Wednesday 27th of November 2024
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time for africa to dump its development model from washington ponzi

Kenya’s Leadership has bred Poverty since 1963, and is reaping Riots

Kenya’s antigovernment protests continues into the second month and are similar to Ghana’s in 2022, as both started from over taxation and worsening living standard, problems absent in South East Asia (e.g. Vietnam), which was also colonized. Kenya, Ghana, and Zambia have attempted development for 6 decades but lag behind Vietnam, which started developing under 4 decades ago. Clearly, Kenya and African countries need to change their development model from the World Bank/IMF’s neoliberal Ponzi for enriching western corporations. 

Dispossession –Poverty -Protests

As Kenyan’s antigovernment protests continue into the second month, participants’ idleness and poverty resulting from unemployment is being identified as a key driver, even as some groups participate to loot (here). President William Ruto, noting the role of idleness, has been commissioning large construction projects to employ hundreds of young people (here) but in vain, since more remain due to long-term inequality that was created by the founding president, the UK government, and US corporations. The aforementioned took large pieces of fertile land for their use and hence robbed Kenyans of livelihoods at independence, while succeeding governments have continuously sidelined victims from economic opportunities, such that close to 80% of Kenyans remain poor or vulnerable (here), 61 years on.

 As Mr. Ruto blamed the Ford Foundation for funding the ongoing protests (here), the real reason for their persistence is unemployment and poverty, which Washington has been helping its ‘allied’ Kenyan government to create, but is now taking advantage of; there is surely no honor among thieves. Resultantly, unemployed Kenyans in their 20s have recently found the thrill of engaging the police in running battles while looting everything from bread, gas cylinders, to electronic devices. Unfortunately, some enjoy the adrenaline rush as they face serious injury and death, the same way as players of rodeo, bungee jumping, or Russian roulette, making them even more reckless. These young people, as Kenya’s future, are forced to grow in an economy that gives them no path to social and economic advancement, yet actors from the Washington Consensus have been complete okay with it.

The Washington Consensus of Doom

The World Bank and the IMF have been the main apologists of Kenya’s political elites, and the three form an effective trio of breeding poverty. Oppositely, The World Bank criticized Vietnam, which lifted 40 million people out of poverty in a decade, claiming that minorities were lifted at a lower rate (here). Meanwhile, Kenya, which has been independent since 1963, has close to 40% of its population in poverty, while Vietnam, which emerged from a brutal US-led war in 1975, has only 4.2% (here). However, the World Bank praises the former and not the latter, showing that neocolonial institutions prefer Kenya to remain poor. Kenya’s wrong trajectory is approved further by the west as it is ranked higher than Vietnam in The West’s ease of doing business indices (here), since multinational corporations have easier time making profit but not the citizens. Oppositely, the Human Development Index (HDI) shows that Vietnam, in which western multinationals on average find harder to do business in, have a high score. Kenya’s HDI is 0.601, signifying middle development, while Vietnam’s is 0.726 (here) signifying high development. The latter ranks 6th in its region that actually develops after emerging from western colonialism and wars from mid-20th century, just like Africa. It also has a lower debt problem. It is therefore sensible for Kenya and Africa to adopt a developmental model from a region that has been developing.

The key difference between Kenya’s economic model and Vietnam’s is that the former has attempted adopting neoliberalism with the government existing largely to facilitate large corporations in the name of enhancing ‘ease of doing business’ while the latter runs a mixed economy allowing free enterprise while also maintaining robust state enterprises and social welfare state. As a result, western institutions favor Kenya for giving global corporations a free reign as a World Bank report (here) as it apologizes for Kenya’s political elites’ corruption, and poor governance, while absolving them off responsibility. The same report claims that Kenya’s pre-COVID-19 growth was caused by public sector spending, and resulted in debt vulnerabilities, attempting to hide how the real problem was that a large percentage of the amount borrowed by the government was stolen, (here, here, and here) which caused the said vulnerabilities. The World Bank recommends that the government should take more steps to attract private investors, which means further enhancing corporations’ wellbeing and not citizens’. The World Bank shifts goals and pontificates for Kenyan politicians claiming how they took significant political and economic reforms that have contributed to sustained economic reforms, social development, and political stability, and ignores the reality that these did not resulted into perceivable benefits to citizens. Talking about Kenya’s political stability, it will be interesting to see how the biased World Bank will report now that Kenya is crossing into the second month of protests and riots. Predictably, it (the World Bank) passed the ball to its sister, the IMF.

