UTILITY TARIFFS: SFG Says No To Proposed Increases

SFG Convener Kyeretwie Opoku

By Ekow Mensah

The Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG) has strongly opposed proposals for substantial increases in the tariffs of utility companies.

In a strongly worded statement, the SFG reminded the Government of its manifesto promises and warned of severe consequences of betraying the trust of the people.

The one-page statement was signed by Musah Numoh for the convener.

 It urged the government to focus more attention on how to improve the standard of living of the people of Ghana rather than how to satisfy the greed and appetite so-called foreign investors for profit.

The SFG claimed that it is aware “that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been pushing the Government to unreasonably increase tariffs as a means of ensuring that private investors in the sector can maximise their profits”

It lambasted the utility companies for spending an unreasonable high percentage of their incomes on salaries, allowances and other emoluments.

The utility companies are proposing tariff increases of between 40 percent to 260 percent.

They claim that they are currently operating at a loss and need the increase to stay alive.

Political parties and groups such as the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Peoples National Convention (PNC), the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) and the SFG have opposed the proposed tariff increases.

As we went to bed, there were reliable reports that the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) were busily organising a stakeholders meeting to decide on the tariffs.

Editorial

WE AGREE

The Socialist Forum of Ghana has kicked against the proposed tariff increases by the Utility companies and we fully agree.

These increases would dramatically increase the cost of production and have a ripple effect throughout the economy.

In the final analysis, some workers are likely to lose their jobs as some business close.

For us at The Insight the consequencies of such tariff increases would be grave. If our electricity bill jumps up by 300 per cent, we would not be able to pay and it is that simple.

 In our view the Government ought to deal with the inefficiencies and corruption in the utility companies before it contemplates any tariff increases.

The utility companies should not be allowed to pass on their inefficiencies to consumers by increasing tariffs.

As stated in very clear terms by the SFG, the Government will suffer severe consequences if it goes ahead with the tariff increase.

That Pastor, T.B. Joshua

In recent years, Nigerian pastor T.B. Joshua has built a reputation across Africa for being a very special kind of spiritual leader. Much of the acclaim he has attracted has come as a result of his prophecies.

In fact, his church in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, - the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) - says that Joshua's prophecies are held in such high regard that false rumors using his name have been known to cause wide-spread panic in communities.

SCOAN claims that Joshua has successfully predicted events in the lives of ordinary individuals who attend his services as well as important global events - such as Michael Jackson's death in 2009, the recent Boston Marathon bombings in America and the outcomes of various soccer matches, including the two most recent Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final matches, which were won by Zambia and Nigeria.

His prophecy about the death of former Malawian President Binguwa Mutharika - widely reported in the African media both before and after the fact - created an Internet frenzy.

But on May 19 in Accra, Ghana's capital, many observers were left wondering why Joshua hadn't predicted that a large crowd of people attending a service at his church there would begin a stampede that would injure almost two-dozen people and leave at least four dead.

Now Joshua is facing a torrent of criticism in Ghana and elsewhere, and Ghanaian police have ordered him to cease holding revival meetings, such as· the one where the stampede occurred.

However, the pastor still has many supporters who argue that the surge of people - and the injuries and deaths that resulted - wasn't his fault.

Ghanaian police who were assigned to control the crowd at the church on that day said they were "simply overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people that surged forward in pursuit of "holy water" - reportedly blessed by Joshua - that they believed offered special healing powers.

"All of us were caught by surprise. No one knew the crowd would be so huge," police spokesman Freeman Tetteh said. According to estimates, as many as 45,000 people showed up for the service.

Joshua is one of the wealthiest and most popular evangelical clerics in Africa and his church claim he can perform miracles, such as curing blindness.

According to Tetteh, the crowd that arrived was larger than expected, because it was announced that "holy water" would be given to worshippers.

''The church was also caught by surprise .... Nobody can apportion blame [at this stage]," Tetteh said. "We need to investigate and establish responsibility."

Some of the wounded were initially in critical condition at a local hospital, Tetteh said.

According to media reports, the stampede began when people at the back of the church began to push to get to the altar.

"The crowd surged forward and became uncontrollable," Tetteh said.

One worshipper, Gertrude Sumbamala, told a reporter that she suffered a broken leg after being caught up in the stampede.'

