DOOM! Human Beings will have to leave the Earth in 100 years

Professor Stephen Hawking

By Erin Elizabeth 

According to renowned astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking, mankind must leave planet Earth in the next 100 years in order to survive.

In a new BBC series, Prof. Hawking claims that mankind’s time on Earth is running out and that we need to leave our planet if our species wants to survive.

Professor Hawking believes that humans must colonize other worlds within the next 100 years in order to survive several threats that our species faces; climate change, asteroid strikes and even overpopulation and perhaps the most worrisome of all, nuclear strikes.

BBC’s new documentary titled Expedition New Earth—which is part of the BBC’s new science season Tomorrow’s World—Professor Hawking and his former student Christophe Galfard travel around our planet trying to find out how our civilization could survive the near future.

According to the Telegraph, BBC’s series also aims to discover Britain’s greatest inventor and has asked the public to VOTE on the innovation which has been the most influential in their lives.

Professor Hawking has actively spoken out in the last couple of years about the threats that mankind faces.

From the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, biological warfare, to the threats from outer space, Professor Hawking said that only a “world government” may prevent impending doom.

Mr. Hawking previously commented that humans may lack the skills as a species to stay alive. “I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet,” he had said, adding: “I therefore want to encourage public interest in space, and I have been getting my training in early.”

According to the World’s smartest man, our planet is headed towards disaster.

“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years,” he said. “However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period.”

Last year Professor Hawking made quite a few predictions and said that chances of an apocalyptic even on Earth are a near certainty.

“Although the chance of disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next 1,000 or 10,000 years,” Hawking told the Oxford University Union in November.

“By that time, we should have spread out into space and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.”

However, if we are to leave Earth as Professor Hawking suggests, where should we go? Who do you save? Who gets to go to a brand new planet? Who will take us there and who will pay for it all?

Too many questions that can be solved in a period of 100 years, don’t you think?

Efforts to create human colonies on other planets or moon’s in our solar system has already begun, with mastermind Elon Musk already hoping to establish functional settlements on another world in the next few decades through his company SpaceX.

Musk said in 2016: “I don’t have a doomsday prophecy, but history suggests some doomsday event will happen

*Article originally appeared on Earth. We are one.

Editorial

WARNING!

The warning by Professor Stephen Hawking a renowned astrophysicist that the earth could very easily become uninhabitable in the next 100 years ought to be taken seriously.

The rate of deforestation, the pollution of water bodies, global warning and the threat of nuclear annihilation must be enough pointers to possibility of the earth becoming uninhabitable in 100 years.

Professor Hawking’s suggestion is that we should escape from our own destructive tendencies and perhaps colonise another planet for our survival.

We disagree with him.

In our view what we need to do is to struggle to end all the dangers the earth faces so we can comfortably live on it.

It is within our power as human beings to stop a nuclear war and we can end environmental degradation.

 Let’s get to work now!

Local News:

PUWU DAMNS MINISTER 

By Abubakar Ibrahim

Staff of energy distribution company, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have refuted government's claim that its debt keeps worsening on a daily basis. 

The Public Utilities Workers Union of TUC Ghana has expressed shock and regret at what they described as "unfortunate" the statement by Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.

In a statement signed by Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi, the PUWU said "the Minister's assertion that ECG’s debt stock appears to be worsening by the day due to its faulty metering system and avoidable employee recklessness is not supported by the facts."

Mr Agyarko had told a group of journalists and officials of Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) after the inauguration of a 7-member ECG PSP Stakeholders’ Committee in Accra that the growing debt stock at the ECG was worsening by the day.

“What happens to the balance? You look at their inventory and they have 20 years’ supply of spares. You have locked up that money in spares that would be obsolete,” he said.

He further observed that “ECG’s debt accumulation on a monthly basis is GHS66 million...every month, they add GHS66 million to their cost. And if this happens in the next five years, what prevents the EOCO from laying you off?”

But PUWU said "ECG’s currently average weekly collection is GH¢103,918,594.11, as against a target of GH¢130,000,000. This excludes indebtedness by MMDAs and Ghana Water Company Limited, which are state entities."

"We want to state that as the Sector Minister, we expect him to provide strategic direction and policy guidelines for the Company, and not to descend into these minor operational areas which the Management of the Company can easily deal with.

"There are bigger issue to make the Company operate efficiently, and we thought that these are the issues which should occupy the mind and attention of the Minister," PUWU said. 

Boakye Agyarko, Minister of Energy

Below is the statement

The Public Utilities Workers Union of TUC Ghana, has read with shock the publication in the Daily Guide Newspaper of May, 15 2017, with respect to a statement purported to have been made by the Minister of Energy, Honourable Boakye Agyarko, under the caption “Energy Minister Uncovers ECG’s Rot.”

The statements attributed to the Minister are very much regrettable, and as workers of the Company, we find it very unfortunate that at such a critical stage in the life of ECG, the sector Minister will make such sweeping statements.

The assertion that ECG’s debt stock appears to be worsening by the day due to its faulty metering system and avoidable employee recklessness is not supported by the facts. On the contrary, ECG’s currently average weekly collection is GH¢103,918,594.11, as against a target of GH¢130,000,000. This excludes indebtedness by MMDAs and Ghana Water Company Limited, which are state entities.

If there is any accumulation of debt, then it is just coming from the angle of the MMDAs, and this has come about because of political directives not to disconnect the MMDAs because government has promised to pay the bills of the MMDAs. However, as at the end of 2016, the MMDAs debt stood at GH¢1,390,966,034.74. For the first three months of 2017, the MMDA debts totalled GH¢226,967,736.08, and of this debt for 2017, government has paid GH¢18,133,575.17.

As at the end of March 2017, total debt including that of GWCL was GH¢1,599,800,195.66, so it is strange for the Minister to attribute this accumulation of debt to the reckless acts or behaviour of ECG employees. If there is any debt accumulation, then it is the direct action of government for non-payment of MMDA bills, and not any inaction on the part of ECG employees.

There have been several instances where efforts to collect amounts owing from MMDAs have been frustrated and sometimes interfered by political pressures, such that even organisations that were disconnected were asked to be reconnected by political authorities.

Concerning the assertion that the US Embassy demands bills and ECG has not been able to provide the Embassy with bills is also very strange because as far we know to date, the US Embassy does not owe ECG in terms of bills. So if they were not getting bills, would they have paid all their indebtedness till date?

So this is a statement we find very unfortunate, and ask the Minister to provide further details. Similar details are also required about the issue of spare parts. Currently ECG is having shortage of materials which is affecting the one day service that was introduced by the Company.

With respect to MTN owing ECG about GH¢35,000,000 as asserted by the Minister, this is basically an issue of billing arrangement and some challenges with the initial CMS as it was deployed, which has been identified, and efforts made towards correcting this situation. MTN has over 1000 sites, and some MTN sites are already being billed through the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system, so bills are read automatically from remote areas.

It is the few areas which are not on the AMR that arrangements are being made to sort out the actual amounts that MTN has to pay, which some of the residential sites are being made to pay. However, the billing anomaly has been identified and the corrections are being made, so it is not accurate to say that MTN owes that much and nothing is being done to collect monies from MTN.

It is also strange for the Minister to assert that ECG’s networking capital is negative. It is a fact undisputable that Africa, south of the Sahara, with the exception of South Africa, ECG has the widest coverage in terms of electricity distribution, about 80%, despite the challenges with supply upsetting at a point in time, ECG has been distributing power to significant numbers of its customers, so it is strange that a Company which has a negative networking capital of GH¢2,000,000 will be able to continue servicing its customers on such regular basis.

And anybody who has taken time to go around the Country can attest to the fact that ECG, with the support of some external financing agencies, is constantly improving its distribution network, and building a lot of sub-stations as well as warehouses to improve its operational activities. We will therefore urge and challenge the Minister to come up with specifics with regards to such statements about this negative GH¢2,000,000 GHC networking capital of ECG.

In conclusion, we want to state that as the Sector Minister, we expect him to provide strategic direction and policy guidelines for the Company, and not to descend into these minor operational areas which the Management of the Company can easily deal with. There are bigger issue to make the Company operate efficiently, and we thought that these are the issues which should occupy the mind and attention of the Minister.

Four months into the new government, a Company like ECG has no Board, and with an Acting Managing Director. How do you expect key decisions to be taken to ensure improvement in the Company’s operation? Is it the question of giving the dog a bad name, so to hang it?

And we also want to draw the attention of government that such kind of pronouncements will not inure to the benefits of the Company or Ghana, because at the end of the day, even if you are going ahead with this PSP, you are projecting a very weak Company that will weaken the negotiations with any prospective bidder, and we think that the Minister ought to look at the bigger picture and see how to position ECG to be a Company that can provide value for Ghana and for Ghanaians.

Signed.

Lawyer Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi

“Together Let’s Get Ghana Working”

Ambassador Haruna Atta

By H.E. Abdul-Rahman Harruna Attah, MOV

How many Ghanaians remember “The Decade that Stopped the Decay”? This was the message that sprung up on billboards in Accra – and possibly around the country, during the tenth anniversary of the coup of December 31 1981.

Governments would often come up with such things to convince themselves that they are either doing well or enjoy the goodwill of the governed and are “carrying the people along”.