Colonial Collabo

The World Bank’s sister colonial entity, the IMF, was very quick to air its unsolicited intervention after Kenya’s protests (here), first condoling with those killed or injured while also explaining why the government was not responsible for poverty or unemployment, claiming that the current situation is caused by funding “squeeze that is currently being experienced by low-income countries”. It leaves out context to mislead audiences that the government came into existence recently and had no opportunity to steer the country out of low-income status or prevent the so-called funding squeeze. In reality, Kenya’s politicians could have steered the country to rise above low-income status, as Vietnam’s leaders did. It is clear that the World Bank and the IMF, with the assistance of gluttonous African leaders, are breeding poverty in Africa.

Africa’s Development Model is Broken, It is time to Change it. 

The challenge of under development is not only seen in Kenya but also in resource-rich African countries such as Ghana and Zambia with HDI scores of 0.632 (here) and 0.565 (here), despite being the leading gold copper producers respectively on the continent. Ghana, which is also rich in energy resources and has strategic ports on the Atlantic, is also neck-deep in debt and needed IMF-sponsored restructuring. The problem in Africa is definitely related to developmental model over and above past colonialism, noting that the South East Asia has progressed much better despite western colonization, and wars of plunder, for instance, which Vietnam emerged from a decade after Kenya, Ghana, and Zambia. With particular reference to the resource-rich countries of Ghana and Zambia, in the African case and equally resource-rich Vietnam in South East Asia, the former features under development and debt while the latter has enhanced human development. Therefore, there is a need for African countries to seek alternative developmental approach to what they have applied to date, which have clearly failed.

 

Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

 

https://journal-neo.su/2024/07/25/time-for-africa-to-change-its-development-model-from-washington-consensus-ponzi/

 

 

african energy....

Can Africa seize control of its own energy?

The continent has taken a decisive step towards resource sovereignty, but the real struggle lies ahead

By Vsevolod Sviridov

 

At an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) in early July, it was decided that the headquarters of the new Africa Energy Bank will be located in Nigeria, over Algeria, Benin, and Ghana. For Nigeria, it was particularly important to beat Algeria, a rival for the status of Africa’s largest energy power, and Ghana – a rival for political influence in West Africa.

Between Nigeria and Algeria, the choice probably fell on the former because, in January, the Research Institute (GRI) of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was opened in Algeria. The GRI will develop a framework for scientific and technological cooperation through information exchange, the sharing of best practices, innovation, and technology transfer. Moreover, the African Energy Commission (AFREC) of the African Union is also located in Algeria. The presence of such international organizations has already sealed Algeria’s status as an influential player in the energy sector, both in Africa and globally.

The fact that the headquarters of the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) – which may become one of Africa’s most influential financial structures, both in the energy sector and in general – will be located in Nigeria is an important achievement for the country, especially in light of the crises which have impacted the country’s energy sector.

The founding documents and the AEB charter were signed in early June by Afreximbank and the Africa Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO). The latter is an African organization established in 1987 to develop intra-African cooperation in the energy sector. The same two organizations spearheaded the project to establish the AEB, became its founders, and will provide a large portion of the initial capital.

It is assumed that the bank’s capital will initially amount to $5 billion. $1.5 billion will be provided by Afreximbank and APPO, another $1.5 billion will be contributed by the bank’s member countries (the minimum contribution will be $83 million, so the founders count on about 15-17 countries joining the bank initially), and another $2 billion will be provided by external investors. There is no definite information yet as to which countries will join the membership circle, but Nigeria and Ghana have already contributed funds and, in addition to Algeria, Benin, and Nigeria, countries like Angola, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, South Africa, and others are interested in becoming members.

