action, since he himself has been under attack by the rebels. After having negotiated and signed peace treaty with them, not all have joined the cease-fire. And so his troops have been under attack from time to time. Hence he is hardly in control of the situation in Darfur, which has been described as a civil war. Darfur has over 35 tribes and ethnic groups. Half the people are small subsistence farmers, the other half being nomadic herders. For centuries the nomadic people have been grazing their cattle and camels over sprawling grass lands, sharing water sources. 

The crisis is reportedly rooted in intertribal feuds over increasingly scarce water and grazing grounds in the area hit hard by years of climate change, drought and growing famine, coupled with the encroaching Sahara Desert. The matter became worse when local tribes took up arms in 2003 against the government in Khartoum, which they accuse of marginalising them. Meanwhile, more insurgencies were launched from Darfur. Factions allied with or against neighbouring countries operated from bases inside Darfur, which became a regular landing ground for foreign military transport planes. Thus, Chad’s Idriss Deby launched a military bombardment from the neighbouring Darfur and overthrew President Hissan Habre. French and U.S. forces were then involved in funding, training and equipping Deby, a military ruler, who supported the rebel groups in Darfur. At the same time there were reports of Israelis providing military training to Darfur rebels from bases in Eritrea, while strengthening ties with the regime in Chad, from where more weapons and troops penetrated Darfur. Refugee camps were thus militarized. 

 Darfur was further militarised when the regime of Ange-Félix Patassé collapsed in the Central African Republic and his soldiers fled to Darfur with their military hardware. The situation was not made better when, in August 1998, US President Bill Clinton ordered missile attack on the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. It was producing cheap medications for malaria and tuberculosis, supplying most of the medicine in Sudan. The plant was completely smashed by 19 cruise missiles, for no logical reason. And so Darfur became the hub of international geopolitical scramble for Africa’s resources. The region has the third largest copper and the fourth largest high quality uranium deposits in the world. It produces two-thirds of the world’s best quality gum Arabic, which is major ingredient in cold drinks, pharmaceuticals and candies. Sudan exports 80% of the world’s supply of this commodity.

The country, the largest in Africa in terms of area, is strategically located on the Red Sea, immediately south of Egypt, and borders on seven other African countries. It is situated opposite Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, among the main suppliers of oil. Sudan also has abundance of natural gas and oil, much of it in Darfur. The problem for the West is that it is the Chinese who are pumping the oil. U.S. companies controlling the pipelines in Chad and Uganda are looking for the ways to displace China through the US military alliance with states such as Uganda, Chad and Ethiopia, which are not too friendly with Sudan. Darfur, a western region of Sudan, borders on Libya and Chad, with their own vast oil resources. So it is a likely pipeline route. 

The West is thus pushing for ‘peacekeeping’ mission in Darfur in order to pursue its own agenda. That is why in the end the whole exercise may result into another Iraq or Afghanistan. This is because the United States and its allies look for conflicts, or even provoke conflicts, which they use as pretext to intervene in other countries, militarily or otherwise, directly or through proxies (including the UN). The aim is to exploit and control these countries economically and politically through puppet governments. This way they facilitate, promote and protect the investments of their corporations. This is how the United States and other western powers are working towards political domination in Africa and elsewhere, in order to exploit their resources. 

These are the sentiments that were possibly expressed by chairman of Tanzania’s National League for Democracy (NLD), Dr. Emmanuel Makaidi, when he called upon the government to withdraw Tanzanian peace-keeping troops from Sudan as their presence there is ‘not in the country’s national interest. It is not worth sacrificing our seven soldiers who lost their lives in an ambush laid by insurgents,’ he swiped, adding that Tanzania has an ill-advised foreign policy.

Nizar Visram is a Tanzanian freelance journalist and writer on political and socio-economic issues. He can be contacted at nizar1941@gmail.com

Africom Again

This article is very informative and instructive about the growing military presence of America in the African continent.

