Nigeria hostages rescued (And a side note on corruption).

AlJ reports that 1000 hostages have been rescued from the Boko Harum by a multinational taskforce in Nigeria.

he Multinational Joint Task Force, which comprises Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, helped to secure the release of the captives, mostly women and children.

most of them were women and children.

remember the self righteous tweets #save our girls? Well, the local African countries managed to do it, but don't expect CNN to notice.

Wikipedia on this Multinational force

the US is helping with money and training.

But in the past, the US was reluctant about this because of corruption (I know here in the Philippines, often the money just gets diverted into the pockets of the big shots: and even the weapons get sold to the bad guys to make a profit)



there is also a report on a Fulani attack on a local church. not much in the article, but the background is that the herders are attacking the farmers, which has been going on for years.


so where do the Bokos get their financing? Drug smuggling of course.

According to an Africa Intelligence report, the group could be getting a lot of its financial support from drug traffickers who are using Nigeria’s strategic location as a crossroad for global narcotics transport.

A BBC report cited  findings by the International Crisis Group  saying that the group had forged ties with arms smugglers and drug traffickers who use their territory as a transit route.
A 2012 report from the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies alleged that Nigerian terrorist groups are financed by drug cartels in Latin America.

UKIndependent notes that ISIS and Alqada are more interested in money than religion, so are busy in the drug smuggling business.

related item: The Mali connection: Drugs smuggling.

and the backstory: massive corruption problem.

and also the Population growth thanks to colonialism providing modern medicine.

While the Islamic terrorists get the most publicity (because of their extreme violence and eagerness to spread worldwide) most of the outlaw activity is about making money. The Islamic terror groups dominate the most lucrative criminal activities (smuggling drugs) because the Islamic terrorists are the most violent outlaws around and generally unencumbered by family or tribal responsibilities. Nevertheless, the Islamic terrorists are a small part of a much larger smuggling activity

and the French are busy with the fight against these guys, but the Americans are doing their thing with air support: For the US military it's personal:

The Americans stand ready to provide airstrikes for as many ISGS targets as the French intel effort can locate. The Americans are keen to eliminate ISGS because this groups was responsible for a late 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four American soldiers. ISGS wants to kill more American troops because that is a big deal with ISIL since Islamic terror groups tend to consider Israel and the United States the main enemies of Islam. Israel and the Americans have also proved to be the most effective at hunting down and killing ISIL groups. So this particular campaign against ISGS will be more of the same, just in a very remote part of the world. 

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a short background on the problems of reporting: a lot of the reporters are from the left and see the "insurgents" as the good guys, so their reports are biased.

AlJ does this sometimes, with reports from the bad guys explaining why they fight, but not usually in their main articles.

And SP usually is blunt about the corruption problem, but figures their readers know how it works so doesn't give the details.

I'll explain using the Philippines as an example.

Once one of our family met and had dinner with another American helping in the south against the Islamic extremists. and he shook his head and said: They steal every thing.

So the US gives aid to the military and also for local development.

For the military, the US supplies information on what's going on (drones and electronic spying, including on cellphone calls), trains local soldiers, and also helps with drones and air support: but because of the law, the smart bombs are usually done via the Philippine military.

And you don't usually hear about the US support, unless the liberals can find "civilians" killed, then there is a big fuss.

Duterte is not taking it from these bozos: He just threw out an Australian "missionary" nun who was helping the bad guys by documenting "civilian casualties" by the local military. Lots of messiness going on there, and what she claims were atrocities was in an area where this had happened under the previous president, and it didn't help that she joined in and talked at political rallies (something foreigners are forbidden to do).

True, murders and civilian casualties, sometimes deliberate and sometimes accidentally because they are with the bad guys, either as family members or as hostages.

But the western activists don't usually worry when the Islamicists kill local traditional religion villagers, only when they are killed by the military or shot by a local Politician's hit men because they are reporting this, and the international groups rarely point out the main cause of the war: that the bad guys .(including "islamic" freedom fighters, our local communists, and of course the private armies of the politicians) are paying off the local businessmen and politicians.

And yes, the war on drugs is part of this: The Philippines was descending into the anarchy due to drug cartels and druggies committing crime. And a lot of the cops and the local politicians were on the take to look the other way.


but it also comes down to corruption: We just lost another priest here for opposing mining interests that would destroy the land of the locals. Probably a hit by a military or NPA type working on their own and paid for by the businessman or the politicians who will get rich by looking the other way when they pollute.

and we expect a lot of these murders to happen in the next week or two because we are having local elections, and the local officials often get rich diverting development and infrastructure money into their own pockets.

The new president and the military in Zimbabwe

AlJ has an article about Chiwenga and his military helpers as the real power players in Zimbabwe.

...Zimbabwe's new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, formerly an ally of the strongman, has struggled to move beyond the much publicised rhetoric proclaiming "Zimbabwe is open for business" and implement substantial political reforms that may serve to attract much-needed financial investment from abroad, instil consumer confidence throughout the economy and move the US to remove targeted economic and political sanctions that were renewed on March 2....