To this day, in terms of energy issues, most African countries remain critically dependent on non-regional players. The main mineral deposits, transport and logistics facilities, energy and port infrastructure remain under the control of Western and Asian companies (eg, China, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates).

Non-African think tanks (primarily Western ones), international development aid agencies, and even corporations help develop the regulatory framework and assist with the strategic development of entire industries in Africa, forming an environment that corresponds to their own interests. Many of the current standards, technical regulations, regulatory legal acts, and charters have been in place since colonial times and resemble those of the former metropoles. All this gives Western companies preferential market access. Such systemic influence allows non-regional players to maintain their positions even despite the political conjuncture (such as coups d’etat, radical changes in foreign policy, etc). One of the most obvious ways to reduce and overcome Africa’s dependence on external forces is to develop intra-African cooperation and diversify contacts with non-regional players.

AEB’s main task is in line with this logic – when it comes to energy projects, it aims to solve the problem of underfunding or, rather, the dependence on external financing and, accordingly, an externally imposed energy and climate agenda.

With each year it becomes increasingly difficult for African governments to implement sovereign strategies for the development of the fuel and energy sector with the funds of non-regional players. For the most part, external creditors have already refused to fund coal generation, and the refusal to finance heavy-fuel oil (HFO) thermal power plants is being increasingly discussed. Many projects in Africa are blocked by the protests of Western eco-activists (who exert pressure on Western creditors); the projects that do receive financing are export-oriented and do not contribute to the development of domestic markets.

Instead, Western lenders increasingly support renewable energy projects. There is nothing wrong with this, and in Africa there are plenty of examples when a pair of wind turbines or a small solar power plant solved the problem with electricity at the local level – for example, in one or two villages. However, wind turbines and solar panels alone cannot provide uninterrupted power supply to a metallurgical plant, a large flour mill, or a modern megalopolis due to their small installed capacity and dependence on weather conditions. The West’s selective financing prevents industrialization and consequently, import substitution and localization initiatives, forcing Africa to remain import-dependent and use up its already scarce foreign exchange reserves.

The establishment of the AEB is an important victory for Africa and an attempt to strengthen energy sovereignty, but the main work lies ahead and finding money is the main problem. First of all, $5 billion in initial capital isn’t enough to solve the problem of energy poverty in Africa, where 600 million people still do not have access to mains electricity and rely on diesel generators. On average, one 200-300-megawatt power plant costs about $200 million (meanwhile, the energy shortage in Africa amounts to hundreds of gigawatts), the construction of one main gas pipeline costs $2-3 billion, a nuclear power plant costs at least $15 billion, and the development of one oil and gas field amounts to over $1 billion.

Secondly, the $2 billion (or 40% of the capital) that the bank plans to obtain from external investors is a ‘black box’ and potentially the project’s biggest risk. The experience of other pan-African financial institutions (such as the African Development Bank) shows that the shareholders are likely to be Western countries and Bretton Woods institutions (the IMF and the World Bank) that will form alliances, and as a result, their voice may become decisive at shareholder meetings, so they will get the opportunity to determine the bank’s policy.

Thirdly, the bank’s primary currency will be the dollar and the euro, which means it is at risk of sanctions and other restrictions. And finally, the main players in the African energy sector (with only a few exceptions) are Western and Chinese companies. They invest in projects and manage them, and supply the necessary equipment and technologies, which means that any project will still depend on the position of non-regional players.

All these risks are surmountable and, through further work, additional capitalization, and greater sovereignty, the bank will be able to achieve its ambitious goals.

The establishment of the AEB indicates an important trend: African countries want to independently determine the development of their energy markets and move away from external dictatorship. The establishment of an independent infrastructure is a key step in this direction, but it must be complemented by other measures, including: developing an adequate energy strategy (at all levels, from the local to the continental); establishing project-evaluation criteria (in terms of the contribution to the energy sovereignty of Africa and not the export of energy resources from Africa); developing regulatory, technical, and environmental supervision tools; strengthening the legislative framework; and supporting African energy companies and knowledge-sharing programs.

