Sweden's growing Afrophobia

There are roughly 200,000 Africans and people of African descent living in Sweden, who make up 2% of the country’s 9.6 million population.

There has been a 31% rise in reported “Afrophobic” hate crimes from 2010 to 2014, according to the Swedish National Council for CrimePrevention (pdf). The UN Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent reported “a real fear within the communities, especially for young black men, that they could be violently attacked at any time.” Structural racism means that black people in Sweden have reduced access to health care and education, according to the UN report, while “the police view people of African descent as criminals rather than a vulnerable community that needs protection.”

A xenophobic political party, the Swedish Democrats, won almost 13% of the national vote in 2014 and became the third-largest party.

Obiang Owns the Country

Equatorial Guinea is the wealthiest country on the African continent. This Spanish-speaking nation of just under 800,000 people is not only the wealthiest country in Africa — in terms of gross domestic product per capita (a country’s income divided by the population), with a $14.31 billion GDP — but also ranks 38th worldwide. It’s higher than countries like Chile, Brazil and Poland. The source of its wealth is oil. Almost 60 percent of the country is covered in trees, and forestry (both legal and illegal) used to be its highest source of income. That has plummeted to a paltry 5 percent of total revenue. Now it’s Africa’s third-largest oil exporter, with Exxon Mobil Corp. driving production. But no one knows exactly how much oil revenue the country has — President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo refuses to disclose his earnings.

President Obiang owns mansions from the French Riviera to Cape Town. His son, Teodoro “Teodorin” Nguema Obiang Mangue, is a colonel-meets-wannabe-rapper-meets-playboy-meets-trust-fund-baby. Also known as vice president, Teodorin is more famous for partying than politics. He spent a year in an ESL class at Pepperdine University, racking up more than $50,000 in hotel and restaurant bills before dropping out. But he was still living easy; he had a $30 million oceanfront home in Malibu, and one in nearby Bel Air too. In case the short drive between properties was too cumbersome in his Ferrari, Bugatti or dozens of other cars, Teodorin could hop in his $38.5 million Gulfstream jet. The Equatorial Fresh Prince even owned his own record label, TNO Entertainment LLC

The Ethiopian "Miracle"

The World Bank just anointed Ethiopia with the title of the world’s fastest growing economy and not just for 2015, but for 2016 and 2017 as well yet it needs half a billion dollars in emergency food aid to keep millions of its people from starving.

This year the rains failed in southern Ethiopia and some 25% of a country of 90 million people are facing acute food shortages in the coming months. This climate disaster, brought on mainly by western industries damage to the environment, has left the Ethiopian government quietly begging the international community for a preliminary food aid package worth $500 million, desperately needed to start feeding over 7 million people.

Ethiopia is expecting a total net export income of $3 billion this year, depending much on the price of coffee, for the sacred brew and cut flowers make up most of Ethiopian export income. $3 billion dollars a year is all that Ethiopia actually creates, and this to run a country of 90 million? Ethiopia’s “wealth” is almost entirely in the form of foreign aid/investments, something that can disappear even faster than it arrived.

Ethiopia expelled both the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from an entire region/nation, the Ogaden. And this during the worst climate disaster droughts in history. 

A good representation of what life is like for most Ethiopians can be found in the film “Lamb” making the rounds of the international film festivals. Living in a one room hut, no electricity, carrying drinking water on donkeys for long distances, few schools, fewer medical clinics and now at the mercy of climate disaster and famine. Yet this is the fastest growing economy in the world for years to come, one of Africa's success stories.

Adapted from here

Even More on the US Military

In recent years, the US has quietly ramped up its military presence across Africa, even if it officially insists its footprint on the continent is light. For years, the United States Africa Command (known by the acronym AFRICOM) has downplayed the size and scope of its missions on the continent, and without large battalions of actual boots on the ground, as was the case in Afghanistan and Iraq, you’d be forgiven for missing its unfolding. US military officials are already starting to see Africa as the new battleground for fighting extremism, and have begun to roll out a flurry of logistical infrastructure and personnel from West to East – colloquially called the “ new spice route” – and roughly tracing the belt of volatility on the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert; the deployment to Cameroon is just the latest of many.

Officially, the US has only one permanent base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, headquarters of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA). Concrete figures on the number of troops stationed there are sketchy, but various reports put it anything between 3,500 and 4,500 soldiers. It provides a vital base for US Special Forces, fighter planes and helicopters, as well as serving as a base for drone operations into Somalia and Yemen, and maritime surveillance in the Indian Ocean.