But the military complex, which comprises the army, ex-army officers and veterans from the 1970s war of independence, has begun to consolidate its power over civilian affairs by occupying positions across all branches of government and refusing to reform the executive infrastructure Mugabe abused for political ends ever since Zimbabwe was plunged into an economic quandary on November 14, 1997, a day known as "Black Friday". Now, Chiwenga not only controls the Defence Ministry, but his erstwhile subordinates hold influential and strategic positions in the government and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). Retired Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri heads the Lands, Agriculture and Rural Settlement Ministry, retired Lieutenant-General Sibusiso Moyo is foreign affairs and international trade minister; retired Brigadier-General George Mutandwa Chiweshe is the High Court judge president; and retired Lieutenant-General Engelbert Rugeje was appointed the ruling party's political commissariat in December 2017.

Is this good or bad?

the military has many corrupt in it so it could be a problem.

Read the whole thing.

As a side note: my friend in Africa, a retired teacher who visits and helps the elderly left behind in the villages, was transferred to a new area. I had sent her money for a bicycle, but the nun in charge refuses to let her buy one because of the danger of robbery and rape.

Sigh.

She needs a motorcar, but I am on a pension and can't help her. Usually the Catholics in Europe are the source of funding the Catholics in Zimbabwe, but I guess since the local nuns are now educated and able to do all the work, they are invisible.

but it does show that in former tribal areas in rural Zimbabwe there is a lot of crime.

boko vs christians and vs Muslims

Another mosque bombed in Nigeria. 
a double suicide bombing.

In our prayers

Trump asked Nigeria's president to protect Christians, who are targeted both by Islamic Boko types and by the tradional Fulani who want to graze their cattle on the farms of non Fulani, who are often Christian.

Some bozo criticized Trump for only noting Christians, but hey, you have to start somewhere.

The Bokos have destroyed mosques and schools for Muslims, so they hate everyone.

Another problem? one group targeted in the smaller Shiite Muslim groups.

and Iran is starting to send in propaganda instructors to cause trouble (i.e. to fight back with their own terrorists).

so Buhari is sending his troops into these areas to stop them.

and they cry foul.

Sigh.

Yemen is in the middle of a civil war blood bath between radical Shiites and the Saudi proxies.

Will Nigeria be the next place for this Muslim civil war?

Saudi Iran proxy fight in Nigeria

not my area of expertise, but just noting the problem.

Nigerian update

The Nigerian president will be visiting President Trump, and some white news agencies say he should represent all of Africa, as if Africa and her problems were a monolith.

and you can tell the US press is both reflexivly anti Trump and racist/clueless about Africa when they write stuff like that about Africa. Heck, check out this article: because they insist his remark about "s...... countries" was about Africa, when I thought he meant Latin America, where some countries are good, but others are deteriorating into chaos and lots of folks are fleeing from these countries, most to the country next door, but some to the USA...(Venezuela, Nicaragua, Hondoras and Haiti come to mind).

Nigeria has many problems, and StrategyPage has a summary of them here.

He is facing traditional tribal wars in the north, not just terrorism:

April 30, 2018: The current Nigerian president (Muhammadu Buhari) is a Moslem, a retired general and a Fulani who cracked down hard on Boko Haram but has been more reluctant to take on the Fulani.

he is also facing opposition by corrupt businessmen and politicians (hey, sounds like here in the Philippines, where the corrupt politicians are pushing the "Drug war murder" meme to get rid of him before he puts them in jail.).

At the same time, there is another battle raging between the many corrupt politicians and their corrupt allies in the business community fighting growing government efforts to curb the endemic and crippling corruption. The corruption crowd is suffering losses but have massive financial resources to call on and tend to be stubborn and determined. In addition, there are the criminal gangs that corrupt politicians, especially state governors maintain, and often use during elections or any other crises situation.

He also faces the usual problem of disease. SP notes the fight against polio made worse because some mulsim immans oppose getting the shots: I suspect they read the "anti vaccine" stuff in the UK papers, so again don't pretend this is due to "ignorant Muslims", and eventually these clergymen change their mind when they see less disease.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, even the Islamic terrorists have come to agree that polio vaccination is a good thing and vaccination is catching up the few unvaccinated kids. That leaves Nigeria where Islamic conservatives up north have been preaching against polio vaccinations for years insisting that the medicine is actually a Christian plot to poison Moslems.

Not mentioned in the article: The oral polio vaccine, which is easy to give to kids, mutates into the real disease once in awhile, so if there are a lot of unvaccinated people around, the vaccinated kid can spread the real disease. Two ways to stop this; one, vaccinate all the kids, and two, use the shot instead (more expensive and requires training).

sigh.

finally, the article mentions that a lot of Nigerians working and living elsewhere are sending money back to help their families.

During 2017 Nigeria received $22 billion in remittances from Nigerians living abroad. This was the largest amount for any nation in sub-Saharan Africa and the fifth highest in the world. The world leaders are India, which received $69 billion in 2017, China $64 billion, the Philippines $33 billion and Mexico $31 billion.

Again, this is a big thing here in the rural Philippines (including our family, who were supported by my husband): One person pays the school fees of all their relatives, and voila, the entire family enters the middle class.

lots more at that link, so go read the whole thing.

Unlike most of the US MSM, they tend to get things right about countries where I have personal experience (i.e. Colombia and the Philippines).

Nigerian warrior queen

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in contrast to this, a discussion of how Women in Rwanda helped rebuild their country:

blood cobalt

StategyPage discusses the chronic civil war (and refugees and starvation and disease caused by the chaos of the war) in Central Africa, partly tribal and partly because President Kabila refuses to leave. The bishops devised a peaceplan there, but were ignored, so it appears it will continue.

