WHO issues roadmap to scale up international response to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa
Colorised transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of ebola virus
The aim is to stop ongoing Ebola transmission worldwide within 6–9 months, while rapidly managing the consequences of any further international spread. It also recognizes the need to address, in parallel, the outbreak’s broader socioeconomic impact.
It responds to the urgent need to dramatically scale up the international response. Nearly 40% of the total number of reported cases have occurred within the past three weeks.
Interestingly this report gilds the lily but the roadmap pulls no punches.
" This Roadmap assumes that in many areas of intense transmission the actual number of cases may
be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported. It acknowledges that the aggregate case load of EVD
could exceed 20,000 over the course of this emergency. "
The roadmap was informed by comments received from a large number of partners, including health officials in the affected countries, the African Union, development banks, other UN agencies, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and countries providing direct financial support.
It will serve as a framework for updating detailed operational plans. Priority is being given to needs for treatment and management centres, social mobilization, and safe burials. These plans will be based on site-specific data that are being set out in regular situation reports, which will begin this week.
It should be a useful tool. But its utility will be compromised I would suggest to the point of being useless if the scale of underreporting continues. The count to date is cases have risen to 3,069, with 1,552 deaths, that may of course be just the tip of the iceberg.
The situation reports map the hotspots and hot zones, present epidemiological data showing how the outbreak is evolving over time, and communicate what is known about the location of treatment facilities and laboratories, together with data needed to support other elements of the roadmap.
" Mr. Aylward, picking out details of the road map, said it would take at least 750 international and 12,000 local health workers.
“That is very difficult in the current environment,” he added, alluding to fears arising from the high number of medical workers — 250 as of Monday — who had contracted the disease. Recruiting international staff may be harder than finding local personnel, he added, debunking the notion that locals were running away from the crisis.
Health workers were getting infected because they were exhausted from working extraordinary hours, Mr. Aylward said. "
The roadmap covers the health dimensions of the international response. These dimensions include key potential bottlenecks requiring international coordination, such as the supply of personal protective equipment, disinfectants, and body bags.
The WHO roadmap will be complemented by the development of a separate UN-wide operational platform that brings in the skills and capacities of other agencies, including assets in the areas of logistics and transportation. The UN-wide platform aims to facilitate the delivery of essential services, such as food and other provisions, water supply and sanitation, and primary health care.
This situation was entirely predictable ( and predicted ) yet only now is the International Community starting to get a grip on it. Obviously it will get worse before it starts to improve but now is the critical time. If we screw up now the consequences will be horrendous.
" That is very good news isolation is the key to beating this. If it gets to a major city or population area well it doesn't bear thinking about. But one day it will. "
Resource flows to implement the roadmap will be tracked separately, with support from the World Bank.
As I observed nearly two years ago $2 million was chicken feed, I have no idea what this epidemic will cost but it is irrelevant, the lowest price tag I have seen is in the region of half a billion dollars and I very much doubt it will be that low.
"If nothing is done now, the disease will reach other places, and even major towns will be threatened," he said, adding that an estimated $US2 million had to be urgently found to pay for measures to tackle the disease.
Today Health Poverty Action, alongside a number of UK and African NGOs, has released research revealing that Africa is losing $192 billion every year to the rest of the world – almost six and a half times the amount of aid given to the continent.
Or in other words the date has changed but that is about all. Lord Ashcroft a finer example of greed and mans casual inhumanity to man I have yet to discoversees it like this.
" A billionaire lord has urged the British government to "turn off the golden taps" of foreign aid and stop pandering to "St Bob and Bono".
Lord Michael Ashcroft, who made his debut on the Forbes billionaire list this year with an estimated worth of $US1 billion, has written an open letter to newly-appointed International Development Secretary Justine Greening, cheekily signing off "Michael xx". "At a time when libraries are being closed and people with disabilities face benefit cuts, there is growing fury over giving away ever-increasing sums to foreigners," Lord Ashcroft wrote in the letter, published on a conservative blog. "
It would seem that if the " Golden Taps " were turned off it wouldn't be us in the west doing the turning.