"People from the back, they pushed ... and they fell on us. So we were battered by a lot of forces," Sumbamala was quoted as saying.

The church's Rev. Sam MeCaanan told a local radio station that the stampede was regrettable.

"We are devastated. It's very unfortunate and we are very sorry," he was quoted as saying.

Never happened before

Officials of the church said it was the first time that people had died during any of their services worldwide, adding that they did all in their power to prevent the tragedy.

''What happened at Spintex [Road] is unprecedented," said the Rev. McCaanan. "We are used to crowds and huge numbers, but not something like this. We are a crowd-puller, but we are not used to a number like this. This is the first of its kind, and we are very devastated about this.

"We are going to do a thorough work to ensure this does not repeat itself. Everything started orderly this morning, until 30 minutes when we heard a stampede outside the office.

"We went outside then saw some casualties lying outside, and others trampled over. We canceled the meeting and called the national ambulance to intervene."

Although at least four people died in the disaster, police numbering about 21 were all treated and discharged from various health facilities in Accra, suggesting that they weren't severely hurt.

Eleven of the victims were sent to the Police Hospital while 10 others were admitted at the 37 Military Hospital.

The four persons who died were identified as John Brainoo, a 61-year-old member of the church who lived in Ashaiman; Esther Adabadzi, 39, a worker at Mass Education Field Work Community Development in Amasaman and resident of Achimota; Mike Teye, 35, a businessman who lived at Ashaiman; and Emmanuel Thomas Addo, 50, also a member of the church and a resident of Darkuman.

In a local media interview, Superintendent J.A. Aduhene Benie, the Airport District police commander, said that authorities had begun a full-scale investigation into the stampede to determine exactly what happened.

"When the cause of death is ascertained after the autopsy, then police will know the next line of action to take," Benie said.

Meanwhile, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, the Greater Accra Region police commander, has directed the church to stop hosting revivals, crusades and other scheduled events at its building on Spintex Road.

Yohuno, who was at the scene, told a reporter that the church could use the Accra Sports Stadium or Black Star Square for such events, but the church building itself was too small to accommodate large crowds.

"The stampede could have been avoided if the church had chosen a bigger venue to hold its events instead of the church premises," Yohuno said.

According to reports, hundreds of believers flocked to the church upon hearing on the church's television station, Emmanuel TV, that the anointed water would be distributed.

Some members of the church were said to have stormed the place the previous night, May 18, before the May 19 service could start.

Although the church reportedly requested security assistance, the number of police personnel deployed to the scene was not adequate to control the crowd.

Condemnation issued

As might be expected, Ghanaian government officials expressed grave concern about the deaths and injuries that occurred at the church.
But Information Minister Mahama Ayariga said authorities were awaiting results of the police investigation into the matter before deciding on an appropriate response.

"Any loss of life, needlessly, is of concern to government," he said.

Tetteh, the police spokesman, said that it was premature for the leadership of the church to be prosecuted, noting that until investigations are concluded, the police cannot read any criminal meaning into the unfortunate incident.

Meanwhile, Douglas Asiedu, former coordinator of Ghana's National Disaster Management Organization, has reminded all churches to adhere to safety rules in the interest of the lives of worshipers.

"It is also the responsibility of the security agencies, especially the police, to ensure that all churches strictly follow safety procedures while assembling worshippers," he said. ''There is nothing wrong for churches to invite the police and other safety organs to coordinate and ensure crowd control during services that command a large crowd."

Despite words of caution from government leaders and the police, media analysts and social commentators did not restrain themselves from offering theories about what happened and assigning culpability.

Some said ignorance among Ghanaians caused the mad rush for ''holy water" and miracles from Prophet Joshua.

They recalled that just two weeks earlier, thousands of Ghanaians rushed to the same Accra church, after hearing of Joshua's arrival in the country.

It is these commentators who argued that previous unrest at the Accra church, as well as the pastor's penchant for predicting events both great and small, should have been enough for Joshua to foresee that the May 19 tragedy was possible - and to enact more safety precautions.

After all, some argued, what is the point of being a prophet if you can't use that power to protect innocent lives?

Others said that the tragedy simply proved that no one - not even a popular preacher - can accurately predict the future, and that all of Joshua's previous prognostications amounted to little more than lucky guesswork.