How many Ghanaians remember “The Decade that Stopped the Decay”? This was the message that sprung up on billboards in Accra – and possibly around the country, during the tenth anniversary of the coup of December 31 1981.

Governments would often come up with such things to convince themselves that they are either doing well or enjoy the goodwill of the governed and are “carrying the people along”.

Some are also meant to build a personality cult around a “leader” and so images of whoever at that time is in charge pop up all over the place accompanied by quotes from his or her sayings.

At one time in the not too distant past, the state-owned media started referring to the PNDC Chairman as the “Leader of the Revolution”, It did not catch on and fizzled out after a while. The same state-owned media, specifically in this case, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, had much earlier toyed about, during the Acheampong NRC days with “Voice of the Revolution”! Military regimes are rather fond of these things…

During civilian administrations, electioneering campaign periods, offer opportunities for political narcissism, now accepted as a legitimate part of the game and citizens are bombarded with images and sound-bytes that are intended to wiggle out the votes from us. Whether they succeed in that or not, basketfuls of money are expended from campaign war chests to get the messages following us all over the place.

Election 2016 has come and gone. A change from one administration to the other has been by and large smooth and seamless. Stunned into silence, the departing administration has vacated the agitation-propaganda space, now dominated by the victors’ part sneering, part triumphalist messages. The “Ayeeko” immediately after the change-over were fawning gloats from party people and can be excused as post-election celebratory exuberance, but official sounding ones have also made an appearance. Two that caught my attention in the weeks after the change-over were the one commanding us to get together and get “Ghana working” and another one with a “Pledge” as its theme…

As public exhortations go, who can quarrel or indeed why take issue with a national rallying call to get together and get the country working?!

It is just that something about them doesn’t sound convincing and genuine – perhaps rather contradictory and hypocritical to the reality.

First of all our multi-party dispensation does not make the exhortations possible and secondly the people behind such exhortations lack the kind of sincerity and magnanimity that will get all of us getting together to get our country working.

Our (mis)interpretations, over the years of elections, is that the winning party has all the wisdom, expertise, knowledge, experience and human resource to run our affairs single-handedly. A tradition therefore of discarding vital human resources after elections, that do not belong, has been established. Very good people have been put out to pasture simply on the grounds that they do not belong. They have been discarded not on the grounds of inability, incompetence or crime against the state but simply because of elections…It is a long inglorious story of nugatory vindictiveness and pettiness, spanning these past 60 years of our nationhood. Our immediate post-election periods often mirror military take-overs.

In the 4th Republic, there have been three real change-overs: 2000, 2008 and 2016 when one political party has handed over to another and true to form they have all been fraught with the military take-over mindset…

There is nowhere more victimized than the public services where CEOs fall prey to witch-hunts and purges. A couple of examples will suffice: When the NPP came to power after the 2000 elections Dr. Akoto at TOR was a victim. When the NDC came to power after the 2008 elections, Dr. Sarpong at TOR was also shown the exit… These are two MDs I worked with whose abilities I can vouch for and who deserved better than their politically motivated booting out of office. There are many, many, of such humiliating exits…

But one recent one that has chilled my blood is the booting of Alfred Ogbamey from his communication job at the gas company. The office he was occupying before Election 2016 was not even at the CEO level. Rumour has it that his “case” came up at a cabinet meeting and like in a Roman arena where blood-thirsty spectators bay for the blood of the vanquished, the thumbs down for his blood were overwhelming and he had to be axed. Other rumours claim that the letter for his decapitation emanated from the highest office of the land!

So with this kind of purge mentality, how can we together get Ghana working? The exhortation, that “Together Let’s Get Ghana Working”, is not only patently insincere and hollow, but rather insulting, in the face of these witch-hunts.

A nation, said Abraham Lincoln, cannot survive half free, half slave; true, a developing nation like Ghana, I also declare, cannot make progress with half in vilification and half in self-righteous Machiavellian axe-wielding! This electoral cycle of tit for tat cannot be the catalyst to encourage, grow and nurture the spirit of “Together Let’s Get Ghana Working”.

Foreign News:

Destabilization Plots against Syria and Venezuela

By Hugo Turner

The empire is on the rampage across the planet. World War 4 is intensifying with disastrous results for the world. The US has expanded its aggression against so many countries at once that is hard to keep up.

North Korea is under threat of an unprovoked attack. However North Korea is prepared to defend itself and Trump will probably be forced to back down. In fact he already has made a fool of himself with his ghost armada.

In Afghanistan he dropped a MOAB bomb on Torah Bora suffocating and incinerating untold numbers of Afghanis. In fact he plans another pointless surge in Afghanistan when everyone knows the war is lost.

Yemen which has already known untold suffering in the 2-year long war will now suffer even more as the US expands its role in the conflict attempting to rescue the genocidal Saudi royals from a humiliating defeat at the hands of Yemen’s people.

The US is expanding its decades long war on Somalia.

In Ecuador the US is trying to undermine the election of Lenin Moreno. NATO is cementing its ties to the fanatical bloodthirsty royals of the GCC countries (the Saudis, Qataris, and other tyrants) through the NATO-Istanbul cooperation Initiative which means NATO and Al Qaeda are basically officially allied as if it wasn’t already obvious after the horrifying wars on Libya and Syria.

In other words Trump is massively expanding every dirty war and destabilization campaign the Empire is involved in and doubtless in future months we will learn of countries now peaceful being thrown into chaos as a result of CIA/NED operations now being launched of which we have no idea. We can only hope that Russia and China are working on some plans of their own.

For now, however,  I must focus on the two countries which are among the most important fronts in World War 4:  Syria and Venezuela. Thankfully the initial attack on Syria was far from the all out war I feared. Brave soldiers and civilians were killed but the Syrians were able to get the air base back online the next day. However it sets a dangerous precedent for the US to attack Syria whenever the NATO death squads are loosing some battle.

In Venezuela there is yet another attempt to overthrow the government and install US puppets. The Neoliberal opposition in Venezuela have been rioting revealing their true character with the evil and stupidity of their antics. However the people of Venezuela have taken to the streets to oppose the latest plots against their country.

We’ll probably never know what actually happened behind the scenes but instead of launching an all out regime change assault on Syria, Trump merely did openly what the US has been doing “accidentally” since it began bombing Syria. He targeted the SAA and doubtless their Russian and Iranian allies at Shayrat airbase which the Syrian Arab Air force was using to support the SAA’s victorious counter-offensive in the battle of Hama and in its attacks on ISIS controlled areas. It was also of course the same base from which allegedly Syria shot down an Israeli jet which was openly serving as ISIS air force. The rumor is that using electronic warfare Russia was able to disable more then half the Tomahawks. Only 23 of 59 hit their targets. It is unclear how many were killed as Syria attempted to portray the effects as minimal in order to avoid boosting enemy morale. Regardless of the damage the strikes have had little effect on the course of the war. The SAA is advancing victoriously across the country although NATO’s terrorist death squads are also launching fierce counter-offensives they made only temporary gains that were quickly reversed. Once again Syria has proved itself the most heroic country on the planet. In the face of Trump’s treachery, the endless lies of the mainstream media and genocidal “Human Rights” groups, the threats of the US and NATO, and attacks by the US and Israel they refuse to lose heart or to stop even for a single day their war to liberate their country from the terrorist death squads.

These monsters whom the west calls moderates sunk to a new level of infamy last week with their murder of over 200 people of whom 116 were children. We will never forget the horrible massacre at Rashideen. The people killed were refugees from the towns of Foua and Karfaya who have suffered one of the most tragic sieges of the war.

I learned of them at the same time as I learned of the work of the courageous Eva Bartlett back in 2015. Her articles were both horrifying and heartbreaking. Often lacking food, electricity, clean water, or medicine, they were being continually bombarded by death squads who fired rockets, artillery and “Hell Cannons” Fuel canisters turned into fire bombs.

Families watched as their loved ones died because of lack of medicine. Children starved to death or were killed by terrorists. Yet their plight was of course completely ignored by the propagandists in the mainstream media. Since then their ordeal has continued shelling hunger and being forced to repel constant attacks. Finally a deal was struck to evacuate them to safety in the same way as the Syrian government has allowed the terrorists to flee unharmed with their lives and families.

But the terrorists of course cannot be trusted to show similar mercy to their victims. Instead they decided to murder the children of the refugees. First they held the refugees captive on the buses for two days. Then a car drove up offering to give away food to the starving passengers. As the children gathered around to collect bags of potato chips the NATO death squads detonated a bomb killing over 200 people 115 of them children. The poor refugees of Foua and Karfaya were not even allowed to keep the corpses of their murdered children but were forced to watch as the terrorists and some turkish ambulances collected and then drove off with their children’s corpses. It is hard even to find words to describe the monstrous depravity of this crime which is on the hands not just of the terrorists but their US-NATO-GCC-Israel backers and above all on the western media who the terrorists knew could be counted on to completely ignore their many crimes.

Thankfully heroic independent journalist Vanessa Beeley was there to further investigate and expose this terrible tragedy which was caught on film. We must never forget the horrifying massacre of Rashideen.

