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General Discussion / Re: NEW AFRICAN MAGIZINE
« on: April 10, 2014, 06:45:55 PM »New African reports
African Natural Resources: Solving the great conundrum - The challenges
The challenges
All said and done, Africa must not expect anything to be easy on the “alternative” course. There is bound to be resistance and spoiling tactics by the metropolitan powers and their multinational companies, which have grown used to getting African resources on the cheap. They will do everything in and outside the book to prevent Africa freeing itself from the shackles of the current world economic order.
Which should inspire the Africans to question the motivation of these powers in helping countries such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the others to rise from the ashes of the Second World War and the Cold War, while at the same time frustrating African attempts to be a Japan, South Korea, Germany, Taiwan or even miniature forms of them. Why do they resist or kill African attempts to be like these countries?
At the moment, there is stiff resistance by the metropolitan powers to indigenisation in Zimbabwe. A hefty $1 billion was taken out of the country by investors before the recent elections, which is now making government finances difficult to handle. This is exactly what the Henry Kissinger-inspired American national security memorandum, NSSM 200, of 1974, recommended.
That document, whose aim was to check a so-called uncontrollable growth of the world population from 4 billion to 13 billion by 2000, clearly states that as the West lives off the resources of Africa and other developing countries, a large population in Africa would lead to the Africans controlling their natural resources, and this would have implications for American national interest in the form of the Africans asking for better terms of trade for their resources or using them for themselves. And, this had to be fought!
Thus, if Africa should embark on an “alternative” way, it should not be surprised to find multinational companies refusing to invest or threatening to pull out of Africa, a horror that orthodox economists and other like-minded Africans will recommend that the continent should avoid, especially in this day and age where capital has many places to fly to. But if Africa collectively stands its ground and acts in the manner suggested by President Jammeh and Dr Tony Aidoo of Ghana – namely, letting the resources remain in the ground – the multinational companies will come willy-nilly, if indeed the majority of the world’s natural resources are in Africa. Besides, the current generation of Africans will have to learn to sacrifice for the economic emancipation of the continent and its teeming generations yet unborn. After all, if the resources are exploited today at a 3% royalty, we get basically nothing and remain poor; and if they are not exploited we get nothing, but at least we will know that there is some capital in the ground to be inherited by our sons and daughters who will some day be able to exploit them.
This is why Africa will have to listen to ex-President Mbeki about the metropolitan resistance to African progress. He said on 23 August 2013: “As you can see, I get very, very agitated about Zimbabwe, because it’s very, very clear that the offensive against Zimbabwe is an offensive against the rest of the continent…
“That offensive is not in the first instance about Zimbabwe, it’s about the future of our continent. So the Zimbabweans have been in the frontline in terms of defending our right as Africans to determine our future, and they are paying a price for that. I think it is our responsibility as African intellectuals to join them, the Zimbabweans, to say ‘No’! We have a common responsibility as Africans to determine our destiny and are quite ready to stand up against anybody else who thinks [otherwise]. We stand up as Africans to say [there must be] an end, and really an end, to [the] contempt for African thought! We have to. If we don’t, Africa will never be able to own its own resources.