[b]Imperialist powers escalate war in Mali By Ernst Wolff 22 January 2013 Amid continuing offensives by French troops in Mali, the imperialist powers are making clear that the assault on Mali is part of a lasting, neo-colonial escalation of military intervention throughout Western Africa and beyond. “This is a global threat and it will require a global response... that is about years, even decades, rather than months,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said over the weekend. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian defined his aim in Mali as “the total re-conquest of the country,” using troops provided by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). France, which is currently spearheading the war in Mali, plans to expel Tuareg and Islamist fighters from Mali to pursue its agenda. Its goal is to stabilize the corrupt regime in Bamako, currently led by the military junta of Captain Amadou Sanogo, as its stooge regime in Mali, where France has significant corporate interests. Similarly, British Foreign Secretary William Hague held up the current war in Somalia as an example for Mali on how to create space for a “legitimate government” to function. He said, “This has led to a lot of progress in Somalia. What we don’t want in countries like Mali is the twenty years of being a failed state that preceded all of that in Somalia.” Such a comment could not be more chilling. In fact, Somalia continues to be a deeply impoverished country, torn by civil war, and which Washington regularly targets with drone strikes. Hague’s comment signifies that the NATO powers view such an outcome as perfectly acceptable, even desirable, for Mali. The broader implications of the escalating war in Mali were laid out in an article yesterday in the New York Times. The Times quotes Rudolph Attala, a former Pentagon counterterrorism official: “To dismantle their [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s] network, the United States and its allies will need a well-thought-out regional strategy.” The point being made is clear: the war in Mali is not only about Mali, but involves intensive diplomacy and military operations by the imperialists to shape all of Western Africa—including Algeria, Nigeria, and the Libyan regime installed by the 2011 NATO war. The Times notes that Washington and Paris have been “courting Algeria for months,” to get Algiers’ help in Mali. The Times added: “Forging that strategy will be far from easy, given those involved. The Algerians have an able, if heavy-handed military, but have not been eager to co-operate extensively with their neighbours. Libya’s new government appears willing to cooperate but has little ability. Mali has little military ability, and any enduring solution needs to be crafted with an eye to internal politics.” Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terrorism at Georgetown University, told the Times that the US should escalate military assistance and drone warfare to help France: “The United States should consider stepping up its support for the French intervention, by providing additional logistical support and perhaps making use of drones, so that the French military can better carry out its operations and hand over the mission as soon as possible to African troops.” The press is stepping up its criticisms of an alleged “lack of support” for French imperialism’s war in Mali, demanding that their governments rush to help. The former US ambassador to Mali, Vicki Huddleston, criticized the Obama administration for its “inaction” in a recent radio interview. While US think tanks and intelligence forces are busy deliberating methods of escalating the war, the fighting in Mali has intensified. Over the weekend French Rafale fighter planes and Gazelle helicopter gun ships carried out a dozen operations. On Monday about 200 French soldiers from the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment, supported by six combat helicopters and reconnaissance planes, seized the towns of Diabaly and Douentza. The infantrymen had set out at dawn from the nearby government-controlled town of Niono, thirty miles south of Diabaly. Few details about the fighting are known, as reporters have been banned from the combat zone. However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that they had received reports of serious abuses, including ethnic killings, committed by French-backed Malian security forces against civilians in Niono. According to HRW, Tuaregs and Arabs, the ethnic groups most associated with the rebels in northern Mali, are especially targeted. This recalls similar communal attacks by NATO-backed forces on immigrant workers from ethnic groups considered supportive of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, during the NATO war on Libya. On Saturday French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, attending an ECOWAS emergency summit in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan, told African leaders that it was time for their nations to take over military operations in Mali “as soon as possible”. The member states pledged to send 5,800 troops into Mali. They endorsed Major General Shehu Usman Abdulkadir of Nigeria and Brigadier General Yaye Garba of Niger as Force Commander and Deputy Force Commander of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA). AFISMA is expected to cost the impoverished former French and British colonies in West Africa over $500 million. International donors will meet January 29 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to discuss funding. Some 150 troops from Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Chad arrived in Bamako on Sunday. Nigerian troops were attacked on their way by gunmen in Kogi State, central Nigeria, leaving two officers dead and eight soldiers wounded. An online newspaper said the attack was part of a mission to stop Nigerian troops joining Western powers in their “aim to demolish the Islamic empire of Mali.” A group named Ansaru close to the Islamists of Boko Haram was reportedly behind the attack. France can firmly count on the support of European imperialism. The European Union (EU) appointed French Brigadier General Francois Lecointre as commander of a mission to send 250 military trainers to Mali in February. It will not only give 50 million euros ($66 million) of funding to Ecowas forces, but has announced it will unblock € 250 million in aid for Mali that was frozen after the military coup in March 2012. It also offered to host a ministerial meeting of the international support and follow-up group on the situation in Mali on February 5. Following Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and Denmark, Italy has now also offered logistical support. According to US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, about 100 American trainers have deployed to Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal and Ghana to help prepare troops in these countries for combat in Mali.[/b]
djon78: when I look at the blackman I weep. the political elites have sold Nigeria to the dogs and amongst themselves, pdp, acn, cpc, apga, anpp are all the same with the same characteristics no difference.
