From The Ramparts

The Same Ol’ Okie-Doke

The Same Ol’ Okie-Doke

“After months of pressure ahead of the two-day Gleneagles summit hosted by Britain, the final result is generally described as well meant, but too little, too late and without enough safeguards to ensure that African leaders direct the money where it is most needed. Action Aid, an international development agency that, as part of the Make Poverty History campaign, helped put pressure on G8 leaders to act on Africa's dire economic position, dismissed the measures as incapable of ‘effectively’ tackling poverty and failing ‘to deliver justice for Africa’. Less than half of the money pledged by the G8 leaders to Africa by 2010 is new, Action Aid said on Saturday. ‘If the G8 is serious about making poverty history, they should announce $50-billion in aid now, not in five years' time,’ it said.”- Sahm Venter Mail & Guardian Online 08-05-05

The recent G8 Summit held in Gleneagles Scotland was overshadowed by the London bombings. Perhaps it is just as well that most of the media attention that week focused on the so called “terrorist attack” that rocked London. The “attack’ took the centrality off of a G8 Summit that with great fanfare had trumpeted its intentions to address several critical issues affecting much of the world’s population: global warming and debt relief for Africa. Personally I’m always skeptical when white folks (the G8 represents seven European nations; six of whom have long histories of imperialist aggression of indigenous people) start talking about doing the right thing, being altruistic and alleviating conditions they produced. Contrary to deliberate misconceptions, African poverty and debt are not the result of ineptitude and corruption on the part of African leadership. African poverty is the direct result of the ongoing legacy of Arab and European invasion, colonialism and Western NeoColonialist policies. Yes, corrupt leadership does exist in many African nations but that does not account for the abysmal conditions throughout the continent. Africa’s problems were caused by European colonialism and are maintained by policies imposed upon African leaders by the economic thugs in suits from the IMF, the World Bank and US-AID.
The thugs in suits (read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins) are the ones who set the agenda that keeps Africa and other so called Third World and “developing nations” in the death grip of perpetual debt and overwhelming poverty. It is the policies imposed by the G8 and their Bilderberger and Trilateral Commission, interlocking multinational corporation board member puppeteers that are strangling Africa and the rest of the world. Africans are poor because Europeans invaded the continent, waged continuous war on the people and disrupted their way of life by imposing hardships on the masses. The Europeans subsequently beat back centuries of indigenous liberation struggles with their advanced weaponry and psychopathic administrative policies. The West sets the tone and tenor for international trade. The terms of which always benefit the West and amost always puts Third World nations at a tremendous disadvantage. For example European , the EU and AmeriKKKa governments subsidize their farmers while African nations either can't afforrd to subsidize their farmers or are unable to match the subsidies of their Western counterparts. The West then dumps European and AmeriKKKan farm products on African nations at reduced prices the indigenous farmers cannot compete with; subsequently wrecking African economies. Even when the African nations seek relief via tariffs and import fees, the IMF and World Bank step in and put pressure on the governments and the tariffs and fees are dropped! This is happening right now in Ghana and Cameroon with poultry farmers. It happened in Cameroon with the coffee and cocoa crops. The debt relief proposed by G8 is too little too late; but most importantly it is not genuine! The G8 has no intention of cancelling all of Africa’s debt. The IMF and World bank make too much money off the long term debt service African nations are forced to pay . Plus the IMF and World Bank use the loans and the stringent anti-nationalist conditions they impose on the leaders as political leverage to force the governments to liquidate their assets (government-owned utilities, refineries and water purification plants) and privatize them at bargain basement prices. The new owners (their Wall Street pals and multi-national puppeteers) then jack the costs of service up putting the masses in even direr straits. Add these extortion and loan shark type policies to the already brutal legacy of European colonization, divide and rule domination, illiteracy, social disruption and the new dimension of socio-cultural imperialism, and we can see how Africa is being set up for even greater exploitation. The few genuine white folks agitating for economic justice are being played big time by Bob Geldof of Live 8 and the G8 in a two fold sting to stereotype Africa as a disease ridden, famine plagued continent with a hapless and helpless woe be gone population in need of saving by kind hearted civilized white folks. The truth of the matter is the exact opposite, Africa is an immensely rich continent that is being cunningly and deliberately cannibalized by the Western ruling elites for massive depopulation and continued economic exploitation. It’s the same ol’ same ol’ only in a different package.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 11:52 AM