There has been a lot of discussion about the projected devastation of hurricane Matthew. Some reports indicate that essential personnel have been evacuated from Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. Those reports suggest that only personnel assigned with the task of defending the naval base remain. One must ask if their task is to defend Guantanamo, which is located in Cuba, from the Cuban people?
Another question comes to mind which is “What is to become of the detainees at the prison at Guantanamo?” Some may ask what difference does it make. However, if any semblance of humanitarianism is left in the USA, the safety and humane treatment of foreign prisoners should not be taken lightly.
It will be interesting to see if news reports in the coming days address this important international legal question.
West Africa/Europe: Toxic Fuels for African Markets
AfricaFocus Bulletin
October 4, 2016 (161004)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor’s Note
European commodity trading companies in Switzerland, using petroleum
‘blending’ plants in the Netherlands and Belgium, are exporting
toxic fuels to Africa in large quantity. “Their business model,”
according to a new report from the Swiss organization Public Eye,
“relies on an illegitimate strategy of deliberately lowering the
quality of fuels in order to increase their profits. Using a common
industry practice called blending, trading companies mix cheap but
toxic intermediate petroleum products to make what the industry
calls ‘African Quality’ fuels.”
For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/dd1610.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”
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The findings come from a three-year study by Public Eye (formerly
the Berne Declaration), in which researchers collected and analyzed
samples of fuel from petrol stations in eight countries: Angola,
Benin, the Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali,
Senegal and Zambia. The problem is particularly intense in West
Africa, which imports half its refined petroleum products despite
being a significant producer of crude oil.
The full 164-page investigative report is available on the Public
Eye website (https://www.publiceye.ch/en/campaigns/dirtydiesel/),
with extensive background material, audiovisual resources, and a
petition targeting the key Swiss companies involved, linked to
campaigns in the West African countries affected. This AfricaFocus
Bulletin contains excerpts, including the executive summary.
The fuels exported from the “ARA Hub” of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and
Antwerp, which supplies approximately half of fuel exports to West
Africa, include diesel with sulphur content “at least 100 times the
European standard.”
The Public Eye campaign in Switzerland, called “Return to Sender,”
calls for African governments to set stringent fuel quality
standards, for Swiss trading companies to stop abusing the current
weak standards, and for European governments to prohibit the export
of any health-damaging fuels that would not be allowed under their
own domestic standards. See, in particular, the short video and
other resources at
https://www.dirtydiesel.ch/en/campaign/?section=intro
This expose of trade in “African Quality” fuels is one of the most
dramatic illustrations of structural environmental racism at the
international level. It is also a clear illustration of why
combating such abuses effectively requires an international
response.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on environmental issues, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/intro-env.php
Upgrade on AfricaFocus Website: Embedded Facebook Feed
As readers are aware, AfricaFocus has increasingly been used its
Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/AfricaFocus) for posting of
links to stories such as these. If you use Facebook to follow news
and commentary, please follow the page.
Now, however, these same resources are conveniently available on
the web to those of you who don’t use Facebook regularly. Go to
http://www.africafocus.org and just look on the right-hand side of
the home page, where you can see the latest AfricaFocus posts, and
scroll down for earlier posts.
[Public Eye (formerly the Berne Declaration) is a non-profit,
independent Swiss organisation with around 25,000 members. Public
Eye has been campaigning for more equitable relations between
Switzerland and underprivileged countries for more than forty years.
Among its most important concerns are the global safeguarding of
human rights, the socially and ecologically responsible conduct of
business enterprises and the promotion of fair economic relations.]
Executive summary
Swiss commodity trading companies take advantage of weak fuel
standards in Africa to produce, deliver and sell diesel and
gasoline, which is damaging to people’s health. Their business model
relies on an illegitimate strategy of deliberately lowering the
quality of fuels in order to increase their profits. Using a common
industry practice called blending, trading companies mix cheap but
toxic intermediate petroleum products to make what the industry
calls “African Quality” fuels. These intermediate products contain
high levels of sulphur as well as other toxic substances such as
benzene and aromatics. By selling such fuels at the pump in Africa,
the traders increase outdoor air pollution, causing respiratory
disease and premature death. This affects West Africa, in
particular, because this is the region where the authorised levels
of sulphur in fuels remain very high. West Africa does not have the
refining capacity to produce enough gasoline and diesel for its own
consumption, and so it must import the majority of its fuels from
Europe and the US, where fuel standards are strict.
Fuels have been on the agenda for some time already. Beginning in
2002, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) conducted a ten-year
campaign that led in most countries to a ban on lead in gasoline.
However, fuels still account for other severe health issues. The
issue of sulphur content must be urgently addressed.
This report is the result of three years of research by Public Eye
(formerly the Berne Declaration). It highlights the contribution by
the commodity trading industry to outdoor air pollution in Africa
and the related health effects.
The Issue: Sulphur, A Ticking Bomb that Needs Defusing
African mega-cities such as Lagos or Dakar already have worse air
quality than Beijing. Rapid urbanisation, the growing numbers of
cars, and the poor quality of these cars, which are mostly second
hand, partly explains the worsening air pollution in African cities.
The crucial factor though is that most African countries still
permit the use of high-sulphur diesel and gasoline. On average,
African sulphur limits in diesel are 200 times above the European
limit, in some countries this figure is as high as 1,000.
Sulphur in fuels is crucial to air pollution because of its direct
health-damaging effects but also because it destroys emissions
control technologies in vehicles. As long as fuel sulphur content
remains so high, any efforts to reduce air pollution (for example,
by modernising Africa’s car fleet) will be in vain. Without rapid
and meaningful improvements in fuel quality, traffic-related air
pollution will soon be a major health issue (see chapter 3).
Respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive lung
diseases, lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases will rise.
On the other hand the use of ultra-low sulphur fuels (10 parts per
million [ppm] sulphur) would immediately halve the emissions of
pollutants. If done together with the introduction of cars that use
existing emissions control technologies, the emission of pollutants
could be reduced by 99 percent.
The Players: The Swiss Trading Companies
The fuel business in Africa is very opaque. Over the past decade,
important shifts have happened, almost unnoticed. As oil majors
pulled out from Africa’s retail business, Swiss trading companies
moved in, expanding downstream to control key as sets such as
storage facilities and hundreds of petrol stations across Africa
(see chapter 4). Hidden from view by operating behind the Shell and
Puma Energy brands, two big Swiss trading companies Vitol and
Trafigura, together with smaller Swiss companies, have a dominant
position in the import and distribution of petroleum products in
many African countries, especially in West Africa. Other
heavyweights, namely Glencore, Mercuria and Gunvor, that don’t own
petrol station networks, are equally important in supplying African
markets. To access markets and increase their market share, they
often rely on dodgy local door-openers or other politically exposed
persons (see chapter 5).
The Test: Sampling at the Pump
Public Eye tested fuels sold at the pump by Swiss trading companies
(see chapter 6). Countries were selected based on their weak fuel
standards and on the presence of petrol stations owned by Swiss
trading companies. We analysed samples from eight coun tries:
Angola, Benin, the Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire,
Mali, Senegal and Zambia. The trading companies sampled were
Trafigura (operating through Puma, Pumangol, Gazelle trading, UBI),
Vitol (Vivo Energy with Shell brand), Addax & Oryx Group (Oryx) and
Lynx Energy (X-Oil).