This research is the first attempt to calculate Africa’s losses across a wide range of areas. These include: illicit financial flows; profits taken out of the continent by multinational companies; debt repayments; brain drain of skilled workers; illegal logging and fishing and the costs incurred as a result of climate change.
All fair enough but most are quite difficult to quantify, how do you calculate " brain drain " ? I suspect the figures are far higher than the estimates above. Think about it. Then think about how much of the money flowing in to Africa actually stays in Africa and how much simply clears Africa and moves on to western bank accounts.
These figures highlight the huge disparity between aid and the resources leaving Africa. Health Poverty Action, along with our partner organisations, are calling on the UK government to reassess its focus on ‘aid’ which paints a misleading picture of the UK’s ‘generosity’ towards Africa, and take urgent action to address Britain’s contribution to Africa’s poverty.
Remember the United Kingdom is the inheritor of an empire, the greatest empire the world has ever known. Historically the wealth of a third of the world was at the disposal of that empire. So just how generous are the Brits.
" The government ring fenced and raised DFID's budget by 34.2 per cent, to £11.5bn over the next four years. That outruns Britain's current record spend of 0.56 per cent GDP on overseas aid and will see it rise to 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2013." 0.7 per cent and the rest of the wealthy west are running on similar numbers. In other words we stole everything we could steal and our aid commitments wouldn't even begin to pay the interest had we borrowed what we stole let alone repaying some of the capital. But here is the rub... Lord Ashcroft and his ilk
" In the letter published yesterday, Lord Ashcroft wrote he had spent much of his life travelling in Africa, Asia and South America and saw the "grinding" poverty.
"On 1 March 2010, after 10 years of holding his tax status as private, he revealed that he did not pay tax on his overseas earnings in the UK."
So we have a man who avoids paying tax and now wants to dictate where the people who actually do pay tax are able to spend it. He may sit in the House of Lords but he has never faced an election, he represents greed. "
Martin Drewry, Director of Health Poverty Action said:
“These figures expose the gross misconceptions about aid and ‘charity.’ The common understanding is the UK ‘helps’ Africa through aid, but in reality this serves as a smokescreen for the billions taken out. Let’s use more accurate language. It’s sustained looting – the opposite of generous giving – and we should recognise that the City of London is at the heart of the global financial system that facilitates this. As the general election approaches all party leaders must step up, and outline how they intend to take real responsibility and stop this plundering of Africa. And NGOs need to change too. We need to move beyond our focus on aid levels and communicate the bigger truth – exposing the real relationship between rich and poor and holding leaders to account.”
" It’s sustained looting " or in the words of Midnight Oil..
" The time has come, to say fair's fair, to pay the rent, to pay our share. "
Last December, National Security Adviser Susan Rice offered a remarkably candid insight into Barack Obama’s foreign policy. “Let’s be honest,” she said, “at times … we do business with governments that do not respect the rights we hold most dear.”
All governments do. America has sometimes remarkably unpragmatic when it comes to even recognising regimes it doesn't like, look at the time it took America to recognise China preferring to recognise the then corrupt bankrupt regime in Taiwan as the legitimate " ruler " of China.
American presidents have long wrestled with this dilemma. During the Cold War, whether it was Dwight Eisenhower overthrowing Iran’s duly elected prime minister or Richard Nixon winking at Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, they often made unsavory moral compromises. Even Jimmy Carter, who said America’s “commitment to human rights must be absolute,” cut deals with dictators.
The reality is nation states deal with who is in charge not who they would like to be in charge, by doing so they retain some ability to influence future outcomes. The alternatives are don't do business or bring about regime change.
But Obama, an idealist at home, has turned out to be more cold-blooded than most recent presidents about the tough choices to be made in the world, downgrading democracy and human rights accordingly. From Syria to Ukraine, Egypt to Venezuela, this president has shied away from the pay-any-price, bear-any-burden global ambitions of his predecessors, preferring quiet diplomacy to the bully pulpit—when he is engaged at all.
Iraq and Afghanistan have hardly been startling successes.