But the US has numerous other “temporary” bases across the continent, and though on their own they seem small, together they are sweeping and expansive, forming a seemingly endless string of engagements, projects and operations. There are drone ports in the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles, off the eastern coast of Africa, as well as in Ethiopia, in the southern region of Arba Minch, that provide support for flying intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. Nzara in South Sudan is another shadowy operating post on the continent where U.S. Special Operations Forces have been stationed in recent years. Other “temporary sites” sites including Obo and Djema in the Central Africa Republic and Dungu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). More than anything, however, the US conducts military exercises, training missions and advisory assignments with local African armies.

In 2014, the combined total of all US Africa Command activities on the continent  reached 674. In other words, US troops were carrying out almost two operations, exercises, or activities—from drone strikes to counterinsurgency instruction, intelligence gathering to marksmanship training—somewhere in Africa every day. This represents nearly a four-fold increase from the 172 “missions, activities, programmes, and exercises” that AFRICOM inherited from other commands when it began operations in 2008.

And it looks like the US is going to be in it for the long haul. Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti is currently undergoing a  $1.4billion upgrade, expanding everything from aircraft maintenance hangars, ammunition shelters, runway and taxiway extensions and accommodation facilities.

 Since 2002, the camp has grown from 88 acres to nearly 500 acres, and in 2013, 22 projects were underway there,  more than at any other US Navy base anywhere in the world.

http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-10-15-nigeria-welcomes-us-decision-to-send-300-troops-to-cameroon-to-help-in-boko-haram-fight

More on the US miilitary

The US government has been running a “shadow war” from outposts in Africa using drones and manned aircrafts to strike targets in the region reports the Intercept, citing a leaked internal 2013 Pentagon study.

Through a unit called Task Force 48-4, the US Africa Command, or Africom—the umbrella organization for US army activities on the continent—carried out operations in 2011 and 2012 from its headquarters in Djibouti, targeting terrorism suspects in Somalia and Yemen. Camp Lemonnier, as it is known, was a primary base for such operations. But there were “spokes” elsewhere in the region, the Intercept reports, citing defense secretary Ashton Carter. The Intercept provides a list of 14 other locations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and elsewhere in the region.

The power vacuum that followed in countries such as Libya and Tunisia created an opening for militant extremists to operate more freely. Since then, Africom has been working with African governments to establish “staging areas, cooperative security locations and forward operating locations,” according to the report.

http://qz.com/525983/leaked-documents-show-the-us-is-running-a-drone-war-against-terrorism-in-africa/

US troops go into Cameroon

Socialist Banner has been recently blogging about the beefing up US forces in Africa.

Obama has announced that US armed forces have been deployed to Cameroon to help fight against the Islamist militants Boko Haram. The force, which will be 300 strong. Obama said the forces would remain in Cameroon until "no longer needed".

This blog confidently predicts American military presence in Africa to continue to expand.

Environmental Africa

A map shows the different types of environmental and natural resource crimes in different parts of Africa that are contributing to migration flows from the continent.

African Farming and Climate Change (2)

As world leaders gather in Paris this December to hammer out a climate deal at the Conference of the Parties (COP21), those representing Africa need to take a bold stance. Pastoral and indigenous communities across Africa are highly vulnerable to changes in climate. In December, Africa needs to stand together.

Across the continent of Africa, we are already seeing threats to our food supply due to less reliable rainfall patterns, rising temperatures and a greater number of extreme weather events. Millions of Africans are already living with extreme poverty and our future as a continent depends on their survival.

Mary Matupi, a farmer from the Rumphi district of northern Malawi. Matupi grows maize on a small piece of land, with a normal harvest yielding almost 80 bags weighing 50 kg each. However, in the last growing season she managed to produce only 15 bags due to a delay in the rains. Matupi told us that “if we don’t act to stop climate change, harder times are still to come and we will suffer.” African farmers are demonstrating both their resilience and commitment to climate action and they deserve our support.

Many places in Africa could experience even greater warming than the global average – a 4C warmer world could potentially be 6C warmer in some African countries. According to the United Nations’ climate agency, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), changes in water availability and temperature will have a huge effect on African agriculture (where 97 per cent of production is rainfed and 60 per cent of the continental labour force works in this sector). With sea levels rising, many African low-lying countries are at risk of losing their farmland. The financial losses could be especially great in the coastal areas of Mozambique, Senegal and Morocco.

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), if global warming exceeds 3C globally, maize, millet and sorghum cropping areas will be unviable across much of Africa. We can also expect more frequent and more severe extreme weather events, with huge social and economic costs. Extreme weather conditions will also affect our diets, and likely result in more under-nutrition and disease – a fact which governments cannot ignore. Therefore financing for technology (i.e. new drought-resistant crops, new farming techniques, early warning systems, seed storage protection programs, etc.), which could help African farmers cope, needs to be top of the agenda in Paris.