I keep on saying what Nigeria needs is a kind of leader like castro, like hugo chavez, a leader that will rally the ordinary masses, open their eyes to the power they have and take back the country from this devilish and wicked political class, but the greatest problem stoping this from taking place is ethnic and religious bigotry which was injected and inflamed on the masses by this same political class and has blinded ordinary nigerians
speaking on the issue of housing, the problem of poor or non input by the goverrnment on housing is a general problem across the country but why lagos own is unique is because of the high and exhorbitant cost of housing compared to other states.
let me give an example of my experience on one of my trips outside the country. I was in kuala lumpur Malaysia 4 a short course/training a couple of months, now I was lodged in residential apartment not hotel to reduce cost. the shocking thing I noticed was hw much cheap the apartment was compared to the facility in it. now the apartment was in a condor,which comprised of three 30 floor building with a swiming pool, lawn tennis court, gym facility, green lawn in the ground and centre of the condor. now the amount For each of this apartment in naira equivalent was 60 000 per month and I paid for the few months i stayed 4 my course monthly. what made me weep in my heart is that the apartmentwas finer, better equiped than the so called luxury apartment we have in Ikoyi and VI whch can sometimes go as high as $100 000, and I later found out that such types of quality, cheap, affordable partment with great failities was all over the country funded and subsidised by the goverment of that country 4 the average man to enjoy and have comfort but when u come here apartments that are of less quality go as high as $100000.
thank god we have people like you in nigeria who are still able to reason properly.
many nigerians are suffering from a psychiatric illness known as stockholm syndrome where they defend and make excuses for the same people who are responsible for their poverty and misery:
[b]Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy, sympathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.[1][2] The FBI's Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome.[3] Stockholm syndrome can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding, which does not necessarily require a hostage scenario, but which describes "strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, beats, threatens, abuses, or intimidates the other."[4] One commonly used hypothesis to explain the effect of Stockholm syndrome is based on Freudian theory. It suggests that the bonding is the individual's response to trauma in becoming a victim. Identifying with the aggressor is one way that the ego defends itself. When a victim believes the same values as the aggressor, they no longer become a threat. [5] Battered-person syndrome is an example of activating the capture-bonding psychological mechanism, as are military basic training and fraternity bonding by hazing.[6][7][8][/b]
Eko Ile: So I just land lagos from my village poor with no money or place to stay. Now the government of lagos state must give me free or subsidized accommodation at the expense of lagos tax payers...
NL people and their comedic ideas sef.....lmao
but you have no problem landing in foreign countries and expecting the host country to give you political asylum and entitlement to state benefits - isnt it the tax payers of those countries that are footing the bill in such cases?
what is even funnier is the fact that the poor of lagos are actually subisiding the fat useless and corrupt state govt , where do you think Fashola is getting the money to fund most of his projects - let me give you a clue - it begins with a t and ends with an r.
mapet: 1. Government will only provide affordable house to those whom they have social contract with. Now when we have a gap between the supposed "poor" (who in reality their status in Lagos constitute an apparent problem) and the truly working class in Lagos (either Civil Servant, private sector employee, artisans and other business men)then those who are have no legitimate business in Lagos will subjected harsh realities. There are people that migrated into Lagos to seek greener pastures; well body is well within his/her right to seek greener pastures in new places, but when we have people with no visible means of livelihood, they seemingly end up in the wrong end of the equation.
2. I share your sentiments on provision of affordable housing. The Lagos State has launched a strategy in this regard as well; Fashola had announced this last year. But even with a provision of affordable housing, It is still the middle class that will benefit. You see those Makoko and most of the people in the shantees will not benefit. Those that argued that the option left for them is to go back to their state have a reason. (1) How will you benefit from those affordable houses if you don't pay tax (2) How will you benefit if Lagos State government don't have your records. Do you know the over 18-20million population of Lagos state actually from the estimated data of the housing enumeration and counts at the last censors. The people living in those shanties and slum can hardly be accounted for.
3. Please tell me what bad policies you're talking about. Save me that your "....read up what affordable housing means....." blabla, I am well conversant with it mind you.... so tell me something new.
my heart sinks when i read these kind of posts because i realise just how selfish, arrogant and greedy many nigerians are. What is the difference between a person who works in the civil service and a person who hawks food on the street - are both not victims of the same elitist govt? many of these so called civil servants can not even afford decent accommodation and live in unsanitary living conditions that no sane person in the western world would ever agree to live in.
what do you mean by those who have no legitimate business in lagos - most nigerians flock to lagos looking to find a means of livelihood so how can you describe such people as having no legitimate business in lagos - people like you are the same type of people who flock to western countries, throw away your nigerian passports and start pleading to be given political asylum in western countries - how would you feel if the authorities in those countries say to you - you have no legitimate business here, no means of livelihood and therefore need to be deported immediatley? how would you feel? many nigerians cross the sahara desert on foot and expose themselves to all sorts of hardship because they know that at the end of it they might just gain entry into a country with social safety provisions that cater to vulnerable people.
and for your information affordable housing is meant for the poorest people in society not the middle class, and as a matter of fact there is no middle class in nigeria because this group was wiped out in the 1980s when babangida started implementing the first wave of austerity measures known as SAP.
As far as knowing the number of people who reside in lagos state - is it not the job of the state govt to conduct regular censuses and collate a fully functional databse containing information about its residents?
what i still do not get about the majority of people on this forum supporting fashola's draconian economic policies is that many of them despite pretending not to fall into that category are infact poor - poverty is of course relative and many nigerians can not afford the basic neccessities of life eg decent accommodation, health care and access to education - all thanks to a govt that prefers to cater to the needs of the 1%.