He has his reasons. A decade of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan soured Americans on George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda,” taking invasion off the table as a policy tool. And there are broader global forces at work too: the meteoric rise of China, new tools for repressing dissent, the malign effect of high oil prices. Freedom in the world has declined for eight straight years, according to Freedom House—not just under Obama.
There is an element of hypocrisy in this, anyone remember this guy and remember as of November 2013 we had apparently only seen 1% of the information he purportedly has.
" Snowden's "sole motive" for leaking the documents was, in his words, "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." The disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy. Two court rulings since the initial leaks have split on the constitutionality of the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata."
But if the president is troubled by these trends, he shows few signs of it. “We live in a world of imperfect choices,” Obama shrugged last year—and his administration has made many, currying favor with a rogue’s gallery of tyrants and autocrats. Here, Politico Magazine has assembled a list of America’s 25 most awkward friends and allies, from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, Honduras to Uzbekistan—and put together a damning, revelatory collection of reports on the following pages about the “imperfect choices” the United States has made in each. “I will not pretend that some short-term trade offs do not exist,” Rice admitted. Neither will we.
The African nations on the list are.
5. Egypt
Coup or no coup, the United States still showers the Arab world’s most populous state with $1.3 billion in military aid each year—a tradition owing to Egypt’s strategic position astride the Suez Canal and next door to Israel.
Since haranguing Egypt’s longtime dictator, Hosni Mubarak, to step down “now” in February 2011 amid the inspiring protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the Obama administration has largely been reduced to hand-wringing as the men in khaki reclaimed power, killing hundreds of Islamist protesters.
It is hard to believe any government could be worse than the Muslim Brotherhood but current leadership seem to have achieved it. I dislike any government that imprisons journalists and whilst Peter Greste might not be a New Zealander he is about as close to being one as you can get without being one. I don't like generals running governments particularly batshit crazy ones.
" On 29 January, it emerged that the Egyptian authorities are to charge 20 Al Jazeera journalists, including Greste, of falsifying news and having a negative impact on overseas perceptions of the country."
"..falsifying news and having a negative impact on overseas perceptions..." is presumably a charge that the Egyptian military have immunity to prosecution from. Pissing off Australians is a bad idea not least because it pisses off a lot of other people.
6. Equatorial Guinea
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo—who claims, “There is total freedom of expression, there has never been repression” in his country—is in fact a famously corrupt thug; after toppling his own uncle in 1979 to seize power in Equatorial Guinea, he has amassed a fortune estimated at several hundred million dollars, while more than three-quarters of Equatorial Guineans live in abject squalor and outright repression. Washington has also cashed in on the tiny country’s massive if ill-distributed wealth, with American lobbyists, defense contractors and banks variously taking on Obiang as a client during his more than 34 years of strongman rule.
In 1995, the United States shuttered its embassy in Malabo after threats to the life of the U.S. ambassador, an outspoken human rights defender. A 1999 State Department report found that Obiang’s sadistic security forces had, among other horrors, rubbed prisoners’ bodies with grease to attract stinging ants. But no matter: In 2003, the United States agreed to reopen the embassy, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later warmly welcomed Obiang to Washington as a “good friend.” Even President Obama has posed for a photo op with the dictator, who once won reelection with 103 percent of the vote in some precincts. Why all the love? Equatorial Guinea’s $9 billion oil and gas bonanza, almost all of it produced by U.S. companies, has made it one of the largest destinations for U.S. investment in Africa, and much of that oil, naturally, finds its way across the Atlantic.
Actually per capita Equatorial Guinea is the wealthiest African nation with a tiny population, it should be a huge success. If I was Obiang I would be more than a little concerned about his good friends across the Atlantic:
" Equatorial Guinea hit the headlines in 2004 when a plane load of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow Obiang. A November 2004 report named Mark Thatcher as a financial backer of the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt organized by Simon Mann. Various accounts also named the United Kingdom's MI6, the United States' CIA, and Spain as having been tacit supporters of the coup attempt. "
I suspect the moment America gets the opportunity to dump a bucket of shit on Obiang they will take it.