The MSM ignores it (just another civil war, folks, just move on)..

But how many in the MSM will cover this: President Kabila plans to tax mining companies taking out cobalt (and copper).

February 10, 2018: Congo confirmed it intends to raise taxes on minerals as well as raise the royalty rate mining companies must pay the government. Parliament approved legislation to raise mining taxes as part of a new "mining code." ... Most of the mining companies affected are European, North American and Chinese. Cobalt will become more expensive and so will copper. Why? In 2016 the world produced an estimated 123,000 tons of cobalt and 57 percent came from Congo. ..

So what, you might say? Well this is why:

Cobalt has many uses, but it is critical in the production of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the type used to power mobile digital devices and electric vehicles...

 and who is buying all that cobalt?

China has been a major buyer of Congolese cobalt so that increase will hit Chinese manufacturers particularly hard. In the first nine months of 2017 China imported an estimated $1.2 billion worth of Congolese cobalt.

and then there is the corruption angle:

..Gecamines, the stare owned mining company, plays a key role in mismanagement and "diverting" mining revenues. Gecamines officials are beholden to the Kabila government. (Austin Bay)

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so what does this have to do with Zimbabwe?

well, there will be a need to find cobalt elsewhere:

The foremost risk, and perhaps the most challenging to solve, is geopolitical. Sixty-two percent of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and combined with production from Zambia, Madagascar, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the five countries mine more than 71 percent of the world’s cobalt. Companies process ore locally and export more than 90 percent of the total to China for further processing and refining to produce commercial cobalt compounds used in batteries.
This exclusive trade between African countries and China exposes the market to Chinese regulatory volatility and export restrictions, a recent example being that of the rare earths market, which saw extreme shortages after the Chinese enacted export restriction in 2010. Since then, countries and private industries have had to resort to alternate sources and materials, and stockpiling.

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Well there is a lot of rare minerals in Zimbabwe too, and the mining companies see the new president as business friendly.

Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s former spy chief, became president in November with military backing and has offered to hold elections by July.
His administration abolished rules that mining operations must be at least 51% owned by black Zimbabweans for all minerals other than platinum and diamonds.
Zimbabwe is geologically rich, with deposits of gold, chrome, lithium, coal, diamonds, platinum and iron ore.
Mine development stalled under Mugabe, whose policies led to a collapse in the economy and hyperinflation.

more here:

‘Zim could become hub of battery mineral revolution’

February 9, 2018 in News

With Zimbabwe sitting on a lucrative mineral treasure trove and angling to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), Australian listed firm, Prospect Resources, is on course to spending an estimated US$55 million on a new lithium plant in the southern African country. Zimbabwe Independent business reporter Tinashe Kairiza (TK) spoke to Prospect Resources executive director Paul Chimbodza (PC, pictured) on how attractive Zimbabwe is as an investment destination and how the lithium plant will add impetus to government’s efforts to grow the economy

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WSJ laments China's race to get rare earth metals including cobalt

e companies dominate the cobalt supply chain that begins at mines in Congo

Miners pushing their cobalt-laden bicycles through a mine near Kolwezi, Congo, last June. They often sell to Chinese wholesalers. PHOTO:DIANA ZEYNEB ALHINDAWI FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By 

Scott Patterson and

 

Russell Gold

Feb. 11, 2018 1:46 p.m. ET

237 COMMENTS

KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of Congo—Miners push bicycles piled high with bags of a grayish-blue ore along a dusty road to a makeshift market. There, they line up at wholesalers with nicknames such as Crazy Jack and Boss Lee.

Most of the buyers are Chinese. Those buyers then sell to Chinese companies that ship the bags, filled with cobalt, to China for processing into rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries that power laptops and smartphones and electric cars.

There is a world-wide race to lock up the supply chain for cobalt, which will likely be in even greater demand as electric-car production rises. So far, China is way ahead.

Chinese imports of cobalt from Congo, the world’s biggest producer of cobalt, totaled $1.2 billion in the first nine months of 2017, compared with just $3.2 million by India, the second-largest importer, government data show.

“We’re realizing that the Congo is to [electric vehicles] what Saudi Arabia is to the internal combustion engine,” says Trent Mell, chief executive of exploration company First CobaltCorp. , based in Toronto. Chinese firms are keenly aware of Congo’s importance to electric vehicles, he says, and “trying to control the whole ecosystem…from cobalt mining to battery production.”

From Congo to China

Lithium-ion battery production is concentrated in four countries.

Much of Congo's cobalt winds up in processed cobalt sulfate.

Congo produces more than half of the global supply of cobalt.

Percentage of raw cobalt production, by country

Percentage of world-wide cobalt sulfate production

Percentage of global production capacity*

Germany

9%

Morgan Tsvangirai

Morgan Tsvangirai has died.

AlJ has this article on the man and his work:

It's a dark moment for Zimbabwe. Iconic opposition leader and former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has died after a two-year battle against colon cancer. His death will remain as one of the rare moments that has united Zimbabwean politicians from across the political divide. His loyal supporters are inconsolable at the loss of their icon, but perhaps the greatest tribute is that those from the ruling elite, who have opposed and ridiculed him as a politician, have shown him respect.

Tsvangirai has, without doubt, been one of the greatest and most influential political figures in Zimbabwean history. He has always fought for the underdog, starting his activism as a trade unionist while working in a nickel mine.