It is very clear from many of the responses on here that many nigerians lack basic understanding of how capitalism works hence the championing of a policy that keeps them mired in poverty for life. i find it saddening that some nigerians on this forum do not understand that Fashola does not and will never represent their collective interests, the mark of a civilised soceity is when you have a safety net in place that ensures that the most vulnerable people in society are not reduced to destitution due to cruel and callous govt policies designed to ensure the rich stay rich whilst simultanenously reducing the poor to scavengers. The irony is that many of these same people have fled nigeria to escape these kind of conditions and have been fortunate enough to benefit from living in countries that provide these same social safety nets to their populace.
logica: Yeah, from jobless dolts like you. And from both sides of the divide. You are on the same level as the Germans hounding Boris Becker. For one, I was not even aware of who he married; simply because it's none of my business. I have a life and I have better things to do than keep up with interracial marriages.
How many "white people" do you speak of here? Was it the entire nation of Germany that hounded Boris out of Germany or a small group of malcontents like you; who merely have "white" skin?
Oh, so it's a matter or "resource control". I am sure a ret@rd like you would know all about that. Also, because you are not so smart you would not realize that the fact that I consider the decision of a black man to marry a white woman "none of my business" does NOT mean I crave relationships with Caucasians. Save your Malcolm X, Black Power bull$hit for someone else. You don't impress me. You are probably finding yourself in a stage I was close to a decade ago. Been there done that. Now fvck off.
Your ignorance, low self esteem and general lack of any kind of ability to have a civil debate indicates to me the kind of low life thug you are, my heart goes out to any unfortunate person who has to spend more than 5 minutes in your company.
logica: You live in the real world yet you don't see the REALITY of interracial relationships and marriages? Which reality is yours? Wonderland?
as i said above you are desperate to be accepted by whites, this is why you can not even grasp the importance of what i am saying, you are the type of self hating fool who will go out with a white girl and endure years of racial abuse from her parents and friends just so that you can have a white woman on your arm, your type are all over london , the reality check comes when the white girl ditches you when the money runs out and her friends and family cut you off, then and only then do you understand the importance of race allegiance.
logica: Look here id!ot, the day you place a self-esteem meter against your forehead and it registers 0.2% of what mine reads, then you can take me on. But once again, once you temporarily get over the dyslexia that you suffer from (you won't be the first nor last), maybe then you will understand the true meaning of my post: "I mind my business as I believe every man has a right to make his own choices and decisions" ).
I've already taken you on and exposed you for the self hating sambo that you are - i just held a mirror up to your pathetic face and showed just how little self love you have and i can see from your angry response that i was right
only a self hating black man makes such anodyne statements as the one you made above, especially given the history that blacks have had with whites.
Of course people have the right to make their own choices and decisions - that is not the issue here, the issue here is that IN THE REAL WORLD THE CHOICES YOU MAKE COME WITH SOMETIMES VERY SEVERE CONSEQUENCES AND INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE PARTICULARLY BETWEEN A SUCCESSUL BLACK PERSON AND A WHITE PERSON WILL ATTRACT A LOT OF COMMENTS AND OPINIONS FROM PEOPLE.
Boris becker was a rich white man who married a poor mixed race girl and this earned him the hatred of his country men forcing him to flee germany for the united states where he didnt fare any better. How come these white people didnt think like you and say oh it doesnt matter everyone has the right to make their own decisions?
whites understand the importance of keeping wealth within their own race unlike self hating sambos like you who are so desperate to be accepted by anyone that you will be ready to even marry into a family of KKK members.
hahaha - I am very well travelled and tend to live in the real world not an idealistic world like you my friend - did you know that racism is an every day reality for non white people especially those of us who live in the western world? read the article above about boris becker and his ex wife who wasnt even fully black.
only a self hating black person would think it was perfectly okay for a well to do black man to marry a white woman, can you imagine what would have been the british public's reaction if david beckham had decided to marry a black woman? do you think the majority of white english people would have anything good to say about such a relationship?
if i remember correctly boris becker was forced to leave germany and live in america following death threats he received when he married a MIXED RACE NOT BLACK - MIXED RACE WOMAN, IMAGINE WHAT THE GERMANS WOULD HAVE SAID IF HE HAD MARRIED A PURE BLACK WOMAN? the fact that the likes of logica and co think its perfectly normal for a nigerian man with money to marry a white english woman speaks volumes about their self esteem
[b]Becker and his wife split after seven-year fight against racism By Hugh Davies and Hannah Cleaver in Berlin12:00AM GMT 06 Dec 2000 THE former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has separated from his wife, Barbara, after seven years of marriage. The move surprised the tennis world, which for so long had admired their stand against racial hatred. The prejudice had driven them from their home in Munich into exile in Miami, although they found America as intolerant as their native Germany. Becker, 33, three times Wimbledon champion, revealed that they had been experiencing problems for a while. He said: "We have had to accept that for some time the way we understand the priorities of our relationship have become too different. We have acknowledged that we cannot carry on like this. That is why we are separating. There is no question of a divorce." His marriage to Barbara Feltus, 26, a singer and model, underwent severe strains in Munich, which they left in 1997 for a while to live in a home they had bought in Florida. Becker had been feted as a hero when he returned to Germany in 1993 after living as a tax exile in Monaco. However, with neo-Nazism on the rise, they had to be under 24-hour protection because of telephone threats and racial abuse. Becker went on German television three years ago, saying he had no wish to bring up his son, Noah, in a land where "he will be confronted with problems which are not his own but those of his parents".