Although Trump’s missile strikes have failed to shift the balance of the war far more menacing are his plans to invade and occupy Syria which are ever expanding. The Pentagon is now talking about sending 50,000 troops to invade an occupy Syria. In addition to the massive territory the US is occupying in northern Syria using the kurds as a front, the US now plans to do the same for the Wahhabi death squads in the south and the East. The US, the Jordanian army, and their terrorist allies have launched an invasion from the south. The US also sent helicopters to land an Invading US army to the east of Deir Ezzor the Heroic Syrian city that has been surrounded by ISIS for years and has refused to surrender.

Clearly the US plans to seize as much Syrian territory as possible so it will have a base to endlessly wage war on Syria. The US plans to create a terrorist proxy state in Eastern Syria. In reality it will be a US approved version of ISIS that will be given a huge swath of territory under US protection. As a reward for the many horrific crimes they have committed, murder, looting, rape, slavery, destruction of Syria’s heritage, destruction of hospitals, schools, food storage, electric facilities, poisoning water, Suicide bombings, hell cannons, Mutilation torture and genocide the NATO backed rebels will be given their own state guarded by american troops.

People who blow up busloads of children will be rewarded for their crimes with their own american puppet state. This possibility is too sickening to contemplate but the Trump administration is moving with lightning speed to insure that this plan is carried out creating yet another terrorist proxy army the “Eastern Shield” whose ranks are sure to swell with “former” ISIS members and other terrorists fighting alongside US Marines. It’s another planned disaster for the empire of chaos. Death, destruction, Chaos will be the inevitable results of this insane policy. With typical 21st century insanity this scheme is called “Safe Zones.”

In Venezuela, yet another coup scheme is under way. Syria appears to be the blueprint for what they have planned for Venezuela. Simply label terrorism as peaceful protests and use the chaos as an excuse to intervene. Instead of Al Qaeda however the foot soldiers are the fascist fifth column the US has spent nearly 20 years funding and training. They hope to create as much death and destruction as possible in the hopes it can be blamed on the Venezuelan Government and be used to trigger an intervention.

In fact the “opposition” has been flying to Washington DC plotting their coup quite openly. They hope to install a puppet regime with the aid of US troops composed of Venezuela’s old corrupt politicians. These would impose the same unpopular neo-liberal austerity measures carried out in Brazil and Argentina after their soft coups against the wishes of the public who are brutally repressed. Thankfully the CIA created opposition who were foolishly elected to the national assembly a year and a half ago have since discredited themselves. At the same time since those elections the failure of the government to cope with the economic war inspired the grass roots Bolivarian movement the people not the politicians to come up with their own solutions.

Visitors to Venezuela now claim that the worst is over and that things are once again improving. It is the ultimate revenge of Hugo Chavez even from the grave he was able to inspire the Venezuelan people to put his ideas into practice.

This is precisely what has inspired the rage in the fascist opposition and their CIA backers. Of course racist billionaire emperor Trump hates the Bolivarian Socialist Republic of Venezuela as do his drug dealing cuban terrorist friends in brigade 2506. Doubtless he okayed this new coup scheme. Thus like the bombing of the buses in the Massacre at Rashideen by terrorists emboldened by Trump’s cruise missile strikes the crimes of the fascist opposition are also the result of his criminal policies.

Thankfully for the people of Venezuela the rich fascists are amateurs compared to the “moderate rebels” but their intent is no less monstrous. A woman is on her way from work suddenly a frozen bottle of water tossed out of a window high up in an apartment complex by a Venezuelan fascist comes crashing down onto her head. As I write she is still in the hospital in critical condition. The incident demonstrates the total contempt for ordinary Venezuelans that the fascist opposition shows. It was the result of calls by opposition politicians for attacks on Chavista protestors calling for turning flower pots into weapons  although the woman was merely heading to work.

In another incident 4 fascists attacked a Venezuelan police officer who had fallen off his motorcycle they ripped out 4 of his teeth as a macabre form of torture. They have engaged in a campaign of looting arson and terror.

The most memorable incident proving their total depravity was an attack on a maternity hospital full of newborns and their mothers. They were forced to evacuate the hospital when a mob of fascists began throwing rocks and glass then set a huge trash fire to try and smoke them out. Long ago near the beginning of World War 4 the Kuwaiti ambassadors daughter coached by the Hill and Knowlton PR firm pretended to be a nurse who had witnessed savage Iraqi soldiers stealing incubators from helpless babies. This completely fabricated story was used as an excuse to launch a war followed by sanctions that killed half a million Iraqi children.

Now the US is funding an Opposition group that is doing almost exactly the same thing as the Iraqi’s were accused of. Many of the children needed help breathing but were forced to flee. Even the Iraqis were not accused of setting fires aimed at killing the newborns the way Venezuela’s fascist opposition have done. Of course the US state department will instead condemn the Maduro government demanding they give free reign to the fascists in the hopes of a Maidan style coup. Venezuela has already been warned not to interfere with their rights to attack women and children or to perform amateur dental torture on unwilling victims. The attack on the Maternity Hospital is the latest example of the fascist opposition which hates the ordinary people of Venezuela so much that it attempts to destroy every program aimed to improve their lives whether hospitals aiming to heal or subsidized stores intending to provide affordable food. If allowed to continue they would happily wreak the same misery on Venezuela as the NATO death death squads have inflicted on Syria.

Thankfully neither the Maduro Government nor the Venezuelan people will allow these fascist scum to seize control of their country. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans held Anti-Imperialist marches demanding an end to outside interference in their country. To discourage an Invasion Maduro plans to massively expand the armed civilian militia from 100,000 to 500,000. Thus if the US and it’s allies should ever invade the Venezuelan people are prepared to fight for however long it takes to liberate their country and perhaps the entire continent. At the same time the Government is prepared to defend Venezuela. They have instituted Plan Zamora a massive drill aimed at readying their defenses. They have already arrested a Colombian Death squad planning to carry out an assassination campaign under cover of the fascist riots. They also foiled a military coup attempt and arrested a ringleader. Thus we have reason to hope that this latest coup attempt will fail like all the others. However the empire of chaos will never stop trying to destroy Venezuela. A dozen people have already died during this latest coup attempt.

The Struggle continues. World War 4 is heating up. The future seems bleak. Yet we can draw inspiration from the heroic spirit of the peoples of Syria and Venezuela. No matter what they have suffered they simply refuse to give up. This determination to struggle on no matter the odds or how long it takes is the only thing that has ever been able to defeat the empire as the peoples of Vietnam and Korea have shown in the past. The whole world is in deadly danger and every single one of us must rise to the occasion if there is to be any hope for a future. The bright dream of Venezuela that we can build a better world and the grim determination of Syria never to surrender are an inspiration to the world.

Sources

Vanessa Beeley on one of the greatest war crimes in recent memory the massacre at Rashideen
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2017/04/21/rashideen-massacre-children-lured-to-their-slaughter-by-nato-state-terrorists/

Pepe Escobar on Mad Emperor Trump’s War on the world
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-14/pepe-escobar-trumps-new-normal-piece-cake-foreign-policy

Tony Cartalucci on the US Plan B for Syria Stealing Massive amounts of Syrian Land to Create a “Safe Zone” for Al Qaeda and the US Kurdish Mercenaries
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/us-didnt-change-priorities-in-syria-it-lost/

The Latest news from Syrian Perspective

https://syrianperspective.com/2017/04/teebat-al-imaam-liberated-syrian-army-on-a-roll-in-derah-last-citizens-leave-besieged-towns-of-kafrayyaa-and-al-fawah.html

Fascist Attack on a Maternity Ward in Venezuela
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2017/04/21/venezuela-attac

A 1959 Letter

Richard Nixon

By Bob Brigham

The history of United States’ relationship with the Russians has been marked by a delicate balancing act between internal political ramifications and external international relations goals.

In the last hundred years, the US and the Russians fought two world wars as allies and waged a long Cold War as adversaries. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, there was a Red Scare domestically and a second Red Scare following the end of World War II.

A newly surfaced letter from Richard Nixon was written against such a backdrop. The 1959 letter was written on official Office of the Vice President stationary and was addressed to Mrs. M. S. Richardson in La Grange, North Carolina on the subject of school integration.

In the letter, Nixon made the case that domestic American racism could help the Russians win the Cold War.

“I am deeply concerned with the impact of racial division in terms of world power,” Nixon wrote. “Most of the people of the world belong to the colored races. They deeply resent any slurs based on race.”

 “If we of the United States are considered racists, then we may lose to the Communist camp hundreds of millions of potential friends and allies,” Nixon explained. “That would leave us disastrously isolated in a hostile world.”

The letter will be auctioned off on Tuesday, May 9 by Alexander Historical Auctions. The auction house estimates a sale of $4,000 between $5,000.

At the time, Nixon also focused on his moral opposition to racism.

“Praise or blame, acceptance or rejection, should be personal matters based on individual achievement and not the accident of color or birth,” he wrote. “I could not accept Hitler’s idea of a master race. I cannot accept the equally false principle of an inferior race.”

Between his unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign and his successful 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon famously embraced the “Southern Strategy” of exploiting racial divisions for reasons of political expediency.

Last year, the New Republic published a piece explaining how decades of Republicans embracing a Southern Strategy led to Donald Trump’s domination of GOP primaries.