BBC article.

 what's new for the MDC ...

The death of Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's totemic opposition leader, has left supporters in mourning - and his party having to navigate a precarious leadership transition ahead of landmark presidential elections. In Tsvangirai's place, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) installed on Thursday Nelson Chamisa as its acting president for 12 months.

Family News

Good news: The lesion was benign, so the Dermatologist did a simple cautery and removal, and I don't need the specialized surgery.

While in Manila we checked out replacement tablets, but the new ones are still beyond my budget so I bought instead an ASUS convertible tablet. Older design and slower but larger, which is good for my eyes to read ebooks. A newer version of the convertible that my granddaughter had in the past (and lost when her car got caught in a flash flood from a typhoon five years ago).

we also ate hamburger and taco salad at Chilis. I saw the steak but passed... no I couldn't finish the hamburger either, but we cut it in half and shared. Since it was Chano's birthday we sang him Happy birthday, and the staff, hearing this, asked if it was, and then brought him a free ice cream and sang happy birthday to him.

the Mall had wonderful stuff to window shop. But somehow designer Italian furniture and decor doesn't go with our house, which is basic Filipino with rattan. Never mind. It does remind me that there is another world out there. This was in Makati, the business area of Manila and quite upbeat.

The meal cost more than we pay our cook for a week: at least her "official salary", which doesn't include if she can buy cheaper food and pocket the difference, or the money I pay for her grandchildren's school fees, and medicine as needed for her family.

If I ate like that every day I'd feel guilty, but it's only twice a year. Usually hamburger is cheaper: The 2 for 25 pesos (50cents) at the palanke or at McDonald for 100 pesos (2 dollars).

But it does give one a pause about the gap between rich and poor here: essentially two economies, the rich, which cost about the same as in the USA for goods, and the poor, which is cheap: subsidized rice, limited fruits and veggies, and shoddy housing.

but since I moved here, things have improved: Few rich in our town but lots of people like us who are "middle class", so we now have more upscale shops and malls.

And the tricycle drivers and maid now have cellphones, and of course access to used TV's and radios.

The middle class tends to be excessive in buying stuff, probably because like the 1950's in the US, they remember when they were poor and couldn't afford anything.

StrategyPage links on Africa

I usually find this site is good at analyzing stuff going on in countries where I have worked or lived.

Recent essays on African wars include:

Sudan Stumbling along

Congo Bloody Borderlands

mostly sad news on wars, but does note that Volkswagon is setting up a factory in Ruanda.

Somalia

the good news is that Zimbabwe is not on their list of warzones.

black superheroes? We haz that

 

Well, we had lots of Tarzan/Phanthom/She type white heroes ruling in over black populations, often using advanced tech to do it. So I guess I shouldn't worry that the Panther is using high tech,
( probably bought from China who is trying to get dibs on all the African rare minerals).

but I had to laugh at the modern pushup bras worn by the lovely ladies in the dances.

And I wonder: is the Panther Bantu, Nilotic (like Papa Obama) or Masai?

supposedly he united five tribes, but the name of the country suggests a Bantu origin.

but with all the Nollywood talent out there, why are the set designers etc seem to have western names? (African-Americans are considered Americans in Africa, because the culture is different).

The design of the movie’s setting—the fictional African nation of Wakanda—mostly comes from production designer Hannah Beachler (Moonlight, Beyoncé’s Lemonade) and costume designer Ruth Carter (Amistad, Selma). “The challenge was imagining how something futuristic looks in Africa,”

then I ran into this:

Beachler says. “What would Africans have done given reign over their own culture, without having been colonized?

Uh, presumably she never heard of Ethiopia?

The cultures of Cush and Ethiopia go back 5000 years, with links to Egypt and the Middle East. Memnon was at Troy, for example. Ancient Egypt, and although traditional Egyptians were mixed race, the pharoahs got their bowmen from there, and they had pyramids, and their own script (one of the "undeciphered scripts alas). They almost took over Egypt during the Hyksos era, and later did take over Egypt. Black Pharohs? yup. The latest kerfuffle is if Nefertiti was Black: Probably not, but since her husband Ahkenatan's mom came from a "military" family, she might have been From Cush. (And Ahkenatan was the dad of King Tut).

One more comment:, the "advanced civilization" seems to be very European/tech oriented, as in Silicon Valley. Fancy trains and super powers.

Uh, what about sewers, midwives, medicine for high blood pressure, insecticides? African culture places emphasis on family ties and cooperation and care for their sick and elderly. Did the producers put any of this into their "advanced" civilization, or is "advanced" defined as techology and power?

yes I know: it's the Marvel Universe. So give them a break.

as for superheroes: Yes Nollywood has done that. 

but I probably won't see the movie until it hits HBO, and even then I may pass. I am not into the superhero genre: the last one I saw was Wonderwoman because my granddaughter wanted to see it and I was "duh".

Never mind.

The real super heroes in Africa:

Dr Vadgama Harsh, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, operates on a patient at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret on April 10, 2017.. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

faming and family problems

cross posted from my main blog.

A report on trying to stop slash and burn traditional methods of farming in Central America.

part is the need for land by the hungry, but I know in Africa, the problem was that usually the farm fields got lower yields with time, so they were left fallow for the cattle and goats, while the village moved to better land, burned it off, and then planted new fields.

With the increase in population, of course, the land got over used and ended up a desert. This was especially true when corn was grown.