 

https://www.rt.com/africa/601547-sovereignty-africa-energy-bank/

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.rt.com/africa/584166-africa-western-climate-change/

 

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african news....

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery — the largest in Africa — was supposed to stop Nigeria’s reliance on imported crude oil products. But inadequate domestic supply means it has to plug gaps by importing oil from the United States.

https://www.dw.com/en/flip-side-why-nigerias-largest-refinery-is-importing-us-oil/video-69499259

 

 

What do coffee, chocolate and tuna have in common? They’re all commodities produced in Africa — often under exploitative circumstances. Consumers are sometimes unaware that some of their food staples perpetuate abject poverty, irregular migration and even slavery in Africa.

https://www.dw.com/en/slavery-in-your-pantry/video-67598498

 


Global shipping companies are diverting valuable cargo around the African continent to avoid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. But can coastal African nations seize the opportunity presented by the extra merchant traffic?

https://www.dw.com/en/can-africa-profit-from-red-sea-crisis/video-68281292

 

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fighting neo-colonialism....

 

RT calls out neo-colonialism in new multi-country Africa ad blitz

 

BY Anna Belkina — RT’s deputy editor in chief and head of communications, marketing and strategic development. Anna has provided expertise to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the UK Parliament, has appeared as a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Westminster Media Forum, the Global Editors Network and a range of other academic and media industry events, and has provided commentary for dozens of international news media outlets, including Forbes, the BBC and the New York Times. 

 

Colonial legacies can take many insidious forms and metastasize into new ones. RT is uniquely familiar with the risks of such long-term foreign dominance – in our case, in the media space – and seeks to tackle them with new, Africa-focused content and a bold cross-continental ad campaign.

“Neo-colonialism is the worst form of imperialism”

“The anti-colonial struggle is essentially a struggle for human dignity”

“Independence and sovereignty cannot be shared”

“African resources should belong to Africa”

These phrases grace billboards across Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Years ago they were uttered by famed African leaders: Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Uganda’s Milton Obote and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Yet their words are still remembered and are resonant more than ever today – throughout the African continent and beyond.  

Pervasive western mainstream media dominance is something that RT has had to battle for nearly two decades, essentially since the day of its inception – and Russia, as a whole, for much longer. For many decades, the global media landscape has been controlled by an oligopoly of news outlets, be it in print, radio or on TV, all protecting their countries’ or alliance’s interests, geopolitical and economic.

Today, monopolistic social media giants amplify their voices. What do they all have in common? They all come from the same handful of countries. And yet they have the gall to tell the entire world what to think and how to feel about the rest of the world, even about the ‘audience’ countries themselves.

America’s CNN and the New York Times, Britain’s BBC and The Guardian have dictated to the likes of Russia, India, South Africa, Indonesia and dozens and dozens of countries what to believe about the world and themselves; who is good and who is bad; what is black and what is white. 

They came into our lands, ‘invested’ in our media, scooped up some of our brightest young talents and shaped them in their own likeness. They set a narrow range of acceptable narratives. It was as close to media colonialism as it got. And with it, no true independence – media or otherwise – was possible.

The backlash was inevitable. People stopped believing the so-called reality they were fed via that media echo-chamber, even about their own backyards, not to mention about lands halfway around the globe. The time has come to tell our stories, ourselves. New voices have risen up. Voices like RT.

For the last 19 years, RT has firmly established itself as a voice of dissent in the global news media space. We cover stories overlooked or ignored by others and thoughtfully explore points of view that rarely make it into the mainstream media.  

As we are proud to show you in our videos, currently playing at Addis Ababa International Airport in Ethiopia – also part of our multi-country African ad campaign – our journalists are not  afraid to come under fire, to challenge the most prominent world leaders, to engage with the visionaries of our generation. And we want to use our resources to showcase African countries and peoples in all their diversity and complexity to the world, to amplify their voices.