“Goldwater’s Southern Strategy, inspired by National Review, set a pattern for the next half-century—and more. The party had changed so much in 1964 that even Nixon, who had been liberal on civil rights before the Goldwater takeover, adopted the Southern Strategy in 1968 and 1972, “the New Republic contextualized. “Dixie would be the new heartland for the Republican Party, which would stoke white resentment over African-American advances.”

Since Nixon’s 1968 campaign, Sourthern racism has been integral to conservative political ideology.

Notorious Republican campaign consultant Lee Atwater famously explained the dog whistle politics that defined the 1968 campaign.

” You start out in 1954 by saying, “N*gger, n*gger, n*gger.” By 1968 you can’t say “n*gger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract,” Atwater told Alexander Lamis, a political scientist at Case Western Reserve University. “Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*gger, n*gger.”

Nixon’s shift on racism, from moral opposition to political expediency, foretold the trend we have witnessed in the last year as Republican moral opposition to the Russians has shifted to a position of political opportunism.

Nixon’s 1959 letter is a powerful data point in the story of how the Republican Party has reacted to both racism and the Russians.

RISE OF THE LOVE MACHINES?

Teens may soon have their first sexual encounters with specially-designed robotic dolls, an expert has claimed. He warns the trend could ruin human relationships.

Professor Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics at Sheffield University, told the Cheltenham Science Festival on Thursday that the rise of the love machines could have terrible consequences for humanity.

“It’s not a problem having sex with a machine,” Sharkey argued. “But what if it’s your first time, your first relationship?

“What do you think of the opposite sex then? What do you think a man or a woman is?”

Sharkey warned that the robots “will get in the way of real life, stopping people forming relationships with normal people.”

While such dolls are already available in Japan and some even have basic speech recognition, Sharkey said they should not be available to under-16s in the UK. However, he accepted they were likely to find their way into the hands of teenagers.

“If your dad or mum had one, you could sneak in and use it,” he warned.

In September 2015, a leading robot ethicist launched a campaign calling for a ban on the development of sex robots.

Dr. Kathleen Richardson, a robotics expert at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, warned that sex robots could contribute to the systematic dehumanization of women and children.

“Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on – how they will look, what roles they would play – are very disturbing indeed,” she told the BBC.

Richardson explained her Campaign Against Sex Robots is not anti-sex, but rather anti-exploitation.

Editorial

JOE GHARTEY COMMITTEE

The report of the Joe Ghartey Committee into the Parliamentary bribery scandal is strange for many reasons.

First, it is difficult to understand why Honourable Mahama Ayariga is singled out for punishment when indeed about five other members of Parliament made the same allegation.

It is also clear that the Joe Ghartey Committee failed to follow up on many leads which could have helped it to unravel the truth.

The Insight is also unable to explain how a fact-finding committee ended up convicting a witness especially when the witness was not given the opportunity to cross examine his accusers.

In the light of all these, we are unable to accept the conclusions of the Joe Ghartey Committee as conclusive.

Perhaps somebody needs to do a better job.

LOCAL STORIES:

Ghana launches National Alcohol Policy

Kweku Agyemang Manu

Ghana has launched a National Alcohol Policy after years of working with key stakeholders to combine the fragmented laws that exist on the production, distribution sale, advertisement and consumption of the commodity.

The 33-page document would now set out a policy direction aimed at regulating the production, distribution sale, advertisement and consumption of alcohol, with the aim of minimising the negative impact of its consumption on the individual, family and society as a whole.

It was also to encourage and promote abstinence, reduce harmful alcohol consumption, follow global best practice, and inspire government to leader in ensuring total compliance.

The Policy identifies major propriety areas for the reduction of alcohol related harms, and takes cognisance of data and information available from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and recognises best buy areas in reducing associated harm such as increased taxation, regulating availability and marketing and drink driving counter measure.

Other areas of focus include prevention and management of health effects and social services actions; surveillance, research, monitoring and evaluation; drink driving measures and capacity building, and also using locally designed cultural and social interventions in reducing these alcohol related harms.

The Policy was launched in Accra by Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with the WHO and the Baraka Policy Institute (BPI), a Think Tank established to promote social justice and national development.

Dr Kweku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health in an address, acknowledged all the stakeholders involved in the development of the Policy.

He said the harmful use of alcohol had been a cause for great concern globally and nationally, saying, presently the informal sector which produces alcoholic beverages with high percentages of ethyl alcohol was highly unregulated.

He said although several health disorders had been ascribed to the harmful use of alcohol, productivity losses was yet to be estimated for Ghana, but it was known that its abuse was of huge concern to a number of organisations including the health sector.

He cited some of the negative health effects as neuropsychiatric complications (mental health problems), liver and heart ailments, and diabetes, adding that the trend of non-communicable diseases, many of which had the commodity as the risk factor, was also on the increase.

Dr Agyeman-Manu said alcohol abuse had serious socio-economic effects, especially on families and communities, and its consumption was even worse in the unborn child, children and adolescents, “yet the seriousness of this issue does not seem to register with the public, thus not much has been done to regulate the sector”.

The Health Minister said alcohol use though had been part of the Ghanaian culture and society, the current trend of consumption, and the inadequate regulation especially on its advertisements in both the print and the electronic media, was a source of worry.

He admitted that currently there were many policy issues and regulations on various aspects of alcohol including production and sale scattered in several legislations, and there was the need to pull all these and other policies into a single document, and also form a central coordinating body to ensure its implementation and enforcement.

Dr Akwesi Osei, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, in an overview of the Policy, said alcohol consumption accounted for about 3.3 million (5.9 Per cent) deaths globally in 2012, most of them being males.

He said it was estimated that 23.3 per cent of Ghanaians take alcohol, and of these a projected 2.1 per cent were found to be engaging in heavy drinking.

He said the Per capita consumption of alcohol among heavy drinkers stood at 20 litres in a year, which reinforces the need for special strategies to tackle production, sale and consumption of locally brewed alcohol in addition to strategies for the formal industry. 

Both the WHO and the BPI pledged their full support to the immediate push for the development of a Legislative Instrument to make the Policy more biting, and also the establishment of an independent body such as the Ghana National Alcohol Commission to oversee the implementation of the relevant plans developed to achieve the strategies contained in the document in order to achieve the set objectives.

GNA

BAWUMIA ON THE UNBANKED

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah

Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, on Wednesday, tasked the Ghana Interbank payment and Settlements System to bring together the money transaction stakeholders to ensure the inclusiveness of the 60 per cent financially unbanked population.

He said the ability of a customer to transfer money from one network to another or inter-operability was an important issue that all stakeholders must pay attention to and find ways of making it work.

Dr Bawumia was addressing the Fifth Edition of the Ghana Economic Outlook and Business Strategy Summit, organised by the African Business Media, in Accra, on the theme: “Unlocking Ghana’s Economic Potential with Mobile Money and Payment Systems”.

He stated: “I will like to encourage banks and mobile money operators to collaborate to increase the rate of making your services available to many Ghanaians owing mobile phones to offer them limitless opportunities to financial products”.

It should be possible for mobile phone subscribers to contribute to Treasury bills, pay insurance premiums and pay bills at the comfort of their homes using their mobile phones, which would eventually formalise the economy, he said.

The Summit brought together captains of industry, financial and investments experts to discuss how best Ghana could explore the mobile money transfer sector to unlock its economic potentials.

The Vice President said the financial inclusion environment comprising the banks, the telecommunication companies and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GIPSS) was conducive for the implementation of the inter-operability.

The role of financial inclusion, he said, was to promote savings, increase investment and help reduce the interest rate.

Dr. Bawumia, therefore, expressed the hope that the players in the financial industry would work towards achieving inter-operability this year because countries the majority of the population being involved in financial inclusiveness would help to fast-track economic growth.

“I will like to encourage banks and mobile money operators to collaborate to increase the rate of making your services available to many Ghanaians owing mobile phones to offer them limitless opportunities to financial products”.

He said it should be possible for mobile phone subscribers to contribute to Treasury bills, pay insurance premiums and pay bills at the comfort of their homes using their mobile phones which would eventually formalise the economy.

“Government is determined to implement the National Identification System this year that will create a national database, the Digital Addressing System that will provide a unique identification to properties and the Financial Inclusiveness of the majority of the population that will enable Ghana to even leapfrog some advanced countries in the world,” he said.

The Vice President noted that with the aforementioned systems in place, it would serve as the engine that would drive the economic transformation of Ghana and unlock the potentials of the people for greater economic prosperity.

The Vice President said the Government was determined to build a business-friendly economy and, therefore, keen in developing the financial sector to deepen financial inclusion.

In view of this, he said, the Government abolished the VAT on financial services to encourage financial transactions through mobile money transfers.

Dr Bawumia said countries with strong financial transactions often experienced rapid economic growth, created employment and reduced poverty to the barest minimum. 

In his welcome address, Mr. Kwadwo Ohemeng Asumaning, the Board Chairman of the African Business Media, said the forum had created a powerful platform for pragmatic search of feasible solution to the economic challenges and would also propel the growth of the private sector.

In this year’s meeting, he said, it would introduce post-event monitoring and evaluation of all commitments, agreements and implementable outcomes with the aim of issuing periodic report to stakeholders on its findings.