Faith healing

Many Africans, regardless of social standing, have sought T.B. Joshua's holy water. The list includes prominent Zimbabwean politicians who have frequented Joshua's church in Nigeria. But Zimbabwe's first lady, Grace Mugabe, has criticized these foreign pilgrimages, and has instead encouraged Zimbabwean nationals to follow local prophets such as Ezekiel Guti, Emmanuel Makandiwa, and Andrew Wutauna she, "who are equally talented and mightily used by God."

"I really don't understand why scores of people are putting their faith in foreign preachers," Mugabe said.

"People have this misconception that Zimbabweans do not know how to pray," the first lady said. "Little do they know that we have a lot of anointed people who are able to help us because they know the environment that we are operating under. A closer look at the countries which are being thronged by our people reveals that they are torn by war and hunger.

"It doesn't matter which de- nomination you belong to, we are all seeking one God. Believe in our prophets and stop wasting money visiting far away countries. In Zimbabwe we have people who, through prayer, can heal you from your sickness and restore your broken marriage.

"I really don't understand why scores of people are putting their faith in foreign preachers. They are having to raise a lot of money to visit them when in Zimbabwe we are blessed with-anointed people of God who are able to do even greater things.

Another prominent Zimbabwean, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has sought favor- able predictions from Joshua in the past on whether he would win the country's presidency, but has so far failed unlike Malawi's current President Joyce Banda, whose victory Joshua predicted.

Joshua's beginnings

But the question remains: Who exactly is T.B. Joshua? Perhaps a detailed look at his background will supply the answer.

Temitope Balogun Joshua (born June 12, 1963 in Arigidi, Nigeria) is a Christian minister, televangelist and faith healer. He is leader and founder of the ministry organization the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), which runs a Christian television station called Emmanuel TV, available on satellite and on the Internet via the Streaming Faith broadcast portal.

He is also a notable humanitarian, providing aid to minorities and the underprivileged on national and international scales via a second group called Another Ministry. He has been awarded various accolades, notably receiving the National Honor of OFR by the Nigerian government in 2008. In addition, he is recognized as one of Africa's 50 most influential people.

Joshua is married to Evelyn Joshua. His daughter Serah, graduated from London School of Economics with a law degree in 2012, and was planning to pursue a master's degree in the United States.

Joshua is known for his popularity across Africa and his online presence, with more than 650,000 fans on Facebook and hundreds of YouTube videos that have proved controversial and amassed thousands of views.

According to Joshua's official biography, unusual circumstances surrounded his birth. It is claimed he spent 15 months in his mother's womb and narrowly avoided death after a quarry explosion near his house sent rocks through its roof just seven days after he was born.

Joshua attended St. Stephen's Anglican Primary School in Arigidi-Akoko, Nigeria between 1971 and 1977, but failed to complete one year of secondary school education. In school, he was known as a "small pastor" because of his love for the Bible. He worked in various jobs after his schooling had ended, including carrying chicken waste at a poultry farm. He organized Bible studies for local children and attended evening school during this period. Joshua attempted to join the Nigerian military but was thwarted due to a train breakdown that left him stranded en route to the military academy.

Founding of SCOAN

In 1989, Joshua reportedly fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights. He wrote that in a heavenly vision, he received divine anointing and a covenant from God to start his ministry.

Following this, Joshua founded SCOAN with only a handful of members. According to the organization, more than 15,000 members now attend its weekly Sunday service; visitors from outside Nigeria are accommodated in quarters constructed at the church.

SCOAN has been hailed for its impact on Nigerian tourism, with recent statistics from the Nigerian Immigration Service revealing that out of every 10 foreign travelers coming into Nigeria, six of them are bound for SCOAN services.

But the church remains controversial - both in Nigeria and abroad - claiming regular occurrences of divine miracles. Several hundred Nigerians and international visitors come to SCOAN each week to register for the prayer lines where the visitors are prayed over by Joshua and his "Wise Men."

SCOAN has published numerous videos claiming to document the healing of incurable disabilities and illnesses such as spinal cord Injuries, HIV/AIDS and cancer. Medical reports are a prerequisite for prayer for any health-related ailment in an attempt to authenticate the miracles said to be occurring.

