Tuesday, April 25, 2017

VIBANFLAGBOOKSCANADA: Commenting on the World Bank recent African Econom...

VIBANFLAGBOOKSCANADA: Commenting on the World Bank recent African Econom...: That is a commendable innovation and I would like to start by thanking the organizers of this initiative, the World Bank. When you travel th...
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Monday, April 24, 2017

Commenting on the World Bank recent African Economic Forum: Transport

That is a commendable innovation and I would like to start by thanking the organizers of this initiative, the World Bank. When you travel through congested African cities you wonder why they cannot be equipped with light railways as the case at Addis Ababa mentioned now when commuting to and from work is a nightmare in most African economic and political capitals. The initiative at Addis Ababa should be emulated by all and sundry governments in Africa. If well-run such an investment supported by the Chinese pays for itself.

The taxi bike riding in urban areas is no solution to urban transport plethora of problems. It is ephemeral.  Some governments naively push forward this on the assumption that it creates jobs and encourages the consumption of gasoline that further creates taxable revenues for the government. Poorly maintained, potholed and unplanned streets littered with battered and ill maintained taxis exacerbate urban transport difficulties. Motor vehicles share the streets with footing commuters. Street planners ignore pedestrians' walks and many more badly done things that make African laughing stocks in the 21st century. Billions of man-hours are wasted just in commuting to and from work each year in Africa and those cause strains on people and are financial wastes.  The light railways and why not underground networks as in developed economies could be emulated. As one of your speakers said, Africans will not be inventing the wheel. Those technological innovations are there that Africans need to copy, adapt and apply provided they stamp out corruption and overemphasis on fiscal policies and investments.

The error in most African states is that the government is the apparent sole employer and facilitator in the creation of jobs. The state is the president and that is awry. In most developed economies, the government only accounts for 3% of employment and job creation. The rest is in the private hands. The government work with the fluid nondiscriminatory infrastructures that cater to all irrespective of whether they supported the government in power or not during their election period.

Those in distant rural areas should equally be treated as citizens residing in urban areas and the capital cities. A country's economic strength is not only composed of urban dwellers particularly in Africa where the bulk of the economic strength is in the agricultural sector, the backbone of the rural economy.

Additionally, no speaker mentioned migration that is the anguish and ineptitude of African eyes in the 21st century. If there are jobs and inter-African trades, why do you Africans assume that their jobs and financial panacea now and in the future would only be moving to North America and Europe? Don't African youths envisage a modernized and industrialized Africa that is comparable to developed economies in Europe and North America of their making? In 1844 when Industrial Revolution was burgeoning in England, economic conditions were no better than what you have now in Africa. The operatives though working for the bourgeoises spartanly did not move en masse to the colonies, they stayed and it eventually paid. Europeans and Americans are having what took them centuries to realize. They started modestly.  So you Africans got to start with the modest revenues you have. Do not build a house of stones where you could do it better with straw clay.  Also, the governments in power got to instill patriotism that is sadly lacking. We do not mean using guns and bayonets and scaring the hell out of innocent people.  They got to work as a team, an aspect that is innate in most African communities. They got to respect one another, bureaucrats, operatives and the unemployed. Everyone has to put their hands on the plow and do not assume that their hospitals, other infrastructures would be built by China and other donors or would-be new colonizers as in the past. It is not the managerial skills, funds and raw materials that Africans lack. Where do they always go wrong?

Their governments' thoughtless, and prejudiced plans are responsible for most of their economic ills. How many have finished the railway projects commenced in the colonial era? How many have maintained those they found efficiently as a way to solving their soaring transport difficulties? How many cares to surface their roads and make them usable throughout the year?