“We are very much mindful of the fact that, part of the motivating reasons for our gathering here is to be better equipped in our field of endeavour; to enhance and embrace our positioning in the technological advancement to achieve success”.

He, therefore, tasked stakeholders to prioritise the modern financial transaction system in the national economic and business growth agenda in order to catch up with other countries that had advanced in that sector.

Dr. Johnson Asiama, the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said since the establishment of the Bank, it had implemented policies that had expanded access to financial services and scaled up financial inclusion.

He mentioned establishment of commercial banks, rural banks, community banks, savings and loan companies and the recent proliferation of microfinance companies.

However, he said, there were large segment of the population that remained financially excluded, hence the Central Bank published the Branchless Banking Guidelines in (2008) to provide the framework for branchless expansion of financial services using mobile phones as the delivery channel.

In addition, he said, the review of the guidelines resulted in the introduction of the Guidelines for Electronic Money Issuers and Agents Guidelines in July 2015.

He said the new guidelines had eliminated restrictions on non-bank entities such as telecos to issue electronic money.

However, the telecos were required to establish a separate entity licensed to issue electronic money.

He said the regulatory and supervisory reforms in digital payment was aimed at eliminating payroll fraud and lowering cost of service delivery.

It also aims at improving financial inclusion, reduction in money in circulation, efficiency, safety, competition, transparency and consumer protection. The National Communication Authority has indicated that the Mobile Money Services was introduced in 2009 in view of the increase in mobile phone subscription, which had grown over the years from 15. 1 million to 33.3 million as at December 2016.

FOREIGN STORIES:

Stephen Hawking calls for ‘world government’ to stop robot apocalypse

Professor Stephen Hawking has pleaded with world leaders to keep technology under control before it destroys humanity.

In an interview with the Times, the physicist said humans need to find ways to identify threats posed by artificial intelligence before problems escalate.

“Since civilisation began, aggression has been useful inasmuch as it has definite survival advantages,” the scientist said.

“It is hard-wired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war. We need to control this inherited instinct by our logic and reason.”

Hawking added that the best solution would be “some form of world government” that could supervise the developing power of AI.

“But that might become a tyranny. All this may sound a bit doom-laden but I am an optimist. I think the human race will rise to meet these challenges,” he added.

Hawking has been vocal about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence before.

“The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence,” he wrote in a Reddit Q&A in 2015.

“A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.

“You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there's an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants.”

And he is not alone. American technology firm Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk agrees that AI could pose a threat to human existence.

“I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence,” Musk said during the 2014 AeroAstro Centennial Symposium

“If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful.

“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.”

Robots could take 250,000 public sector jobs by 2030

Robots could soon replace up to 90 percent of the British government’s administrative staff, sparking fears of mass unemployment across the economy.

Thousands of civil servants could be given the ax over the next 13 years, potentially saving taxpayers billions of pounds, according to a report by pro-free market think tank Reform.

In the ‘Work in Progress’ report, the charity argues 250,000 public-sector workers could be replaced by smart machines and autonomous robots by 2030.

Reform also calls on the government to replace 90 percent of Whitehall’s admin staff with “artificially intelligent (AI) chatbots,” along with 90,000 NHS administrators and 24,000 GP receptionists.

“Such a rapid advance in the use of technology may seem controversial, and any job losses must be handled sensitively,” report co-author Alexander Hitchcock said in a statement.

“But the result would be public services that are better, safer, smarter and more affordable.”

The NHS is already trialing an AI chatbot to answer medical questions instead of the currently used non-emergency phone number 111.

Reform’s report will add to fears the world is a facing fourth industrial revolution powered by AI which will result in unprecedented job losses.

A study published by Oxford University and consultancy firm Deloitte in October predicted there is a 77 percent probability Britain will lose 1.3 million “repetitive and predictable” administrative and operative jobs within 15 years.

More than 850,000 public sector jobs – including teachers, social workers and even police officers – could also be replaced by computer programs.

Don’t fear robot takeover, says AI pioneer

Humans have nothing to fear from artificial intelligence (AI), a pioneer in the field says, who believes concerns about an apocalyptic world run by robots is overblown.

Deep Mind, Google’s AI subsidiary, has created AI that can mimic the short-term memory of the human brain and technology to help doctors improve how illnesses are diagnosed and treated.

“I don’t think it’s very helpful for other people who are incredible in their domains commenting on something they actually know very little about,” says Demis Hassabis, Deep Mind’s CEO, the Times reports.

“But because they are quite big celebrities now, more than just scientists or businessmen, it gets picked up a lot.”

Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX and OpenAI, and Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, are among those who fear that AI could pose a threat to mankind.

Famed physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has also raised his concerns about robots. Earlier this month he pleaded with world leaders to keep technology under control before it destroys humanity.

“Technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war,” he said.

Hassabis told an event organized by the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research: “There are some valid worries and I think these are research questions of vulnerability and interpretability, but I think this general theme of fearfulness doesn’t help reasoned debate.

“It actually drives the debate away. I’ve told all of those people you mentioned [Musk and Gates] that it’s not very helpful. Some of them have moderated their comments, but others haven’t.”

Deep Mind has sought advice from philosophers, mathematicians and digital engineers on how to build a machine that will not run out of control.

Hassabis believes the real danger would come from a self-improving “seed” AI that would understand and rewrite its own source code without any human oversight.

Last year it was revealed a Deep Mind and Royal Free NHS (National Health Service) deal on the management of acute kidney injury saw patient data shared and used without explicit consent.

The agreement shows Deep Mind gained access to 1.6 million patients’ information on admissions, discharge and transfer, including personal details such as whether patients had been diagnosed with HIV, suffered from depression or had ever undergone an abortion.

Bricklaying bots

Although robots may not be on the brink of destroying mankind, they could be about to destroy British construction jobs.

Robo-bricklayers will arrive on building sites around Britain over the next few months, raising fears that thousands of jobs could be under threat.

The device, Sam (Semi-Automated Mason), which has already started replacing humans on a handful of sites in the US, is capable of laying up to 3,000 bricks a day compared with the human average of 500.

“We are going to be going over to the UK in the coming months to meet with some companies and see if we can find a home for Sam there,” company president Scott Peters told the Times.

Although the robot needs to be closely supervised, it has the ability to pick up bricks, apply mortar and lay them. Human workers still need to set up the robot, supervise health and safety, and assist with laying bricks at difficult angles.

Last week, a report claimed millions of jobs in the UK are in jeopardy because of robots taking over. According to consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), up to 10 million jobs are at risk of being replaced by machines within 15 years.

The UK Economic Outlook report claims jobs in the transport and storage sector are more likely to go.

Development in automation, however, does not mean a direct rise in unemployment, the report says, as it increases productivity, which in turn generates more wealth and jobs in different sectors.

The report also says automation may allow workers to take on jobs that are more rewarding and less mechanical.

Robots Are Coming

The UK government is not prepared for the imminent arrival of robots, which will “fundamentally” change lives, take over jobs and raise serious ethical issues, MPs have warned.

Artificial intelligence (AI) such as driverless cars and supercomputers that can help doctors with medical diagnoses will soon be the norm, the Science Technology Committee says, but the government’s role in preparing for the change is “lacking.”

“Science fiction is slowly becoming science fact, and robotics and AI look destined to play an increasing role in our lives over the coming decades,” said Tania Mathias, the Tory acting chairwoman of the committee.

“It is too soon to set down sector-wide regulations for this nascent field but it is vital that careful scrutiny of the ethical, legal and societal ramifications of artificially intelligent systems begins now.”

The committee warned the government does not have a strategy in place for developing new skills to help workers succeed in a world with greater reliance on AI.

“Concerns about machines taking jobs and eliminating the need for human labor have persisted for centuries. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that we will see AI technology creating new jobs over the coming decades while at the same time displacing others,” Mathias said.

“Since we cannot yet foresee exactly how these changes will play out, we must respond with a readiness to reskill and upskill.

“This requires a commitment by the government to ensure that our education and training systems are flexible, so that they can adapt as opportunities and demands on the workforce change.”

The committee added there were ethical and social issues arising from the use of AI.

It said Google’s photo app, which automatically labels pictures, was reported to have classified images of black people as gorillas, and called for action to be taken to stop discrimination being accidentally built into AI systems.

Earlier this year, a report by Deloitte said a quarter of jobs in Britain’s business services sector would be taken over by robots in the next 20 years because of falling technology costs and rising wages.

Another report by the Big Four firm said more than 11 million jobs in the UK are at risk of automation, with the manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and professional, scientific and technical sectors to be hit the hardest.

The London Business School predicts jobs in law, medicine, architecture, communications and space technology would be performed by robotic workers in the next 20 years.

There have also been serious ethical concerns about artificial intelligence raised.

Cuba offers 1,000 medical scholarships to Colombia peace process

By Prensa Latina(PL) 

As a new contribution to the Colombia peace process, Cuba will award 1,000 scholarships to members of the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and victims of the conflict to study medicine on the island. 

Cuban Ambassador to Colombia, José Luis Ponce, announced the plan before the Commission for Follow up, Advance, and Verification of the Implementation of the Final Peace Agreement (CSIVI), while the announcement was made to government representatives on the commission by FARC-EP Secretariat member Iván Márquez. 