More than two thirds of the diesel samples (17 out of 25) had a
sulphur level higher than 1,500 ppm, which is 150 times the European
limit of 10 ppm. The highest level of sulphur was in a diesel sample
from one of Oryx’s petrol stations in Mali, where the sulphur
content was 3,780 ppm. Almost half of the gasoline samples (10 out
of 22) have a sulphur level between 15 and 72 times the European
limit of 10 ppm. Worryingly, we also detected other health damaging
substances in concentrations that would never be allowed in a
European or US fuel. These substances include polyaromatics
(diesel), aromatics and benzene (gasoline). In a number of samples,
we found traces of metals that would also contribute to higher
emissions of pollutants and damage car engines too.
The Context: Toxic Fuels Brought to Africa
West Africa is a significant producer of crude oil. But due to its
lack of refining capacity, the region must import roughly half of
its diesel and gasoline, which is high in sulphur, mostly from
Europe and the US.
Around 50 percent of the fuels imported to West Africa come from
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp, collectively known as the “ARA”
region (see chapter 8). Trade statistics show 80 percent of the
diesel exported from ARA to Africa has sulphur content at least 100
times above the European standard. This figure soared to an average
90 percent for West Africa, with Ghana (93 percent), Guinea (100
percent), Senegal (82 percent), Nigeria (84 percent) and Togo (96
percent) receiving the biggest volumes.
Based on specific cargoes, official documents from Ghana show that,
in both 2013 and 2014, diesel imports contained sul phur levels
extremely close to the legal limit. This all happened even as
specifications were changed between 2013 and 2014. This shows how
trading companies are able quickly to adapt to new standards,
sticking as close as possible to the limit (see chapter 7). Swiss
trading companies play a major role in transporting fuel from the
ARA region, and from the US, to West Africa. In the case of Ghana,
these companies delivered most of the known high sulphur cargoes in
2013 and 2014.
The Business: Blending Fuels
Contrary to what most people might think, fuels such as diesel or
gasoline tend not to come straight from refineries. Instead, the
refineries produce intermediate products, which are then mixed
together, occasionally with intermediate products from other sources
(such as the chemical industry). This process is called “blending”
(see chapter 9). To make matters more com plex, different types of
refineries produce different intermediate products or “blendstocks”.
Gasoline is always a blended product because vehicle engines require
a particular mix, which usually consists of between six and ten
blendstocks. By contrast, diesel does not need to be blended.
However, since blending is a profitable activity and since
refineries do not produce enough diesel by them selves, diesel is
also blended. It usually consists of between four and six
blendstocks.
Blending does not require a huge infrastructure. A few pipes and
tanks are usually enough to prepare a specific blend of diesel or
gasoline. It can be done in tank terminals, onboard ships, or at the
interface between the two while still in port.
Having become giants with revenues of hundreds of billions of
dollars, Swiss commodity trading companies have more oil tankers at
sea and own more storage capacity than the oil majors. Storage
capacity is key not only to trading but also to blending.
The Illegitimate Business: Making “African Quality” Fuels
As trading companies (and other blenders) explain, they “tailor”
fuels to meet the standards of the country they supply. They call
this blending “on-spec”, or according to required specifications.
This can refer to the required specification of sulphur content, or
to the content of any other regulated substances, such as ben zene
or aromatics.
Differences between national fuel quality regulations offer
opportunity for companies to profit from a form of regulatory
arbitrage. With weak standards, Africa is an excellent example. And
industry uses the term “African Quality” (see chapter 10) when
referring to low-quality fuels, characterised primarily by their
high sulphur content, although the term also refers to fuels with
other low-quality aspects.
Africa’s weak fuel standards allow traders to use cheap blendstocks,
dropping production costs and making the produc tion of low fuels a
lucrative business model.
These cheap blendstocks are also of poor quality and, most
importantly, they damage health through their high levels of
sulphur, aromatics and benzene. Such blendstocks could never be used
in European or American markets. Sometimes fuels also contain waste
and recycled blendstocks from the chemical industry and elsewhere,
posing additional risks.
Traders and other blenders, who have a below specification petroleum
product on their hands, will search the market for other blendstocks
(nicknamed “tasty juices”) that will enable the production of an on-
spec fuel. The closer to the specifica tion boundary the product
lies, the larger the potential margin for the trader. On the other
hand, if the trader has a product that is above the specification,
then it may be able to purchase cheap, low-quality “juices” to blend
in. The process of lowering product quality is known in the industry
as “filling up quality give-away”.
In principle, blending is a legitimate and necessary technical
process, but there is a large margin for abuse when it comes to
blending low-quality blendstocks – a practice we call “blend
dumping”. We consider this to be an illegitimate practice. Con
taminants present in any blendstock, such as sulphur and benzene,
should be minimised or fully eliminated by further refining, not
diluted to meet the weak standards of African countries.
The Hub: Where African Quality Fuels Are Produced
While African Quality fuels could never be legally sold in Europe,
they are produced in Europe nevertheless. The ARA region has become
the main hub for the blending and shipping of fuels, especially
diesel, to West Africa for a number of reasons, includ ing its
extensive refining and blending capacity, its strategic po sition
(which allows it to receive petroleum products and blend stocks from
the UK, Russia and the Baltic countries), and its geographic
proximity to West Africa (see chapter 11). The Swiss trading
companies own or hire extensive blending facilities in ARA and we
can prove for the first time that they dominate the export of
African Quality fuels to West Africa.
Besides Europe, the blending is also done offshore the West African
coast. Most West African ports are too small to receive a large
number of tankers or have limited draft, which prevents the larger
European tankers from entering. Mostly coming from the ARA region,
these oil product tankers sail across the Atlan tic Ocean and meet
in the Gulf of Guinea. Mostly in Togolese waters, they transfer
petroleum products from one vessel to an other in an operation known
as ship-to-ship (STS) transfer. The usually smaller tankers then
sail off, discharging the products to different countries in the
region. These STS operations are also a common way to blend
products.
The Conclusion: Ban All Dirty Fuels
Now is the time for African governments to act. They have the chance
to protect the health of their urban population, reduce car
maintenance costs, and spend their health budgets on other pressing
health issues. By moving to ultra-low sulphur diesel, Africa could
prevent 25,000 premature deaths in 2030 and al most 100,000
premature deaths in 2050. An examination of past experience, the
price structure of diesel, and recent developments on the continent
show that African leaders shouldn’t fear significant price increases
from improving the standards of fuel (see concluding chapter 12). In
January 2015, for example, five East African countries adopted low
sulphur fuels with no impact on prices at the pump, or on government
spending through subsidies. A limited increase of prices at the pump
should in any case be balanced with the health and associated
savings of reducing air pollution from high sulphur fuels. The
savings from better health are by far higher than the effects of the
potential costs of cleaner fuels.
Four different sets of actors should take decisive steps
immediately:
* African governments (and others with weak fuel standards) should
set stringent fuel quality standards of 10 ppm sulphur for diesel
and gasoline, and introduce European limits on other health damaging
substances. Whether or not they have sufficient refining capacity in
the country or can only import, governments should be strict with
implementing fuel standards. If not, their fuels will quickly
contain bad blendstocks. The blenders know exactly which standards
apply where, and how best they can dump their African Quality
blends.
