Systemic Racism Explained
Did you see this video explaining systemic racism on Facebook? That’s where I saw it first, then again, and then in an email from Harold, chair of TEAM Westport.
How can we let more people see this? Would it have an impact on someone who does not believe racism exists, or that it is over?
Return of Looted Wealth
Most of us cannot imagine paying seven million dollars for an apartment in New York City. If you can, please invite me to visit!
But a few “elites” from developing countries do pay that and much more for properties, not just in New York, but in London and other desirable cities. In fact, these purchases contribute to shortages of affordable housing in a few major urban areas.
Ambassador John Campbell wrote about this in a recent Council on Foreign Relations blog post.
“Money-laundering elites create a market for houses and apartments costing tens of millions of dollars; absent such a market, developers might build housing in a different price range,” Campbell says in the article.
The buyers of these properties did not come by the vast amounts honestly. Government service, even for a leader of a military regime, does not provide this kind of money.
Sani Abacha, Nigerian Military Leader
Nigeria negotiated an agreement with several countries for the return of $500 million in looted public funds last year. Another $300 million was recovered earlier. “Much of this wealth was connected to the late Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s former military chief of state,” Campbell says.
Abacha was not well-liked when he was the military head of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. His corruption was part of the reason. He also “brutally suppressed dissent at home,” Britannica onlne says. He was responsible for the arrest and execution of KenSaro-Wiwa, an activist on behalf of his Ogoni people, “who were concerned with the environmental exploitation of their region by multinational petroleum companies.”
Campbell says, “Of course it is odious when these elites, usually from countries that are among the world’s poorest, spend huge amounts of laundered money stolen from the public on residential units in two or three of the world’s most expensive cities.”
And then these people don’t usually spend more than a few weeks a year in their properties!
Meanwhile, their behaviour lessens the respect for the political process at home, causing resentment among their citizens. It sets a miserable example for those struggling to make a living.
President Buhari
Nigeria’s President Buhari is not seen as corrupt. He promised in his first term to find and punish those who are stealing from the public purse and did get that $800 million returned.
He has continued the effort in his second term. Sometimes he is accused of being more aggressive toward those from the opposition. Still, the general thrust is positive. I wish him well.
Are These Children Slaves?
https://africa.cgtn.com/2019/04/24/interpol-rescues-dozens-of-child-slaves-from-markets-in-west-africa/?utm_source=Africa.com&utm_campaign=afe199e86f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_06_18_02_08_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12683c81a6-afe199e86f-29188653
Children in Africa are often placed with relatives who are responsible for teaching them a craft or a trade. Even in their own family, they may be working with their parents or siblings in the market or a shop. Parents may be unable to pay school fees, or they simply need the income the children can help produce.
So I read the article with a little scepticism. My sense of incredulity increased when I saw that the article was published in CGTN, China Global Television Network. I’m not supporting forced labor by children, but I do wonder how Interpol knew that the children were being held against their will.
Then I looked further. Other media outlets also carried the story, including Reuters and CNN. I found the video of Paul Stanfield from Interpol explaining the operation. I’m convinced; this was legitimate and Interpol did the right thing.
China’s Development Assistance to Africa
Once I was on the CGTN website, I read more. Today it features an article with the headline, Critics of China’s development assistance to Africa lack facts. The writer, Ssemanda Allawi, points out the importance of China’s assistance that comes, he says, with no strings attached. He doesn’t mention how the countries will repay.
Allawi comes from Uganda, and uses his home country as an example of what China has achieved.
He points out the disparity in funding from the West and that from China. During the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing, the US Assistant Secretary State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy, “criticized China for extending huge loans to African countries suggesting that African countries will fail to pay such loans.”
Allawi says, “Secretary Nagy also should acknowledge that Global Infrastructure Facility supported by the Western-dominated so-called Group of 20 (G20) have raised 84 billion U.S. dollars and committed just 37 million . . . as opposed to China which has negotiated close to 170 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral and regional development funds.”
Nigeria Revisited My Life and Loves Abroad
Should I doubt China’s good intentions? Or am I just succumbing to American or Western propaganda that questions China’s goals? What do you think?
Conversation with Book Group
I enjoyed meeting with my friend Linda’s book group this week.
They had read my memoir Nigeria Revisited My Life and Loves Abroad and had lots of great questions. The discussion was lively.
I hope they’ll invite me back when they read Breaking Kola.
If your book group is reading the memoir or my second book and you’re nearby, invite me!