Ponce explained that 200 scholarships will be awarded every year for five years – 100 for the FARC-EP and 100 for the Notational Executive – and constitute a contribution by Cuba to the implementation of the Peace Agreements reached in Havana, and to the construction of a post-conflict Colombia. 

The scholarship students will begin their studies in the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the Cuban ambassador.

The program will be offered to young demobilized FARC-EP recruits, displaced persons, and other victims of the armed conflict, the latter chosen by the government. 

The Cuban Embassy will present the FARC-EP and Colombian government with a document containing all the details of the offer, which is currently being prepared by Cuban officials, according to the island’s diplomat. 

Cuba hosted the four-year peace talks between the guerilla front and the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, which ended in 2016, and together with Norway, also served as a guarantor nation to the bilateral conversations. 

Taking to his Twitter account, Márquez described Cuba’s contribution to the implementation of the Havana accords and creation of a post-conflict Colombia, as a gesture of pure humanity. 

To Army General Raúl Castro (President of Cuba) we express our gratitude filling Colombia with your love and solidarity. Supporting peace and offering us doctors, added the guerilla commander.

Mugabe: The Dictator?

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace greet supporters of his ZANU (PF) party during the "One Million Man March", a show of support of Mugabe's rule in Harare, Zimbabwe, May 25, 2016. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo.

By Caleb T. Maupin

Is Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old leader really the oppressive dictator the West makes him out to be, or is he demonized for not succumbing to a history of destabilization and intervention attempts by the West?

In covering a recent protest movement unfurling in Zimbabwe, mainstream Western media seem unable to report on country’s president without making references to him as a “dictator” and “authoritarian.”

Yet the case against Robert Mugabe, the 92-year-old president of Zimbabwe and leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), is difficult to justify, especially considering all of Zimbabwe’s recent elections have been monitored by the United Nations, and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition party, currently divided into two factions, is widely represented in the government.

Further, Zimbabwe’s emergence as a nation struggling against not just the power of colonialism and white supremacists, but also the economic domination of a settler minority, tells an entirely different story.

Opposition parties like the MDC, which receives support from the United States, are allowed to operate freely in Zimbabwe. Newspapers that support the MDC and openly praise the previously existing apartheid regime are widely distributed, coexisting alongside pro-government state media. The idea that Zimbabwe is a totalitarian state that forbids dissent is simply not consistent with reality.

While Western media has few positive things to say about Mugabe, Zimbabwean voters clearly disagree. A 2015 survey by Zimbabwe’s Mass Public Opinion Institute found that Mugabe continues to enjoy popularity among the country’s urban and rural populations.

Even in 2012, a year before the last elections were held, popular support for the MDC was on the decline. In May 2013, The Guardian quoted Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the 14,000-strong Progressive Teachers’ Union, as saying: “I’m feeling seriously let down by the MDC.”

His statement came after the party entered into a power-sharing agreement with the ZANU-PF following contested elections in 2008, but before that so-called “unity government” ultimately dissolved. He noted, presciently:

“The power-sharing agreement could be the undoing of the MDC leadership. They exposed their own naivety and appetite for opulence and extravagance. In four years the level of wealth these MDC guys have accumulated is shocking. If the MDC wins the election, fine, they can go ahead and loot the country like their predecessors.”

US has long planned to oust Mugabe

U.S. machinations to overthrow the Mugabe-led government in Zimbabwe are nothing new, particularly in terms of Washington’s support to the MDC.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, who served as prime minister from 2009-2013, toured the world in 2009, meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. President Barack Obama. After his meeting with Obama, Tsvangirai said he was “grateful to him for his leadership” and that Obama would “continue to provide us with direction.”

In “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2005-2006,” the State Department reported: “The U.S. human rights strategy in Zimbabwe focused on maintaining pressure on the regime, assisting democratic forces, strengthening independent media, increasing public access to information, promoting accountability for the regime’s crimes, and providing humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe’s suffering people.”

The report further noted U.S. efforts to disseminate information on civil rights and made accusations of fraudulent parliamentary elections.

The State Department’s 2007 Performance Report on Zimbabwe boasted of the United States’ role in propping up the MDC as a viable opponent to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF:

“Following the bloody onslaught of the Mugabe regime against the MDC and civil society during the past year, USG [U.S. government] assistance helped rebuild the party’s battered structure and better position it to participate in the upcoming elections. The USG also assisted the MDC to effectively identify, research, and articulate policy positions and ideas within Zimbabwe, in the region, and beyond. In particular, USG technical assistance was pivotal in supporting MDC\’s formulation and communication of a comprehensive policy platform, which demonstrates the party’s preparedness to take over the reins of government in 2008.”

In a 2008 analysis of the document, Stephen Gowans, a Canadian writer and political analyst, noted:

“The neo-liberal, foreign investor-friendly economic policies Washington favors are central to the policy platform of the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC. The State Department document reveals that the MDC’s policy orientation may be based more on US government direction than its own deliberations.”

It’s also important to consider the role of U.S. aid money and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, in Zimbabwe. The organization, which has a long history of imperialist intervention under the guise of humanitarian aid, has remained active in Zimbabwe despite targeted sanctions imposed by the U.S. In fiscal year 2012, for example, Zimbabwe received $152,534,664 in U.S. economic assistance, including $61,987,763 from USAID and $49,648,024 from the State Department.

‘Rhodesia’ was wiped off the map

To understand why Washington is working to topple Mugabe, the country’s repeatedly elected president, and the ZANU-PF, its internationally-recognized government, one must be familiar with Zimbabwe’s history.

Defenders of the Israeli settler regime will often accuse their critics of being “inflammatory” and “extremist” for wanting to “wipe Israel off the map.” However, there is historical precedent for the erasure of European settler regimes. Zimbabwe became a country after Rhodesia, a country whose 1969 constitution enshrined the rule of whites, was toppled.

Rhodesia was the name given by settlers to the region in southern Africa that the indigenous people called Zimbabwe. It was named after Cecil Rhodes, the famed colonizer and advocate of British imperialism. When Zimbabwe declared its independence from Britain in 1965, the white minority owned almost all of the land, except for the Tribal Trust Lands, where black Africans were forced to live, similar to the “bantustans” of South Africa. During the day, blacks worked as servants and laborers in the estates, plantations, and cities owned by whites, and at night they returned to the designated areas where they were allowed to live and farm.

Roger Riddell, a staff member of the Catholic Institute for International Relations and editor of the institute’s series “From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe,” wrote an article in 1980, titled “Zimbabwe’s Land Problem: The Central Issue.” In the article, Riddell explains that not only did Europeans hold vastly more land than the Africans, they also held more fertile agricultural land:

“The importance of land in Rhodesia does not lie so much in the inequalities per se, but because inequalities in access to land are accompanied by growing overpopulation, landlessness, land deterioration, and increasing poverty in the African areas alongside serious underutilization of land in the European areas.”

The 7 million Africans were not full citizens of Rhodesia, unlike the white minority, which peaked at just under 300,000 in the late 1960s. Ian Smith, the wealthiest white farmer and prime minister of Rhodesia from 1964-1979, said: “The white man is the master of Rhodesia, has built it and intends to keep it.” The country’s 1961 Unilateral Declaration of Independence, which was committed to independence from Britain but not majority rule, reserved 50 national assembly seats for the country’s white settler minority and just 15 for the African majority.

Receiving weapons and support from both China and the Soviet Union, the indigenous African population took up arms against Smith’s white-minority rule in the 1970s. ZANU-PF, currently the ruling party in Zimbabwe, is the result of a merger of several different armed revolutionary organizations that fought against the apartheid government of Rhodesia. Britain deployed troops to fight against the African people, and the U.S. formally recognized and backed the Rhodesian apartheid regime. International media and Western politicians generally referred to the uprisings of impoverished African people as “terrorism” and supported the white settler government in the name of opposing “communism.”

As the white settler government of Rhodesia faced a wider insurgency from African people, it became a favored cause among white supremacists. Neo-Nazis and fascists from all over the world went to fight against the African rebels. James Earl Ray, who was convicted of assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had worked closely with the “Friends of Rhodesia.” During his 2015 killing spree inside a church in South Carolina, the white supremacist murderer Dylann Roof wore the flag of the long deposed Rhodesian settler government.

Mugabe emerged as the charismatic leader of the armed uprising. With Mugabe as their commander and representative, guerrilla fighters carved out what the white settlers called “no-go areas,” liberated territories which were controlled by the African revolutionaries and served as bases for the uprising. ZANU-PF described itself as a socialist party. Interviewed during the war, Mugabe said:

 “It is absolutely wrong to allow a set of individuals to acquire control and ownership of those resources that are God-given. They are not man-made, the land, the water, the forest, the animals, the fish in the river, the minerals. These are given to us by nature, and it is in principle wrong for any one man to claim ownership of such resources that should belong to the people as a whole.”

On Dec. 21, 1979, the prolonged conflict known as the Rhodesian Bush War concluded with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement. Rhodesia was abolished, and the Republic of Zimbabwe came into existence. The treaty specified that the new government could not seize white-owned land for ten years. At the time of the agreement, the country’s 120,000 white families controlled at least half of the country’s arable farmland, while 7 million Africans lived in extreme poverty.