* Swiss trading companies should stop abusing Africa’s low fuel
quality standards, recognize that if left unchanged their practices
will kill more and more people across the continent, and immediately
produce and sell to African countries only fuels that would meet
Europe’s high fuel quality standards.
* Governments of export hubs for African fuels (such as Amsterdam,
Antwerp or the US Gulf) should prohibit the export of any health
damaging fuels or blendstocks, which would never be used in their
own country.
* The Swiss government should implement mandatory human rights and
environmental due diligence requirements for Swiss companies,
covering the entire supply chain and including potentially toxic
products.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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http://www.africafocus.org
AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 21, 2016 (160921)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor’s Note
The direct and indirect toll resulting from illicit financial flows
reflects the unequal value today’s world places on human lives by
race and place … Reflecting the legacy of the slave trade and
colonialism, the African continent and Black people around the world
are disproportionately located at the bottom of a global system that
systematically sucks wealth upward, toward the top “1 percent.” …
there can be no doubt that the number of deaths caused by these
structural economic inequalities rivals or likely even exceeds those
lost due to bombs, guns, or machetes.
For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/iff1609.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”
To share this on Facebook, click on
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This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains an article published today in
Praxis (http://www.kzoo.edu/praxis/making-violence-visible/), an on-line publication of the
Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. The
article, written by Emily Williams and William Minter, seeks to do
the following: 1) introduce readers to the #StoptheBleeding campaign
and make the tremendous loss of resources from African countries via
illicit financial flows more visible; 2) begin to make the case for
linking #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding with the
understanding that the same system of (mis)appropriation of wealth
is hurting people in Africa and elsewhere in the world including the
US; and 3) offer several domestic and global policy changes that
could make a difference on both sides of the Atlantic.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on illicit financial flows and
related issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php
In addition to links in the article below, additional newly
published resources include:
From the US-Africa Network
“Top 10 Questions About Illicit Financial Flows and Africa”
http://tinyurl.com/zz4xr53
“Resources about Illicit Financial Flows from Africa”
http://tinyurl.com/jsyg8el
From AfricaFocus Bulletin
Top Ten Books on Illicit Financial Flows, Tax Justice, and Africa
http://www.africafocus.org/iff-books.php
Making Violence Visible: From #BlackLivesMatter to #StoptheBleeding
Africa
By Emily Williams and William Minter
[Emily Williams is an educator and organizational development
consultant. William Minter is the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin (
http://www.africafocus.org) and author of numerous books and other
publications on African issues and international relations. Both
authors are members of the coordinating committee of the US-Africa
Network (http://www.usafricanetwork.org). The authors are grateful
for the skillful editing of Alice Kim, which has contributed
immensely to the development of this article.]
In June 2015, a coalition of six Pan-African activist networks
launched #StoptheBleeding Africa (
http://stopthebleedingafrica.org/faqs/) in Nairobi, Kenya to curb
the hemorrhage of resources from the African continent. As the
#BlackLivesMatter movement continued to gain strength in the United
States, this Pan-African coalition came together to expose and
mobilize global support to end illicit financial flows – money that
is illegally earned, transferred or used. Estimates of illegal
transactions in Africa show a loss of at least $50 billion to $80
billion in wealth every year, a figure that would be incalculably
more if transfers made legal by loopholes and unfair treaties were
included. Some flows are only seen as “legal” because the laws are
written and interpreted by those profiting from the system.
Nevertheless, even the outflow of clearly illegal funds is far
greater than the estimated $40 billion a year that Africa receives
in official development assistance. As explained in this 16-minute
video from the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lenH1SaOcIA), the #StoptheBleeding
campaign includes official commitments by African governments.
However, implementing these commitments depends on large-scale
mobilizations within Africa and around the world.
Unlike the pillage of Africa in earlier periods of the slave trade
and colonial rule, these illicit financial transactions are most
often hidden from public view. They happen through fraudulent
invoicing of trade, “creative accounting” by multinational
corporations, tax giveaways by African governments, and the use of
shell companies based in tax havens around the world including
Delaware, Luxembourg, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Liberia,
and Mauritius. Despite repeated revelations, notably the recent
#PanamaPapers (https://panamapapers.icij.org/) scandal, the public
eye glazes over at billions of dollars cited alongside obscure
company names and a complex web of financial links across national
and continental borders. This article seeks to do the following: 1)
introduce readers to the #StoptheBleeding campaign and make the
tremendous loss of resources from African countries via illicit
financial flows more visible; 2) begin to make the case for linking
#BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding with the understanding that
the same system of (mis)appropriation of wealth is hurting people in
Africa and elsewhere in the world including the US; and 3) offer
several domestic and global policy changes that could make a
difference on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Looting Machine
As South African student activist Pearl Pillay noted, “it is a
common error of thought that violence is only what you can see”
(http://tinyurl.com/jtk3hzy). Violence that stems from decisions
made in boardrooms, city halls, and the offices of high-paid
international accounting and law firms can be harder to see than
violence on the streets but is deadly nonetheless.
In the US, economic violence is carried out through systemic public
disinvestment in health and education as we’ve seen in Flint,
Michigan’s water crisis and the closure of public schools in Chicago
and Detroit, not to mention below-poverty-level wages paid by
corporations such as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s.
In African countries, capitalist enterprises suck resources out of
the continent via traditional industries like oil and minerals and
rapidly expanding economic sectors like telecommunications and
retail:
* In Nigeria, Shell, Chevron, and other companies from Europe and
China share oil profits with corrupt Nigerian officials. The Panama
Papers reveals that “three oil ministers, several senior employees
of the national oil company and two former state governors” were
“convicted of laundering ill-gotten money from the oil industry” (
https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160725-nigeria-oil-mogul.html). One
prominent Nigerian oil trader is accused of cheating the Nigerian
government out of 1.8 billion dollars in oil sales.
*In Angola, an oligarchy headed by the president’s family presides
over oil riches in alliance with companies including Chevron,
ExxonMobil, BP, and a Hong Kong-based international network of
companies known as the Queensway Group (http://tinyurl.com/n5bn5gn).
* In South Africa, the mobile phone company MTN is able to avoid
paying taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars from its
subsidiaries in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and other African countries,
it was revealed last year, by channeling most of its profits through
“management fees” to its subsidiary tax haven in Mauritius (
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/td1510.php).
* Walmart, which has controlled the South Africa-based Massmart
since 2011, hides an estimated $76 billion of its foreign earnings
through subsidiaries in Luxembourg, where it owns no stores (
http://tinyurl.com/hmhg24t). By hiding these earnings stored in
Luxembourg, Walmart avoids paying taxes on the funds.
These financial practices can be as, if not more, deadly than police
violence due to the sheer number of people impacted as resources
needed for health, education, and other public services, as well as
for private and public investment in development, are siphoned out
to multinational corporations and overseas bank accounts. The
ensuing competition for scarce resources fuels local and national
conflicts, often heightened by demagogues channeling the frustration
into hostility toward ethnic “others.”