He wondered if "the price was too high always to live in fear". He said: "We are always protected by 10 bodyguards and I say to myself, 'This is idiotic'. This is the price I have to pay for my popularity and success." The player, worth around £40 million, admitted that he and his wife spent lavishly and it was "normal, not luxury" for them to fly to London from Germany just for dinner. His wife gave up her career to raise their two sons, Noah, now six, and Elias, one. Barbara had mostly played the role of glamorous wife and mother, accompanying Becker to VIP parties around the world. This week she signed an advertising contract with Coca- Cola. She said that she was ready to go back to work after putting her career on hold for a decade for her husband and family. To the outside world, they seemed a devoted couple. However, in the summer Becker hinted at the strains in his life, saying: "I have a black wife and black children and I'm not just talking about it. I live with this problem day to day." But he also said that he felt the problem was just as bad in other countries. "When we travel we always find that the intolerance in countries such as Britain, France and the USA is even worse than in Germany. The paradise where people with different religions and skin colours can live together without problems does not exist."
logica: Oh, so black women are not divorcing their husbands right? Fact is, it's usually black women who moan over successful black men marrying white (for obvious reasons since they too have their eyes on the money of these successful black men). I as a man will usually mind my business on such a matter as every man has the right to make his own decisions.
how many black women do you know that divorce their husbands for frivolous reasons? you only have to look at nigerian women who put up with all sorts of abuse in order to hang on to their husbands to know that in general black women tend to stay married rather than divorce no matter how bad the marriage is.
black women moan because they are the only race of women whose men do not see anything wrong with putting women of other races before them, it is very rare for a white, asian or arab man to put a woman of another race over and above his woman, men of these races udnerstand the importance of procreating with women of their own race in order to keep their values, culture intact and to increase their population. the average english man will first of all look around to marry an english girl because he understands the importance of being with someone with similar outlook, culture and values as himself also he is not burdened by inferiority complex and self hatred which afflicts many black people.
this trash does not belong on a nigerian forum because majority of nigerian men do not think like that, some of the posts being put up on NL have absolutely no bearing on nigerian society because the nigerian value system and culture is totally different from waht applies in the west, therefore to post these type of posts in my view is a complete and utter waste of time.
logica: You should know that no MAN will ask such a "question". The person asking is obviously a woman. And anybody supporting her, you can guess will be female.
why would no man ask such a question? Most sensible men do not want to get married and end up a few years later separated from half of their money and even their children - this tends to happen mainly to successful black men who marry white women.
Van snickers: Robert de niro married a black woman, is he not successful? Everything is not about Race!
Robert de Niro is ONE WHITE MAN out of a sea of thousands of successful white men - the poster's question was: why do MOST successful black men marry white women, which is a correct observation, MOST successful white men do not marry black women but MOST successful black men marry white women - for all these black men that do this all that happens is that the money they worked so hard to make will flow back into the hands of the white community courtesy of the white woman either through divorce settlement or inheritance ie when the man dies because women tend to outlive men. A white woman is more likely to take that money she received in divorce payments or inheritance and either invest it in her own (white) community or pass it on to her children who will most likely identify with whites rather than blacks.
SELFWORTH: Why do MOST successful black men abroad always marry white women?
Successful white men marry from their own race but MOST successful black men marry white, Spanish or any other race apart from their own race.
This always baffles me.
because the average black man with a little money in his pocket thinks he is now too good for a black woman and therefore decides to go for what he sees as a trophy that will make him equal to a white man, few years later when the money runs out and the woman starts calling them bla.ck bas.tard when they quarrel they start complaining about racism, as you correctly observed how many successful white men marry black women?
0lumide: Don't get it wrong though, privatization is the worst thing that could happen in an emerging economy.
We need more public enterprise if not our government will be back to borrowing. Government need to start taking management serious.
We need government hand in resources. it belongs to the ppl not government so they have no right to auction licenses.
We want full control of resources by government not private companies.
Privatization put control of Labour, and wealth in hands of rich.
You can not auction off resources in an attempt to escape your responsibility to the people. `
Telecom, power other man made enterprises should be for free market but resources and whatever is gotten from it belong to the people 100% You can auction off management contracts but not the entire company!!
IMF is dictating policies to PDP. 2015, IMF will lose Nigeria because power will change!