The answer? Fertilizer.

this guy is pushing fonio: a Sahel crop....but no answer on what is the yield? I don't know much about the Sahel, but there are a lot of different ways to try to get things growing there... the problem is that many of the tribes are goat and cattle raising types, and they have a long history of destroying the crops of the local farmers so they can graze their cattle. StrategyPage report on this in Nigeria, about the casualties of this traditional range war, complicated by the fact that the herders are Muslim and the farmers are traditional or Christian...

Our people in Zimbabwe grew sorghum and other crops that grew better with drought, as a back up if there wasn't enough rain for corn. But the yield was lower... and there are other traditional African crops of course.

I should note that in smaller gardens the women grew peanuts and ground nuts as natural fertilizer, and also grew squash, between the corn plants. And could use the crops for their own use. But because plowing required an ox, the men usually plowed the larger fields which supplied most of the family's food.

Of course, nowadays, men in Africa have long been encouraged to migrate to cities or work in mines, disrupting the family, since they live in dormitories, and the wives are left behind to care for the family's land, which is owned by the tribe, not by the family: if no one is left home to tend the land, it is taken from them to give to someone else. Also since there is no social security, the men need the family to keep the land so they can retire back to their villages.

Am I the only one who notices how modern society destroys family life by separating families?

On the other hand, as the saying goes: How do you keep them down on the farm after they see Paree? Who wants to slave hoeing in the fields 12 hours a day when you can work 8 hours in a factory and go home and watch TV or drink and sing kareoke with your friends at the local bar?

Here in the Philippines, ten percent of our people work overseas, and often the kids are raised by extended family.

But even in China, the kids are left behind in rural areas when the parents work in the city, because government rules limit who can live in the cities...Wikip

Central Africa: war and progress

StrategyPage on the Congo: bloody borderlands.

Aid organizations estimate that 13 million people in Congo require some type of humanitarian assistance, primarily food and medical aid. A third of the 13 million are IDPs (internally displaced people)..

lots of depressing information about the wars and conflicts etc. in that area of the world.

and then goes on to point out corruption in Angola:

Meanwhile, in Angola, the new government's crackdown on corruption continues -- and at times it looks like an attack on the old regime. President Joao Lourenco has replaced Isabel Dos Santos as head of the national oil company, Sonangol. She is the daughter of former president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. She is very rich with an estimated worth of $2.5 billion. Dos Santos was president of 38 years.
Again, people are urged to give money to charities to help people, but who is condemning the corruption that steals the wealth from the people?

However, not all the news is bad: Volkswagon plans a factory to make cars in Rwanda.

Volkswagen confirmed that in the second quarter of 2018 it will begin manufacturing cars in Rwanda. The first Rwanda-made vehicles may be available by late May. The manufacturing deal has been in the works since December 2016. According to senior management, Volkswagen chose Rwanda as a manufacturing site because the country has political stability, does not tolerate corruption, has a growth rate of almost seven percent a year and "a young and tech savvy population."


Yes, Rwanda of the major genocides, but which since then has tried to make peace among factions by promoting... forgiveness.

AlJ article on "peace clubs".

Also from the Zimbabwe Mail:

President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his country is open for business and that all foreign investment is safe, with investors able to repatriate profits.
Mnangagwa was speaking at a meeting with business leaders on Thursday ahead of his maiden trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week. He is under pressure from civic society, investors and opposition parties to implement political and economic reforms.
“I am aware that most of our business require injection of new capital from foreign investors and I want to reiterate that all investments will be safe and secure in Zimbabwe. Foreign investors will be able to repatriate profits from their all investments in our country and all Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection agreements (BIPPA) will be honoured,” he said.
“Come and invest in our country.We are open for business.(For) those who want to do business, Zimbabwe is one destination you can do business comfortably. That is the message that we are taking to Davos.”

Roy Bennett RIP

Zimbabwe civil rights activist Roy Bennett has died in a helicopter crash (in Canada).
In 2006 he became the treasurer general for the mainstream faction of the MDC‚ led by Morgan Tsvangirai. He was also a spokesman in South Africa and made regular interviews on behalf of the MDC.
He returned to Zimbabwe in 2009‚ and Tsvangirai wanted him as deputy agriculture minister – but former President Robert Mugabe refused to swear him in.
He was later rearrested for treason‚ but then released. Afterwards‚ he left Zimbabwe for South Africa and never returned.

Cobalt mining in the DRC: the dirty little secret behind electric cars

All the American yuppies pride themselves that they will soon be forced to drive electric cars, which are "non polluting".

Well, ignore those local electric plants, of course.

But as AlJ points out: To make the batteries, you need cobalt, and Cobalt mining is destroying the local environment in the DRC.

 Cobalt is one of the key ingredients added in electric batteries, and more than half of it is currently mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amnesty says children as young as seven work in dangerous conditions in Congo cobalt mines.

"At the present time, you'd have to say that there isn't a lot of regulation around the mining of cobalt," says Gavin Wendt, the founding director and senior resource analyst at Australia-based Minelife. "A lot of the cobalt that's mined is generated from illegally operated mines that employ almost slave labour: underaged workers, illiterate workers, workers that don't get paid very much ... They're controlled by warlords, and the industry is appallingly run."

Christmas in Africa

I have a Madonna and child that was carved at the Serima Mission school. If you look at Mary, you say: She is a Karanga: she has the facial features of the Karanga clan of the Mashona.