Notable sportspersons who claim to have been healed of sporting injuries at the SCOAN include South African rugby players Jacovander Westhuizen and Jaco du Preeze, and Nigerian soccer player Joseph Yobo.

Spiritual healing at SCOAN has been mentioned by Time magazine. Since June 2010, five "Wise Men" have joined in ministering to people at SCOAN, purportedly able to prophesy, heal and deliver in the same vein as T.B. Joshua.

The church has branches in Ghana, Britain, South Africa and Greece.

Many have also claimed to be healed through "anointing water" that has been prayed over by Joshua and given to those who are unable to physically attend his church in Lagos.

SCOAN is also controversial for the "deliverance" of those allegedly possessed by evil spirits. The wife of Ghanaian national soccer team goal- keeper Richard Kingson was allegedly delivered of an evil spirit that was behind her husband's inability to procure
a contract with a team since 2011.

Notable Ghanaian human rights lawyer Kwabla Senanu testified at SCOAN that he was "delivered" from a spiritual problem that had caused him embarrassing bouts of sleep in the courtroom. Similarly, Ghanaian musician Denise Williams said she was "delivered" from a demon that pushed her to become a drug addict and suicidal. Veteran Nigerian actress Camilla Mberekpe also was said to be "delivered" at SCOAN.

Humanitarian work

Another Ministry is the humanitarian arm of SCOAN. It caters to the needs of widows, the elderly, physically challenged, orphans and the destitute. The church provides scholarships to orphans and children of the underprivileged, with educational support given from primary to tertiary levels. Joshua's scholarship sponsorships have helped more than 5,000 Nigerian and foreign students, with one Nigerian student earning a Ph.D. at Oxford University in Britain.

There is also a rehabilitation program for armed robbers, prostitutes, political thugs and militants from Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta region.

Joshua is also well known in Nigeria for reconciling broken families and marriages. SCOAN has established various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in other countries, including the Passion For Needy in Ghana.

After the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, Joshua sent a. team of medical personnel and humanitarian workers to the affected area, establishing a field hospital called "Clinique Emmanuel." One reporter estimated that Joshua had spent $20 million on humanitarian
activities in a three-year period.

   

 In recognition of his humanitarian activities, Joshua was awarded a National Honor by the Nigerian government in 2008.

Joshua and pastors from SCOAN also have attracted controversy for their claims of healing incurable illnesses and recommending that "healed" individuals stop taking potentially life-saving antiviral medications.

But his apparent failure to foresee the tragic events of May 19 in Ghana has only provided ammunition to critics who claim Joshua is little I more than a "confidence trick-faster" who takes advantage of gullible people.

Joshua's response in the wake of the tragedy will go a long way in proving or disapproving the merits of those I critics' arguments.

Egypt’s threat to Ethiopia

By Finian Cunningham

Ethiopia’s parliament this week voted to push ahead with the country’s controversial Blue Nile hydroelectric dam project. The move is bound to raise the political stakes even higher following threats earlier this week by Egypt that it would go to war over Ethiopia’s plan to build a $4.7-billion dam on the great river.

Egypt claims that construction of the dam in Ethiopia will cause grave detriment to its supply of fresh water and spell ruin to its economy.

Most of Egypt’s 85 million people live on the banks of the Nile and the country relies on the river for over 95 per cent of its fresh water supply. For millennia, Egyptian civilization has depended on the bountiful Nile - the world’s longest river, stretching more than 6,500 kilometers from its source in Central Africa to its outlet in the Mediterranean Sea, just north of Egypt’s capital, Cairo.

The Nile comprises two tributaries: the longer White Nile originates in Burundi or Rwanda (still a matter of dispute among geographers) and it meets with the Blue Nile coming out of Ethiopia. The meeting point is near Khartoum, the capital of North Sudan, and thence the Nile flows on to Egypt. However, it is Ethiopia’s Blue Nile that provides more than 85 per cent of the downstream water of the Lower Nile.

That is why the construction of the mega dam in Ethiopia has apparently provoked so much alarm in Egypt. Ethiopia’s Blue Nile hydroelectric project - the biggest in Africa - has been on the drawing board for several years, initiated by the country’s late prime minister, Meles Zenawi, who died last year. At the end of last month, Ethiopia began diverting the water of the Blue Nile to enable construction of the dam.