Unless power is taken away from the nigerian elite who are workign hand in hand with the IMF and the world bank it doesnt matter who wins the next election.
the only solution is for a political party that represents the interests of the majority ie the poor in nigeria to seize power - what are the chances of that happening now that the african govts have already allowed US and european troops to occupy the entire continent ? i would say very slim, although never say never.
thoth: Homelessness is always in most instances a product of the policies of the government, that would be the result of the direction the government of Lagos and other states are moving. Nations whom has swallowed the bitter Austerity measures and destructive advice of the World Money Lenders( IMF/World Bank). It is common phenomenon in those nation that have "MODERN ECONOMY" . Do you know that there are more than eight times more homeless people in the USA than nigeria ? About thrice in England than Nigeria ? And most western european nations as well . Read up on the net to see what caused that number of people to be homeless, information is everywhere online and opensource as well. The tactics might be different from USA to Greece but it is the same Con men. If you can't find articles i can provide you with a few. When you read articles you hear about goverments providing affordable accomodation etc which one has Fashola(and the goverments before him) provided ? Even if it was for the middle class. People don't survive on beautiful gardens and sidewalks and i don't support given handouts rather they than support themselves if the facilities which are meant for their subsistence were provided.
thank you - most of these Fashola supporters who live abroad would have been destititutes if the govts of the countries they reside in were to adopt the kind of draconian economic development policies that fashola is implementing in lagos - where is the low cost housing for the poor of lagos who make up 70% of the population of lagos? why are the poor kicked out of their homes and forced to live under bridges and why do the poor of lagos tolerate this type of treatment? look at what is happening all over europe in response to the austerity measures that are being implemented- people here are rallying to confront and put a stop to unecessary hardship that is being imposed on them through no fault of their own. why are lagosians praising a man who is responsible for reducing many of them to beggars in their own country?
thoth: What these people never do is to investigate the history of nations that has passed through this evil process we are going through and see how they ended up. The people should try to look at the people that borrow there governors these money, try to find out the conditions on which these debts were given, and from contemporary events extrapolate the intended results. For those majority who never wants to bother themselves with research what is going on in lagos and other nigerian states is that the international banks is buying up nigeria or in other words turning nigerian into money making machines for their profit. The lagos governors would BORROW at unreasonable interest rates and finance these contracts which MUST be given to the companies(probably owned by the LENDER) dictated by the LENDERS at an overinflated price and the same LENDERS would dictate AUSTERITY MEASURES that must be put in place as a condition for borrowing(increasing tax,tuition fees,mass layoffs etc) . It should be clear by now that judging from the kind of projects that those money was used for,the cost which was ridiculous and the net income of the state the LENDER never intended for the money to be paid so what comes next is more AUSTERITY MEASURES and CONDITIONS , one of them being that those same infrastructures(take for example eko housing estate) must be privatised which means selling it away at giveaway price to those SAME LENDERS. What happened here ? They BORROWED them money to build, the money goes back to thier purse because the project was awarded to them, the state still OWES them, the bought the infrastructure at less than 10% the real value and now run it and take all the income it brings, the state still OWES them, the state pays huge amounts just to service their loans while it has lost most of the infrastructure that could have generated income . The State still OWES them. The LENDERS bought those infrastructures for zero dollars and the state STILL OWES THEM. More and More privatisations and the state STILL OWES THEM. More increase in tax and fees and the state STILL OWES THEM. Things would become harder, many people would suffer,die,loose their homes, jobs,loved ones, even their sanity but the State STILL OWES THEM. THE WHOLE STATE IS BOUGHT AND THE STATE STILL OWES THEM. If Nigerians don't act now they would never have the opportunity again. Who owes somebody owes him and in all courts both international and within you either pay what you owe or subject to the Lender.
Thoth you've totally analysed it accurately, and yet many nigerians on this forum continue to clamour for privatisation without understanding what it is doing to them, try having a debate with the majority of people on this forum explaining to them that privatisation is slowly burying them alive and making them destitutes and beggars in their own country and they will start to spout garbage they read in textbooks written by the same people who are burying them alive with debt and poverty.
US AFRICOM Operation Underway in Mali. “Keeping China out of Africa”.
By Patrick Henningsen Global Research, January 20, 2013 21st Century Wire
As we predicted this past week, the theatrical upheaval in Mali was merely a nudging exercise to move forward the stated objectives laid down in US AFRICOM policy.
With no debate or questioning in foreign policy circles, and with Obama’s coronation and ceremonial pop concert in Washington DC keeping American eyes and ears glued to the corporate media punditry, NATO allies, led by the US, are carefully carving out a comprehensive military footprint in Africa in order to further evict Chinese influence from the continent.
A convenient excuse in the short-term will be to ‘stop the spread of Islamic extremist, but as history has witnessed, this is merely a superficial justification for a comprehensive military and economic colonization of the region over the next two decades. Ironic that it would be America’s first ‘black’ President who would reside over the takeover of Africa. Expect more US bases to come in the near future, as well as more violent civil wars popping up regularly in the region. [/b]
Rossikk: Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea are contributing forces to the Nigerian-led West African intervention force in northern Mali, leading some analysts to question the glaring absence of GHANA from the force.
Is this once again a sad demonstration of the lily-livered nature of the Ghanaian Armed Forces?
One can imagine the sheer terror on the faces of Ghanaian officers at the prospect of their pampered troops having to engage fearsome Jihadists in the hot northern Mali desert.
Where in fact would Ghana be without Nigeria defending her at every turn? Because of course if the Jihadists are allowed to settle in Bamako, Ghana is just below them. How long before a Jihadist march on Accra?
So it is in Ghana's interest to develop some military balls.