We are also proud to present a new show on RT, based out of Kenya – ‘Lumumba’s Africa’, with Professor P.L.O. Lumumba. The program delivers a deep and insightful look into the matters that are still most salient to Africa as a whole and many of its nations. Professor P.L.O. Lumumba takes his audience on a dramatic and educated tale of African issues like economic development, the colonial legacy, energy, education – and, most vividly, the bright hope for the future of Africa itself.

I am sure that there will be even more provocative questions that RT will seek to ask in the months to come. Why borrow money from the IMF if your country is rich in natural resources? Do international corporations care more about African people or their own profits? Do European leaders dream about getting their colonies back?  Should the West pay reparations for slavery? Why did Nigeria nearly get dragged into a war over US and French interests in neighboring Niger? Should the US dollar remain the main global reserve currency?

We are not afraid to start these conversations, in Africa, about Africa. For RT’s audience of millions all around the world.

https://www.rt.com/news/601782-rt-neo-colonialism-africa/

 

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french treason....

France reverses course to back Moroccan autonomy plan for disputed Western Sahara

In a marked departure from its historical position, France moved on Tuesday to recognise Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara, dealing a blow to the the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which claims it is an independent state. 

France has backed Morocco's autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-old position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to align with Morocco as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled.

In a letter to King Mohammed VI, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the plan that Morocco proposed in 2007 to offer the region limited autonomy under its sovereignty the “only basis” to solve the conflict. The shift deals a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has for decades claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Saharawi people.

“The present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” Macron wrote in a letter made public on Tuesday. “France intends to act consistently with this position at both national and international level.”

France's departure from its historic position is a major victory for Morocco and follows similar shifts from the United States, Israel, Spain and a growing list of African nations which which Morocco aims to deepen trade ties.

As the former colonial power in the region, France has walked a diplomatic tightrope between Rabat and Algiers on the Western Sahara issue.

The dispute dates back to 1975, when the Moroccan government and military staged what it called a Green March as Spain was preparing to withdraw from its northwest African territory as part of the de-colonisation process.

Morocco’s annexation sparked a conflict with the Algerian-backed, pro-independence Polisario Front.

Algeria to withdraw ambassador to France

Responding to Paris’s diplomatic shift, Algeria on Tuesday said it was withdrawing its ambassador to France.

"The Algerian diplomatic representation in France is now the responsibility of a charge d'affaires," the Algerian foreign ministry was quoted as saying by the official news agency APS. The ministry denounced Macron's statement as a "step that no other French government had taken before."

Algeria took similar measures against Madrid when Spain backed Morocco's autonomy plan in 2022.

The Polisario’s Mohamed Sidati accused France of acting at odds with international law and backing Moroccan expansionism as its influence wanes throughout Africa.

“Whatever hardships Morocco tries to impose on us with the support of France, the Sahrawi people will continue to stubbornly defend their rights until they obtain the definitive departure of the Moroccan aggressor from their territory and general recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination and independence,” Sidati, the Foreign Minister of the self-declared Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, said in a statement on Monday.

A high-ranking Moroccan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity called it “a game-changer” amid an international shift toward Morocco’s position. They noted France’s role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, which oversees the peacekeeping mission that has for decades mediated between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.

‘Colonial powers, new and old’

Algeria said France had made it aware of the policy change in the days leading up to the announcement and called Morocco and France “colonial powers, new and old.”

“The French decision is clearly the result of a dubious political calculation, a morally questionable judgement and legal interpretations that are neither supported nor justified,” Algeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last week.

While the UN has long recognised the Polisario Front as the legitimate representative of the Saharawi people, efforts to hold a referendum to resolve the Western Sahara crisis have stalled for decades.

In 1991, the UN brokered a cease-fire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future. Disagreements over who is eligible to vote prevented the referendum from taking place.

Morocco has long sought recognition of its claim from its other nations, while the Polisario has prioritized fighting legal battles to assert its right to represent the people and territory. Sporadic violence has ensued since the Polisario renewed armed conflict in 2020, ending a 29-year truce.

The longstanding territorial dispute is a major factor in many of North Africa’s foremost issues, including migration, smuggling and counter-terrorism. 

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20240730-france-backs-morocco-s-autonomy-plan-for-disputed-western-sahara

 

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