The direct and indirect toll resulting from illicit financial flows
reflects the unequal value today’s world places on human lives by
race and place; and, in fact, not only parallels the violence of
terrorism but also reflects its disproportionate toll on the Middle
East, Africa, and Asia than in Europe and the Americas (
http://tinyurl.com/hlsbj8b). Reflecting the legacy of the
slave trade and colonialism, the African continent and Black people
around the world are disproportionately located at the bottom of a
global system that systematically sucks wealth upward, toward the
top “1 percent.” Whether this system is best called capitalism,
neoliberalism, global apartheid, white supremacy, kleptocracy, or
something else, there can be no doubt that the number of deaths
caused by these structural economic inequalities rivals or likely
even exceeds those lost due to bombs, guns, or machetes.
+++++++++++
Stop the Bleeding (4-minute music video)
++++++++++++
Financial Flows and Tax Losses
With the #PanamaPapers leak in April 2016, illicit financial flows
momentarily gained international media attention. This is in part
because rich as well as poor countries are affected. A recent
calculation (http://tinyurl.com/holnnc5) estimated that illegal
tax evasion costs US taxpayers $35 billion a year, with an
additional $130 billion a year lost to technically legal “tax
avoidance.” Even without any changes in tax rates for the rich,
these “lost” funds could add $165 billion a year more in public
funds and be invested in health, education, and other public goods
that benefit Americans.
The losses to sub-Saharan Africa from illicit flows, however, have
an even more significant impact given the smaller size of African
economies and the urgent need for investment in basic services.
According to World Bank estimates (http://tinyurl.com/hw7b8t3) for
2014, while the United States and other rich countries on average
spend over $9,000 a year per person on public health, South Africa
spends a little less than $600 a year per person. Meanwhile the
average for all African countries together is less than $100 per
person per year. As the wealthy evade taxes in both richer and
poorer countries, it is always the most vulnerable in society who
suffer most from budget cuts. On a global scale, African countries
and African people suffer disproportionately, reflecting the global
hierarchy of wealth and power
http://www.africafocus.org/iff-inequality.php).
Watch this 3.5 minute video on how Zambia Sugar evades taxes.
Making Connections Across Geographic and Mental Distance
Although #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding were born out of
distinct geographic contexts, highlight apparently different social
problems, call for varying solutions, and have diverging levels of
visibility in the global media, they are inextricably and deeply
linked.
Thanks to #BlackLivesMatter the pervasive systemic violence against
Black people by police and the criminal justice system in the US is
now more visible. Names like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Sandra
Bland, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, and
Philando Castile have not been forgotten because activists have
strategically used social media, street protests, and behind-the-
scenes organizing to force the media, the public, and politicians to
pay attention.
In the U.S., increasing economic inequality has led to the
criminalization of the poor and can be directly connected to police
violence. For example, in the cases of Alton Sterling and Eric
Garner, their attempts to make money in the street economy (selling
cd’s and loose cigarettes respectively) is what preceded their
interaction with police that ultimately ended in the loss of their
lives. U.S. activists are intentionally making economic justice fundamental to the message of #BlackLivesMatter in initiatives like the Agenda to Build Black Futures (http://agendatobuildblackfutures.org/) released by Black Youth
Project in January 2016 and the Vision for Black Lives (https://policy.m4bl.org/) released by a coalition of Black
organizations in August 2016. Notably, #BlackLivesMatter
interventions in numerous cities were integral to pushing Bernie
Sanders’ presidential campaign, which appealed to a growing segment
of the American population because it called for a more progressive
and populist economic agenda, to (belatedly) acknowledge the
relationship between racial justice, gender justice, and economic
justice.
But the violence plaguing Africa remains far too invisible to most
Americans. It is more difficult to #saytheirnames when the report is
of 44 killed at the #Marikana mine in South Africa, 147 students at
#Garissa in Kenya, or hundreds of men, women, and children at #Baga
in northeastern Nigeria, places most Americans have never visited
and can’t find on a map.
Although the Nigerian-launched campaign to #BringBackOurGirls won
international fame, few Americans (beyond African immigrants and
others with close personal links to the continent) are attentive to
other struggles in Africa. Hashtags like #StoptheBleeding,
#OccupyNigeria, #MinersShotDown, #FeesMustFall, and #RhodesMustFall
echo faintly, if at all, across the Atlantic.
Making the connections between what is happening “here” and what is
happening “there” is not easy – #StoptheBleeding can feel less
tangible because the violence being contested is hidden in a tangle
of economic statistics, anonymous shell companies, and accounting
tricks – but it is fundamental to addressing the obstacles that must
be overcome to make a different world possible. It is imperative to
address the roots of injustice that connect #BlackLivesMatter and
#StoptheBleeding by fostering a collective process that builds
solidarity between movement forces in the US and Africa.
Follow the Money
When policymakers—in Chicago, Washington, Pretoria, Nairobi, or
anywhere else —ask “Where is the money?” to pay for health,
education, and infrastructure, the answer should be, in the words of
the African Union Panel on Illicit Financial Flows: “Track it! Stop
it! Get it!” (http://tinyurl.com/zvwn5p5) The debate must go beyond
the very real issues of setting different budget priorities to
raising the basic question of who pays and who is evading their duty
to pay their fair share. The first step is to ensure that there is
full information available on income and wealth of those who have
the most money, including the ultra-rich, the well-known giant
companies, and also the obscure shell companies that both use to
hide their wealth from public view.
The United States and other rich countries are the home countries
for the majority of multinational corporations involved in the
looting of the African continent. They also provide convenient
facilities for African elites to hide their riches. In a report
published in January 2016, Global Witness documented with video
interviews their undercover investigation of 13 leading New York law
firms (https://www.globalwitness.org/shadyinc/). “We said we were
advising an African minister who had accumulated millions of
dollars, and we wanted to buy a Gulfstream Jet, a brownstone and a
yacht. We said we needed to get the money into the U.S. without
detection. … the results were shocking; all but one of the lawyers
had suggestions on how to move the funds.”
On the African continent, #StoptheBleeding activist groups and many
public officials at continental and national level are working to
identify the money that pours out of the continent. They have
identified specific measures to improve tracking of fraud in trade
invoices and are campaigning against tax treaties with foreign
investors with massive giveaways. They are working with
international partners to train journalists in investigations such
as those in the Panama Paper, and with tax specialists to improve
capacity to track overseas bank accounts. Implementation depends on
mobilization of public pressure and political will in each
individual country. Since the system is global, however, it also
depends on international collaboration, particularly from the
countries where the money is hidden.
And that’s where the connection to the United States becomes
essential, and the agendas of #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding
Africa potentially converge. The ultra-rich and multinational
corporations operate on a global playing field. Using secret bank
accounts, lawyers, and accountants spread around the world, money
can be transferred with a click of a mouse from Nairobi or Chicago
to the British Virgin Islands to London, with stops along the way in
Panama, the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, Singapore, and Samoa in
the Pacific. If tax authorities are going to track down the money
they should be getting, activists and honest public officials around
the world must also find ways to collaborate to change the laws and
implement them (see the text box for a few examples of key policies
that could make a difference).