11. Ethiopia
Ethiopia is a democracy at least in name and has had Western (and Chinese) companies salivating at its recent double-digit GDP growth. But longtime strongman Meles Zenawi, who died in 2012, and his successor, Hailemariam Desalegn, have leaned on a sweeping anti-terrorism law to stamp out opposition, imprisoning journalists, activists and politicians who dare speak out against the government. Ethiopia has made itself useful to the United States, though, invading Somalia in 2006 at Washington’s behest and disastrously fueling a rise in terrorism that prompted another intervention in late 2011. Rights groups accused the U.S.-trained and -equipped Ethiopian military of war crimes in stomping out an ethnic rebellion in 2008, but Washington has only hugged Addis Ababa tighter: In 2012, Ethiopia, one of the world’s poorest states, was the top sub-Saharan African recipient of U.S. aid—and the seventh country overall—raking in some $707 million.
Ethiopia is definitely a nation to watch and I don't. Fortunately Lesley Warner does watch it.
14. Rwanda
Gaunt, bespectacled Rwandan President Paul Kagame—a data nerd and ardent tweeter—has long been among the West’s favorite African rulers, hailed for having aggressively attacked poverty since taking power in 2000 and, in the years after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, for having “freed the heart and the mind of his people,” as Bill Clinton once put it. But when he’s not hobnobbing with the Davos set, Kagame is cracking skulls at home, with his regime reportedly responsible for several assassinations of political opponents, journalists and other enemies. The United States, which sends some $200 million to Rwanda annually, cut off military aid to the country last year over its support for the militant M23 rebels in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, but Washington is considering lifting the freeze. Meanwhile, Kagame isn’t going anywhere. Asked last year if he would step down when his term ends in 2017, he said, “Don’t worry about that.” Pressed to explain, he said simply, “No. It is a broad answer to say you don’t need to worry about anything.”
The reason Rwanda according to Politico is of vital importance to America is minerals. Unfortunately Rwanda doesn't have any whilst the DR Congo next door has lots. America has as suggested above cut off aid to Rwanda for aiding its proxy M23 ( now defeated ) which was the principal conduit for the DR Congo minerals to get to Rwanda. In other words the Politico argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny or America has abandoned it perceived interest in Congolese minerals via Rwanda. As for Kagame and his 2017 ambitions who knows. He has said he will only do two terms, Bill Clinton has expressed confidence that, that is the case. There is of course the Russian Tandemocracy model that would provide a solution to his ongoing aspirations.
" Kagame has become delusional, his inability separate his administration from the the nation state that is Rwanda. He assures all that he will not alter the constitution to extend his tenure as Rwanda's President but the reality is that he has created a situation where he will be forced to remain in office. Expect an African version of the Putin / Medvedev tandemocracy . There is very little available in the way of attractive retirement options available for autocratic dictators after they lose power. Ask Gaddafi."
17. Uganda
Yoweri Museveni has been Uganda’s president since 1986, and not because of his winning personality: He has brilliantly manipulated the election system to perpetuate his power. Still, Museveni gets a lot of credit in Washington for his anti-poverty work and his fight against HIV/AIDS, not to mention his willingness to back U.S. counterterrorism goals in Somalia. (As for personal probity, not so much: One particularly vivid State Department cable published by WikiLeaks is titled “Uganda’s All-You-Can-Eat Corruption Buffet.”) And just this month Museveni signed a harsh anti-gay law, prompting the White House to undertake a review of its Uganda relations. Museveni is now widely seen as plotting to turn over power to his son, and the United States has kept mum. But hey, at least he’s not Idi Amin. On the whole Museveni has done a fairly good job at bring back stability to Uganda. There is little in the way of evidence at this point that he is planning to turn over power to anyone his son included. From the man himself in 1986: “The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.” The anti-gay law might come back to haunt him after breaking, but as far as I can see unconfirmed at this stage news, regarding his daughter.
" In a startling revelation, the daughter of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni admitted today during a radio talk show in Mbarara, in Western Uganda that she is homosexual, and that she is revealing this fact as a protest to the anti-gay law her father signed only a few days ago."
Whilst I completely support equality, including same sex marriage the American position on equal human rights for gay members of the community is hardly inspiring. Throwing stones on this issue is hypocritical.