How long can we (and the rest of West Africa) keep carrying Ghana?
your post conjures up an image of a slave beating his chest about how great he is because massa has appointed him chief enforcer on massa's looting mission.
when are you going to get it into your head that france, america and britain are only in mali to strip that country of its resources, did america, france or belgium all countries with various economic interests in rwanda at the time intervene when 1 million rwandans where massacred in a space of 3 months?
nigeria's military is UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM US AFRICOM TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO ANY RESOURCE RICH AFRICAN COUNTRY IN ORDER TO ASSIST IN US/EU's plan to boot china out of africa and loot these countries of their resources.
even europeans knows that this whole terrorism excuse is pure BS and has nothing to do with liberating mali from terrorist occupation.
[quote author=Omo_Tier1]Rubbish, go back to school and develop your mental capacity.[/quote]instead of being petty and abusive, why not explain WHY you dont agree with him?
thoth as usual is maknig a lot of sense, i'm not getting the same vibe from you, why do you disagree with thoth?
I have tried to be one of your disciples but you kept creating doubts in mind through statements such as “colonialism in dead”. I guess the old colonialism may have died but neo-colonialism, where Africans and other colonized people are being used to do the bidding for the colonial masters, is kicking and very much alive.
I still wonder while ICJ should based its judgment on Bakassi based on the 1884 European partition of Africa instead of evidence such as Protection Treaty Obong of Calabar signed with Queen Victoria of United Kingdom in 1813.
If the Tuaregs of Mali have decided to create Republic of Azawad from the French Mali, why should French be worried? What business has Nigeria in Mali when certain citizens of the later have decided to create a homeland out of French-Mali? All these argument of terrorism put forward by colonialists are complete hogwash. The 1884 African partition by colonial European powers is about to end. The next stop is Nigeria.
very interesting article about the much praised Fashola, his plans for lagos and their implications for the poor of lagos who make up almost 70% of the population of lagos:
[b]LAGOS: MEGA CITY OR MEGA MADNESS
Written by Rashy Monday, 29 October 2012 02:07
No doubt, Fashola government in Lagos state means different things to different people. To the elite, who wish to drive his car without hindrance through a well-flowered road, a road that is devoid of poor children hawking the streets, with beggars completely packed off the visible arena of passage; to him, Fashola is a hero. It is a different case to a poor woman who had lived all her life selling in one corner of the road, a condition forced down her throat by immense poverty, with her children hawking all over Lagos at the risk of being arrested by the police or even be crushed by moving vehicles. These children suppose to be in school, but public education has completely collapsed and becoming increasingly expensive. When she is ill she has to go to native doctor because public health is dead; a small apartment she stays will either soon be pulled down or is already demolished in the interest of Mega city project; to her, Lagos has never been so hellish as it is now. Of the estimated 18 million Lagosians, 11.55 million (64.2%) are living below poverty level; the question is, under genuine democracy who really own Lagos?
Overview of Mega Project
The major claim of the present ACN administration is to turn Lagos into one of the most modern mega cities of the 21st century. Light rail is said to be under development, in the form of Lagos Rail Mass Transit. The proposed light railway is expected to consist of blue-line districts on the outskirts and inner red-line destinations. The Badagry Expressway, linking Lagos to Benin Republic, is also being rehabilitated by various contractors.
A proposed Eko Atlantic City is a housing project that is aimed at accommodating the main Lagos elites, screening them away completely from poor Lagosians, who incidentally are the overwhelming majority. This is in addition to traffic lights being fixed, streetlight and flower being planted. All these are to transform Lagos from Mega slum to Mega city, but the question is, where can you hide 15 Million poor Lagosians? Drowned them in the sea or shoot them at sight? Or be completely relocated to other towns? Only time can tell the direct outcome of this war between the rich and true Lagosians who are majorly poor.
At what cost?
But a big question is - at what cost is this entire mega project been carried out? The answer to this question is obvious; this is being carried out at the cost of making life much more difficult for the already poor and impoverished Lagosians. People of Makoko community will never forget Monday, 16 July 2012. On this fateful day, the whole of Makoko community, a community largely dominated by low-income earners whose major business is fishing, was completely demolished on the order of Lagos State Government. This unjust action was carried out with just 72-hours quit notice to the inhabitants who had been living there for decades. The marine police corporal in a desperate attempt to carry out their assignment shot and killed chief Timothy Agbe and left scores of others injured. Presently, over 20,000 people have been rendered homeless by this callous action, many of whom are children and women. The pictures of pregnant women and less than 5 year old kids sleeping under bridge have been everywhere on the internet, some are now sleeping in their various shipping boat on the lagoon at night.
Lagos State is presently the most indebted state in the country. As at June 30, 2012, Lagos state is said to have accumulated an external debt profile of $517,677,672 (more than half a billion dollars), despite having a monthly revenue of about N33 billion. This debt is strangely increasing by the year and the government seems at liberty borrowing as if these debts will once again enjoy forgiveness or grow wings and fly away.
This explains the reason why the Lagos state government is getting more and more desperate by the day to squeeze as much as possible from the Lagos state workers who presently receive the worst salary in the country. Recently the Lagos state government increase the tax payable by Lagos State workers; in essence cut down their wages, all in the attempt to pay this fictitious debt the Lagos State government has incurred over the years. Recently, the tuition fee in Lagos State University (LASU) was increased by over 750%, while the official minimum wage in Lagos state is less than N17, 000.00, making education completely out of reach of ordinary Lagosians. Most of these students are presently at home, because they cannot afford the fees. All these are desperate attempt to shift the debt burden on the ordinary Lagosians.
