Africa is The New Black

By Unknown
Published on 1:19 PM at
I sat through the G8 finance ministers press conference on BBC News today. It appears that Africa is the new black. Africa is very fashionable among politicians, musicians and even ordinary people. The welcoming news is that Africa is getting attention, the bad news is; at what cost?
The headlines are really exciting, but if there is somethg I have learnt about dealing with western world trends and fads it is that this has the hallmarks of another of those money flows in and money flows out quicker than you can brink. Remember,  THE 1997-98 ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS. I bet you there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Nonetheless, if people's lives are saved the getsure is all the more worthwhile.
 
I hope we are not trading family heirlooms and our freedom in exchange for crumbs falling off the old master's table. This could just be a case of 'phantom' aid money.
 
There is a strong suspicion that the G8 have woken up to China's growing economic threat. According to seasoned conspiracy theorists;
 
" the spate of accidents in Chinese-owned businesses we have seen to date are an attempt to rally public sentiments against the Chinese in an attempt to justify government wretching control of mines and other protperties out of chinese hands and into the hands of other people. This is all part of the new scramble for Africa."
 
China is busy in Africa while G8 are busy elsewhere ,  The G8 need huge amounts of raw materials to sustain their appetite for global power. Africa happens to be about the only place they can obtain such materials at next to nothing.  Also, there is a Pension crisis in the western world. Could this be another form of plundering our country just to shore up the financial markets' diminishing returns?
 
Consider this, the EU constitution is almost DEAD, ( Straw to sound death knell for EU treaty). The United Europe may not happen, if at all. It is now one for himself.  The European countries are beginning to scramble for Africa again, including the pop stars, Live 8.
 
Quote
Zambia doesnt even need debt cancellation.They are only engaging in debt cancellation to prevent accusations that the policies they forced GRZ and many african countries to adopt have miserably failed.
 
 If african countries stopped borrowing money and became self sufficient europeans would have no place to get cheap raw materials...and their economies would go in a tailspin.
 
 These debt maneouvres are just another ploy to continue controlling african economies.
 
I hope my cyncism will be proved wrong.

Microsoft , The Digital Dictator

By Unknown
Published on 11:58 AM at
MSN Spaces is a waste of time and effort, serious bloggers have known that since it was launched. Blogging is about innovation, creativity and freedom of speech. All this has been ignored by by Microsoft. The MSN space censorship is not only ridiculous and unforgivable, it also measures by double standards. The whole blog thing seems pointless if you cant express your self in the way you want to (within reason of course) but msn will do what they like just to fit the bill, it really does suck.

In the latest feat of hypocrisy Microsoft bans 'democracy' for China web users:
"MSN on Friday declined to comment directly on the ban on sensitive words, but its China joint venture said users of MSN Spaces were required to accept the service's code of conduct. 'MSN abides by the laws and regulations of each country in which it operates,' the joint venture said. The MSN Spaces code of conduct forbids the posting of content that 'violates any local and national laws'."


Hello! MSN is a/was a tech leader in enabling technology, what happened? Microsoft Prefers money to free speech. This follows on the hills of a recent report from CNET News.com:
Beijing announced in March that every China-based Web site now had to register and provide complete information on its organizers by June 30 or face being declared illegal, the Paris-based media-advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"The plan is all the more worrying as the government has also revealed that it has a new system for monitoring sites in real time and spotting those that fail to comply," the group said. "This decision will enable those in power to control online news and information much more effectively."

About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, said RWB, citing official Chinese figures.


Microsoft is aiding and abetting oppression.


Live 8

By Unknown
Published on 11:20 AM at
Pop stars will be performing at the forthcoming LIVE 8 concerts around the world. According to the organisers, the richest countries will be provoked into examining their collective conscious inorder to rescue the children dying in Africa. The rich countries' trade policies are unfair and have perpetuated the misery the is so common in Africa, so we are told.
 
Allow me to be cynical here, I think the pop stars are being rescued by the starving Africans. If it was not for the misery that Africans are supposedly experiencing, no one in their right mind would buy music from these faded, aging and grumpy musicians.
 
Take for instance the line up at these gigs, the performers are mostly Anglo-Saxon. The kind white tribe storms on a musical stage to rescue poor Africans, yet again. How poetic!
 
Live 8 is not a solution, I think it is patronising to Africans.

Reflections On African Development

By Unknown
Published on 5:24 AM at
Reflections On African Development:
"Certainly, political independence is not in itself sufficient to create the necessary conditions for economic and social development. This is not to say that political freedom is not in itself important. The argument here is that while political liberties are necessary, they are not a sufficient condition for economic growth and development. In order for citizens to engage in productive activities and generate the wealth that they need to meet their needs and deal effectively with poverty, they must be provided with institutions that (1) guarantee economic freedom; (2) adequately constrain state custodians (i.e., civil servants and politicians) and prevent them from engaging in opportunistic behaviors (e.g., rent seeking and corruption); and (3) enhance peaceful coexistence of population groups (i.e., minimize destructive ethnic mobilization). For one thing, unless such state constraining institutions exist, civil servants and politicians will develop and implement perverse economic policies in an effort to generate extra- legal income for themselves. In the process, they will stunt indigenous entrepreneurship and discourage wealth creation. Self- rule, then, only provides a people with the wherewithal to establish and sustain institutions and policies that enhance economic growth and development. It is important that Africans design, by themselves, through democratic processes, institutions that are locally-focused, reflect their individual specificities, customs and traditions, aspirations, relationship with the environment, and expectations for the future."

The American Taliban

By Unknown
Published on 7:24 AM at
Quotes from The American Taliban, read them and weep.

New Scramble For Africa

By Unknown
Published on 3:06 PM at
Blogger: Mpelembe Blog :: Edit Post ' Mpelembe Blog ': "
Mwandini, sho u right!  China is busy in Africa while Europe/US is busy elsewhere , like Iraq. The have failed to crack Iraq, Africa is an easy option.
 
We are back to the cold war era when African countries were simply strategic interests in the the global supremacy war.
 
The super powers need huge amounts of raw materials to sustain their appetite for global power. Africa happens to be about the only place they can obtain such materials at next to nothing cost.
 
Consider this, the EU constitution is DEAD, (Straw to sound death "

New Scramble For Africa

By Unknown
Published on 3:02 PM at
Mwandini, sho u right!  China is busy in Africa while Europe/US is busy elsewhere , like Iraq. The have failed to crack Iraq, Africa is an easy option.
 
We are back to the cold war era when African countries were simply strategic interests in the the global supremacy war.
 
The super powers need huge amounts of raw materials to sustain their appetite for global power. Africa happens to be about the only place they can obtain such materials at next to nothing cost.
 
Consider this, the EU constitution is DEAD, (Straw to sound death knell for EU treaty). The United Europe may not happen, if at all. It is now one for himself.
 
The European countries are beginning to scramble for Africa, even the pop stars, Live 8, are cashing in on  Africa.
 
Look out, the imperialists are coming back!