re:Who is really responsible for the crisis in Africa?

Dear Charlie James, your article about African crisis' responsability is
very interesting. I made the same analysis in the frame of world-system
concept. In fact, we are facing a transnational companies  (TNC) world
offensive to take full control of all the commodities they need at the
lowest price.

This undercovered neo-colonialism is managed by transnational companies
with the official backing of WTO laws and regulations: if a company needs a
direct access to copper, trees, child labour or prison packers it would
claim for free market. In the same way, the CEO of the company would
repatriate its rapacious benefits to a tax haven in the name of free
market. Finally, the third world country (TW) will loose their natural
commodities without receiving any benefit, and certainly not a decent
social situation for the TW working class. The same process is used for
emerging countries, in that case the TNC are looking after cheap working
forces, with the lowest wages and weakest labour and environmental
regulations. Corruption is a tool amongst other: the ruling class of the
exploited countries are controlled thanks to direct incomes given to key
politicians to avoid any implementation of adverse laws or policies...

But, if we want to act against this exploitation, if we look after a
redistribution of wealth between the countries participating together to
the world growth and if we refuse to let the ruling class concentrate huge
amounts of ressources in the hands of few people, we must change the rules
of the system at large. Not destroy it, modify it!

To find the answers, our analysis must be focused on what are the concepts
that are driving this new era of exploitation, which is the process that
obliges companies to run a never ending race?

A deep analysis about competitiveness have been made by John Bunzl.

His core concept is the companies are obliged to compete one with another
because of the dominance of the current stock market concept in the
economicall world life, leading national states and politicians to a
competition in which nobody is able to win.

Key information is given in the site http://www.simpol.org, our concept is
to create a platform to exchange ideas and we look forward to your feedback.

If you think our proposal is a good way to promote a sustainable future,
you could adopt it online from our site.

Thank you.

----------------------------------------------
Visit our site: http://www.simpol.org
_____________
ISPO
United Kingdom
John Bunzl
P.O. Box 26547, London SE3 7YT
info@simpol.org
_____________
ISPO Belgique
Georges Drouet
28, place Morichar  1060 Bruxelles
ispo.belgique@simpol.org


Following this article:

>From the Common Dreams News Center
>            http://www.commondreams.org
>
>Published on Thursday, July 6, 2000 in the Seattle Times
>Who Is Really Responsible For The Crisis In Africa?
>by Charlie James
>
>Rarely does someone write anything that is complimentary about Africa. This
huge, exploited nation of primarily black people has been under siege for
over 500 years, but most people in America treat Africa as though all of its
people are incompetent or ignorant.
>Whenever I mention Africa's history or promise within a column, I receive
several e-mails asking why would I be so concerned with a place so bad off.
They often say I should be rejoicing that my family was fortunate enough to
be enslaved, which made it possible for me to be born in America.
>
>We discuss the famines, tribal wars and the AIDS epidemic as though it's
something inherently wrong with the people to let these things happen. This
attitude is what leads to a slower response to African crises and American
reluctance to get involved in anything on the continent.
>
>Whenever a crisis emerges in Europe, we find a reason to get involved, and
no matter why the crisis is there, we focus first on the plight of the
people, to build support in America, and later on the incompetence of its
leaders.
>
>With Africa, we go directly to its leaders' incompetence, and like our
subtle attitude about slavery, there is a hint that things were much
better-run during white rule and colonialism (the period between 1890 and
the1950s when European countries partitioned Africa and created European
colonies).
>
>It's as though we are saying, "You wanted to run things, so go ahead and
don't call us if things go wrong."
>
>European and American nations and corporations have been slow to help out
in crisis but still continue to exploit Africa financially. In almost every
case, African nations are still controlled economically by their former
colonial masters.
>
>If a conflict breaks out in an African country, the United States defers to
the European nation that controlled that country during colonialism. That
country and its indigenous corporations have economic interests to protect
and will place them far above the interest of the people in the African
country.
>
>This control even extends into the politics of the nation; corporations in
Europe manipulate African tribes to get or keep control over raw materials.
But the reporters who write about Africa talk about tribal warfare and its
carnage and never about the people pulling the strings.
>
>DeBeers International Diamond Merchants has been repeatedly tied to civil
wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and Congo. It reportedly will help finance a
group of fighters who will then occupy the diamond-producing region of the
nation and sell the diamonds cheaply. If they don't finance the rebels
originally, they buy the diamonds on the black market, which funds a civil
war indirectly. Most African governments find it difficult to fight
well-financed armies, and it's impossible to negotiate with people who are
there for economic rather than political reasons.
>
>Shell Oil has been tied to civil war in Nigeria, Firestone Tire and Rubber
tied to one in Liberia, and the list goes on and on. Western corporations
enjoy a monopoly on the natural resources of most nations, and financing a
war is a small price to pay to stay in control.
>
>It would not be unusual for two different corporations to be funding a
different side in a civil war. The winning side will give a monopoly to the
corporation that financed them, and the new government is on the corporation
payroll and under their control from the first day they take office.
>
>In most West African countries, you have to call an operator in Europe to
place a call to the nation next to you. That's why independence can be a
tricky word. If you cannot generate the capital to build a modern
infrastructure within your nation, you will have to find a European or
American partner. That partner will either start out in control or
eventually manipulate things to take control.
>
>If most of the things you grow or manufacture are designed to be exported
to your former colonial master, they control the pricing and they control
how fast or whether your nation will grow. You challenge the system and you
may be faced with a group of well-financed rebels firing mortar rounds into
the presidential palace.
>
>The situation in Africa is more complex than we make it in the West, and if
we keep fudging on the truth, millions of people will die while we blame the
Africans. Yes, there is corruption and many of these leaders need to be run
out of office. But the people never put many of them there in the first
place, and that point is often overlooked.
>
>Africa is in a crisis and we need stable and informed government to fight
epidemics such as AIDS. This constant destabilization process created by
foreign governments and corporations and corrupted African leaders is making
it impossible to get the job done. The millions of people a day dying from
AIDS is one of the greatest tragedies in human history, and all we seem to
be doing is blaming the people who are dying.
>
>Charlie James' is publisher of the African-American Business & Employment
Journal and can be contacted by e-mail at aabej@seanet.com.
>
>Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company
>© Copyrighted 1997-2000 All Rights Reserved. Common Dreams.
www.commondreams.org
>
>
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------------------------------------------
Georges Drouet
28, place Morichar  1060 Bruxelles

gdrouet@brutele.be