++++++++++++++++
Key Policy Changes Needed for Tax Justice
1. Beneficial ownership in the US
Over two million corporations, LLCs, and other business entities are
formed in the United States every year—and almost every state
collects less identifying information from the individuals forming
these entities than from people applying for a driver’s license or
registering to vote. Indeed, many states rank among the easiest
places in the world in which to form “anonymous shell companies” or
“phantom firms” – business entities that exist solely on paper with
no obligation to list the real people who actually own or control
them, otherwise known as the “beneficial owners.” If they remain
hidden, it is not possible to find and to tax the assets, whether
they come from drug dealing or simply from rich people trying to
avoid paying taxes.
Relevant federal legislation proposed: The Incorporation
Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S. 2489 and H.R.
4450)
2. Public Country-by-Country Reporting
Currently, multinationals are able to exploit loopholes in domestic
and international tax laws to shift profits from one country to the
next, often through tax havens (or “secrecy jurisdictions”), with
the end goal of reducing or even eliminating the tax they pay to
governments. Without leaks and whistleblowers, even governments only
see a small window into the inner workings of companies, which makes
proving tax avoidance or evasion nearly impossible. Although MNCs
report on their profits, revenue, taxes paid, and number of
employees, the global numbers they provide are for the operations of
all of their subsidiaries bundled together.
Multinational corporations should be required to submit individual
reports with basic financial information such as revenue, profits,
taxes, and number of employees for each jurisdiction in which they
operate. These country by country reports should be made available
to the public. Public country-by-country reporting strengthens the
financial system for everyone.
New regulations on country-by-country reporting by corporations were
issued this year by the Treasury and the IRS, and are also under
consideration by the Security and Exchange Commission. However,
these do not yet meet the standard of public disclosure demanded by
tax justice advocates.
3. Financial Transaction (Robin Hood) Tax
Simply put, the big idea behind the Robin Hood Tax is to generate
hundreds of billions of dollars, through a small tax of 0.5% on all
financial transactions such as sales of stocks and bonds. That money
could provide funding for jobs to kickstart the economy and get
America back on its feet. It could help save the social safety net
here and around the world, and it will come from fair taxation of
the finance sector. The revenue raised would be enough to protect
American schools, housing, local governments and hospitals, to pay
for lifesaving AIDS medicines, to support people and communities
around the world, and to deal with the climate challenges we’re
facing.
Relevant federal legislation proposed: The Inclusive Prosperity Act
(H.R. 1464), introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep.
Keith Ellison and 36 co-sponsors and in the Senate (S. 1371) by Sen.
Bernie Sanders, with 1 co-sponsor.
+++++++++++
Action at the federal level can have the widest effect, given the
size of the U. S. economy and the impact of U.S. policy on
international action. But given that corporations are registered at
the state level and also pay corporate taxes at the state level,
states also have the capacity to take the lead and set a precedent
for national action. If the political will and the technical legal
and financial expertise are available, similar laws could possibly
even be implemented at city levels, as were divestment measures in
the anti-apartheid era.
Solidarity between #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleedingAfrica is
crucial. Via weak corporate tax law, the U.S. gives license to
corporations to hoard profits and withhold their fair share of taxes
from the societies and countries which allow them to become
prosperous. By standing in opposition to tax injustice, activists
can push back against an aspect of U.S. capitalism that contributes
to increasing wealth inequality. By staying informed, building
relationships, and working in solidarity, we begin to create better
conditions for Black lives across the globe.
Incremental policy change will not be enough. We must confront the
legacy of centuries of systemic injustice and end society’s denial
that this past still shapes the present. The violent inequality of
today’s world is not new, despite dramatic changes in the
technologies of both physical and economic violence. Making that
violence visible also requires making full use of new technologies,
from cellphone videos to big-data journalism. But above all, it
depends on forging links between activists engaged on these
different fronts in different places, who together can build the
political will to act and thus make new futures possible.
For More Information
Africa-specific
Tax Justice Network – Africa
http://www.taxjusticeafrica.net/en/blog/
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org
Forty years ago, a bomb exploded in downtown Washington, DC. Its target, Orlando Letelier, was a Chilean diplomat and Foreign Minister in the administration former president Salvador Allende. The bombing was sanctioned by Augusto Pinochet, who subsequently came to power in a CIA-orchestrated coup d’etat. Victor Figeuroa Clark, a Chilean historian and author of the book Salvador Allende: Revolutionary Democrat, joined Radio Sputnik’s Brian Becker to talk about the events of that time. According to Clark, Letelier was assassinated because he was an extremely effective voice against Pinochet, both in Washington and at the UN. Some months before he was killed, Letelier was a key figure in lobbying to pass an amendment limiting US aid to Pinochet’s CIA-installed regime. But Letelier was also a political threat, Clark explained. The well-liked diplomat had contacts among political elites, and at the time of his death, he was the only person who could lead an organized opposition to Pinochet. Blowing up a car in the middle of the US capital is the opposite of clandestine. According to Clark, Pinochet dared the public killing because he was receiving mixed signals from the US. “Like with other right-wing and extremist regimes at the time and ever since, US institutions have given confusing signs on human rights, and the length of lead they can be given. The State Department might have given a “red light” while the CIA could have given the green light,'” Clark said. “Pinochet and the junta felt like they were on a global crusade against the evil as they thought it communism or marxism. They thought that they were representing the best interests of the US and the free world, and that therefore they would be understood and forgiven.” Letelier is one of the most famous victims of Operation Condor, a communist-hunting network orchestrated through a joint effort by intelligence services of Latin American dictator regimes, alongside the United States, to share intelligence information on left-wing organizations and their leaders. In 2001, former US State Secretary Henry Kissinger was named a suspect and defendant in a case regarding Operation Condor and related assassinations. After a visit to an investigator, Kissinger immediately left France and refused to travel to Brazil. “The US were fundamental in establishing of these intelligence services,” Clark said. “[The assassination of Letelier] was a fruit of the long-term policy of working with intelligence services and governments in order to repress the left-wing groups across the Latin America,” he added. The bombing was carried out by US citizen Michael Vernon Townley, a professional assassin, and an operative of the Chilean DINA secret police. Later, he confessed and was convicted of the assassination of Letelier, serving 62 months in prison. He is currently thought to be living in the United States under the US federal witness-protection program. “Townley’s case isn’t unusual,” Clark says. “This is one of the problems that the United States has with other countries in the world, which is not going to be remedied by the release of the classified document from over 40 years ago.” “If you hide the perpetrators of those crimes, then there is no real justice and the diplomatic problems will continue,” Clark stated.