Eroding white supremacy, changing property relations

Many predicted a “white genocide” following ZANU-PF’s election under the new constitution. However, once ZANU-PF assumed power in the elections following the 1979 treaty, no such thing occurred. Despite leading a “white republic” and ordering his troops to slaughter tens of thousands of civilians, Ian Smith, the leader of the white settler government, was spared any punishment for his documented war crimes. He lived in luxury on his estates until his death of natural causes in 2007.

Many whites left Zimbabwe, relocating to South Africa or Europe, but aside from a few incidents, no reports of widespread revenge killings took place. In accordance with the Lancaster House Agreement, whites who were owed pensions by the oppressive Rhodesian apartheid government continued to received payments from the new government until 1990.

The government led by ZANU-PF vastly expanded access to education, and Zimbabwe leads Africa in adult literacy. During the 1990s, the economy of Zimbabwe, presided over and tightly regulated by the ZANU-PF, was described by the Washington Post as being “among the strongest on the continent.”

The ZANU-PF government stayed true to its promise not to forcibly redistribute property until 1997, long after the ten year period agreed to in the treaty. Prior to 1997, many white farmers left Zimbabwe, voluntarily selling their property to the state for negotiated compensation. Britain welcomed white farmers with open arms, and has even established Zane, a charity that supports whites who wish to migrate from Zimbabwe.

Beginning in 1997, land belonging to the white minority has been gradually, forcibly redistributed to Africans. Veterans of Zimbabwe’s revolutionary army were the first to receive land, and by 2011, over 237,000 African families had acquired their own land, while 300 white farms remained intact.

When the land seizures began, Western press reports alleged the land reform was corrupt and giving land only to government bureaucrats. However, The Zimbabwean published the results of a 10-year study of the program, which found that less than 17 percent of the land went to civil servants, and the overwhelming majority went to rural peasants, unemployed Africans, and others who were not deeply connected to government officials.

No one debates that the majority of those who have received land hold a favorable view of the ZANU-PF government. Following the land redistribution campaign, violence erupted on more than a few occasions when white farmers refused to give up land and held violent standoffs with government officials and locals.

‘We want to be left alone’

As the reforms began, Mugabe was subject to demonization in Western media. In 2000, ZANU-PF suffered its first major defeats at the polls and began sharing power with the MDC, which has received funding from the State Department and whose leader has openly admitted to taking “direction” from President Obama.

The redistribution process slowed agricultural production in Zimbabwe. The process of transitioning farms from the large plantations owned by white settlers, to small individual plots owned by African families, was difficult on its own. But it was also compounded by the fact that Africans who had never owned their own farms did not have easy, immediate access to many types of modern agricultural technology previously employed by white farmers. The U.S. made the economic situation far worse by imposing economic sanctions on Zimbabwe starting in 2001, heavily restricting its ability to export agricultural goods. The sanctions also limited Zimbabwe’s access to key agricultural imports needed to make fertilizer.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in 2008, Mugabe said, “We want to be left alone.” He urged Western forces to stop meddling in his country’s internal affairs, and to allow Zimbabwe to alter its economic system toward one featuring a more equitable distribution of wealth.

Despite continued demonization in Western media, Zimbabwe continues to make economic changes. In December, Zimbabwe announced that it was adopting the Chinese yuan as legal tender. In exchange, the People’s Republic of China cancelled Zimbabwe’s $40 million debt to Chinese banks.

In March, Mugabe announced that the country’s diamond mines will be nationalized.

“Companies that have been mining diamonds have robbed us of our wealth,” Mugabe said. “That is why the state must have a monopoly.”

When making the announcement, Mugabe also pointed out that a recent drop in diamond prices has increased the frequency of swindling and corruption surrounding the already crime-stricken industry. Zimbabwe supplied about 13 percent of the world’s diamonds in 2013, but experts quoted by Reuters warned that the country is expected to account for less than 3 percent of the global supply this year.

The president criticized not only Western-owned mining corporations, but also those based in China, and argued that nationalizing the mines will ensure that the people of Zimbabwe get a fair share of the wealth created by their natural resources.

For those who follow U.S. foreign policy, it should be clear why Washington seeks an end to the rule of Mugabe and the ZANU-PF: Zimbabwe’s government is seizing control of the country’s natural resources, redistributing land, and cutting into the profits of Western corporations. Furthermore, Zimbabwe has aligned itself with China, an emerging economic rival of Wall Street.

Western intervention is never the answer

Western media and the CIA have learned to manipulate humanity’s basic feelings of compassion and solidarity for the purpose of conducting “regime change.” Media campaigns routinely highlight atrocities — both real and invented — and build up public opinion for “humanitarian intervention.”

This is the case in Zimbabwe, where Western media selectively report on corruption, violence and suffering in line with biases for regime change held by Washington and its Western allies.

It also happened in Libya, where NATO bombing and a coordinated campaign to topple the government of Moammar Qaddafi were carried out with the stated objective of saving the lives of innocent people. However, the result has been widespread chaos and poverty in what was once Africa’s most prosperous country. The previously stable country stands divided today, as rival factions battle for power, while militant groups like Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the terrorist group known in the West as ISIS or ISIL) have set up shop.

Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have all suffered the effects of U.S.-backed regime change waged in the name of human rights. The populations that were championed as oppressed victims in the Western media broadcasts that built the case for intervention, are far worse off than before.

American media’s talk about human rights is selective. Governments that reject economic domination by American-based banks and corporations, and those which compete with them on the global market, become targets of demonization. Meanwhile, atrocities perpetrated by repressive regimes that cooperate with the U.S. are generally overlooked, or, as in the case of Saudi Arabia, supported.

A movement like the one unfolding in Zimbabwe right now — a movement championed in Western media and led by someone who has since fled to the U.S. — is unlikely to improve the situation of Zimbabwe’s people. U.S. efforts to cripple Zimbabwe’s current leader and party by funding the opposition isn’t evidence of U.S. concern for human rights; it’s evidence that Mugabe and the ZANU-PF aren’t adhering to the rules of U.S. hegemony and Western dominance.

While Zimbabwe certainly faces social and economic challenges, the Pentagon will not solve them. Western destabilization and intervention will make matters worse. Only the African people — people who have defeated an oppressive regime and rolled back the horrors of white minority rule — only they can lead the country forward.

Source: Mint Press News|| 

Remembering Peter Tosh and the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre

By Ajamu Nangwaya

March 21 was the 57th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre that was carried out by the South African apartheid regime against protesting Africans in 1960. This protest was organized by the liberation organization the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). It targeted the pass law of the settler-colonial regime that regulated the movement and residential pattern of the indigenous Africans. International opinion was so outraged by the murderous behaviour of the apartheid system that the United Nations’ General Assembly was inspired to declare March 21 the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD).

Whenever, we commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre and the IDERD, we are politically obligated to highlight the valiant effort of the late reggae singer, Pan-Africanist, Rastaman, revolutionary, and human rights champion Peter Tosh in creating greater public awareness of the crimes of South Africa’s apartheid system. Tosh was one of the original Wailers’ trio alongside Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer. He was a reggae superstar at the time of his assassination by lumpen elements in Jamaica on 11 September 1987. Tosh was known as a militant cultural worker and organic intellectual who did not mince words in condemning the powers-that-be like the Old Testament prophets.

According to Tosh’s former manager Herbie Miller in the book Remembering Peter Tosh, Tosh loved to read about international affairs and politics in general, biographies of noted Pan-Africanists as well as “literature about the origins of the apartheid system.” Tosh’s 1977 album Equal Rights was an anthem against racial and economic oppression and Miller said that

“it was this era of legal segregation and political unrest that inspired Peter’s recording of the album.”

On this album, Tosh demonstrates his function as an organic intellectual of the international African labouring classes with the anti-apartheid song Apartheid that exposed the economic motivation and action of the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Namibia. The first four lines in the song bear witness to the natural resources extraction activities of the white supremacist, capitalist, settler-colonial regime in Southern Africa:

Inna me land, quite illegal
You inna me land, dig out me gold, yes
Inna me land, diggin’ out me pearl
Inna me land, dig out me diamond

Tosh is not distracted by the ideological structure of white supremacy that was used in a vain attempt to mask the economic and financial imperatives behind the system of apartheid. It is not accidental and is quite instructive that this Rastafari prophetic voice went straight at the foundation of the system of apartheid in this song – the theft and occupation of Africans’ land and exploitation the natural resources.