Egypt has responded now with dire calls of national emergency, led by its president, Mohammed Morsi. This week Morsi said that his country reserved the right to militarily defend its vital national interests.

“All options are on the table,” he said, adding that any drop of water lost would be replaced by Egyptian blood. Morsi has since toned down the war rhetoric towards Ethiopia.

But, nevertheless, the relations between Africa’s second and third most populous countries remain extremely fraught, especially in light of the latest move by Ethiopia’s lawmakers to push ahead with the dam. Some Salafist members of Egypt’s parliament have even called for covert sabotage of the dam, which at this stage is about 20 per cent complete. Those calls prompted the Ethiopians this week to summon the Egyptian ambassador in Addis Ababa to explain his country’s declared baleful intentions.

Ethiopia’s concerns will have only been underscored by talking points released also this week by the Pentagon-aligned think-tank, Stratfor, which weighed up Egypt’s options of military sabotage, including air strikes and demolition by Special Forces.

So, what is going on here? Nobody is denying that the Nile is a vital national interest for Egypt. But it seems a reckless and outrageous leap of hysteria by Egypt to launch threats of war against Ethiopia over the issue.

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, has vowed that the Blue Nile hydroelectric scheme is not intended to adversely affect the flow of water to Egypt or Sudan. His view is supported by a recent study conducted by technical people from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, which concluded that there would be no significant long-term reduction in downstream water supply as a result the dam.

However, without presenting contrary expert evidence, Egypt’s Morsi asserts that his country’s water supply will be curtailed by 20 per cent - a reduction that would indeed be catastrophic for the already drought-prone North African country. But this is the big question: is Egypt’s supply of fresh water really threatened? The scientific study so far would say not.

That raises the further question: why is president Morsi making such a big deal about Ethiopia’s Blue Nile project? The answer may be less to do with Ethiopia diverting water and more to do with Morsi diverting political problems within his own country.

Later this month, on 30 June, there is a mass opposition rally planned in Cairo to mark the first anniversary of Morsi taking office. The Muslim Brotherhood president has seen a very rocky first year in power, with many Egyptians not happy with his policies since he took over from the ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Top of the popular grievances against Morsi is his support for Salafist extremists in NATO’s covert regime-change war in Syria; his continuing collusion with Israel in its oppression of Palestinians; and, domestically, Morsi has been accused of doing little to improve the living standards of Egypt’s majority of impoverished workers and
families.

Morsi’s belligerent rhetoric over Ethiopia’s Blue Nile project has sought to divert internal opposition to his government into an international dispute with a neighbouring African country.

In his fiery speeches recently, Morsi has been working the crowds with jingoism and nationalism, stressing that Egyptians are “at one” over their claimed rights to the Nile water. The obvious theme here by Morsi is to convince Egyptians to put aside their objections to his dubious governance and to focus instead on an ostensible external enemy - Ethiopia.

Let’s look at the issue from Ethiopia’s point of view. The Blue Nile is geographically a national resource of Ethiopia. It originates from the country’s northern highlands, which drain into Lake Tana, one of Africa’s largest lakes. From there, the Blue Nile meanders northwards on its long journey to the Mediterranean.

The river might be more accurately called the Brown Nile because of its muddy colour owing to the fertile minerals and organic matter that it leaches from the Ethiopian land. This is partly why the Nile has sustained Egypt’s agriculture for millennia - it is a river of natural goodness courtesy of Ethiopia’s rich soil.

But the way Ethiopians see it - and they have just cause - is why should their country not be the first beneficiary of the powerful and fertile water of the Nile?

After all, ask Ethiopians, does Egypt give away its natural oil and gas wealth to other countries for free? No, so why should Ethiopia permit its primary water resource to be freely accessed by others at the cost of its own pressing development needs?

Egypt claims that it has historic and legal right to the Nile. This refers to a treaty signed in 1929 between the 11 countries that share the Nile water. They include the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan (North and South) and the upstream lands of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

That historic treaty gave Egypt and Sudan veto power over any of the upstream countries tapping water from the Blue and White Niles. The treaty also gave Egypt the lion’s share of the headwaters - some 70 per cent. Who instigated that 1929 Nile treaty? Well, wouldn’t you know? - It was the jolly-good-old British Empire.