Police and government corruption is endemic in the US, where politicians should work to tackle human rights abuses at home rather than lecturing other countries, Civil rights activist Toni Sanders, founder of the group Think MOOR (Movements of Organized Revolutionaries), told Radio Sputnik. On Tuesday afternoon a 43-year-old black man, Keith Lamont Scott, was shot dead by police in Charlotte, North Carolina. The shooting sparked protests from the local community, who dispute the police version of events. The local police claim that Scott was armed and “posed an imminent deadly threat to officers” who shot him. However, Scott’s family insist he was unarmed and reading a book in his car at the time of the shooting. On Tuesday and Wednesday residents of Charlotte took to the streets in protest at Scott’s death, and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency and ordered the deployment of the National Guard and highway patrols after the protests turned violent. One protestor is in critical condition in hospital after being shot, and 12 police officers were injured after protests on Wednesday. Civil rights activist Toni Sanders, founder of the group Think MOOR (Movements of Organized Revolutionaries), told Radio Sputnik that the quick deployment of the National Guard is another sign of disparity in the treatment of African-Americans. “Look how quick they declared a state of emergency in North Carolina and brought the National Guard in. We had (Hurricane) Katrina, which was a major natural disaster over in Louisiana and all those people were stranded on rooftops, thousands of people died, it took eight days for the National Guard to even do anything,” Sanders said. Sanders said that the protests are a response to the shooting and inadequate police investigations into previous police shootings of unarmed black men. “If you commit a crime and then I tell you to investigate yourself, what can I expect except corruption? You don’t want to be found guilty, you don’t want to be liable, so what are you going to do? You’re going to make up evidence and you’re going to try to find ways to get yourself off, which is what they do every single time,” Sanders said. Sanders made a radical proposal for black people to tackle police brutality against them. This includes setting up new educational, economic and security institutions to rival those of the US government. “One of the things I advocate for, honestly, is for black people to get their own schools, start growing gardens and feeding their own communities. To stop depending on the economic structure of the US, because we need to withdraw our funds and keep our money in our communities.” “We mean community policing, that is what is going to empower us and keep us safe. The government is corrupt. The government here in the US is trash, and they tell these other countries, ‘you’re violating human rights, we need to invade your country,’ and right here in their own territory they are violating the human rights of black people every single day,” Sanders said.
AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 14, 2016 (160914)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor’s Note
“Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks at or
near the bottom on every indicator of election quality and fairness,
according to citizen responses collected in September and October
2015. … Gabon ranks dead last in public trust in the election
commission. … [at the same time] Gabon ranks near the top in
favoring multiparty competition and term limits on presidents, as
well as in disapproving of one-party and one-man rule.” –
Afrobarometer
For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/gab1609.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”
To share this on Facebook, click on
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Election observers agree the narrow victory for incumbent President
Ali Bongo in last month’s presidential election was almost certainly
the result of fraud. Yet his opponent, Jean Ping, is also a long-
standing member of the country’s elite, and is reportedly the father
of two children with the president’s half-sister. Ping’s support is
based largely on the fact that he is not a member of the Bongo
family, which has been in power since 1967, when Omar Bongo, Ali’s
father, came to power. The regime in this small oil-producing
country has been notorious for corruption, and for its close links
to the power structure in France, with Omar Bongo reportedly himself
a major influence for decades as a donor in French national
politics.
Ali Bongo has diversified international ties since taking office in
2009, reaching out to the United States and China. But France
remains Gabon’s dominant external partner, intricately intertwined
with both economic and political structures in the country.
For a short overview, see in particular “Gabon’s Bongo Family:
Living In Luxury, Paid For By Corruption And Embezzlement,”
International Business Times, February 15, 2013
(http://tinyurl.com/zordjcq). For more background, see the links
listed at the end of this Bulletin.
Gabon, like other Francophone African countries, is not well-known
to most English-speaking readers. But increasingly, the range of
sources available in English as well as French makes it possible to
access basic sources for both news and analysis.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin, focused on the current situation.
contains two short articles, from Chatham House in London and The
Daily Maverick in South Africa, and press releases from extensive
polling research by Afrobarometer (Everyone concerned about reliable
information on African public opinion should note that Afrobarometer
is currently experiencing a fiscal crisis, and its extraordinarily
useful and revealing research in more than 35 African countries is
threatened with cutbacks from donors, including USAID. Go to
http://www.afrobarometer.org for more background and to contribute
through paypal).
The Afrobarometer studies on Gabon reveal strong support for
democracy among Gabonese voters, but intense skepticism about the
capacity of the system to deliver. Political commentators agree that
significant reforms are highly unlikely, but there is no consensus
on the likely outcome of the dispute over the election results.
For the reader who has the time and internet bandwith to watch,
AfricaFocus highly recommends the Youtube playlist of the four
videos listed at the beginning of this Bulletin (To go directly to
the playlist, click on http://tinyurl.com/zollum3)
For up-to-date news coverage and analysis, see
http://allfrica.com/gabon (in English)
and http://fr.allafrica.com/gabon (in French), and particularly
http://www.lemonde.fr/gabon/ (in French)
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Gabon, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/gabon.php
Announcement: New Resources on Illicit Financial Flows
Newly available on website of US-Africa Network – new resources on
Illicit Financial Flows and the Stop the Bleeding Africa campaign.
Go to https://usafricanetwork.org/home/issues/stop-the-bleeding-africa/
Thanks to Chris Root and Anita Plummer of the US-Africa Network for
preparing and sharing these resources, including “Top 10 Questions
About Illicit Financial Flows and Africa” and a carefully selected
and annotated “Resources about Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.”
Youtube Playlist with recent videos on the situation in Gabon
France 24, September 7, 2016 – part 1, 18 minutes & part 2 – 26
minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88h6q4P4z_Y and
London Business School, November 11, 2015, “My Two Years Working for
the Government of Gabon” – 22 minutes
Anonymous, September 12, 2016 – 6 minutes
Anonymous, June 13, 2013 – 4 minutes
************************************************
Electoral Chaos Leaves Gabon in a State of Uncertainty
Paul Melly, Associate Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House
Chatham House, 7 September 2016
https://www.chathamhouse.org/ – direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/h57jts2
The country’s democratic credentials have been deeply wounded by
dodgy official results, protest riots and a brutal government
crackdown.
Gabon’s model of political moderation and gradualist reform may have
just imploded. Without external mediation, a full audit of polling
station results and a hitherto absent readiness to compromise on the
part of President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his main challenger, Jean
Ping, the country risks being condemned to months or even years of
unstable and sullen post-election stalemate.
Mild though the crisis appears by the standards of more
authoritarian or conflict-torn neighbours, it is disastrously
damaging for Bongo’s long-held ambition of transforming himself from
dynastic heir into freely-elected architect of modernization and
reform. After seven years trying to mark his country out from the
fiefdoms of central Africa’s strongmen, he now risks cantoning
himself into the category of presidents whose hold on office depends
on power rather than consent.
Contested results
Official results for the 27 August presidential election gave Bongo
49.8% of the nationwide total, compared with 48.23% for Ping; two
candidates pulled out to leave Ping a clear run, while the minor
players who stayed in the race got trivial scores.
Yet the aftermath has been even more damaging. Furious protesters
rioted, setting light to the national assembly, other public
buildings and the shops of West African traders – a longstanding
target of popular resentment.
The government’s response has been uncompromising. During the night
of 31 August-1 September, security force units, supposedly searching
for rioters, took control of Ping’s campaign headquarters. There
were several deaths, while a number of casualties were taken to
hospital with gunshot wounds; dozens were arrested, and senior
opposition figures were still in the building, surrounded by
security forces, a day later.
Gabon, so often a broker in other nations’ disputes, now finds
itself being offered African Union crisis mediation. The justice
minister has resigned from both government and ruling party,
demanding a full audit of all the election counts, polling station
by polling station.
Bongo’s failed strategy
The violence is a tragedy for Gabon. Street protest is hardly new
but is usually curbed with routine policing and the odd volley of
tear gas. Moreover, this bloodshed represents a major failure for
Bongo’s leadership. He came to power in 2009 after the death of his
father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled for four decades, in
elections that were opaque and widely seen as a continuation of the
status quo. His subsequent banning of the new Union Nationale
opposition party seemed to confirm this pattern.