This militant reggae icon exposes and indicts before the court of international public opinion the vicious and murderous apartheid system for its neglect of the social needs of the oppressed. Since the apartheid regime lacks legitimacy in the eyes of the people, it was forced to invest heavily in the coercive arm of the state (the police, army, courts and prisons) in order to keep in check the people’s struggle for freedom:

You inna me land, you no build no schools for black children
You inna me land, no hospital for black people
You inna me land, you built your prison
You inna me land, you built your camp

Peter was quite aware of the threat of the apartheid regime in South Africa and Namibia to international peace and regional stability in southern Africa. The settler-colonial apartheid regime did not confine its vile and brutal actions inside the territories under its control. It went after the liberation movements from Namibia and South Africa. South African apartheid brought death and destruction to the people of the frontline states that gave shelter to the freedom fighters and anti-colonial forces:

You cross the border, you shoot off the children
Cross the border, shoot down women
Cross the border, you take your might
Cross the border to beat the right

Tosh told the apartheid regime that it must expect a fight from the victimized Africans. He knows that the language of force is the one in which the forces of white supremacy and Babylon were most fluent. The downpressed had no option but to fight:

Now we have to fight, fight, fight
Fight ‘gainst apartheid
Black man got to fight, fight, fight
Fight ‘gainst apartheid
Come on and you fight, fight, fight
Fight ‘gainst apartheid
We got to fight, fight, fight
Fight ‘gainst apartheid

If the call to arms against the forces of exploitation and the disastrous consequences for them are not clear enough, Tosh outlines the desperate situation in which the downpressors will find themselves in the decisive and final moments of the triumph of the downpressed. In the song Downpressor Man from the Equal Rights album, he informs the exploiter of his fate:

Downpressor man
Where you gonna run to
Downpressor man
Where you gonna run to
Downpressor man
Where you gonna run to
All along that day

You gonna run to the sea
But the sea will be boiling
When you run to the sea
The sea will be boiling
The sea will be boiling
All along that day

You gonna run to the rocks
The rocks will be melting
When you run to the rocks
The rocks will be melting
The rocks will be melting
All that day

Long before activists coined and popularized the slogan “No Justice, No Peace,” Tosh captures that sentiment of the people and immortalized it in the song Equal Rights. This Rastafari cultural worker knew that the foundation of peace is justice and equity. The absence of peace and equal rights would ensure the continuation of predatory warfare by the downpressor and the necessity of revolutionary violence or armed self-defense by the downpressed:

Everyone is crying out for peace, yes
None is crying out for justice
Everyone is crying out for peace, yes
None is crying out for justice

I don’t want no peace
I need equal rights and justice
I need equal rights and justice
I need equal rights and justice
Got to get it, equal rights and justice

Tosh was an internationalist and he links the fight of Africans against racism, settler-colonialism and apartheid in Southern Africa with the struggle of the Palestinians against Zionism and Israeli apartheid. In the song Equal Rights, he proclaims that “Palestinians are fighting for equal rights and justice.” This reggae and Rastafari revolutionary took the opportunity at the 1977 No Nukes concert in Madison Square Garden, New York, to demonstrate his solidarity with Palestinians and other Arabs against Israeli colonial and military aggression.

Herbie Miller says that Tosh purchased and performed in the traditional clothing and headgear of the Gulf State Arab men. According to Miller,

“He intentionally did this at the No Nukes concert because he knew that there were certain countries with nuclear armaments and the concert date also fell close to one of the Jewish holidays. He made this political statement fully aware of the ongoing conflicts between the Arab and Jewish states in the Middle East.”

Tosh expression of internationalist solidarity with the cause of Palestinians and others in the Middle East might have caused the withdrawal of his invitation to address the relevant United Nations’ committee on apartheid. He would have been the first reggae cultural worker to do so.

We should share Tosh’s legacy of principled resistance and solidarity against apartheid, racism and economic exploitation with young people. Tosh used his art to turn the people on to the struggle for justice, equal rights and world peace.

Ajamu Nangwaya, Ph.D., is a writer, organizer and educator. He is a lecturer at the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

The wealth of the west was built on Africa’s exploitation

By Richard Dryton

Britain was the principal slaving nation of the modern world. In The Empire Pays Back, a documentary broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday, Robert Beckford called on the British to take stock of this past. Why, he asked, had Britain made no apology for African slavery, as it had done for the Irish potato famine? Why was there no substantial public monument of national contrition equivalent to Berlin’s Holocaust Museum? Why, most crucially, was there no recognition of how wealth extracted from Africa and Africans made possible the vigour and prosperity of modern Britain? Was there not a case for Britain to pay reparations to the descendants of African slaves?

These are timely questions in a summer in which Blair and Bush, their hands still wet with Iraqi blood, sought to rebrand themselves as the saviours of Africa. The G8’s debt-forgiveness initiative was spun successfully as an act of western altruism. The generous Massas never bothered to explain that, in order to benefit, governments must agree to “conditions”, which included allowing profit-making companies to take over public services. This was no gift; it was what the merchant bankers would call a “debt-for-equity swap”, the equity here being national sovereignty. The sweetest bit of the deal was that the money owed, already more than repaid in interest, had mostly gone to buy industrial imports from the west and Japan, and oil from nations who bank their profits in London and New York. Only in a bookkeeping sense had it ever left the rich world. No one considered that Africa’s debt was trivial compared to what the west really owes Africa.

Beckford’s experts estimated Britain’s debt to Africans in the continent and diaspora to be in the trillions of pounds. While this was a useful benchmark, its basis was mistaken. Not because it was excessive, but because the real debt is incalculable. For without Africa and its Caribbean plantation extensions, the modern world as we know it would not exist.

Profits from slave trading and from sugar, coffee, cotton and tobacco are only a small part of the story. What mattered was how the pull and push from these industries transformed western Europe’s economies. English banking, insurance, shipbuilding, wool and cotton manufacture, copper and iron smelting, and the cities of Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow, multiplied in response to the direct and indirect stimulus of the slave plantations.

Joseph Inikori’s masterful book, Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, shows how African consumers, free and enslaved, nurtured Britain’s infant manufacturing industry. As Malachy Postlethwayt, the political economist, candidly put it in 1745: “British trade is a magnificent superstructure of American commerce and naval power on an African foundation.”

In The Great Divergence, Kenneth Pomeranz asked why Europe, rather than China, made the breakthrough first into a modern industrial economy. To his two answers – abundant coal and New World colonies – he should have added access to west Africa. For the colonial Americas were more Africa’s creation than Europe’s: before 1800, far more Africans than Europeans crossed the Atlantic. New World slaves were vital too, strangely enough, for European trade in the east. For merchants needed precious metals to buy Asian luxuries, returning home with profits in the form of textiles; only through exchanging these cloths in Africa for slaves to be sold in the New World could Europe obtain new gold and silver to keep the system moving. East Indian companies led ultimately to Europe’s domination of Asia and its 19th-century humiliation of China.

Africa not only underpinned Europe’s earlier development. Its palm oil, petroleum, copper, chromium, platinum and in particular gold were and are crucial to the later world economy. Only South America, at the zenith of its silver mines, outranks Africa’s contribution to the growth of the global bullion supply.

The guinea coin paid homage in its name to the west African origins of one flood of gold. By this standard, the British pound since 1880 should have been rechristened the rand, for Britain’s prosperity and its currency stability depended on South Africa’s mines. I would wager that a large share of that gold in the IMF’s vaults which was supposed to pay for Africa’s debt relief had originally been stolen from that continent.

There are many who like to blame Africa’s weak governments and economies, famines and disease on its post-1960 leadership. But the fragility of contemporary Africa is a direct consequence of two centuries of slaving, followed by another of colonial despotism. Nor was “decolonisation” all it seemed: both Britain and France attempted to corrupt the whole project of political sovereignty.

It is remarkable that none of those in Britain who talk about African dictatorship and kleptocracy seem aware that Idi Amin came to power in Uganda through British covert action, and that Nigeria’s generals were supported and manipulated from 1960 onwards in support of Britain’s oil interests. It is amusing, too, to find the Telegraph and the Daily Mail – which just a generation ago supported Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and South African apartheid – now so concerned about human rights in Zimbabwe. The tragedy of Mugabe and others is that they learned too well from the British how to govern without real popular consent, and how to make the law serve ruthless private interest. The real appetite of the west for democracy in Africa is less than it seems. We talk about the Congo tragedy without mentioning that it was a British statesman, Alec Douglas-Home, who agreed with the US president in 1960 that Patrice Lumumba, its elected leader, needed to “fall into a river of crocodiles”.

African slavery and colonialism are not ancient or foreign history; the world they made is around us in Britain. It is not merely in economic terms that Africa underpins a modern experience of (white) British privilege. Had Africa’s signature not been visible on the body of the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, would he have been gunned down on a tube at Stockwell? The slight kink of the hair, his pale beige skin, broadcast something misread by police as foreign danger. In that sense, his shooting was the twin of the axe murder of Anthony Walker in Liverpool, and of the more than 100 deaths of black people in mysterious circumstances while in police, prison or hospital custody since 1969.

This universe of risk, part of the black experience, is the afterlife of slavery. The reverse of the medal is what WEB DuBois called the “wage of whiteness”, the world of safety, trustworthiness, welcome that those with pale skins take for granted. The psychology of racism operates even among those who believe in human equality, shaping unequal outcomes in education, employment, criminal justice. By its light, such all-white clubs as the G8 continue to meet in comfort.

Early this year, Gordon Brown told journalists in Mozambique that Britain should stop apologising for colonialism. The truth is, though, that Britain has never even faced up to the dark side of its imperial history, let alone begun to apologise.

Dr Richard Drayton is a senior lecturer in imperial and extra-European history since 1500 at Cambridge University. His book The Caribbean and the Making of the Modern World will be published in 2006.

Source: Guardian Hear Africa campaign 2005