The recent draconian traffic law in the state is also an attempt in the same direction. The law is not intended to make the traffic better but rather to further make life much more difficult for people. For example, how can we explain the draconian law that says assault on traffic officer, attract a fine of N100,000.00 when most of these officers are liars and excessively corrupt? This is in a state that is paying less than N17,000.00 as minimum wage. Driving in a direction prohibited by the road traffic law attract one year imprisonment and forfeiture of vehicle to the state, all this in a state where there is no conspicuous sign to show the direction prohibited by the road traffic law. All these attacks on the people is at the cost of making Lagos a mega city for the 1% rich Lagosians at the expense of 99% ordinary Lagosians.
Who is bearing the burden?
Despite the fact that this mega city project is 100% in the interest of the elites and it means enormous pain for the overwhelming majority of Lagosians, this Government is still placing huge financial burden on workers and the poor. Recently medical doctors working in Lagos state hospitals were sacked by the Lagos State Government, all because they demanded for implementation of COMMESS (minimum wage for medical doctors throughout Nigeria) which was contained in an agreement that was jointly signed by the State Government and Doctors in 2010. When the government saw that they were loosing face everywhere, they quickly recalled the doctors but up till now COMMESS has not been implemented in Lagos State. Lagos civil servants are one of the worst paid in Nigeria, all to ensure contractors and political colleagues are kept happy.
The real Lagosians are very angry and very desperate to better their lots. They have endured for too long and are already running out of patience. Though they are not yet aware how powerful they are in overthrowing this despotic and extreme minority Government of Fashola, events will clarify it to them in the coming period; they will soon be aware that Lagos belongs not to the elites, but to over 15 million ordinary people of Lagos.
Workers Alternative to Mega Project
Lagos is obviously at present a slum and must be developed into a city. Lagos requires mass rail system, good roads, industry, lighting, good qualitative education, health facilities, etc. To fix Lagos, less than ten percent of the amount presently expended is enough. Do away with political jobbers, the thieving contractors, patronizing family friends and profit first motivation. With mass public works, living wages for the workers, active incentive for the teachers and the doctors, a real ‘mega city’ will be built. A mega city that contains decent affordable accommodation for ordinary Lagosians, where poor children are not on the street because they are in the school with qualitative free public education, where a major improvement in the environment is not accompanied with pain and woe for ordinary Lagosians. That is, a Lagos of the real Lagosians, in the interest of Lagosians and for the Lagosians.
Conclusion
Does it require the wisdom of Solomon for Fashola Government to realize and pursue the alternative highlighted above? Why has it been so difficult for them to sympathize with the plight of common people of Lagos? When will they be tired of making life difficult for ordinary masses? Well, it is only us the ordinary Lagosians who are seeing this as wickedness and unjust, they cannot see it as such. We always see things from different point of views from them and therefore we can never come to the same conclusion.
Under capitalism, within which this government operates, interest of the rich must always be preserved at the expense of the ordinary people. Interest rate must be paid for loans, even if every worker dies of hunger. Therefore, it is only our government that can see things the way we see it and can do things the way we want it. The most important pre-requisite to have our own government is to have our own political party, party of ordinary Nigerians. They have their own parties, many of them. The leadership of Labour formed one, the Nigerian Labour Party, but they refused to mobilize into it, nature abhors vacuum, if we refuse to enter the party, wrong and enemy of the people will manage it for us. It is our party and we must control it in the interest of the people and for the people. [/b]
FRANCE BRITAIN AND UNITED STATES INVOLVEMENT IN MALI IS ALL ABOUT PLUNDER AND RA.PE OF MALI'S GOLD, URANIUM AND OTHER VALUABLE MINERAL RESOURCES AND NOTHING TO DO WITH COUNTERING TERRORISM, NIGERIAN SOLDIERS ARE NOTHING MORE THAN CANNON FODDER FOR THE UNITED STATES AND EU, WHY DEPLOY ONLY YOUR OWN GROUND TROOPS WHEN YOU CAN USE DUMB AFRICANS WHO DONT MIND DYING FOR AMERICAN AND EU MINING CORPORATIONS?
[quote author=Cunt_Destroyer]Don't be a f00l again! You can blame that underachiever in the white house who is just interested in getting his name in the history books.
Isreal, Qaddafi and currently Assad all warned the U.S. about who the insurgents were.
As for France, and the rest of the world no one listens to the U.S. anymore as a result of Obama. The French are just trying to renegotiate their way.
But the big picture is that;
1. You have a lot of weapons moving in from places like Libya and even Egypt into the Sahara and eventually finding their way into western and central Africa.
3. You have within this corridor very weak central governments with little control over a vast border areas and regions such as Chad, Niger and Mali.
4. The insurgency in Mali started off as Tuareg demand for secession and just prior to the collapse of Libya's Qaddafi a lot of funding for the Tuareg's came from Qaddafi himself. (Qaddafi's mum was a Tuareg). Al Qeada had existed in the fringes of the Sahara in around the border region of Mali and Algeria and had been very active with the islamists of southern algeria and their jihadist course. The Tuareg formed an alliance with Al queda for both training and logistics.
5. The only unifying voice after the Arab spring has been that of electing hard line Islamist into offices. The Arab unification is on it's way for the first time ever prior to which was stalled by the presence of longstanding despots. The only unifying bond between the Arabs is their religion. Now that you have fanatics calling the shot in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya what stops them from unifying and forming a pan-Arabic state.