Alas, I don't have a photo of the statue, which I gave to my brother for safe keeping.

There is an article about the Serima school here: some of the students went on to be professional artists.

and here is a picture from the Zimbabwe National Gallery by an unknown artist: titled: Come let us adore him. Note the three kings at the left side.

of course, the locals disliked the primitive art, and the educated , at least, preferred the more sophisticated stuff of the west: hopefully, as in music, they will combine both traditions as their culture evolves into today's world.

Even 40 years ago, many of our nurses came from urban middle class families who owned stores etc.  One of our sisters wrote her PhD thesis on how the family structure and personal interactions were changing with education: I found a copy at a university in the US after I returned, and found it interesting, because she described what I actually saw in the changing society.

This was even more true when I went back to urban Liberia, where few had ties with their villages.

In other words, 90 percent of what Americans (or South Americans or Asians) think about Africa is nonsense, although the CNN reports in their "on Africa" segments are fairly good.

I mean, even my friend in Rural Zimbabwe has had a cellphone for years, and when she was teaching had access to their high school's computer.



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too often the west sees Africa via their own eyes, but now there is an active Nollywood to show African stories. Yes, in English because it is the "lingua franca" for Nigeria.

lots of "Nollywood" films on youtube, by the way.


Hopefully, Zimbabwe will have their diaspora return and get their film industry going again.

cross posted to my regular blog.

Good news of the year

Africans are getting fat.

In Zambia, 12.4% of women and 3.6% of men are obese — still below the average for the continent and nowhere close to the U.S. rates of roughly 36% for each gender. But obesity rates here have grown rapidly enough over the last several years to have become a deep concern for national health officials. ​​​“It’s a very big issue,” said Chitalu Chilufya, the minister of health. “It is a challenge that needs to be nipped in the bud now or else it will grow out of hand.” With expanding waistlines has come a rise in health issues. Diabetes, barely heard of here not long ago, now affects around 4.1% of Zambians, according to the International Diabetes Federation. “We’re losing a lot of people due to strokes and heart attacks because of obesity,” the health minister said.

and that doesn't even include the problem of high blood pressure from "western" foods that have a lot of salt in them.

why do I say this is "good news"? because the alternative is starvation, poverty, and dying of TB or other infections.

Update on Central Africa

Mugabe no longer runs Zimbabwe, and I have been away from that country for enough years I don't have inside information anymore.

But I will continue to update various things.

Today's update is about the Congo's civil war.an update from StrategyPage

December 18, 2017: As 2017 ends Congo faces the same problem it faced in 2016: President Joseph Kabila illegally remaining in office. The December Accord of December 31, 2016 (also called the Saint Sylvester agreement) was supposed to create a peaceful political path for Kabila's exit. Congo's Catholic bishops mediated the negotiations that led to the December Accord. New elections were to be held in 2017 -- that was stipulated. Kabila would leave office after the elections and civil war would be avoided. Despite the February 2017 death of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, the Congolese opposition coalition Rassemblement continued to demand elections in December 2017 and stage occasional national strikes. UN officials in Congo and the Catholic Church supported the coalition's demand for new elections. However, no national elections are occurring in December 2017.

Sigh.

This does have a "Mugabe" link however, since Mugabe sent his troops there as "peacekeepers" many years ago (since then they have left).

LINK:

How Mugabe double-crossed Joseph Kabila & the DRC Way before Marange, Mugabe and his military men had already started rampant racketeering, illegal mafia-style smuggling, double-crossing, double dealing, as well as illegal arms peddling with Congolese rebels. In fact, Mugabe double-crossed Kabila by selling arms to the rebels in exchange for diamonds used to enrich, not Zimbabwe, but Mugabe and his security men."

read both articles if you have an interest in civil war, civil rights, refugees, or "blood diamonds".

China and Mugabe

will the UK end sanctions?

Mnangagwa asks the UK to end sanctions.

Arrests for corruption?

AlJ:

 Zimbabwe's former minister of finance and economic development has been denied bail in his corruption trial....Ignatius Chombo, an ally of ousted Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, is being held "in the interests of his safety" and to prevent any interference with state witnesses, a magistrate's court said on Monday evening.

then there is this:

Shortly before his arrest on the weekend, Chipanga, a close associate of former First Lady Grace Mugabe, was confronted by protesters who shouted threats at him for his pro-Mugabe stance.
He faces charges of fraud and slander for his criticism of the head of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantino Chiwenga.
The charges carry a potential 20-year prison sentence.
Chiwenga had cautioned the then president against carrying out a series of purges within his ruling ZANU-PF regime, shortly before the military action that led to Mugabe's resignation.

Yes, Africans, they actually mean you

The New Yorker (magazine) has an article on an "anti natalist".

