Monthly Archives: November 2018

on African history

on African History

Sometime ago in conversation, the subject of Africa came up. The person I was talking to said ” Oh, my daughter is studying African history at school”.

Wow! I thought, lucky kid! Because at school in South Africa, a very long time ago, we were only taught about Victorian England and King Henry VIII.

Damb, I thought, which amazing bit of African history is this student learning here in France? Is she learning about the Mansa Musa of Mali, the richest man to have ever lived and the Mali Empire of the 1300s AD that produced more than half the world’s supply of salt and gold, the Mansa Musa who poured wealth into education and the ancient seat of African learning,Timbuctu, where to this day over 700 000 ancient manuscripts are held in the libraries?

Is she learning about the Monomotapa Empire that stretched from the shores of Mozambique to the interior, to the ancient ruins of Great Zimbabwe with its magnificent flowing walls?

Is she learning about the not so ancient city of Kumase of the Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana, the African city of the late 1800s which had promenades and public squares, exquisite architecture, prosperity and extremely modern living?

Is she learning about the 9th century Nigerian city of Eredo which was surrounded by a wall hundreds of miles long ? Or the medieval Nigerian city of Benin that left travellers from afar in awe of its sheer size, magnificent lay-out and cosmopolitan vibe?

So I turned to the student and said ” Oh, that is interesting, which part of African history are you learning about?”

The student looked at me like I must be a complete moron and said ” Well, slavery, the African slave trade of course.”

Yes, nothing else exists!

I call that the imperialists version of history, the perpetuation of the victim mind-set. What ever you teach the youth, don`t teach them about the stuff they can be proud of, the amazing stuff, the magical stuff, the spell-binding journey, the achievements, the beauty, the foundations of the future…

Science and Technology Will Transform Africa: Ethiopia to Launch New Satellite in 2019

re posted from                                        Africa and the World

Science and Technology Will Transform Africa: Ethiopia to Launch New Satellite in 2019

Science and Technology Will Transform Africa: Ethiopia to Launch New Satellite in 2019

28 November 2018

Finally, in recent years African nations and the African Union have embarked on the exciting and necessary use of space technology to advance their societies. Science and technology are the most fundamental drivers of economic growth. It is the discovery of new scientific principles of space that lead to breakthroughs in new technologies to transform the continent. For too long, Africa has been denied the “right” to use space science, and it no surprise that Ethiopia is in the leadership of this effort.

Ethiopia Will Have Its Own Remote Sensing Satellite, with Help from China

Nov. 27, 2018

Dawn breaks over a radio telescope dish of the KAT-7 Array pointing skyward at the proposed South African site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope near Carnavon in the country's remote Northern Cape province in this picture taken May 18, 2012. South Africa is bidding against Australia to host the SKA, which will be the world's largest radio telescope when completed. Picture taken May 18, 2012.

As reported yesterday by Reuters, the government of Ethiopia announced that Ethiopia would have an Earth remote sensing satellite built in China and launched in September 2019.

China would pay $6 million for the design and construction of the satellite and the launch, toward the $8 million total cost. {The EastAfrican} weekly newspaper and on-line site reported that the satellite will be launched from China, but the command and control center will be based in Ethiopia.

Although according to the Reuters wire, the satellite will be used for “climate and related phenomena,” in fact, the data will also be used for agriculture, land use, and other necessary monitoring for the economy.

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Innovation and Technology released a statement on the future of the country’s space plans, and mentioned a number of African space projects. One of these involves China granting $550 million to Nigeria to purchase two satellites according to Quartz Africa multimedia website, which explains that China has “deepened its place in all spheres, economic and political. Conquering the space business and providing space mapping services is part of Beijing’s globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative, with both state-run and private Chinese space companies selling made-in-China satellites abroad.”

Quartz Africa reports that “as satellites get smaller and cheaper, an increasing number of African nations are declaring their plans to look skyward. The African Union has also introduced an African space policy, which calls for the development of a continental outer-space program and the adoption of a new framework to use satellite communications for economic progress. The demand for satellite capacity is expected to double in the next five years in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Undoubtedly, as part of the “Space Silk Road,” China will be playing a leading role in bringing space technology to Africa.

Read: China to Help Launch Ethiopia’s First Satellite in 2019 

Source: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld

Land is not the Issue

Land is not the Issue

There was an extremely intense debate held recently by the Cape Chamber of Commerce, a debate between Andile Mngxitama of Black First Land First and economist Dawie Roodt.

The reaction of the mainly white, middle-class audience shows how differently the situation in South Africa is perceived. A perception that Andile Mngxitama correctly points out, is created by the media.