It was the British who insisted that their former colonial territories of Egypt and Sudan should receive the abundance of the Nile from the sub-Saharan African countries - for free and forevermore.

The legal rights that modern-day Egypt refers to are, therefore, the legacy of British colonialism that was designed to disadvantage poor black African nations for the benefit of British capital in Egypt and Sudan. In other words, from a modern-day democratic and ethical point of view, the Nile treaty that Egypt lionizes is not worth the British blood-spattered colonial-era paper it is written.

Seen from this vantage, the Blue Nile is a vast natural resource that Ethiopia has not been allowed to avail of simply because of historic British-imposed laws.

While Egypt has for decades gained free water, soil fertility and has constructed its own hydroelectric dams on the river, Ethiopia and the other African source countries are barred from such benefits. And yet the needs of Ethiopia’s population are heartrendingly dire. The country of 85 million - on parity with Egypt - is one of the poorest in the world with some 70 per cent of the population subsisting on less than $2 a day.

A major factor in Ethiopia’s underdevelopment is the lack of electricity. Every day the country is subject to blackouts, a crippling impediment to humanitarian development. If the Blue Nile project goes ahead, it is projected to supply 6,000 megawatts of electricity - six times the output, for example, from Iran’s Bushehr power station working at full capacity.

But here is perhaps the winning argument. It is not just Ethiopia’s sovereign right to use its Blue Nile resource for the betterment of its people; and it’s not just the rejection of arbitrary unjust colonial-era laws. There is an all-important long-term ecological reason for why Ethiopia should go ahead with its hydroelectric plans. Ironically, this reason is also in Egypt’s long-term interest.

Meteorological data is backed up by anecdotal observations of Ethiopian elders that the country’s rainfall has been seriously declining over many years. The vital rainy season is becoming shorter and more erratic. This ominous climate change is directly connected with the fact that Ethiopia has lost some 90 per cent of its forests over recent decades.

This lack of tree cover has resulted in the land becoming more arid and barren posing a dangerous threat to not only food security in a famine-risk country, but also to the replenishment of Lake Tana and the Blue Nile. A primary reason for the deforestation in Ethiopia is the need for charcoal upon which most Ethiopians rely for cooking and daily sustenance. That need for charcoal and resultant destruction of forests and decline in rainfall arises because of the chronic lack of electricity.

If Ethiopia is to reverse its deforestation and dwindling rainfall that will require giving its people access to electricity in order to obviate the unsustainable use of charcoal as the primary domestic fuel.

The Blue Nile hydro-project gives Ethiopia a way out of that dilemma.

By allowing the country to develop electrical power and to repair its ecology and water management, the future of the Blue Nile will also be conserved. The present prevailing situation of deforestation and declining water supply to the Blue Nile is in nobody’s interest, including that of Egypt.

Instead of declaring war and threatening to send in commandos to blow up Ethiopia’s nascent dam project, Egypt’s president Morsi should step back and view the bigger picture, not just for the sake of Ethiopians, but also for the sake of his country’s long-term dependence on the continued viability of the Blue Nile. Then Morsi might realize that all his reckless bellicose rhetoric towards Ethiopia is ‘dam stupid’. 

US complicit in South America drug trade

By Dr. Dylan Murphy

Mexico is in the grip of a murderous drug war that has killed over 150,000 people since 2006. It is one of the most violent countries on earth. This drug war is a product of the transnational drug trade which is worth up to USD 400 billion a year and accounts for about 8% of all international trade.

The American government maintains that there is no alternative but to vigorously prosecute their zero tolerance policy of arresting drug users and their dealers. This has led to the incarceration of over 500,000 Americans. Meanwhile the flood of illegal drugs into America continues unabated.

One thing the American government has not done is to prosecute the largest banks in the world for supporting the drug cartels by washing billions of dollars of their blood stained money. As Narco sphere journalist Bill Conroy has observed banks are ''where the money is'' in the global drug war.

HSBC, Western Union, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase&Co, Citigroup, Wachovia amongst many others have allegedly failed to comply with American anti-money laundering (AML) laws.