But Ali has spent much of the past seven years trying to reshape
Gabon’s governance. He has sought to rebalance and diversify the
economy, improve the performance of the state and foster a more
equitable social model, tilting social services and public sector
wage structures towards the poorer citizens who had previously been
neglected in favour of the governing middle class. Key barons of his
father’s regime were marginalized, the ban on the Union Nationale
was lifted, and Bongo acceded to opposition demands for a biometric
electoral roll. Assets in France held personally by the Bongo family
were transferred to the ownership of the state.
Bongo had hoped that his measures to stimulate the economy and
protect the environment, bolster the efficiency of public services
and help the poor would allow him to shed his image as the inheritor
of dynastic power, and earn his own legitimacy through his own
performance as president. In the face of an opposition dominated by
the ancien regime power-brokers who he had forced out, Ali sought to
present himself as the real incarnation of change.
Many Gabonese feel it is now time to move on from the era of
dynastic rule, even in the refreshed and more modern form that Ali
Bongo Ondimba has provided.
Bongo seems to have been completely unprepared for the strength of
the response to the electoral pitch made by Jean Ping. As a former
regime veteran once married to Ali’s sister Pascaline, Ping could
not claim to be a new face. Indeed, having also served a term as
chair of the African Union Commission, he is very much part of the
establishment.
But he cleverly tapped into the current mood, presenting himself as
the man whose election would show that power in Gabon really could
change hands through the ballot box. A promise to serve only one
term enhanced this appeal – and usefully contrasted with Ali’s
aspiration to yet another extension of rule by the Bongo dynasty.
When most other opposition candidates dropped out at the last
minute, Ping was ideally placed to capitalize.
Furthermore, in the aftermath, Bongo has badly misread the evolution
of attitudes in the international community: France, the EU and the
US want to see a transparent and credible election process. Even
Paris, for so many years a supportive ally of the Bongos, is no
longer prepared to turn a blind eye. As a result, pressure is
mounting for a full breakdown of the vote, to show figures for every
single polling station. Privately, many diplomats feel it is clear
that Ping won, even if there was cheating on all sides.
Looking ahead, there seems no easy way out. The most consensual
option would be a full audit of the election count, with both
contenders fully committed to accepting the eventual result – a
course of action that would offer a face saving and honourable way
out to the loser. Without that, Gabon seems condemned to a prolonged
period of unrest and political confrontation. Even if Bongo hangs
on, his standing will be critically damaged.
In Gabon, overwhelming public distrust of CENAP and election quality
forms backdrop for presidential vote dispute
News Release, 1 September 2016
For full news release, as well as Afrobarometer report released on
September 6, visit http://afrobarometer.org/countries/gabon-0
Gabon’s presidential election dispute is playing out against a
background of overwhelming public distrust of the national election
commission (CENAP) and strikingly negative assessments of the
country’s election environment in advance of the August 2016 vote, a
new analysis by Afrobarometer shows.
Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks at or
near the bottom on every indicator of election quality and fairness,
according to citizen responses collected in September and October 2015.
Gabon ranks dead last in public trust in the election commission: A
majority (51%) of citizens said they do not trust the CENAP “at
all,” and only 8% said they trust the commission “a lot.”
Gabon also ranks among the worst in citizens’ perceptions of the
fairness of the vote count, the freeness and fairness of its
previous national election (2011), fear of voter intimidation or
violence, fair treatment of opposition candidates, and the
prevalence of voter bribery. Overall, Gabon citizens held the most
negative perceptions of how well elections function to ensure that
voters’ views are represented and to enable voters to remove leaders
who don’t do what the people want.
The Gabon findings are part of a new Afrobarometer report, to be
released 6 September 2016, on citizens’ perceptions of electoral
management institutions and the quality of elections, It is based on
almost 54,000 interviews in 36 African countries.
The new report, titled “Election quality, public trust are central
issues as African nations look toward next contests,” will be
available at http://www.afrobarometer.org.
Key findings for Gabon
* A majority (51%) of Gabonese respondents said in late 2015 that
they do not trust the CENAP “at all,” with 17% who trust it
“somewhat,” 24% “a little bit,” and only 8% “a lot” (Figure 1).
Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks last
in public trust in the election commission (Figure 2).
* Only 37% of citizens saw their 2011 election as having been
“completely free and fair” or “free and fair, but with minor
problems.” A majority said the 2011 election was “not free and fair”
(31%) or “free and fair, with major problems” (24%) (Figure 3).
* On perceptions of the election environment (Figure 4), seven in 10
Gabonese citizens (71%) said that votes are “never” or only
“sometimes” counted fairly. Only 15% said the vote count is “always”
fair.
* Almost two-thirds (64%) of Gabonese said they fear campaign-
related intimidation or violence at least “a little bit,” including
almost one-fourth (23%) who expressed “a lot” of fear. One-third
(32%) said voters are “often” or “always” threatened with violence
at the polls.
* A majority (56%) of citizens said that opposition candidates are
at least “sometimes” prevented from running for office. One in five
(22%) said this happens “often” or “always.”
* Three-fourths (77%) of Gabonese said the news media “never” or
only “sometimes” provides fair coverage of all candidates – the
worst rating among the 36 surveyed countries.
*Seven in 10 citizens (71%) said that voters are “often” or “always”
bribed during Gabon’s elections – far above the 36-country average
of 43%.
* Gabon ranks worst among 36 African countries in citizens’
perceptions of how well elections work. More than three-fourths of
Gabonese say elections perform “not very well” or “not at all well”
to ensure that elected officials reflect the views of voters (76%)
or to enable voters to remove underperforming leaders from office
(79%).
Afrobarometer
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that
conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic
conditions, and related issues across more than 30 countries in
Africa. Five rounds of surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2013,
and findings from Round 6 surveys (2014/2015) are currently being
released. Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the
language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative
samples that yield country-level results with margins of error of
+/-2% (for samples of 2,400) or +/3% (for samples of 1,200) at a 95%
confidence level.
For full news release, including figures and additional findings,
visit http://afrobarometer.org/countries/gabon-0
Behind Gabon’s eruption in post-election conflict, its citizens are
among the strongest in Africa in their support for multiparty
democracy and their rejection of non-democratic alternatives, a new
analysis by Afrobarometer shows.
Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks near
the top in favouring multiparty competition and term limits on
presidents, as well as in disapproving of one-party and one-man
rule, according to citizen responses collected in September and
October 2015.
Large majorities also expressed support for democracy in general and
for elections as the best way to choose leaders, although on these
issues Gabon ranks only average or below. Gabon’s less enthusiastic
endorsement of elections aligns with citizens’ strikingly negative
views on the national electoral commission (CENAP) and the fairness
of the country’s elections (see press release titled “In Gabon,
overwhelming public distrust of CENAP and election quality forms
backdrop for presidential vote dispute” at www.afrobarometer.org).
Findings on citizens’ perceptions of electoral management
institutions and the quality of elections in Gabon and 35 other
African countries will be released in a new Afrobarometer report on
6 September 2016.
Key findings for Gabon
*In interviews in September-October 2015, two-thirds (68%) of
Gabonese citizens said democracy is preferable to any other
political system, matching average support for democracy among 36
African surveyed in 2014/2015 (67%).