Further, the master-servant syndrome is still lingering in Africa from the days of colonialism to the modern African governments that like to control their citizens as marionettes. Some of their leaders know more of Europe and North America at close quarters than the countries they purport to govern. Apart from that, they control investments, where and who should invest based on their support of their often corrupt government. If these persist, no amount of lecturing by the World Bank would loosen Africans from their governments' grips, and spur citizens' private investments that build most strong economies in the world.  Some Southeastern Asians states that gained their political independence with Africans states in tandem are already there. If they could do it owing to their transparency and other factors, African states could and even do better as their resources are there to be exploited, processed and finished products consumed and exported. [Attention of @SomikCities and African Trade Missions around the world].
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Saturday, April 8, 2017

The Martin Luther King Family Supports a Free, Sovereign Southern Cameroons

BSC | AMB: The Martin Luther King Family Supports a Free, Sovereign Southern Cameroons

 Herbert Boh
By Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)
Spokesperson, MoRISC
Washington, DC, Monday, 3 April 2017 – The family of American civil rights icon, Martin Luther King, Jr., is throwing its considerable political weight in support of the emergence of a sovereign state of Southern Cameroons.
“Southern Cameroons must regain its freedom and become a free sovereign state,” Mrs. Naomi Ruth Barber King, the sister-in-law of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (spouse of A.D. King) said recently in Lagos, Nigeria.
Mrs. Naomi King’s speech constitutes the strongest statement yet by a foreign dignitary in support of a return to international sovereignty by Southern Cameroons (independent on 1st October 1961). She was speaking just before accepting an award for her humanitarian work at the Tenth Anniversary of Slsi-Oge (The Pride of Africa) Cultural Heritage.
Known affectionately as the “Butterfly Queen”, Mrs. Naomi King who doubles as the Chair of the Board of A D King Foundation, appealed to the Nigerian government, the African Union and the United Nations to provide leadership in support of the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons.
Her statement advocating peaceful separation from the Republic of Cameroon (independent on 1st January 1960) also called for the deployment of United Nations Peacekeepers to end crimes against humanity and acts bordering on genocide.
“We call on the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to cause the African Union to intervene and help end ongoing crimes against humanity, and deploy a peacekeeping force to uphold the world’s commitment to prevent another genocide now under execution against Southern Cameroonians”.
“We call on immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the armed forces along with the administration of the Republic of Cameroon from Southern Cameroons, the release of all prisoners of conscience, politically and otherwise motivated by unjust laws,” said Mrs. Naomi King, who is also known as the Mother of the Global Humanitarian Movement.
Mrs. Naomi King made clear that she was speaking up in support of peace, justice and freedom and on behalf of the entire King family.
“The King family will always be on the side of justice, therefore, let justice and freedom reign in Southern Cameroons,” she said as she accepted the award “on behalf of all lovers of peace, freedom and justice”.
ENDS
Text of Full Statement by Ms Naomi Ruth Barber King
To the platform guests, to Chairman Mr. Tope Agbeyo, Botosoft Technologies, to Dr. Babs Onabanjo, President and CEO of the A D King Foundation, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. All protocols observed.
I am Naomi Ruth Barber King, sister in law to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Dr. Christine King Farris and Mrs. Coretta Scott King. I am indeed very happy and honored with absolute praise to Almighty God. I am honored to be in Lagos to celebrate with you, the 10th Anniversary of SIsiOge Cultural Heritage, My Heritage, My Pride, The pride of Africa 2017, with the theme: Sowing Cultures, Reaping Values.
