Category Archives: Africa

Financial Enslavement of West Africans By France

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By Antoine Roger Lokongo, Pambazuka News. Francophone Africans from 14 countries deposit 65% of their hard currencies yearly into the French Treasury, without French nationality nor access to the public goods and services available to French taxpayers. Close to 1,500 billion CFA francs (Communauté Financière d’Afrique common currency) generated from the surplus of West African states’ foreign reserves are placed on the foreign stock markets and out of the reach of the Africans who own the money. In addition the French force money payments, like an Ivory Coast compensation for the recent war.

Reggae from Tiken Jah Fakoly: On a Tout Compris – It’s All Very Clear

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By Tiken Jah Fakoly, You Tube (courtesy of KZoubeidi) | Wikipedia (biography) | Ados (lyrics) | Introduction by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Tiken Jah Fakoly is a musician who originates from the Ivory Coast and describes his mission as being “to wake up the consciences.” His lyrics speak for the voiceless. This fantastic song came to Haiti Chery’s attention via reader HenryG, in response to news of Haiti’s vaccine trial on poor women and children, along with the message “MINUSTAH (THE NGO TRASH CAN!!!)”. Indeed: we get it. It’s all very clear.

Mother’s U.S. Citizenship Disqualifies Islamist Presidential Hopeful in Egypt

By Staff, Egypt Independent. Egypt’s Presidential Elections Commission has confirmed receiving documentation that Nawal Abdel Aziz Nour, the late mother of presidential hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, obtained U.S. nationality in 2006. Ismail is a popular Islamic preacher who advocates for the establishment of an Islamist state that applies Sharia.

West African Giraffes Back from the Brink

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By Staff, Al Jazeera | You Tube. Distinguished by its paler spots, the West African giraffe once roamed Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Benin, until drought and hunting decimated their numbers to only 50 in 1996. Helped by eco-tourism, the wild populations of this giraffe grew to some 175 individuals in 2007, 250 in 2010, and 310 in 2012, according to the Nigerian government’s counts.

Rwandan Leader Paul Kagame Blasts West for Harboring Genocide Suspects (UPDATED)

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By Staff, AFP via Raw Story. As Rwanda marked the 18th anniversary of a Tutsi massacre, President Paul Kagame accused Western countries of failing to apprehend genocide suspects on their territory. “As we remember those we lost, some of those who killed them are still moving freely in some capitals of the so-called free world.” – Paul Kagame. UPDATE: Arpil 18th, Uwikindi extradited to Rwanda; he is alleged to have led a group of killers to look for and exterminate Tutsi civilians. (English | French)

Rwandan President Paul Kagame Rallies Support for World’s Small Farmers

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By Staff, The New Times | Paul Kagame et Kanayo F. Nwanze, Project Syndicate, with French translation by Michelle Flamand for Le Matin. “If the world is to meet the twin objectives of feeding the growing population and protecting the environment we will have to do what we know works… and that is: targeted support and investment in smallholder farming to raise agricultural productivity, contribute to food security and reduce poverty, while protecting our planet.” – Paul Kagame (English | French)

Tunisian Pirate Party Inaugurated

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By Monia Ghanmi, Magharebia | Nate Anderson Ars Technica | Haiti Chery. Tunisian bloggers have formed the first anti-censorship political party in Africa and the Arab world: the Tunisian Pirate Party. “The ideology of this party is freedom and use of the internet as infrastructure and democracy, because free Internet is an indicator of democratic nations.” – Slim Amamou

Privatization of Water: Benign as Lucifer

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By Richard Raznikov, The Rag Blog | Democracy Center, YouTube. About 20 years ago, it dawned on the bankers and some major corporations that if oil was a lucrative commodity, water would be even more so…. The trick was how to take it away from the people and sell it back to them. In Bolivia and Argentina, water companies such as Bechtel and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux were sent packing. Elsewhere in the world, they, and their enforcers the IMF and World Bank, have bought off many local governments and imposed water privatization and widespread misery. Videos show creative solutions in Cochabamba, Bolivia for getting water under local control and accessible to the poor.

Ugandans Fight U.S. Export of Virulent Anti-Homosexual Hatred | Murders of Iraqi LGBT

By Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe, IPS | Karlos Zurutuza, IPS. The U.S. civil rights group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) against a U.S. right-wing evangelist leader for inciting hatred against homosexuals in Uganda that has led to the murder of activist David Kato and other kinds of violence. Meanwhile, dozens of bodies of murdered gays and lesbians are appearing in Baghdad’s streets, and over 720 LGBT persons have been killed in Iraq in the past 6 years. A rhetoric of likening gays to satanists is associated with the violence in both Uganda and Iraq. (English | Spanish)

Former President Aristide’s New Book: Philosophical Reflections for Mental Decolonization

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By Staff, AHP | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Just out in Haitian bookstores: a new book by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide titled “Pwezi filosofik pou dekolonizasyon mantal” (Publisher: Henri Deschamps, 2012). It is the Creole version of “Philosophical Reflections for Mental Decolonization” (Publisher: Paradigm Press, 2011). Dr. Aristide shows how the 300-year Haitian journey to freedom has been guided by the African philosophy of Ubuntu: an ethical concept that values connectedness, respect, justice, dignity, freedom, and love. He believes this philosophy gave the strength to resist slavery and can continue to motivate resistance.

The Illusion of Aid

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By Muhammad Mustafa, al-Ahram | English translation by Magda Gilpin with editing by Peter McGuire for Watching America. In exchange for every dollar spent by the United Sates on development in Egypt, Egypt spends $37 on U.S. imports. Is it possible for Egypt to renounce U.S. aid? The short answer is “yes.” Is it possible to organize a substitute to this assistance from local and national sources? The answer again is “yes.”

World Bank Organizing to Privatize World Fisheries

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By Meredith McCarthy, Food & Water Watch. A new international alliance coordinated by The World Bank and called The Global Partnership for Oceans is proposing a global expansion of a program called “catch share” that allocates percentage quota of fish per year to coastal areas and arranges for these quota to be leased, bought, and sold. A recent report (included) on the U.S. use of catch share says it has bankrupted small fishermen and destroyed coastal communities.

Pioneering Cholera Scientist Gives Thumbs Down to Oral Vaccines Promoted for Haiti (Also in French)

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By Rashid Haider, Haiti Chery. Prof. Richard A. Finkelstein, an eminent microbiologist and Nobel-Prize nominee for his pioneering studies on cholera, advises that for cholera “the best solution resides in providing safe drinking water and sewage disposal.” In Dec 2010, alarmed by the oral vaccination plans for Haiti, he wrote to the health officials, including Jon Andrus, the Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that the proposed use of Dukoral was “a useless and expensive waste of resources.” This vaccine was not adopted, but a campaign immediately started for the use of Shanchol, another questionable oral cholera vaccine. (English | French)

How Somalia’s Fishermen Became ‘Pirates’

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By Ishaan Tharoor, Time Magazine | Chebucto | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Since 1991, Somalia’s 3,330 km (2,000 miles) of coastline — the longest in continental Africa — has been pillaged by foreign vessels. An estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the Somalia’s coastline each year by the real pirates, which include France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Spain, Taiwan, and the U.S. Belize and Honduras allow their flags to be used by ships that are evading European Union regulations on fishing for tuna and shark.