21. Kenya
When Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s independence leader, was elected president in March 2013, the United States faced an exquisite dilemma: how to deal with a popular figure accused of crimes against humanity for his role in whipping up the ethnic violence that rocked Kenya in 2007 and 2008. Obama chose to split the difference, keeping up counterterrorism cooperation but pointedly skipping his father’s homeland on his trip to Africa later that year. The United States, while maintaining its diplomatic presence in Nairobi, the largest in Africa, and making Kenya one of the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid, has nonetheless backed the International Criminal Court’s case, despite Kenyatta’s complaint that it’s a “toy of declining imperial powers.”
The " Kenya Crisis " of 2007 may yet come back to haunt Kenyatta, effectively the result of fraudulent electoral practices that both the Government and the opposition indulged in.
" Texas has been the center of the fight over voting laws after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Congress must update how it enforces the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Texas is the only state in the last three years where a federal judge has ruled the Legislature intentionally discriminated against minorities."
22. Djibouti
A one-party state that ranks among the world’s poorest countries, Djibouti is essentially a French satrapy with a drone base, leased to the United States. The country has little to offer other than its strategic location on the Horn of Africa, north of war-torn Somalia and west of al Qaeda-infested Yemen. But for a United States more concerned with its security than with Djiboutian freedoms—and there aren’t many to speak of—that turns out to be good enough.
Not much to add other than I noticed this at All Africa yesterday. " Djibouti's Defense Minister Hassan Darar Houffaneh has appealed for more military cooperation between his country and China to reinforce the operational capacity of the Djibouti Armed Forces and contribute to the consolidation of peace and security in the sub-region.
Houffaneh was speaking during a visit of China's Defense Minister Chang Wanquan who was visiting Djibouti between Monday and Tuesday."
23. Morocco
When uprisings spread across Arab countries in 2011, Morocco worked hard to convince the world that it was a stable exception. To appease protesters in dozens of cities and towns across the country, King Mohammed VI quickly reworked his constitution—winning much praise from a Washington desperate for an Arab Spring success story, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called Morocco “a model” for the region. As it turned out, the king retained much of his power, which he duly exercises through a Potemkin parliament, police abuses against dissidents, press constraints and his own investment holding company, which has stakes in virtually every sector of the country’s economy. The king’s ardor for reform may have cooled, but the United States has upgraded ties anyway, holding a “strategic dialogue” with Morocco in September 2012 and, a little over a year later, rewarding “King Mo” with a prized White House visit for the first time in nine years.
" In the 2011–12 Moroccan protests, thousands of people rallied in Rabat and other cities calling for political reform and a new constitution curbing the powers of the king. In July 2011 the King won a landslide victory in a referendum on a reformed constitution he had proposed to placate the Arab Spring protests.
Despite the deep and understanding reforms made by Mohamed 6, that answered most of the concerns raised by the international community, demonstrators continued to call for deeper reforms. Hundreds took part in a trade union rally in Casablanca in May 2012. Participants accused the government of failing to deliver on reforms."
On the whole I agree with many of the criticisms that Politico makes against America's African allies but there is another question here that it is equally valid, that being how many of America's friends and allies find America to be awkward ? Hat tip: Rosebell Kagumire Update: There is no truth to the reported interview with President Museveni's daughter. I apologise without reserve to her, her father and her family for repeating it. I am sorry. Hamish.
Silicon Africa reports Rosebell Kagumire made this observation on Facebook: " No secret that France is still living off the misery of Africans! " I knew nothing of this ( a situation that will change shortly ) and so will hold off for the moment commenting, other than to say this diminishes even further, if possible my opinion of the Government of France.
14 African Countries Forced by France to Pay Colonial Tax For the Benefits of Slavery and Colonization
Did you know many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France since their independence till today!
When Sékou Touré of Guinea decided in 1958 to get out of french colonial empire, and opted for the country independence, the french colonial elite in Paris got so furious, and in a historic act of fury the french administration in Guinea destroyed everything in the country which represented what they called the benefits from french colonization.