For the white middle-class, Jacob Zuma is a corrupt criminal who has ruined the South African economy and stolen from the State. For them, the names Oppenheimer and Rupert , inspire admiration. They regard such families as famous patriarchs of South Africa. They raise their eyebrows cynically when they hear that the Oppenheimers don`t pay tax on uncut diamonds.

As pointed out by Andile Mngxitama they live in comfort which is all they have ever known and they are normalized, habituated to black poverty. They wear sunglasses so they don`t have to look into the eyes of the unemployed and homeless that crowd every single set of traffic lights and junctions in South Africa`s cities. They advise each other not to give money to children who are begging because they will only spend it on drugs.

The economy is a rat-race for personal wealth and for the rest, with the help of a few soup kitchens, the fittest will survive.

A joke is made about eating chicken feet if land expropriation without compensation goes ahead. Millions of South Africans are already eating chicken feet.

In South Africa there are 2300 informal settlements which are home to 12 million people.In Durban with a 3.5 million population, out of that 800 000 live in shacks.

S`bu Zikode, the founder of the shack-dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, has said land itself is not the issue : “Land is a rural and an urban question. It is also a question of food sovereignty and housing. It is a question of dignity. It will, ultimately, become a question of democracy.”

As said in this debate, the Mandela consensus is no longer sustainable.

Source: Multimedia LIVE

Rumble in the Urban Jungle

6 Nov 2018

Former IPCC Scientist Refutes New Climate Change Report

“You know earth`s climate was cooling from 1935-1977 when CO2 was rising very rapidly. And nobody talks about it! The earth`s climate warmed from 1977 – 1998 , along with CO2 increase but in the last 20 years, according to most climate scientists, there has not been any statistically significant warming of the earth`s climate.” Dr. Madhav Khandekar

The IPCC are demanding that in order to reduce CO2 levels, all nations must agree to de-industrialize and stop carbon emissions so as to save the planet from what the IPCC describe as catastrophic global warming. The IPCC are not basing their research on science, as repeatedly proven by climate scientists from around the world who are in disagreement with their findings.

If it were the case that the planet`s climate was becoming dangerously unbalanced,  then would it not be a far more reasonable and intelligent approach to plan for the future and ensure the survival of people by modernizing the entire world economy through global development? Progress will lead us out of any possible impending catastrophe; going backwards into a de-industrialized world will only lead to severe famines and populations exposed to natural disasters.

Source: Schiller Institute

Former IPCC Scientist Refutes New Climate Change Report  

Published on 29 Oct 2018

Former expert reviewer for IPCC, Dr. Madhav Khandekar, denounces man-made climate change scare narrative, says “warming due to human activity is minimal at best.”

Dr. Madhav Khandekar holds a Ph D in Meteorology from the Florida State University USA (1968) and an M Sc in Statistics from Pune University India (1957). Khandekar has been in the field of weather and climate science for over 60 years and has published well over 150 papers, reports, book reviews and scientific commentaries. His current interest is global weather anomalies and extremes and their possible linkage to climate change. He retired as a Research Scientist at Environment Canada in 1997 and lives in Toronto.

 

Are Sea Levels Rising? Is CO2 a Climate Driver?

Are sea levels rising? In some places they are and in other places they are either not changing at all or they are falling as land mass rises. Is sea level related to CO2 increase? No. Is CO2 the driver of climate variation or is it the sun?

All questions answered and the lies, myths and fake science of Man-Made Global Warming debunked in this presentation by Tom Wysmuller, retired NASA scientist.

Source: Conference on the Physics Chemistry and Biology of Water

Tom Wysmuller – Conference on the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water 2015

Published on 23 Nov 2015

 

UN concerned about fighting in eastern DR Congo

re posted from                                      PressTV

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/11/14/580025/DR-Congo-Fighting-UN

Wed Nov 14, 2018 03:26PM
A South African armored personnel carrier belonging to the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) patrols in the streets of Munzambayi, near Beni, on January 15, 2018. (Photo by AFP)
A South African armored personnel carrier belonging to the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) patrols in the streets of Munzambayi, near Beni, on January 15, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The UN has sounded the alarm over fighting in eastern DR Congo, warning that violence, which is unfolding alongside an Ebola outbreak, could hamper next month’s elections.

Leila Zerrougui, head of the UN stabilization mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, said the provinces of Tanganyika and South Kivu and parts of North Kivu province were most at risk.

“I have grown increasingly alarmed over the situation in Beni in recent months, where we continue to face major challenges in implementing our mandate,” she added.

“There is a potential for armed group interference in elections in specific areas throughout eastern DRC,” she said.

Her remarks were made on Monday at the UN Security Council’s monthly meeting on the DRC.

The eastern DRC has been troubled for decades by inter-ethnic bloodshed and militia violence, a crisis that has escalated this year.