There is U.S. military involvement with no fewer than 49 African nations out of a total of 54. In some, the U.S. maintains bases, even if under other names. In others, it trains local partners and proxies to battle militants ranging from Somalia’s al-Shabab and Nigeria’s Boko Haram to members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.  Elsewhere, it is building facilities for its allies or infrastructure for locals. Many African nations are home to multiple U.S. military projects.  Colonel Tom Davis, AFRICOM’s Director of Public Affairs, declares in all earnestnessl: “Other than our base at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, we do not have military bases in Africa, nor do we have plans to establish any.” But then  admits that the U.S. has “temporary facilities elsewhere…”

At Entebbe, Uganda, U.S. contractors have flown secret surveillance missions. U.S. Army Africa  plans to build six new gates to the Entebbe compound, 11 new “containerized housing units,” new guard stations, new perimeter and security fencing, enhanced security lighting and new concrete access ramps, among other improvements.

Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. An airbase there serves as the home of a Joint Special Operations Air Detachment, as well as the Trans-Sahara Short Take-Off and Landing Airlift Support initiative.

Nzara in South Sudan is one of a string of shadowy forward operating posts on the continent where U.S. Special Operations Forces have been stationed in recent years. Other sites include Obo and Djema in the Central Africa Republic and Dungu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 AFRICOM confirmed  that U.S. air operations conducted from Base Aerienne 101 at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital, were providing “support for intelligence collection with French forces conducting operations in Mali and with other partners in the region.”

Additionally, the U.S. has flown drones out of the Seychelles Islands and Ethiopia’s Arba Minch Airport.

 Since 2004, U.S. troops have been stationed at a Kenyan naval base known as Camp Simba at Manda Bay.  The U.S. military also makes use of six buildings located on Kenyan military bases at the airport and seaport of Mombasa.

The list goes on...

Key to the Map of the U.S. Military’s Pivot to Africa, 2012-2013

Green markers: U.S. military training, advising, or tactical deployments during 2013
Yellow markers: U.S. military training, advising, or tactical deployments during 2012
Purple marker: U.S. "security cooperation"
Red markers: Army National Guard partnerships
Blue markers: U.S. bases, forward operating sites (FOSes), contingency security locations (CSLs), contingency locations (CLs), airports with fueling agreements, and various shared facilities
Green push pins: U.S. military training/advising of indigenous troops carried out in a third country during 2013
Yellow push pins: U.S. military training/advising of indigenous troops carried out in a third country during 2012

Africom and Obama's Africa Trip 2013

Posing as a humanist, president Obama came to Africa to reinforce the exploitation of the natural riches which are now dangerously threatened by Sino-Iranian pressure. He was unable to set up a photo opportunity with the dying Nelson Mandela, who threw him out of South Africa during his 2006 visit.

Obama had his photo taken in the House of Slaves, on the island of Gorée in Senegal, gazing thoughtfully at the Atlantic Ocean, across which millions of Africans were transported in chains to the Americas. He declared that, as an "Afro-American president," he was inspired by the site which " ... gives me even greater motivation to defend human rights throughout the world."

This is the tone that the president used to begin his trip to Africa. But in South Africa, he was confronted by thousands of workers and students who called him a "slave-trader," and accused him of war crimes and the betrayal of his electoral promises. Obama couldn’t even organise a photo-op at Nelson Mandela’s bedside, a symbolic image he had counted on.

So everything didn’t go too well on the "Africa Trip 2013." It was a propaganda tour which cost a hundred million dollars – the president brought with him from the USA hundreds of secret service agents, 56 special vehicles including 14 armoured limousines, and three trucks loaded with bullet-proof windows, plus an aircraft carrier from which fighter planes controlled the air space thoughout the presidential journey.

The real reason for the trip became apparent when Obama declared that " ... China is paying a lot of attention to Africa" and that it is " ... in the interest of the United States to augment and extend its partnerships with the African nations." But there is a problem – the USA can’t compete with China, whose investments are much more useful and advantageous for the African nations than those of the USA, which are aimed at maximum profit, and concentrate their efforts on the exploitation of energy and mineral resources.

