While reviling companies for exploiting the mineral wealth and natural resources across the planet, it now seems as if the World Bank has been encouraging just that as it encouraged the destruction of the Congo’s precious rain forest.
“It is particularly embarrassing for the British government, which is a development partner of the bank and its third largest financial contributor. It encouraged the bank to intervene in the Congo forests with export-driven industrial logging and has earmarked £50m for further Congo basin forestry aid.” Source Guardian 4/10/2007).
Considering the loud noises made about the need to support African countries on the one hand, and the desperate plight of the planet from excessive carbon emissions on the other, declarations from government reach new heights of hypocracy.

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Turning to Al Jazeera I was amazed to read about serious floods affecting “large swathes” of Africa with the heaviest rain in 35 years. The effects on the population is very serious:
“International aid agencies are calling for more help as floods continues to devastate large swathes of Africa.
Dozens have died and an estimated one million people affected by the prolonged rains.
In the east of the continent, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda are the worst hit countries, with at least 87 people dead.
Sudan, Kenya and Rwanda have also been affected.”
(source Al Jazeera 15.9.2007.
Reuters on the other hand report on flooding in West Africa. So what’s going on? Shows just how selective the daily digest brought to us is!
The British press is taken up with the story of the Northern Rock crisis when the inevitable consequences of capitalism have come home to roost. It’s not even on thne BBC News front page. So what of the significance of news from a continent, which least pollutes the planet, taking the consequences of the over-industrialised part?

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Al Jazeera features some interesting videos. Yesterday showed a cartoon which showed how deep the split is between Hamas and Fatah. I decided not to make the link since its depressing propaganda. However this clip shows displaced Zimbabweans fighting back. A group of elderly women have decided to build their own school for their children.
The dominating images of Africa presented at best show dependency whereas the struggles against the apartheid regime of South Africa had so many examples of people fighting back against seemingly overwhelming oppression. So often women were to the fore. They had to be since the men were either away working in dangerous jobs such as mines or were imprisoned for their political activity. LIke minded people, black and white, won through.

Few deserve the high praise that was reserved for Nelson Mandela in London this week, but a story in the Independent (2/9/2007) reminds us of why his example is crucial in this world of brutality and corruption.
We are reminded of the Robben Island years when prisoners were regularly forced to dig deep trenches, lie in them and then have the guards pee on them. When he became President who should Mandela invite but these very same guards? While it’s possible to be sceptical about this the action chimes in with the acts of reconciliation which characterised the period of Mandela’s Presidency. What was the alternative – to continue bitter feuding and embark on civil war.
In his speech Mandela was typically modest and spoke of the achievement of having a black figure represented in Parliament Square alongside Churchill and Lincoln. Those who spoke in the video testified how it was significant for them. They made it clear as people who had become prominent as politicians and broadcasters that there was still a general feeling that black people couldn’t make an impact. It is the legacy of colonialism with the racism that underpinned it that has brought about this state of affairs. Both Mandela and Jesse Jackson have been in U.K. to remind us of the fact and to provide inspiration for us all, but black people in particular.
Is Mandela a one off? It would seem to me that he is a product of his African upbringing. There are many examples through history of wisdom in African cultures from Nubia and Egypt (Kemet) onwards. The tragedy of much that has happened has been in the context of the nineteenth century Treaty of Berlin where European states carved up the continent. Rather than draw on African traditions their modern leaders have continued the paternalism of their former colonial rulers. Simplistic? May be, but not half as simplistic as the view, of which Sarkozy is the latest exponent, that Africa has no history.
My expression of apology for slavery on behalf of Birmingham has fallen on deaf ears and has been ignored by the Birmingham press in general. But thanks to Adrian Goldberg for supporting this in his Stirrer column!

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We knew Nicolas Sarkozy from the days as Interior Minister he dealt with African migrants. Now he reveals the depths of his ignorance by claiming “African’s haven’t entered history”. From Nubia and Egypt on Africans have been ahead of the game. For profoundly racist reasons Africa’s history has been ruthlessly suppressed just like its people.
In Zimbabwe I saw African history for myself, although Europeans, still dreaming of Ian Smith, continue to be in a state of denial. (At one time in Southern Rhodesia it was unlawful to claim that the stone buildings were the work of Africans). What is most alarming is that Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s President, should give him credibility.
That Sarkozy is enjoying popularity in France at the moment is a matter for deep concern and is a sign of a deeply divided country moving to the right. Once Thatcher was that but eventually people saw through her. Once Tony Blair was like that and now people have seen him for what he is. Gordon Brown needs not only to distance himself with the right wing views of George Bush, he needs to likewise from the deeply racist and ignorant Sarkozy.

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Some left wing comment supports Mugabe as a victim of international capitalism conspiring against him. In view of reports such as this from Al Jazeera I don’t find such a simplistic response at all realistic.
As I have tried to show in a number of entries regarding African countries (although exploitation of multinationals joined by the Chinese doesn’t begin and end there.
My stay in Zimbabwe was with people who remain privileged compared to the indigenous population. They have resources from abroad which actually become more valuable, certainly within a burgeoning black market so they can survive and provide employment for a few. Some 80% remain unemployed.

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