The city of Beni, home to up to 300,000 people, is under threat from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a shadowy armed group rooted in Ugandan extremism that has killed hundreds of people since 2014.

The region is also battling an Ebola outbreak that has left more than 200 dead.

Health workers move a patient to a hospital after he was cleared of having Ebola inside a MSF (Doctors Without Borders) supported Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) on November 4, 2018 in Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Photo by AFP)

The unrest is running in parallel with a conflict in the central region of Kasai, casting a shadow over the country’s ability to stage elections on December 23 to succeed President Joseph Kabila.

Zerrougui said many hurdles had to be overcome for the elections to proceed smoothly and be credible. The official start of campaigning is on November 22.

“It will be especially important for the government to take steps in the coming weeks to secure polls, particularly to ensure the participation of women, who make up 50 percent of registered voters,” she said.

Zerrougui is also the UN secretary-general’s special representative in the DRC.

MONUSCO, whose mission is now 17,000 strong and among the UN’s largest, has been in the DRC since 1999. It has an annual budget of $1.153 billion (1.02 billion euros).

(Source: AFP)

Source: PressTV

We Have To Start a New International Credit System — With Another Financial Crash Approaching

re posted from                                         LAROUCHEPAC

https://larouchepac.com/20181121/we-have-start-new-international-credit-system-another-financial-crash-approaching

We Have To Start a New International Credit System — With Another Financial Crash Approaching

November 21, 2018
President Donald J. Trump signs the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
President Donald J. Trump signs the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

In 10 days President Donald Trump, freer than before to act after withstanding the U.S. midterm elections, will begin a series of “summit” meetings with other major powers’ Presidents starting at the meeting of the Group of 20 nations Nov. 30.

While these crucial meetings approach, a financial collapse as bad or worse than that of 2007-08 is also approaching. After more than two months’ stock market slides, stock, bond, and corporate loan markets are now all falling simultaneously, while experts warn over and over that the corporate “junk debt” markets in the United States and Europe are quickly turning into the subprime mortgage markets of 2007-08. Tech giants, despite buying huge volumes of their own stocks, are leading the plunge. Federal Reserve governors are turning in fear away from their next planned interest rate increase — too late to make a difference.

At such a time it is truly insane for major Western European governments to be throwing “climate taxes” and “carbon taxes” and “electricity taxes” against their already-sinking economies and people, and demanding deep austerity cuts from nations like Italy which are not on their strange wavelength. This is tragic, but those major Western European “leaders” are very obviously on their way to being removed by their people.

It is the leaders of the United States, China, Russia and India, at least, which must act to prevent an economic crash — and we know what it is they can do. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, President of the Schiller Institute, said today, “This is a situation to mobilize all-out for a ‘New Bretton Woods’ monetary and credit system. We should take a campaign orientation over the next two weeks” — approaching those upcoming “summit” meetings as if in the last days’ mobilization for a crucial election.

All of Lyndon LaRouche’s well-known “Four Laws” as he put them down in 2014 are urgent and appropriate right now. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act to separate and protect commercial banks and people’s savings from the Wall Street casino’s collapse. Form a national bank or a credit institution like FDR’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Apply the credit it generates to build high-technology new economic infrastructure, to raise the economy’s productivity. Let science lead: develop nuclear fusion technologies as quickly as possible, and go for manned colonization of the Moon and exploration of the Solar System.

This is the time for those “Four Laws” of Lyndon LaRouche; they are necessary now. But he has argued in speeches and writings since well before the 2008 crash, that these actions will flow from an agreement among the leaders of the great powers. They can initiate a new credit system; create by cooperation an international development bank to invest trillions in new infrastructure all over the world; join their manned space exploration programs into an effort that can accomplish anything; break the barrier to unlimited power from fusion energy.

The other major powers are already committed to some or all of these scientific objectives; the United States dollar has the greatest power in forming a new credit system and stabilizing currency values.

This “international action” is now the American people’s responsibility. President Trump can jaw with Congress, but this is the big stage on which he can act quickly to stop an economic collapse, and avert confrontations which could lead to world war.

The American people, through whatever formal and informal groups and organizations they can act, must get it done.

Source: larouchepac

Casino Banking : The Glass-Steagall Solution

Source: CEC Australia

9 November 2018 – The CEC Report – Outspoken former ANZ director John Dahlsen on APRA & the Banks

 

Published on 10 Nov 2018

Interview with outspoken former ANZ director John Dahlsen on APRA, banking separation, and the danger of derivatives:
Make the banking system work for everyone

Read John Dahlsen’s paper on the IPA website, “Banking on Competition”: https://ipa.org.au/wp-content/uploads…