Three thousand French left the country, taking all their property and destroying anything that which could not be moved: schools, nurseries, public administration buildings were crumbled; cars, books, medicine, research institute instruments, tractors were crushed and sabotaged; horses, cows in the farms were killed, and food in warehouses were burned or poisoned.
The purpose of this outrageous act was to send a clear message to all other colonies that the consequences for rejecting France would be very high.
Slowly fear spread trough the african elite, and none after the Guinea events ever found the courage to follow the example of Sékou Touré, whose slogan was “We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”
Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of the Republic of Togo, a tiny country in west Africa, found a middle ground solution with the French.
He didn’t want his country to continue to be a french dominion, therefore he refused to sign the colonisation continuation pact De Gaule proposed, but agree to pay an annual debt to France for the so called benefits Togo got from french colonization.
It was the only conditions for the French not to destroy the country before leaving. However, the amount estimated by France was so big that the reimbursement of the so called “colonial debt” was close to 40% of the country budget in 1963.
The financial situation of the newly independent Togo was very unstable, so in order to get out the situation, Olympio decided to get out the french colonial money FCFA (the franc for french african colonies), and issue the country own currency.
On January 13, 1963, three days after he started printing his country own currency, a squad of illiterate soldiers backed by France killed the first elected president of newly independent Africa. Olympio was killed by an ex French Foreign Legionnaire army sergeant called Etienne Gnassingbe who supposedly received a bounty of $612 from the local French embassy for the hit man job.
Olympio’s dream was to build an independent and self-sufficient and self-reliant country. But the French didn’t like the idea.
On June 30, 1962, Modiba Keita , the first president of the Republic of Mali, decided to withdraw from the french colonial currency FCFA which was imposed on 12 newly independent African countries. For the Malian president, who was leaning more to a socialist economy, it was clear that colonisation continuation pact with France was a trap, a burden for the country development.
On November 19, 1968, like, Olympio, Keita will be the victim of a coup carried out by another ex French Foreign legionnaire, the Lieutenant Moussa Traoré.
In fact during that turbulent period of African fighting to liberate themselves from European colonization, France would repeatedly use many ex Foreign legionnaires to carry out coups against elected presidents:
- On January 1st, 1966, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, an ex french foreign legionnaire, carried a coup against David Dacko, the first President of the Central African Republic.
- On January 3, 1966, Maurice Yaméogo, the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso, was victim of a coup carried by Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana, an ex French legionnaire who fought with french troops in Indonesia and Algeria against these countries independence.
- on 26 October 1972, Mathieu Kérékou who was a security guard to President Hubert Maga, the first President of the Republic of Benin, carried a coup against the president, after he attended French military schools from 1968 to 1970.
In fact, during the last 50 years, a total of 67 coups happened in 26 countries in Africa, 16 of those countries are french ex-colonies, which means 61% of the coups happened in Francophone Africa.
Ex French colonies
Other African countries
Country
Number of coup
Country
number of coup
Togo
1
Egypte
1
Tunisia
1
Libye
1
Cote d’Ivoire
1
Equatorial Guinea
1
Madagascar
1
Guinea Bissau
2
Rwanda
1
Liberia
2
Algeria
2
Nigeria
3
Congo – RDC
2
Ethiopia
3
Mali
2
Ouganda
4
Guinea Conakry
2
Soudan
5
SUB-TOTAL 1
13
Congo
3
Tchad
3
Burundi
4
Central Africa
4
Niger
4
Mauritania
4
Burkina Faso
5
Comores
5
SUB-TOTAL 2
32
TOTAL (1 + 2)
45
TOTAL
22
As these numbers demonstrate, France is quite desperate but active to keep a strong hold on his colonies what ever the cost, no matter what.
In March 2008, former French President Jacques Chirac said:
“Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power”
Chirac’s predecessor François Mitterand already prophesied in 1957 that:
”Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century”
At this very moment I’m writing this article, 14 african countries are obliged by France, trough a colonial pact, to put 85% of their foreign reserve into France central bank under French minister of Finance control. Until now, 2014, Togo and about 13 other african countries still have to pay colonial debt to France. African leaders who refuse are killed or victim of coup. Those who obey are supported and rewarded by France with lavish lifestyle while their people endure extreme poverty, and desperation.