David Benatar may be the world’s most pessimistic philosopher. An “anti-natalist,” he believes that life is so bad, so painful, that human beings should stop having children for reasons of compassion. “While good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place,” he writes, in a 2006 book called “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence.” In Benatar’s view, reproducing is intrinsically cruel and irresponsible—not just because a horrible fate can befall anyone, but because life itself is “permeated by badness.” In part for this reason, he thinks that the world would be a better place if sentient life disappeared altogether....

and he lists a lot of the frustrations of first world, affluent materialistic yuppies as the reason behind his screed:

He provides an escalating list of woes, designed to prove that even the lives of happy people are worse than they think. We’re almost always hungry or thirsty, he writes; when we’re not, we must go to the bathroom. We often experience “thermal discomfort”—we are too hot or too cold—or are tired and unable to nap. We suffer from itches, allergies, and colds, menstrual pains or hot flashes. Life is a procession of “frustrations and irritations”—waiting in traffic, standing in line, filling out forms. Forced to work, we often find our jobs exhausting; even “those who enjoy their work may have professional aspirations that remain unfulfilled.” Many lonely people remain single, while those who marry fight and divorce. “People want to be, look, and feel younger, and yet they age relentlessly”: They have high hopes for their children and these are often thwarted when, for example, the children prove to be a disappointment in some way or other. When those close to us suffer, we suffer at the sight of it. When they die, we are bereft.

so why put this in my Africa blog?

Because Benatar was born in South Africa in 1966. He is the head of the philosophy department at the University of Cape Town, where he also directs the university’s Bioethics Centre, which was founded by his father, Solomon Benatar, a global-health expert.

and his father was indeed a big shot at that school in the good old days, and involved in global public health policy.

according to the magazine, the guy is an atheist.

yes, without God you are an isolated individual.

The only reason I don't call the guy a Nazi for pushing nazi ideas is because Solomon and David are ethnically Jewish names.

But are they "Jewish/jewish" or part of the anti religion Jewish types who became rabid socialists/communists and gave conspiracy types ammunition for their own anti semitism?

With God, you are part of a family, and everything that happens works for the good.

and the NewYorker writer, who also has a Jewish name, made sure they passed the monument to the Irish who died in the potato famine... they read a few of the quotes from there, but that didn't get much of a rise from the good professor.

Why no: The professor probably would see the monument as proof why his philosophy (don't have kids: they'll only be miserable) is true, whereas most Irish Americans (and Jews and American Blacks) would see the monument and say: No, it is a warning to philosophers that ideas have consequences.

Because the reason the Irish died is because too many Brits believed in Malthus: that the poor overbred and helping them stay alive only meant more poor people, so don't help them.

so they died: Of starvation, of disease, in "coffin ships" fleeing that land, etc.

and like a lot of Yanks, we remember our heritage.

I checked the author of the magazine article, and he has a Jewish name. They also suffered from bad ideas (the holocaust was based on social Darwinism and Eugenics ideas of the early 20th century):

the population bomb hysteria is not new: if you read Eugenics  history, the breeders they disliked back then tended to be the Irish in England, and the Jewish/Irish/Italian and Eastern European immigrants and blacks in the USA). And of course Jews and Gypsies and Slavs in Germany. Especially Jews.

but now, of course, the population control freaks are aiming at Africa.

In other words, not a new idea, but repackaged for affluent types.

Nothing new of course: When I worked in Zimbabwe, every village had a "pill lady" but no safe water or WHO Rehydration fluid until we supplied the money for these things.

And China's one child policy was from Ehrlich's population bomb ideas.

And here in the Philippines, the US pressured us to supply free contraceptives to all women (but one third of our women deliver with untrained birth attendents, one reason for the high mortality.. and even when midwives are "free" they ask for gifts: pre eclampsia is dangerous here, but few get prenatal care. Sigh).

and even the Vatican let a lot of these death promoting population types into their latest conferences.

But the, the joke "is the Pope Catholic?" is, alas, no longer  joke.

headsup AnneAlthouse

Mugabe: asylum? Money?

South Africa will face a lot of opposition if they allow him asylum.

Maimane said allowing Mugabe into South Africa on political asylum would be in contravention of the Refugees Act.
 Maimane pointed out that the act excludes individuals from asylum if they had committed a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity, among others. "Mugabe has, like many other leaders on the continent, turned from liberator to dictator, with human rights abuses and crimes against peace being committed under his watch," said Maimane. "As such, he ought to be denied refugee status as per the law," Maimane said. "As long as Mugabe would not face torture or death penalty in Zimbabwe, the South African government must exclude him from asylum."

Ghana is thinking about it though.

the big question no one is asking: who gets the money?

UKGuardian lists his wealth.

According to some estimates, Robert Mugabe has about £1bn-worth of assets, much of it invested outside Zimbabwe.

 2001 US diplomatic cable, later released by the whistle-blowing organisation WikiLeaks, quoted this figure, and said that while reliable information was difficult to find, there were rumours that his assets “include everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas to castles in Scotland”.

Grace Mugabe is said to have bought a number of properties in the affluent Sandton suburb of Johannesburg and there are reported to have been property purchases in Malaysia, Singapore and possibly Dubai.

and move over Imelda Marcos:

The first lady is reported to have the sort of designer shoe collection that might be expected of a dictator’s wife and, notoriously, is said to have spent $75,000 (£56,000) on luxury goods on a single shopping spree in Paris.

Mugabe resigns!

BBC reports Mugabe, under threat of impeachment, has resigned.

The ruling Zanu-PF party says former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa will succeed Mr Mugabe, in power since 1980.
Mr Mnangagwa's sacking earlier this month triggered a political crisis.
It had been seen by many as an attempt to clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband as leader and riled the military leadership, who stepped in and put Mr Mugabe under house arrest.
After the resignation announcement, lawmakers roared in jubilation.