To counter Chinese influence and reinforce US presence in Africa, the Obama administration has principally favoured its political and military instruments. Amongst these, " … the Young African Leaders Initiative," whose objective is to " ...develop a prestigious network of young leaders in fundamental sectors, and to forge even stronger links with the United States." Through these "high-level forums," and more than 2000 "youth programmes" which are financed to the tune of millions of dollars, Washington is attempting to create an elite of new pro-USA leaders in Africa.

At the same time, by way of AfriCom, they are reinforcing US military presence on the continent. The main base for this operation is in Sigonella (Sicily). It’s from this base that the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) of the Marine Corps is deployed, equipped with tilt rotor MV-22 Ospreys and C-130 flying tankers, sending regular squadrons to fly over Africa. Since January, from Sigonella, the MAGTF has been training special African forces in Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Seychelles, Mozambique, Tanzania, Senegal and Liberia. The Sigonella task force also collaborates with the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Course-Africa, forming officers for the African secret services in Kenya, Ethiopia, Southern Sudan, Nigeria and other countries.

The MIBOC-A course is defined as " … one of hundreds of security operations carried out by US military personnel in Africa." This is how the US military network is extended in Africa, by way of multiple links, recruiting officers and local special forces. The operation is directed by AfriCom, which recently installed its first "advanced command post" on the African continent, with the combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa and Djibouti . A new version of the old instruments of colonial domination.
But Obama would do well to pay attention – as he himself stated " … Africa is rising."

Manlio Dinucci

 

Birthrights - Sub-Saharan Africa

The worst place in the world to give birth is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a woman has a one in 30 chance of dying as a result – while the best is Finland, where the risk of death is one in 12,200, according to a new analysis. The Save the Children mothers’ index, now in its 14th year, records not only the likelihood of death in pregnancy or labour but also the difficulties women face when they become mothers.

 The charity scores countries on maternal health, child mortality, education, women’s income and women’s political status. The top end of the table is dominated by European countries and Australia. The UK manages only 25th place, although it is ranked higher than the US at 30th. “The 10 top-ranked countries, in general, are among the best countries in the world for mothers’ and children’s health, educational, economic and political status,” says the report.

“The 10 bottom-ranked countries – all from sub-Saharan Africa – are a reverse image of the top 10, performing poorly on all indicators.
Conditions for mothers and their children in these countries are devastating.” In the bottom 10 countries, which include Nigeria, Gambia and Somalia, one woman in 30 is likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause. In these countries, one child in seven dies under the age of five, compared with one in 345 in Finland. Children get between two and nine years of education at best, whereas in Finland they can expect 17.

While the US scores well on the educational and economic status of women – 10th on both in the world – it is way behind the high-scoring countries on maternal health (46th) and children’s wellbeing (41st) and does badly on the political status of women (89th) – women hold only 18% of seats in Congress. Only five developed countries in the world – Albania, Latvia, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine – do worse than the US on maternal mortality.
Women in the US face a one in 2,400 risk of dying of causes related to pregnancy or childbirth. “A woman in the US is more than 10 times as likely as a woman in Estonia, Greece or Singapore to eventually die from a pregnancy-related cause,” says the report. Mortality among under-fives is 7.5 per 1,000 births in the US. “This is roughly on par with rates in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Qatar and Slovakia. At this rate, children in the US are three times as likely as children in Iceland to die before their 5th birthday,” says the report.

 Save the Children International’s chief executive, Jasmine Whitbread, said: “By investing in mothers and children, nations are investing in their future prosperity. If women are educated, are represented politically, and have access to good-quality maternal and child care, then they and their children are much more likely to survive and thrive – and so are the societies they live in. Huge progress has been made across the developing world, but much more can be done to save and improve millions of the poorest mothers’ and newborns’ lives.” For the first time, the charity has compiled a separate index on newborn deaths. While deaths of children under five around the world have come down substantially in recent years, there has been little progress on newborns.

The riskiest day of a child’s life is the day of its birth, says Save the Children: 1 million die on that day every year. The most dangerous place to be born, the index shows, is Somalia, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo; these are also the two most unfavourable countries for mothers.
Babies in sub-Saharan Africa are more than seven times as likely to die on the day they are born than babies in industrialised countries; Luxembourg, Iceland and then Cyprus have the best safety records.


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