As chair of the Board of A D King Foundation, we promote strategically, Entrepreneurship as the engine of economic growth and transformation. I am so thrilled that this event and their organizers are focused on branding entrepreneurial enterprises, culture and mindset. The culture of entrepreneurship and the outcome must include corporate social responsibility. We must be our brothers and sisters keepers within a global society. Both foreign and local enterprises must embrace corporate social responsibilities as a culture of making a difference in our society.
The famous poet, Rumi, once wrote: “Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there. Non-violence is a field where reconciliation and dialogue can take deep roots. It is a field where methods and strategies taught may be passed from one generation to generation, to share moments of unity, broad-mindedness, harmony and happiness. At a time when violent extremism seeks to destroy diversity and freedoms, the power of nonviolent strategies is un-parallel in building tough and sustainable society and the beloved community. Dr. King would say profoundly how our real love and support influences each other. We affect each other we are tied together in a single garment of destiny”. We need each other to grow and to reach our full potential.
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that. My brother in law Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, wrote these words in his 1963 message STRENGTH TO LOVE that was the same year my beloved husband Rev A D King and I along with our children survived the firebombing of our home on May 11, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Today my prayer is that we love truth, loving truth, we seek truth, once finding the truth we must seek justice and once finding justice, we enjoy peace. As ML said true peace is not the absence of tension or conflict but the presence of justice.
The civil rights movement unlike any other movement was a spiritual movement, anchored in the biblical principles of God’s unconditional love, obedience and power of our awesome, majestic, almighty, omnipotent and omnipresent God.
Without the spirituality the movement would be like a bird without wings:
The principles of non-violent include the following:
1, Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people
2. The Beloved Community is the Goal
3. Attack forces of evil, not persons doing the evil
4. Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of cause to achieve the goal, self-chosen suffering is redemptive
5. Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external physical violence.
6. The universe is on the side of justice. Truth is universal and the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.
The king family will always be on the side of justice, therefore, let justice and freedom reign in Southern Cameroons. Let justice reign in South Africa against Xenophobia and let justice and restructuring of a failed corporate entity reign in Nigeria. The systemic problem in Nigeria can only be solved among other elements through restructuring and excellent leadership. Nigeria can do better.
[Video showing Cameroun Govt Presidential Military Guard personnel mistreating a Citizen]
Video Player
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01:16
We call on the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to cause the African Union to intervene and help end ongoing crimes against humanity, and deploy a peacekeeping force to uphold the world’s commitment to prevent another genocide now under execution against Southern Cameroonians.
We call on immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the armed forces along with the administration of the Republic of Cameroon from Southern Cameroons, the release of all prisoners of conscience, politically and otherwise motivated by unjust laws. Southern Cameroons must regain its freedom and become a free sovereign state. I accept this humanitarian award on behalf of all lovers of peace, freedom and justice.
May God bless Nigeria, May God Bless the United States of America.
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Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Medical Research and philosophy in Africa. A must-read Article.