It’s such an evil system even denounced by the European Union, but France is not ready to move from that colonial system which puts about 500 billions dollars from Africa to its treasury year in year out.
We often accuse African leaders of corruption and serving western nations interests instead, but there is a clear explanation for that behavior. They behave so because they are afraid the be killed or victim of a coup. They want a powerful nation to back them in case of aggression or trouble. But, contrary to a friendly nation protection, the western protection is often offered in exchange of these leaders renouncing to serve their own people or nations’ interests.
African leaders would work in the interest of their people if they were not constantly stalked and bullied by colonial countries.
In 1958, scared about the consequence of choosing independence from France, Leopold Sédar Senghor declared: “The choice of the Senegalese people is independence; they want it to take place only in friendship with France, not in dispute.”
From then on France accepted only an “independence on paper” for his colonies, but signed binding “Cooperation Accords”, detailing the nature of their relations with France, in particular ties to France colonial currency (the Franc), France educational system, military and commercial preferences.
Below are the 11 main components of the Colonisation continuation pact since 1950s:
#1. Colonial Debt for the benefits of France colonization
The newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France in the country during colonization.
I still have to find out the complete details about the amounts, the evaluation of the colonial benefits and the terms of payment imposed on the african countries, but we are working on that (help us with info).
#2. Automatic confiscation of national reserves
The African countries should deposit their national monetary reserves into France Central bank.
France has been holding the national reserves of fourteen african countries since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
“The monetary policy governing such a diverse aggregation of countries is uncomplicated because it is, in fact, operated by the French Treasury, without reference to the central fiscal authorities of any of the WAEMU or the CEMAC. Under the terms of the agreement which set up these banks and the CFA the Central Bank of each African country is obliged to keep at least 65% of its foreign exchange reserves in an “operations account” held at the French Treasury, as well as another 20% to cover financial liabilities.
The CFA central banks also impose a cap on credit extended to each member country equivalent to 20% of that country’s public revenue in the preceding year. Even though the BEAC and the BCEAO have an overdraft facility with the French Treasury, the drawdowns on those overdraft facilities are subject to the consent of the French Treasury. The final say is that of the French Treasury which has invested the foreign reserves of the African countries in its own name on the Paris Bourse.
In short, more than 80% of the foreign reserves of these African countries are deposited in the “operations accounts” controlled by the French Treasury. The two CFA banks are African in name, but have no monetary policies of their own. The countries themselves do not know, nor are they told, how much of the pool of foreign reserves held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group or individually.
The earnings of the investment of these funds in the French Treasury pool are supposed to be added to the pool but no accounting is given to either the banks or the countries of the details of any such changes. The limited group of high officials in the French Treasury who have knowledge of the amounts in the “operations accounts”, where these funds are invested; whether there is a profit on these investments; are prohibited from disclosing any of this information to the CFA banks or the central banks of the African states .” Wrote Dr. Gary K. Busch
It’s now estimated that France is holding close to 500 billions African countries money in its treasury, and would do anything to fight anyone who want to shed a light on this dark side of the old empire.
The African countries don’t have access to that money.
France allows them to access only 15% of the money in any given year. If they need more than that, they have to borrow the extra money from their own 65% from the French Treasury at commercial rates.
To make things more tragic, France impose a cap on the amount of money the countries could borrow from the reserve. The cap is fixed at 20% of their public revenue in the preceding year. If the countries need to borrow more than 20% of their own money, France has a veto.
Former French President Jacques Chirac recently spoke about the African nations money in France banks. Here is a video of him speaking about the french exploitation scheme. He is speaking in French, but here is a short excerpt transcript: “We have to be honest, and acknowledge that a big part of the money in our banks come precisely from the exploitation of the African continent.”
#3. Right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource discovered in the country
France has the first right to buy any natural resources found in the land of its ex-colonies. It’s only after France would say, “I’m not interested”, that the African countries are allowed to seek other partners.
#4. Priority to French interests and companies in public procurement and public biding
In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered first, and only after that these countries could look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the african countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.