As much as you may want to be cautious of western powers you should not also underrate or ignore the ever dark presence of the Salafists and their harrowing plunder on Africa. The insurgency in Mali has been taken over by the Salafist and is not under the control of the Tuareg's.
Enough reason for you and I not to sleep with both eyes.[/quote]No one listens to the united states ? despite the fact that they spend over $1trillion dollars a year on defence? no - one listens to the US despite the fact that they have over 700 military bases all over the world? no -one listen to the US despite the fact that they have nuclear capability?
let me ask you this - ive already asked rosikk but didnt get an answer - where are these weapons coming from? who supplied them ?
if the islamists are such a threat to france, britain and the united states why did the aforementioned nations arm, fund and place them in power in libya? can you hold someone as an enemy in one country but a friend in another ? i wish you could answer that question for me.
Rossikk: This is what I keep telling cap28. Last night me and him spent over an hour arguing this same thing. We have no choice but to 'play the game'. He acknowledged that the reason the west was arranging all this terrorism was to create conditions that would repel China and consolidate the west's 'hold' on African resources. So I asked him. What do we do?
Sit back and let Arab Islamist fanatics overrun our countries? We've no choice but to engage them. It is not our job to protect China's interests in Africa. That's China's job. But Beijing just sits back as usual and allows the west to scheme all these things, so what do you expect? WE in Nigeria are not going to fight the west. Or oppose them too much. They buy 90% of our oil!!
What China needs to do is to come out of their shell, pull out like a half trillion dollars, or even one trillion, and start sowing some seeds of influence in Africa. Militarily, politically, economically. Cos at the end of the day, money talks and bullshit walks.
THESE SO CALLED ISLAMISTS - WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? WHO SUPPLIED THEM WITH WEAPONS, WHY DID AMERICA SUPPORT ISLAMISTS IN LIBYA AND SYRIA BUT NOT IN MALI? CAN'T YOU SEE YOU ARE BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE BY US INTELLIGENCE AKA THE CIA WHO ACTUALLY ARE THE CREATORS OF AL QAEDA?
YOU THINK WE ARE FIGHTING A WAR ON TERROR? YOU MUST BE ON DRUGS- THE WAR ON TERROR IS A CREATION OF US INTELLIGENCE TO SERVE AS AN EXCUSE TO INVADE, LOOT AND RAP.E YOUR ENTIRE CONTINENT ALL OVER AGAIN BUT THIS TIME WITH THE AMERICANS AT THE HELM RATHER THAN THE EUROPEANS.
HOW CAN YOU SAY IT IS NOT OUR JOB TO PROTECT CHINA'S INTERESTS - THOSE INTERESTS ARE NOT CHINA'S INTERESTS BUT OUR OWN INTERESTS, WE SHOULD DECIDE WHO WE WANT TO SELL OUR RESOURCES TOO NOT THE UNITED STATES OR THE EUROPEAN UNION, WHY ARE WE SENDING YOUNG NIGERIAN SOLDIERS TO DIE FOR US AND EU MINING INTERESTS??
WE DON'T HAVE TO SELL OUR OIL TO THE UNITED STATES, WE CAN HAVE CHINA AS OUR SOLE TRADING PARTNER BECAUSE THEIR TERMS OF TRADE ARE MUCH FAIRER AND BENEFICIAL TO US, WHY ARE NIGERIAN ELITE SUCH COWARDS AND TRAITORS, LOOK AT THE LATIN AMERICAN NATIONS - THIS IS WHY CHAVEZ IS A MARKED MAN - BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO ADOPT A FAIRER AND MORE EQUITABLE SYSTEM OF GOVT THAT WOULD ENSURE THAT THE POOREST PEOPLE IN VENEZUELA WOULD BENEFIT FROM HIS COUNTRY'S OIL WEALTH, THE SAME WITH QADAFFI - ALL LEADERS WHO REFUSE TO SENTENCE THEIR PEOPLE TO A LIFETIME OF MISERY AND POVERTY UNDER UNITED STATES/EU DRACONIAN ECONOMIC POLICIES OF THE IMF AND WORLD BANK FIND THEMSELVES WITHIN THE CROSSHAIRS OF AMERICA AND THE EU - AFRICA NEEDS A LEADER LIKE CASTRO OR CHAVEZ.
The Insurgency in Mali is already affecting you in Nigeria. The nations of Mali, Niger Republic, Libya and Chad are all hot spots for terrorism.
Your Boko insurgency gets both weaponry, training and ideology from these same elements.
It's a dangerous neighborhood and you can either chose to act like an ostrich or do shiit about it[/quote]WHERE DID THE WEAPONS COME FROM?
WHY DID THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE SUPPORT AL QAEDA IN THE OVERTRHOW OF QADAFFI IN LIBYA AND THE ONGOING ATTEMPT TO REMOVE BASHAR AL ASSAD IN SYRIA BUT SUDDENLY HAVE TURNED AGAINST THE SAME AL QAEDA IN MALI?
Foreign Affairs › Imperialist Powers Escalate War In Mali by cap28(op): 1:51am On Jan 23, 2013
(2) How will you benefit if Lagos State government don't have your records. Do you know the over 18-20million population of Lagos state actually from the estimated data of the housing enumeration and counts at the last censors. The people living in those shanties and slum can hardly be accounted for.