 
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Thursday, March 23, 2017

FRENCH AFRICA POLICY DAMAGES AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIES

French Africa Policy Damages African and European Economies.

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Bleeding Africa and Feeding France – The Face of French Modo-Colonialism.
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : Since the independence of the former French colonies in western Africa they are in spite of the richness of their natural resources and the productivity of their populations still catastrophically under-developed.
Dr. Christof Lehmann In 2007 the French and European economies began deteriorating into a devastating recession. France seems to be like a man who is standing at the edge of a cliff, transfixed by the thought of falling into the abyss. In fear of losing the lucrative racket of controlling the western African economies he forgets that there is Terra firma and a possibility for both French, European and African prosperity behind him. Africans and leading European politicians expected that the administration of President Hollande would bring much-needed change with respect to French control over the economies of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, the Republic of Congo, Senegal and Togo. However, also Hollande´s administration seems to be so transfixed by the prospect of falling into the abyss that it does not fathom the possibility of taking one step back.
Will France remain transfixed in fear and drag western Africa and Europe with it when it falls or does it dare to loosen up its grip on control over the good old CFA racket in its former colonies and discover the true potential and value of the African markets. As painful as it may be, the primary prerequisite for a progressive development and prosperity is the truth about the current state of affairs.
The root causes for the lacking development of the western African economies are closely related to the fact that France, contrary to other former colonial powers, managed to install its commissars at the heart of its former colonies economic and monetary system and that it still maintains almost unchallenged control over them. The system was created by German National Socialists during the 1930s and 40s. It was used to usurp France and other German occupied nations.
The Genesis of the CFA-System in Nazi Germany and the German Occupation of France.
On 9 Maj 1941 Hemmen, the German Ambassador to France declared that he had signed a treaty with the French Admiral Darlan. The treaty would place German commissars within the French National Bank´s departments for foreign currencies and international commerce.(1) The treaty was negotiated under the auspices of German Minister of Finance Herman Göring, whose father, Heinrich Ernst Göring has been the German Governor of German West Africa, todays Namibia, from 1885 to 1890. Herman Göring was among other notorious for his plundering the occupied nations’ economies through operations accounts and for his special interest in treasures and art from the German occupied areas.
At the end of world war two and the occupation of France, the French President Charles de Gaulle created the CFA Franc as a currency for the western African colonies. De Gaulle created a monetary union whose functions of control were based on the model Germany had used to usurp German occupied France.
Even though the colonies have since gained independence, the system of almost absolute control over their economies by the installment of commissars with the Central Banks of the West African Monetary and Economic Unions, the B.E.A.C., the B.C.C., and the B.C.E.A.O. persists.
Modo-Colonialism, the Veto Right by French Commissars over African Economies.
Together, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, the Republic of Congo, Senegal and Togo, establish the Monetary and Economic Union of West Africa (U.M.E.O.A. / UMEAO. Their currency, the CFA-Franc is printed under supervision of the French National Bank in Charmaliéres, France. The Council of Presidents of the fifteen U.M.E.O.A. member states constitutes the highest authority of the union. Decisions of the Presidential Council are made unanimously. The Ministerial Council of the U.M.E.O.A. defines the monetary and credit policy of the union and it is responsible for the economic development of the region. According to the constitutions of all fifteen member states the creation of their currency, the regulation of its value as well as the regulation of parities and modalities is the exclusive privilege of the nation and its people and decisions about it are made by the parliament.
The placement of French commissars within the heart of the nations and the union`s banking system however, creates an obvious dichotomy between the apparent sovereignty of the union, its constituents, and direct control from the previous colonial power.
Three of the thirteen of the Directors of the B.E.A.C. are French and four of the eight Directors of the B.C.C. are French. The Board of Directors of the B.C.E.A.O. is constituted by sixteen Directors; two from each country plus two additional Directors from France who take part in the management of the bank under the same conditions and with the same privileges as the other Directors. The number and placement of the commissars gives them a Veto right at the board of each of the Central Banks. No decision can be made without their approval and France can enforce its policy by threatening to deadlock the economies unless decisions are made in compliance with French suggestions.