Africans must avoid the same path of profit-led, destructive high-carbon development – formerly pursued by rich countries – which brought us to the current crisis. Small-scale farming provides most of the food produced in Africa, as well as employment for 70 per cent of working people. We cannot allow small scale farmers to be forgotten in Paris to ensure the continent is able to feed itself.

 adapted from here 

The Fate of the Horn of Africa

A new study conducted by University of Arizona (UA) researchers has found that the continued warming of the Earth's climate has turned the Horn of Africa, long considered to be the cradle of early human life, into an increasingly arid region at an unprecedented rate. This African region has also experienced catastrophic droughts every few years over the past several decades.

According to the scientists, if the planet continues to become warmer, the eastern part of the Horn of Africa, which covers the countries of Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia, will also continue to receive lessening amounts of rainfall during the traditional "long rains" season in the region, from March until May. Such a negative trend could result in the exacerbation of tensions in some of the world's most geopolitically unstable nations.

In a previous study, Tierney and fellow researcher Peter deMenocal revealed that the Sahara desert, which was once teeming with vegetation because of regular rainfall, suddenly dried out in just one to two centuries around 5,000 years ago. The findings of the UA scientists show that shifts in climates can occur suddenly.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/93799/20151011/researchers-forecast-drier-horn-of-africa-as-climate-continues-to-warm.htm

African Farming and Climate Change

Tribal cultures have lived sustainably, with plenty of leisure time, more or less happily and in stable social groups for millennia. Since money came into the picture, all former tribal cultures know is work and more work, conflict and more conflict and a lower and lower standard of living defined by the endless search for more in a deteriorating environment.

Already battling against the impacts of climate change, temperatures in Africa will rise faster than any other continent. In fact, they are expected to exceed 2 C and may reach as high as 6 C greater than 20th century levels. These rapidly rising temperatures foreshadow increased drought, famine and disease. The most vulnerable populations – of which millions are smallholder farmers – need solutions, and they need them now.

These rising temperatures brought on by climate change affect not only yields, but also food quality, safety and the reliability of its delivery to consumers. By 2050, child malnutrition could increase by as much as 20 per cent and food shortages could lead to losses of up to 7 per cent of GDP followed by corresponding food price hikes.

Maize, rice and wheat prices in 2050 could rise by 4 per cent, 7 per cent and 15 percent respectively, nullifying progress made in the last two decades to combat hunger and poverty in Africa.

Agriculture generates carbon emissions primarily from livestock, but also poor land use and improper soil management. Agriculture and land use accounts for nearly one-third of Africa’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is as high as 80 per cent. Ensuring global temperatures do not rise above 2 C will be very difficult without leveraging the potential of the agriculture sector, and helping smallholders to reduce and offset GHG emissions.

Soil carbon sequestration is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil indefinitely. The sequestration process takes time (between five and 50 years) to reach its optimum rate, and then continues until the soil has reached its full storage capacity. The process minimizes emissions by adding organic matter to soil faster than the rate at which it decays. This can be achieved in many ways: no-till farming (primarily minimum disturbance of the soil), planting cover crops, manure and sludge application, improved grazing techniques, water conservation and agroforestry. Agroforestry systems can in fact capture carbon in the range of two to four tonnes per hectare per year – which is much higher than conservation farming alone. The potential to sequester carbon worldwide through better land management has been estimated at around three Gt of carbon per year. Collectively this has the potential to offset between 5 and 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and increase annual grain production in developing countries by 24 to 32 million tonnes, leading to improved food security for many farmers and their families.

In Niger, government policies that strengthened local farmer rights for planting trees, coupled with training from aid agencies to improve land management through soil and water conservation and agroforestry resulted in the revitalization of more than 5 million hectares. Today, smallholders in Niger benefit from enriched soils, increased crop yields and lower emissions.

The Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (KACP) involves 60,000 farmers on 45,000 hectares to increase the organic matter in their soils by sustainable land management. In January 2014, the project issued its first carbon credits to participating smallholders who captured 25,000 tonnes of carbon, equivalent to more than the annual emissions of 5,000 vehicles.

http://commons.commondreams.org/t/africans-say-it-s-gettin-hot-in-here-so-take-back-all-your-carbon/14114