Mugabe still won't resign

in other news from Zimbabwe: No, Mugabe still refuses to step down despite Sunday's protests.

the locals worry tlat "Gucci Grace" will grab power... instead of the main opposition leader, Vice President Mnangagwa, aka the Crocodile who was fired so Grace could step in and steal his job.

Culling elephants

Zimbabwe Herald points out that elephant conservation actually benefits both the elephants and locals. It means culling the population to prevent overpopulation, stop elephants from roaming and destroying local crops, and of course, is a source of income for the country. Without this income, locals will just look the other way when poachers kill the beasts.

Zimbabwe boasts the world’s second largest elephant herd after Botswana, much of it crowded beyond capacity at the Hwange National Park in the country’s south-west.
A CITES study notes that elephants in Zimbabwe have climbed sharply in the past 40 years due to prudent conservation.
Aerial surveys show there was an estimated 46 000 elephants in the country in 1980; at least 58 600 in 1989; and some 64 000 in 1995. These figures are, however, disputed by other conservationists.
But the Great Elephant Census says the number of elephants in the country dropped 6 000 to 82 000 in the three years to 2014 due to poaching.
The animals have become difficult to manage, often destroying homes and food crops. Deaths from conflict with humans living near conservancies and parks have been reported, as habitat gives way to urban development and agriculture.

more HERE.

  But the rich white American animal lovers are pressuring Trump to stop the cull.

no, I don't hunt: But our area of Pennsylvania closed down on the first day of hunting season... better to hunt the deer carefully than let them die as road kill or from starvation...

what is going on in Zimbabwe

UKTelegraph article is confusing:

Neither Mr Mugabe nor the presumed mastermind of the coup, former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, have issued statements or been seen in public since. The military has not commented since Major General Sibusiso Moyo, Chief of Staff Logistics, denied a coup was underway and appealed for calm in an address on national television in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

One of my friends there, a Mugabe supporter, posted this:

Much Respect to the Zimbabwe Defense Forces for stepping in & giving direction to our country. We where headed into the abyss.

Someone had to STOP Amai Dr. Stop It!!

presumably the problem is that Mugabe is  old, and his younger wife is trying to grab power.

Here is an article about her plans in the Herald, a pro Mugabe paper.

mai Mugabe said President Mugabe was an anointed leader by God and only the Almighty could decide his fate and not some ambitious people who wanted to take leadership positions through unorthodox means. “You are anointed, President. Hakuna anokubvisai. Kana nguva yaMwari yakwana, zvichangotika according to God’s plan,” said Amai Mugabe as she quoted biblical scriptures. She implored people to pray to God and accept that which they could not change in life.

Speaking at the same occasion, Zanu-PF Secretary for Youth Cde Kudzanai Chipanga said events in Bulawayo, where people booed the First Lady, were a result of infiltration by unruly elements.

but the UK Papers are wondering if China had a part in the military's plans.

UKGuardian report.

Those ambiguous comments will do little to dispel suspicions that Chiwenga may have travelled to Beijing to warn China’s leadership of the impending move against Mugabe, or perhaps even to seek its blessing or help. Li Zuocheng, a rising star in China’s 2.3 million-member military, reportedly enjoys close ties to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping...

“It seems to me that they just realised – like everyone has realised – that the situation in Zimbabwe was increasingly untenable, that a direct succession from Robert Mugabe to Grace Mugabe was a recipe for disaster,” he said. “China doesn’t have necessarily an ideological attachment to democratic government or to non-democratic government. The only thing China is generally really, really focused on is stability.

Zimbabwe miltary coup?

AlJ:

"To both our people and the world beyond our borders, we wish to make it abundantly clear that this is not a military takeover of government. What the Zimbabwe Defence Forces is actually doing is to pacify a degenerating political, social and economic situation in our country, which if not addressed may result in a violent conflict.
"We call upon all the war veterans to play positive in ensuring peace, stability and unity in the country.
"To members of the defense forces, all leave is canceled and you all to return to your barracks with immediate effect.
"To our respected traditional leaders, you are our custodians of our culture, customs, traditions and heritage and we request you to provide leadership and direction to your communities for the sake of unity and development in our country.

moreHERE

There is growing uncertainty in Zimbabwe.
Soldiers on Wednesday took over the headquarters of the state broadcaster ZBC and blocked access to government offices, but the army says this is not a military take over.
President Robert Mugabe, who leads the ruling Zanu-PF party, is safe, an army spokesman has said.
There was no official word, however, from the Mugabe family as to their whereabouts.

Marburg and Pestis (links only)

Sigh.

Not only Black death/PPestis epidemic spreading from Madagascar to mainland Africa, but now thepress has noticed the Marburg epidemic.

LINK

since Drudge linked to the UK site, it will be noticed.

Ironically, we had to keep an eye out for plague when I worked in New Mexico (a couple cases a year on Indian reservations, usualy from prarie dogs)but this outbreak appears to be pulmonary, which can kill quickly.

Central Africa update

StrategyPage has a long essay on Central Africa.

The good news: Rwanda is at peace and flourishing.



The bad news: The rest of the area still has a lot of problems.

. The key in Africa and throughout the world, is a population where enough people are willing to avoid corruption and violence and basically get on with your life. So simple yet so rare. Kagame may yet wreck the country by refusing to leave office when he can no longer win fair elections. That is common, especially in Africa. But the exceptions to the centuries old chaos and misery that led Central Africa to be dubbed “the heart of darkness” in the 18th century are signs that it does not always have to be that way.