The French Veto right also extends to the nomination of the Governor of the B.E.A.C.. The Governor is elected with the unanimous vote of the Board of Directors, on suggestion of the government of Gabon, and after the approval of the other member states as well as France.(2)
The Central Bank does not only have the privilege to create the currency. It also has the privilege to grant credit for the current accounts of the national treasuries at its discount rate. The Board of Directors is making the decisions about the temporalities and about the total amount that is granted for financing the economies of each of the member states.
Feeding France, Bleeding Africa – Current Accounts and the System of Usurpation.
While the primary instrument of control is the installment of French commissars, the primary instrument for usurping the western African economies is their current accounts. The member states agree to deposit their foreign currency reserves in a shared reserve fond.
The foreign currency reserves are subject to deposition in an operations account at the French National Bank. Between 1945 and 1973 one hundred per cent of the foreign currency reserves had to be deposited in the operations account, in 1973 it was reduced to sixty-five, and on 27. September 2005 to fifty percent. (3) Another fifteen percent is kept in a guaranty fund.
In other words sixty-five per cent of all foreign currency reserves of the fifteen nations and all revenue generated outside of the unions territory is kept at the French National Bank. On 3 Mai 2010 the website of Jeune Afrique quotes the former French Minister of Finance and Commerce, Christine Lagarde: “The Bank of the States of Central Africa, for instance, places an almost 90 per cent of their reserves in the French National Bank”. (4)
In 1960 Jean Boissonat, a member of the currency committee of the French National Bank wrote: “Almost all decisions were made in France .. The Franc Zone allowed France to deliver certain natural resources to itself without having to spend any foreign reserves. It was estimated that this represented two hundred and fifty million US-Dollar savings in terms of foreign reserves per year …” Boissonat continues by stating that approximately half a million Frenchmen in Paris receive their means of survival from the Franc Zone.(5)
The French socialist Jean-Noël Jeanny wrote in 1963 that: “all that the African nations achieve by increasing their export is the generation of more foreign currency reserves for France”.(6) He could as well have added “and the creation of debt for themselves”. Beside profiting on African foreign currency reserves which are returned to the West African nations in the form of debt, France is also profiting from African gold.
The gold reserves of the fifteen nations are kept in France, supposedly to guaranty for the value of the CFR Franc. In 2001 the West-African gold reserves at the French National Bank had an estimated value of 206,528 billion CFR Franc. In an interview for Le Liberation in 1996 the late President of Gabon, Omar Bongo said: “We are in the Franc Zone. Our operations accounts are managed by the French National Bank in Paris. Who profits from the interests that our money generates ? France.” (7)
France is indebting and enslaving Africans by means of Africa’s own wealth; for example: 12.0000 billion invested at three per cent creates 360 billion in interests which France grants as credits to Africa at an interest rate of five to six per cent or more. The allegory of “Bleeding Africa and Feeding France” is no exaggeration, not alarmist, and not revolutionary. It it is a sobering fact of French modo-colonialism and the cost in terms of under-development and human suffering is staggering. The current accounts and the French usurpation are a humanitarian disaster that is induced by France and financed by those who are suffering from it.
Coups, Crisis and French Finance-Nazism in Africa.
In 1996 France devalued the CFR Franc in spite of the protest of most western African nations. Former French Prime Minister Eduard Balladour justified the French dictated devaluation of the CFR Franc because “ it was considered to be the best possibility for aiding the development of the western African countries” (8), even though another statement by Balladoure indicates that he was aware of that the regulation of a currency is a matter of national sovereignty(9).
The late President of Togo, Etienne Gnassingbé said about the devaluation: “One uses to say that violence overrules justice. I was not the only one who issued the warning….. But France has decided otherwise. The African voices don´t count for much in this affair”.(10)
The words of the late Etienne Gnassingbé indicate that the Bleeding of Africa can be taken literally. According to the statutes of the monetary and economic union every member state is free to leave it. So much to theory. In practice, France has left a trail of post-modern coup d´etats, violence, and murder in those nations who tried to get out from under what many West-Africans perceive as French Finance-Nazism in Africa.
In January 1963 the President of Togo, the late Sylvanus Olympio was murdered three days before the issuing of a new currency.
On 19. November 1968 the late President of Mali Modibo Kéita was ousted in a coup and arrested. In 1977 Modibo Kéita died in prison. Kéita was poisoned.
On 27. January 1996 the President of Mali was ousted in a military coup d´etat.
On 15. March 2003 the late President of the Central African Republic Angè Félix Patassé was ousted by the “rebel leader” Francois Bozizé. In all cases the monetary union and France have played a role.