As consequence, in many of the french ex-colonies, all the majors economical assets of the countries are in the hand of french expatriates. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, french companies own and control all the major utilities – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and major banks. The same in commerce, construction, and agriculture.
#5. Exclusive right to supply military equipment and Train the country military officers
Through a sophisticated scheme of scholarships, grants, and “Defense Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, the africans should send their senior military officers for training in France or French ran-training facilities.
The situation on the continent now is that France has trained hundreds, even thousands of traitors and nourish them. They are dormant when they are not needed, and activated when needed for a coup or any other purpose!
#6. Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene military in the country to defend its interests
Under something called “Defence Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, France had the legal right to intervene militarily in the African countries, and also to station troops permanently in bases and military facilities in those countries, run entirely by the French.
French military bases in Africa
When President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire tried to end the French exploitation of the country, France organized a coup. During the long process to oust Gbagbo, France tanks, helicopter gunships and Special Forces intervened directly in the conflit, fired on civilians and killed many.
To add insult to injury, France estimated that the French business community had lost several millions of dollars when in the rush to leave Abidjan in 2006 the French Army massacred 65 unarmed civilians and wounded 1,200 others.
After France succeeded the coup, and transferred power to Alassane Outtara, France requested Ouattara government to pay compensation to French business community for the losses during the civil war.
Indeed the Ouattara government paid them twice what they said they had lost in leaving.
#7. Obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language for education
Oui, Monsieur. Vous devez parlez français, la langue de Molière!
A French language and culture dissemination organization has been created called “Francophonie” with several satellites and affiliates organizations supervised by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.
As demonstrated in this article, if French is the only language you speak, you’d have access to less than 4% of humanity knowledge and ideas. That’s very limiting.
#8. Obligation to use France colonial money FCFA
That’s the real milk cow for France, but it’s such an evil system even denounced by the European Union, but France is not ready to move from that colonial system which puts about 500 billions dollars from Africa to its treasury.
During the introduction of Euro currency in Europe, other european countries discovered the french exploitation scheme. Many, specially the nordic countries, were appalled and suggested France get rid of the system, but unsuccessfully.
#9. Obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report.
Without the report, no money.
Anyway the secretary of the Central banks of the ex-colonies, and the secretary of the bi-annual meeting of the Ministers of Finance of the ex-colonies is carried out by France Central bank / Treasury.
#10. Renonciation to enter into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France
African countries in general are the ones with will less regional military alliances. Most of the countries have only military alliances with their ex-colonisers! (funny, but you can’t do better!).
In the case France ex-colonies, France forbid them to seek other military alliance except the one it offered them.
#11. Obligation to ally with France in situation of war or global crisis
Over one million africans soldiers fought for the defeat of nazism and fascism during the second world war.
Their contribution is often ignored or minimized, but when you think that it took only 6 weeks for Germany to defeat France in 1940, France knows that Africans could be useful for fighting for la “Grandeur de la France” in the future.
There is something almost psychopathic in the relation of France with Africa.
First, France is severely addicted to looting and exploitation of Africa since the time of slavery. Then there is this complete lack of creativity and imagination of french elite to think beyond the past and tradition.
Finally, France has 2 institutions which are completely frozen into the past, inhabited by paranoid and psychopath “haut fonctionnaires” who spread fear of apocalypse if France would change, and whose ideological reference still comes from the 19th century romanticism: they are the Minister of Finance and Budget of France and the Minister of Foreign affairs of France.
These 2 institutions are not only a threat to Africa, but to the French themselves.
It’s up to us as African to free ourselves, without asking for permission, because I still can’t understand for example how 450 french soldiers in Côte d’Ivoire could control a population of 20 millions people!?
People first reaction when they learn about the french colonial tax is often a question: “Until when?”
For historical comparison, France made Haiti to pay the modern equivalent of $21 billion from 1804 till 1947 (almost one century and half) for the losses caused to french slave traders by theabolition of slavery and the liberation of the Haitian slaves.
African countries are paying the colonial tax only for the last 50 years, so I think one century of payment might be left!