The USA in CAR

The Central African Republic is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and uranium. The landlocked state has a landmass equivalent to that of its former colonial ruler France, yet a population less than 10 percent of France’s. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the country has witnessed five coup d’états, some with French covert involvement. It is teetering on the brink of catastrophe, with millions of people cut off from vital humanitarian aid amid a renewal of deadly sectarian clashes. In the past week, dozens of civilians have been killed in clashes between Christian and Muslim militias in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui. The latest round of violence was sparked after a Muslim taxi driver was attacked and decapitated by machete-wielding gangs. That in turn led to reprisals against Christian communities. UN humanitarian aid chief Stephen O’Brien warned that the country was on the brink of disaster with more than 40,000 people having fled the capital in recent days. In total, some 2.7 million people – half the country’s population – are at risk of being cut-off from the humanitarian aid upon which they depend for survival. The worsening sectarian strife is simply making it too dangerous for relief agencies to operate. Thousands of civilians have been killed so far in the two-year sectarian cycle of violence, with millions of people displaced, often seeking shelter in makeshift hideouts.

Potentially adding fuel to this crisis is the disclosure last week that US Special Forces are liaising with one of the militia sides in the Central African Republic (CAR). The group the US forces have struck up a liaison with are known as the Seleka rebels, whose members are mainly Muslim. For the past two years, the Seleka have engaged in a low-intensity war with the rival Christian “anti-Balaka” faction in a power struggle for control of the country. Last week, the Washington Post reported that American special forces had set up a base in the northeast of CAR, where the Seleka militia has their stronghold. “The Pentagon had not previously disclosed that it is cooperating with Seleka and obtaining intelligence from the rebels. The arrangement has made some US troops uncomfortable,” according to the Post. The stated objective of the US military is to hunt down a notorious warlord, Joseph Kony, who runs a guerrilla outfit known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Kony and his LRA are believed to be responsible for mass atrocities and the recruitment of child soldiers. Originally from Uganda, Kony and his LRA gained notoriety when a US-based charity Invisible Children released a video nearly four years ago publicizing the group’s violations. With various American celebrities endorsing the video, US President Barack Obama sent Special Forces to four African countries with the mission of tracking down Kony and his accomplices. Those countries include Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. In this elusive hunt for warlord Kony and his LRA, the US military are turning to the Seleka militia for “intelligence”. But, as noted, that liaison with the Seleka is causing some disquiet among the US troops on the ground. This is because the Seleka have gained a reputation for atrocities on par with those of Kony and the LRA, including murdering civilians, raping women and recruiting child soldiers into their ranks. The Christian anti-Balaka has carried out as many atrocities against the minority Muslim community in the country.

The dubious mission of US special forces in the jungles of Africa – allegedly to catch a warlord – is having the effect of aligning Washington in a festering civil war, and alongside elements whose hands are dripping with blood. The scene is being set for an even bloodier escalation. Washington’s involvement may so far appear to be a clandestine factor but it is no less incendiary.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/317666-washingtons-central-africa-conflict/

Tax scams

First came the slave traders, then the colonisers carrying off rubber and diamonds, then the mercenaries of the cold war years. Today, it is the accountants. Of the estimated $50bn that illicitly departs Africa annually the bulk, according to the most widely used calculations, is neither the proceeds of corruption nor of organised crime. Instead, the biggest drain is via accounting fiddles by multinational companies. The data are inherently vague but the broad figures are vast — equal to the entire annual shortfall in African infrastructure investment.

Transfer pricing is at the heart of the illicit financial flows. When one arm of a multinational transfers goods or services to another arm of the group in a different country, it must record a price for that transaction. Under the “arm’s-length principle”, the price should be the same as that which would have been paid had the transaction been with an unrelated company at market rates.  But trade statistics and increasingly frequent challenges by tax authorities suggest that these numbers can be manipulated to shift profits out of countries with normal tax rates and into tax havens such as Switzerland, Luxembourg or assorted Caribbean islands.

“Multinational corporations take an awful lot of advantage over the lack of capacity of African governments to police transfer pricing,” says Raymond Baker, president of Global Financial Integrity, the US think-tank that coined and popularised the notion of illicit financial flows. “You have to go through all sorts of gymnastics to show that money was illegally taken out.”

After auditing dozens of multinationals, Kenya’s tax authority demanded Ks25bn in tax it says was avoided mainly through abusive transfer pricing. But Kenya is seeking to establish itself as a financial centre, potentially creating new loopholes.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e7045310-5e2f-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html#axzz3ngQEDArR

Quote of the Day

. “I traveled once with a client, arriving at Heathrow Airport. He was obviously very wealthy and very self confident. We stood at immigration, myself behind him, when he was called up. They asked him how long he was going to be in the country, and he says "I don't know, I haven't thought about it." The immigration officer says "you haven't? So what do you do here?" And he says to the chap: "I don't 'do'. I own." That rather put the officer in his place!” - Bimpe Nkontchou, a leading wealth management expert.

There are immigration rules and then there are immigration rules.