Ivory Coast´s President Laurent Gbagbo, France, the ICC and Modo-Colonialism.
When Laurent Gbagbo became the President of Ivory Coast one of his first official initiatives was the erection of a concrete wall in the tunnel that connects the French Embassy with the Presidential Residence. Gbagbo wanted Ivory Coast to abandon the CFA and institute a new regional and if possible a Pan-African, gold-backed currency. The initiative toward the establishment of a gold-backed Pan-African currency enjoyed the sympathy of many African nations and enjoyed unequivocal support from Libya, which until the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 was the richest and most developed of all African nations.
As if it was a conditioned reflex, France seemed transfixed by is fear of falling into the abyss, of losing the CFR racket that has kept the French economy afloat since it was conceived by de Gaulle in 1945. Rather than seeing a potential, France was biding its time until an opportunity for a post-modern coup d´etat. The 2010 Presidential elections in Ivory Coast. France sided with Alessanne Outtara. Libyan intelligence reports from 2009 and 2010 indicated that the French Intelligence Service D.G.S.E. had begun infiltrating, financing and arming a group of “rebels” in the northern region of Ivory Coast.
The outcome of the Presidential election was apparently very close. The electoral commission declared Alessanne Outtara the winner but the election result was disputed by Laurent Gbagbo.
There had been registered serious irregularities. In one particular village with a population of approximately ten thousand, Alessanne Outtara seemed to have received almost one hundred thousand votes.
Western mainstream media began building a narrative: The electoral commission had declared Outtara to be the winner. The despotic Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand over the reins of power to the winner of the elections. Gbagbo is cracking down on peaceful protesters. Gbagbo is cornered in his bunker…
What western media generally failed to report, underreported, or conveyed in a distorted and strongly biased fashion was that: Laurent Gabgbo and his party had brought the case to the Supreme Court; that the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast had recounted the votes; that the Supreme Court had taken notice of election fraud in favor of Outtara; and that the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast had declared Laurent Gbagbo to be the winner of the elections and the rightfully elected President of Ivory Coast. That French backed guerrilla began attacking predominantly pro-Gbagbo villages, committing massacres, and that French backed “rebels” were attacking the Presidential Residence.
What was emphatically reported in French and western media like the BBC was that “security forces” clamped down on peaceful protesters, and that “Ouattara´s Army” is cornering “Gbagbo in his bunker”.(11)
Nobody seemed to ask the important question. Where in the world had Outtara, who just claimed to have won the elections gotten an “army” from ?
It is symptomatic for the high prevalence of racism and condescending modo-colonialist reasoning among European populations that only very few commentators and analysts said:
“But the electoral commission is not the one who has the competence to approve of election results, it is the Supreme Court”.
A comparison can illustrate the point: When George W. Bush and Al Gore had the closest of all elections that have been held in the United States of America; who certified the election ? The Supreme Court, of course. (12)
Many Americans felt utterly disenfranchised but the population respected the Supreme Court. Could anyone have even thought about the remote possibility of “Al Gore´s Army cornering Bush in his Bunker” of “Gore neglecting the Supreme Court because the electoral commission had pronounced him to be the winner ?” And where in the world would Al Gore have gotten his army from Anyways ? And where did Alessanne Outtara get his army from ?
The capture of Laurent Gbagbo cost the lives of approximately 1.600 young Ivorian soldiers. Young patriots who were willing to defend the President of Ivory Coast from the onslaught of a French-backed post-modern coup d´etat. The capture an arrest of President Laurent Gbagbo was possible only after French special forces violated international law by blasting a hole into the wall which Laurent Gbagbo had erected inside the tunnel that connects the French embassy with the Presidential residence.
The sealed boxes with the ballots from the 2010 elections are kept at the United Nations. So far U.N. Secretary General Ban Kyi-moon has failed to order an independent re-count of the ballots. The fact that the United Nations has so far failed to re-count the ballots to determine the legitimacy of either Laurent Gbagbo´s or Alessanne Outtara´s claim for the Ivorian Presidency, combined with the selective and one-sided prosecution of Laurent Gbagbo at the ICC and of military officers who were loyal to him in 2010 is symptomatic for grave systemic and procedural problems at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court at The Haag. The case against Laurent Gbagbo ought to have been dismissed on the basis of selective prosecution from the very start. His prosecution at the ICC after French involvement in the aggravation of post-election violence in Ivory Coast and the arrest with the aid of French special forces is a blatant example for the abuse of the ICC as an instrument of modo-colonialist control. The most recent selectively prosecuted case is that against General Dogbo Ble in Ivory Coast. Also here western media are de-facto sentencing a political opponent of modo-colonialism before he is even heard in court.(13)
