Once Beautiful and Rich African Paradise,
Is Quickly Becoming a
Multi-National Corporate Wasteland

Countries which lack surpluses of natural resources (such as Kenya) see a hope as the people are able to retain a degree self governance. "Progress" is made, and appreciated, as the people are converted into "Western-style" consumers.

Other countries which contain a plethora of natural resources (such as the oil of Chad, Somalia or Nigeria, the diamonds of the Rwanda, Congo or South Africa) have spent most of the recent century suffering; suffering as the people are literally slaughtered by multi-national corporate juntas, and burned as corporations devastate their land.

The once small tribal democracies, more effective than any Western democracy, are being forced to Western style government, in which those with the money and troops can make the rules. Multinational organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and WorldBank help provide the structure of this systematic rape, often backed by Western military forces. CIA will even assist, as they did in 1961 Coup in the Congo.

Africa is being pillaged and plundered, soon to the point of non-recognition. The perpetrators are the extremely wealthy, those who believe they have a natural right to own all the natural resources of the world at any cost: Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Anglo American PLC, Barclays Bank, Bayer A.G., De Beers, British Petroleum.

End of War Intensifies Plunder of Congo Riches: UN
Mon Oct 21, 6:16 PM ET
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Despite an announced withdrawal of foreign troops, the plunder of the Congo's riches continues unabated among the military in Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, aided by Congolese officials and criminal networks, a U.N.-appointed panel reported Monday.

The report also names 85 multinationals in South Africa, Europe and the United States that it says have violated ethical guidelines on transparency and human rights abusers set down by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/mar2002/carl-m15.shtml

"Carlucci" bleeped from HBO version of Lumumba
Ex-CIA official threatened lawsuit
By Joanne Laurier
15 March 2002

Home Box Office (HBO), the US cable television network, is currently broadcasting a censored version of Lumumba, the award-winning film about Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, assassinated by imperialist agents in January 1961.

  • PURCHASE THE MOVIE LUMUMBA
    VHS * DVD
    http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=882
    Carlucci Can't Hide His Role in 'Lumumba'
    Lucy Komisar, Pacific News Service, Feb 14, 2002

    Carlucci went on to a stellar career, including posts as ambassador to Portugal, deputy director of the CIA, assistant to the President for National Security affairs, and Secretary of Defense, the latter two positions in the Reagan administration. He is now chairman of the Carlyle Group, an investment firm.

    DRILLING AND KILLING: CHEVRON AND NIGERIA'S OIL DICTATORSHIP
    September 30, 1998 on Democracy NOW!

    Democracy Now! documents for the first time Chevron's role in the killing of two Nigerian activists. The San Francisco-based oil company helped facilitate an attack by the feared Nigerian Navy and notorious Mobile Police (MOPOL). In an interview with Democracy Now!, a company spokesperson acknowledged that on May 28, 1998, the company transported Nigerian soldiers to their Parabe oil platform and barge in the Niger Delta, which dozens of community activists had occupied. The protesters were demanding that Chevron contribute more to the development of the impoverished oil region where they live.

    http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/01/23/blackhawk.screen/index.html

    Somalis cheer at 'Black Hawk Down' screening
    From Jeff Koinange CNN

    MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) --Somalis watching a bootleg video of "Black Hawk Down" on Monday cheered as helicopters crashed and U.S. servicemen were killed in the new movie.

    Some in the audience said they were proud of the way Somalis were portrayed in the film. They said they believe they were defending their country and their pride against what they considered U.S. military aggression.

  • PURCHASE THE MOVIE BLACK HAWK DOWN
    VHS * DVD
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-djibouti23dec23001435,0,3092906.story
    Surrounded by poverty, the U.S. military sticks to its secretive base in the Horn of Africa.
    By Mark Fineman
    Times Staff Writer
    December 23 2002

    "I was so angry," Youssouf said. "Don't give us $3 million for security at our airport when we need schools, jobs, clinics, wells and roads. I told them: 'We don't want this money. Take it back to Washington.'

    Farah, who is known as Daf, for his initials, said he has warned Western diplomats: "If you want this military platform to continue to be quiet, you have to help us make sure these elections are transparent. So if people are unhappy, anything can happen. An explosion is possible, just like the one that happened over there" in Somalia.

    "They come, they do as they like, they disturb our peace, they give us no jobs and, finally, the impression is negative."

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1613262.stm
    Monday, 22 October, 2001, 10:19 GMT 11:19 UK
    Shell sues Nigerian villages

    Shell, Nigeria's largest oil producer, has been the target of local militants who demand a greater share of the country's wealth.


    African Finger Puppets,
    for the West
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1470158.stm
    Thursday, 2 August, 2001, 11:16 GMT 12:16 UK
    Shell profits continue to gush

    Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell has seen its profits flow slow - but still made a profit of $7.4bn (£5.16bn) in the first half of 2001.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/198245.stm
    Wednesday, 12 July, 2000, 11:44 GMT 12:44 UK
    Oil wealth: An unequal bounty

    But over the years there has been a series of incidents which have devastated individual communities. Leaking pipelines have spoiled farmland and polluted fishing grounds.

    http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=18
    Environmental Justice from the Niger Delta to the World Conference Against Racism
    By Sam Olukoya Special to CorpWatch
    August 30, 2001

    NIGER DELTA -- Erovie, a community in the Niger Delta, is thousands of miles from Durban, South Africa where delegates from around the globe are gathering this week for the World Conference Against Racism. But the tragedy that befell the citizens of Erovie, who were poisoned by toxic waste from Shell Oil's operations, is a graphic example of what the Conference's NGO Forum refers to as environmental racism: the disproportionate impacts of pollution borne by communities of color around the world.

    http://www.corpwatch.org/action/PAA.jsp?articleid=4133
    Boycott Chevron-Texaco
    Source: OilWatch
    Posted: September 26, 2002

    OilWatch and the member organizations of Ecuador and Nigeria are calling a boycott against Chevron-Texaco Company, to punish this company for the environmental damages and the human rights abuses commited during its operations in Nigeria and Ecuador.

    DRILLING AND KILLING: CHEVRON AND NIGERIA'S OIL DICTATORSHIP: A ONE HOUR DOCUMENTARY
    September 4, 2000 on Democracy NOW!

    Almost as regularly as the US bombs oil-rich Iraq, an oil pipeline of one multinational or other bursts somewhere in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. President Clinton has just returned from Africa's most populous country. He went to Nigeria's capital Abuja, but angering many, he cancelled his trip south to the Delta,

    http://www.economicjustice.org/chadCameroon.html
    Stop World Bank Loan to Exxon for Chad-Cameroon Pipeline

    Should international development assistance from the World Bank for two of the poorest countries in Africa be used to support the world's richest oil companies? An international consortium consisting of Exxon, Shell and ELF is planning a multi-billion dollar oil exploitation project with serious environmental and social risks that many fear may create another Ogoniland, Nigeria's oil-producing region marked by environmental devastation and brutal human rights violations. The oil project is in Chad and Cameroon, two countries that have few democratic freedoms for its people.

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