The Mexican drug cartels have caught the headlines again and again due to their murderous activities. The war between the different drug cartels and the war between the cartels and government security forces has spilled the blood of tens of thousands of innocent people. The drug cartels would find it much harder to profit from their murderous activity if they didn't have too big to fail banks willing to wash their dirty money.

In March 2010 Wachovia cut a deal with the US government which involved the bank being given fines of USD 160 million under a ''deferred prosecution'' agreement. This was due to Wachovia's heavy involvement in money laundering moving up to USD 378.4 billion over several years. Not one banker was prosecuted for illegal involvement in the drugs trade. Meanwhile small time drug dealers and users go to prison.

If any member of the public is caught in possession of a few grams of coke or heroin you can bet your bottom dollar they will be going down to serve some hard time. However, if you are a bankster caught laundering billions of dollars for some of the most murderous people on the planet you get off with a slap on the wrist in the form of some puny fine and a deferred prosecution deal.

Charles A. Intriago, president of the Miami-based Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists has observed, “… If you’re an individual, and get caught, you get hammered.

“But if you’re a big bank, and you’re caught moving money for a terrorist or drug dealer, you don’t have to worry. You just fork over a monetary penalty, and then raise your fees to make up for it.

“Until we see bankers walking off in handcuffs to face charges in these cases, nothing is going to change,” Intriago adds. “These monetary penalties are just a cost of doing business to them, like paying for a new corporate jet.”

This failure on the behalf of the US government to really crack down on the finances of the drug cartels extends to British banks as well. In July 2012 the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs issued a 339 page report detailing an amazing catalogue of ''criminal '' behavior by London based HSBC.

This includes washing over USD 881 for the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel and for the Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia. Besides this, HSBC affiliated banks such as HBUS repeatedly broke American AML laws by their long standing and severe AML deficiencies which allowed Saudi banks such as Al Rajhi to finance terrorist groups that included Al-Qaeda. HBUS the American affiliate of HSBC supplied Al Rajhi bank with nearly USD 1 billion.

Jack Blum an attorney and former Senate investigator has commented, “They violated every goddamn law in the book. They took every imaginable form of illegal and illicit business.”

HSBC affiliate HBUS was repeatedly instructed to improve its anti-money laundering program. In 2003 the Federal Reserve Bank of New York took enforcement action that called upon HBUS to improve its anti-money laundering program.

In September 2010 the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) sent a ''blistering supervisory letter'' to HBUS listing numerous AML problems at the bank. In October 2010 this was followed up with the OCC issuing a cease and desist order requiring HBUS to improve its AML program a second time.

Senator Carl Levin chairman of the Senate investigation into HSBC has commented that ''HSBC’s Chief Compliance Officer and other senior executives in London knew what was going on, but allowed the deceptive conduct to continue.''

Let us look at just a couple of the devastating findings in the Senate report. The main focus of the report is the multiple failures of HSBC to comply with AML laws and regulations:

''The identified problems included a once massive backlog of over 17,000 alerts identifying possible suspicious activity that had yet to be reviewed; ineffective methods for identifying suspicious activity; a failure to file timely Suspicious Activity Reports with US law enforcement; ... a 3-year failure by HBUS [a HSBC affiliate] , from mid-2006 to mid-2009, to conduct any AML monitoring of USD 15 billion in bulk cash transactions ... a failure to monitor USD 60 trillion in annual wire transfer activity by customers ...inadequate and unqualified AML staffing; inadequate AML resources; and AML leadership problems.

The report catalogues in great detail the failings of HSBC affiliates HBUS in America and HMEX in Mexico:

''From 2007 through 2008, HBMX was the single largest exporter of US dollars to HBUS, shipping USD 7 billion in cash to HBUS over two years, outstripping larger Mexican banks and other HSBC affiliates. Mexican and US authorities expressed repeated concern that HBMX’s bulk cash shipments could reach that volume only if they included illegal drug proceeds. The concern was that drug traffickers unable to deposit large amounts of cash in US banks due to AML controls were transporting US dollars to Mexico, arranging for bulk deposits there, and then using Mexican financial institutions to insert the cash back into the US financial system. ... high profile clients involved in drug trafficking; millions of dollars in suspicious bulk travelers cheque transactions; inadequate staffing and resources; and a huge backlog of accounts marked for closure due to suspicious activity, but whose closures were delayed.''