* Gabonese overwhelmingly rejected autocratic alternatives to
democracy. Nine in 10 citizens disapproved of one-party rule (91%)
and one-man rule (89%), including majorities who “strongly”
disapproved (Figure 1). These assessments place Gabon near the top
among surveyed countries. Seven in 10 Gabonese (70%) rejected
military rule.
* Three-fourths (76%) said regular, open, and honest elections are
the best way to choose leaders, compared to 82% across all surveyed
countries (Figure 2).
* In their support for multiparty competition (80%) (Figure 3),
Gabonese are second only to Ivoirians (82%) and far above average
(63%).
* Nine in 10 Gabonese (92%) supported limiting presidents to two
terms in office (Figure 4). Gabon’s support for term limits is
second only to Benin’s (93%) and well above the 36-country average
(75%).
[for full report, including figures and additional findings, visit
http://afrobarometer.org/countries/gabon-0
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za – Direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/hodtpeh
Opposition leader Jean Ping is incensed that Gabon’s president stole
the recent election. He’s right to be. But maybe Ping should have
harnessed this fury earlier, when he was in a position to do
something about it. Instead, as top boss of the African Union, he
helped to legitimise dodgy polls and obscure accountability. Now he,
and Gabon, are paying the price.
Let me tell you the parable of the boy who didn’t cry wolf. One day,
in an African country of your choice, a wolf passed through the
village. Observing from afar, the boy said nothing, and called no
one, even as the wolf feasted. The next day, the wolf came to
another village. Again the boy saw, again the boy ignored the
tortured shouts of the villagers as they screamed and begged for
help. And so it went on, village by village, as the wolf devoured
his way through the continent; instead of raising the alarm, the boy
stayed silent.
And then the wolf came to Gabon, where the boy lived, and started
snapping its jaws in his direction. The boy screamed and shouted and
cried “wolf!” at the top of his lungs, but by then it was too late.
Everyone around him, everyone who could have helped, had already
been eaten.
The real-life star of this little story is Jean Ping, opposition
candidate for president in Gabon.
Ping is not a happy man right now. Last week, he lost the
presidential election by the slimmest of margins – just 6,000 votes
– and he believes the poll was rigged. “The whole world knows today
who is the president of the Republic of Gabon. It’s me, Jean Ping,”
he said. “Each time the Gabonese people have chosen their president,
the dark forces are always gathered to place he who was not chosen
as head of state.”
Ping is right, of course. These elections were stolen, and brazenly
so. Despite an average turnout of around 60%, an unbelievable 99.3%
was recorded in Haute Ogue, home province of incumbent Ali Bongo –
with Bongo winning 95% of the vote there. That statistically
impossible aberration made all the difference to the final count.
Ping has rejected the outcome, and is pursuing a legal challenge.
Meanwhile, an estimated 5 people have died in post-election violence
between rival supporters and security forces.
Bongo’s security forces may have pulled the trigger, but their blood
is also on Ping’s hands.
Ping, you see, was not always an opposition candidate. He wasn’t
always an outspoken advocate for free and fair elections. He wasn’t
always a fierce critic of dictators and police brutality.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Although memories fade fast, we must not forget that it was only
four years ago that Ping was forced out of his position as chairman
of the African Union Commission. Between 2008 and 2012, he was the
continental body’s most senior and visible leader.
In this position, he oversaw and monitored elections all over
Africa: polls both free and flawed, and everything in between. But
instead of raising the alarm when something was wrong – instead of
crying wolf – Ping legitimised dodgy polls and obscured
accountability. The very same tactics that Bongo is now using
against him, Ping previously would rubber-stamp.
Take, for example, the Sudanese elections in 2010, in which
President Omar al-Bashir – then and still wanted for war crimes by
the International Criminal Court – strolled to victory in a vote
marred by intimidation, gerrymandering, and accusations of “massive
rigging” by an opposition group. Ping, who headed the African Union
observer mission, had a more generous take:
“These historic elections have indeed afforded the majority of the
Sudanese citizens the opportunity to exercise their civic and
democratic rights by electing representatives of their choice for
the first time in 24 years. The mission believes that the just-
concluded multiparty elections will enhance the peace and democratic
processes under way in the country.”
It also fell to Ping, early in his term, to lead the African
response to Zimbabwe’s tightly contested election in 2008. In the
first round, challenger Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic
Change led Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. A state-sponsored campaign of
violence and intimidation forced Tsvangirai to withdraw from the
second round of the vote, which he was on course to win.
While the AU was involved in mediating the Zimbabwe situation, its
solution allowed Robert Mugabe – architect of the brutality- to stay
in charge as part of a government of national unity. Ping refrained
from condemning the violence, and downplayed the extent of the
crisis. A reading of the AU’s observer mission statement, following
Mugabe’s uncontested second-round victory, noted vaguely that “there
was violence in the run down to the elections”, but failed to
attribute blame; a neat diplomatic side-step that helped Mugabe’s
regime avoid responsibility.
As leader of the African Union Commission, Ping repeatedly failed to
enforce international electoral standards, or hold African
governments to account for human rights abuses. This is not a unique
failing; a general reticence to criticise is a characteristics of
the AU, and Ping’s successor Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is also rarely
outspoken.
But now Ping finds himself on the other side of the fence. Suddenly,
he is on the receiving end of a rigged vote and electoral violence;
suddenly, he wants those international standards enforced and human
rights observed. If only he had defended these virtues earlier, when
he was in a position of
influence and could have made a real difference. If only Ping had
cried wolf before it was too late. DM
“Gabon’s presidential election: are the opposition’s attempts at
unifying too little too late?,” by Oumar Ba
African Arguments, August 22, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/h7us69a
“Gabon is in chaos — and France is to blame,” Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry,
The Week, September 2, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zu7wsj5
“Meet Ali Bongo Ondimba, Obama’s Man in Africa,” by Siobhán O’Grady,
Foreign Policy, April 5, 2016
http://foreignpolicy.com – Direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/j2cjv7h
“The murky world of Omar Bongo,” BBC, May 21, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8056309.stm
“A fight inside Gabon’s kleptocratic dynasty exposes the complicity
of French business,” Emma-Kate Symons
May 01, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/hqb4lvt
“Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States: Four Case
Histories: Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations,”
http://tinyurl.com/hvhqby4
September, 2010 – one of the case histories is President Omar Bongo
of Gabon – for a brief summary see
http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/usa1002.php
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org
HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 9 (acn) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the US economic, financial and commercial blockade still persists, and caused Cuba damages for some 4.68 billion dollars last year alone.
At a press conference to present the report Cuba will take to the United Nations, Rodriguez stressed that the economic siege has lasted over half a century and it has a negative impact on the well-being of Cuban families and the socio-economic development of the country.
The Foreign Minister said the main losses for Cuba were in the export of services and goods, increased prices to products because the need to buy them in faraway markets, and the impossibility of using US dollars in its financial deals.
Cuba will introduce at the UN General Assembly next October 26 Resolution 70/5 under the name: Necessity to end the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States to Cuba.
Despite the improvement on the relations between Cuba and the US, the harm the blockade does to the Cuban people forces Cuba to present this resolution again, said the Minister
Denuncia Cuba persistencia del bloqueo de Estados Unidos