A recent analysis of the systemic and political problems with the ICC, the United Nations, the Rome Statute and the explosion of international law at its very root by Dr. Hans Köchler (14) reads as if it was written to elicit the injustice that is being perpetrated against Laurent Gbagbo and the people of Ivory Coast.
Missed Chances for African and European Economies and the Urgency of Change.
A growing number of African and European leaders are becoming impatient about the paralysis of France. African leaders are impatient because the obvious usurpation of their nations is unbearable for the African economies and their populations. European leaders are mostly impatient because France prevents a European adaptation to the last decades geopolitical changes in Africa and because the crisis of the Euro requires initiative rather than stagnation. Failure to integrate the western African economies into the economic sphere of Europe is bound to have devastating long term consequences for both Africa and Europe.
China has recognized the colossal market potential of a developing African middle class. The French and Trans-Atlantic model of usurpation and subjugation is not only criminal and unethical, it is also uncompetitive.
Recent statements made by the French political heavyweight Jacques Chiraq, who said that France does not have to be a benefactor, it must merely stop usurping Africa, are indicating a potential for change. Chiraq stated that failure to change French-African relations can have catastrophic consequences. 2012 Presidential candidate Jean Luc Mélenon stated that the CFA represents the severe mistake not to tie the western African economies to the economies of the European Union. Mélenon demanded that France abandons its veto right at the Boards of the African Central Banks.
The European Council stated that France is blocking for any project of the European Central Bank that attempts to change the nature or the bearing of the French involvement in the western African Central Banks. The French approach to managing French-African relations is not only bleeding Africa. It is increasingly bleeding both the French and European economies who are missing out on the market potential of an emerging African middle class.
Some political analysts have suggested the establishment of an African-European Peace and Reconciliation Commission that is dealing with the crimes of the past, the building of trust, the review of highly politicized cases at the International Criminal Court, such as the prosecution of Ivoryan President Laurent Gbagbo to ease a transition toward new African-European relations.
The question for this and the coming year is whether France will continue standing at the edge of the cliff and fall while dragging both western Africa and Europe into the abyss together with it, or if it dares to listen to the voices of reason from Africa and its European partners, turn its gaze away from the abyss and see that there is fertile land, right behind it.
Dr. Christof Lehmann
“I want to express my recognition and gratitude to Prof. Nicolas Agbohou. The historical context of the article and references about it are inspired by his speech at the Conference on African-French Relations in Paris City Hall, on 09 October 2012. – Dr. Christof Lehmann.”
NB.: If you like this kind of journalism, please sign up for a free subscription for our newspaper at the bottom left of this page and if possible, donate a few coins per month by using the donate button in the right side column. Thank you for informing yourself and for your support. 
Notes:
  1. Pierre Arnold (1951), Les finances de la France et l´occupation Allemande.
  2. Artikel 3 de la BEAC.
  3. Article 2 of the Agreement about Operations Accounts between France and the African Nations within the Franc Zone (PAZF).
  4. Website of Jeune Afrique, 03. Mai 2010.
  5. Jean Boissonat. La Zone Franc: Survivance du Passé Ou Promesse d´Avenir. La Croix, 17 févenier 1960.
  6. Jean-Noël Jeanny. Rapport Jeanny; La politique de coopération avec les pays en vaie de dévelopment. Paris, documentation francaise 1963.
  7. Omar Bongo. Interwiew for Le Liberation, 18. September 1996, p.6.
  8. Jeune Afrique. Economie no 178, April 1994.
  9. E. Balladour in Le Monde, 09. February 1990. Lire aussie Géopolitique de printemps No 53, 1996, p.81
  10. Jeune Afrique no 1841, 17 – 23 April 1996, p. 38.
  11. Cornered in Abidjan as fears grow. Andrew harding on Africa, BBC, 06. April 2011.http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/andrewharding/2011/04/cornered_in_abidjan_as_fears_g.html
  12. Supreme Court of the United States. George W. Bush et al., Petitioners v. Albert Gore Jr., el al., 12. December 2001. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html
  13. Ivory Coast´s pro-Laurent Gbagbo general Dogbo Ble on Trial. BBC, 02. October 2012.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19797488
  14. Dr. Hans Köchler. World Court without a World State. Criminal Justice under the Dictates of Realpolitic.http://www.i-p-o.org/Koechler-ICC-Realpolitik-IPO-OP-1July2012.htm
  15. The US/UN/NATO Race for Global, Full Spectrum Dominance. Black, Fetzer, Mezyaev and Lehmann, 15. August 2012. nsnbc. http://nsnbc.me/2012/08/15/the-usunnato-race-for-global-full-spectrum-
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About the Author: Viban Viban NGO, a Canadian You may contact him for further information by writing to him on Email vibanngo@yahoo.com URL http://www.flagbookscanadainternationalinc.com