In the Senate hearing on July 17, 2012 Carl Levin Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs explained how HMEX helped the Mexican drug cartels:

''Because our tough AML laws in the United States have made it hard for drug cartels to find a US bank willing to accept huge unexplained deposits of cash, they now smuggle US dollars across the border into Mexico and look for a Mexican bank or casa de cambio willing to take the cash. Some of those casas de cambios had accounts at HBMX. HBMX, in turn, took all the physical dollars it got and transported them by armored car or aircraft back across the border to HBUS for deposit into its US banknotes account, completing the laundering cycle.''

Senator Levin went on to note how: ''Over two years, from 2007 to 2008, HBMX shipped 7 billion in physical US dollars to HBUS. That was more than any other

Mexican bank, even one twice HBMX’s size. When law enforcement and bank regulators in Mexico and the United States got wind of the banknotes transactions, they warned HBMX and HBUS that such large dollar volumes were red flags for drug proceeds moving through the HSBC network.''

In December 2012 the Department of Justice cut a deal with HSBC which imposed a record USD 1.9 billion dollar fine. It may sound a lot to ordinary folks but it is a tiny fraction of its annual profits which in 2011 totaled USD 22 billion. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Bauer announced the settlement at a press conference on 11 December 2012.

His comments reveal why the US government decided to go soft on such criminal behavior and show quite clearly how there is one law for the richest 1% and one law for the rest of us. Lenny Bauer said: ''Had the US authorities decided to press criminal charges, HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking license in the US, the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilized.''

Think about that statement for a moment. A bank that has quite clearly been caught out helping murderous drug criminals, terrorist groups, third world dictatorships and all sorts of criminal characters is to be let off with a slap on the wrist.

No criminal prosecutions or even a mention of criminal behavior due to the fears that to do so would put the world economy in jeopardy. So there you have it. Banksters who engage in such behavior that is regarded as criminal by the vast majority of people on the planet are not only too big to fail they are also too big to jail.

After the Department of Justice announcement of the deferred prosecution HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said, "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again.''

Such statements will provide little solace to the families of the 150,000 people estimated by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to have been killed in Mexico's drug war. Nor will it help the hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens who have been forced to flee their homes and escape the violence by going to the United Sates or moving to other parts of Mexico.

Senator Elizabeth Warren appearing at a meeting of the Senate Banking Committee in February expressed frustration with officials from the US Treasury Department and US Federal Reserve over the issue of why criminal charges were not pressed on HSBC or any of its officials. The officials were evasive when she tried to draw them on the issue of what it takes for a bank to have its license withdrawn:

''HSBC paid a fine, but no one individual went to trial, no individual was banned from banking, and there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States. So, what I’d like is, you’re the experts on money laundering. I’d like an opinion: What does it take - how many billions do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate - before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?''

Senator Warren finished the session by commenting on the glaring double standards within the US justice system:

“You know, if you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re going to go to jail. If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life. But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night, every single individual associated with this. I think that’s fundamentally wrong.”

On 4 March 2013 HSBC announced profits of USD 20.6 billion in 2012 while it paid out a USD 3 million bonus to its CEO. This outrageous state of affairs beggars belief after HSBC has been clearly caught out engaging in activity on behalf of murderous drug lords, terrorist financing banks and brutal third world dictatorships.

Where is the British Government's condemnation of HSBC? You may be waiting a long time for that considering the fact that Chancellor George Osborne and his fellow ministers are intimately connected to the British banking elite.

This government of the rich ruling on behalf of the rich will never take action of any kind against the criminal activity of British banksters. Nor will the craven mainstream media expose the blatant hypocrisy of a government which wages war against the poorest sections of society while completely ignoring criminal activity by British banksters whether it be Libor fraud or laundering money for some of the most murderous people on the planet.

Long time observer of the Mexican drug war Bill Conroy comments that the deal cut with HSBC by the Department of Justice, ''should illuminate for all the great pretense of the drug war - no matter how hard US prosecutors, via the mainstream media, attempt to convince us otherwise. ...And it should lead us to conclude, if we are honest with ourselves, that the so-called drug war is little more than one immense "drug deal.''