$350 Million for Malawi?

According to the New York Times, yesterday the U.S. froze a $350 million dollar "grant" to Malawi.

A senior American official, Sheila Herrling, said Tuesday that the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a federal agency, was “deeply disturbed” by accusations that the police had fired live rounds on unarmed people last week, and by claims that press coverage of the two-day demonstrations had been suppressed. The $350 million grant from the corporation, which was announced only in April and was to be disbursed over five years for electricity generation, is a large amount of money for Malawi, whose annual budget is about $2 billion.

I'd be willing to bet that many Americans would be very surprised to hear, especially given our own fiscal situation, that until this hold we were going to give $350 million dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to Malawi. Even I was surprised at the amount, although I know that we just hand out cash like candy to pretty much anyone, even to hostile populations like the Palestinians and the Pakistanis.

Walmart Expands Into Africa

Walmart just purchased a local chain in South Africa, and has plans to expand further into Africa. Not surprisingly, there are Walmart-haters in Africa too, led by unions.

South African unions announced plans to strike at Massmart stores, and South African government officials promised to review the deal. But Massmart itself says that it plans to open 50 to 100 new shops in South Africa and Wal-Mart itself plans to expand deeper into the 53 other countries of the African continent.

I wrote about Walmart-haters awhile back, who have succeed in depriving people of its benefits in some U.S. cities. It looks like South Africa may have Walmarts before places in the U.S. that could really use one, such as Detroit.

Re-Rape in the Congo

The Congo continues to cement its reputation as one of the worst hellholes on earth, as well as serving as a prime exhibit for the uselessness of UN peacekeepers. According to the BBC, an area that suffered mass rapes at the hands of rebels back in July and August now has to put up with rapes from the government forces sent to secure the area.

the UN special representative heard directly from locals on her visit last week and said UN peacekeepers in the area had also told her of rapes, killings and lootings perpetrated recently by government soldiers.

The UN peacekeepers who stood by helplessly while 300 women and 50 children were raped in the summer, are now doing nothing but reporting still more rapes. The UN representative made a couple of comments illustrating that she might be out of touch with reality.

She urged the DRC government to investigate the new attacks and "swiftly hold any perpetrators to account".

Yeah, good luck with that.

"The possibility that the same communities that were brutalised in July and August are now also suffering exactions at the hands of the FARDC troops is unimaginable and unacceptable,"

Unfortunately, it's not at all unimaginable. When you have a situation where rape is endemic, and employed as a standard tactic by all sides, it's actually likely that there are going to be instances where women are raped by one side and then raped again by the other. And what's unacceptable are troops that are supposed to be keeping the peace doing nothing to intervene even in major atrocities such as mass rape.

Worst Places for Schoolchildren?

I came across an article called "The 10 Worst Places to Be a School-Aged Child." It's based on a study by the South African-based Global Campaign for Education. Here's their list of the top ten worst countries for school-kids.

1. Somalia
2. Eritrea
3. Haiti
4. Comoros
5. Ethiopia
6. Chad
7. Burkina Faso
8. Central African Republic
9. Mozambique
10. Zimbabwe

Other than Haiti, it appears that Africa has cornered the market on bad places for schoolchildren. According to the linked article, the criteria include: "access to basic education, teacher-to-student ratio and a lack of educational provisions for girls." With those factors in mind, there seem to be some major omissions. Two countries that spring immediately to mind are Afghanistan and Congo. Is school-age education really worse in Ethiopia than in Afghanistan, which is not only ravaged by war, but has terrorists regularly blowing up schools for girls? And I know Haiti is bad, but is it worse off than Congo, the rape capital of the world? If I were forced to send my son to a random foreign school and had to choose between Congo and Haiti, I'd take Haiti in a second.

Pointless Trial For Former Gitmo Detainee

There's an article in the New York Times that provides a prime example of blind legalism in action. It's difficult to read it without laughing incredulously that we are actually wasting all this time and effort putting a known terrorist on trial in the civilian court system -- let alone agonizing over various details.

Here's the situation. Back in 2004 we captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was implicated in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. African embassies. It's blatantly obvious that he's guilty. Ghailani was first held in a "secret" CIA prison, and then moved to Guantanamo. His interrogation revealed the name of the person who sold him explosives, Hussein Abebe, who was then tracked down. Abebe admits selling Ghailani the explosives thinking that they'd be used for legitimate mining purposes. So what's the problem?

Naturally, like every terrorist, Ghailani claims he was tortured. Instead of just ignoring his claim, for which there is zero evidence, the judge is worried about how the U.S. government found out about Abele, and why he is cooperating. There's a question of whether or not he will be permitted to testify.

This situation demonstrates yet again the problems with pretending that hostile aliens have U.S. constitutional rights, or that the civilian legal system applies to covert intelligence operations and secret war efforts against terrorist enemies. Once it was confirmed that Ghailani was part of the embassy bombings, he should have received a quick summary execution -- preferably in secret. There's no reason to go through this farce and waste all sorts of time and money, just so the administration can conduct a show trial. It serves no good purpose, is unnecessary and risks further damage to our ongoing intelligence operations and war efforts. Since it appears that Ghailani is clearly guilty, I have little doubt that the administration will be able to secure some sort of conviction. But just by exposing this sort of case in civilian court, there is always the danger of having a judge make a ruling that will impose more restrictions on our covert actions.   

A Useful Reminder About the Nature of the Enemy

France confirmed today that Michel Germaneau was murdered in Mali by a local Al Qaeda affiliate. He wasn't a soldier, and intelligence agent, or some other arm of the French government. He was a 78 year-old "humanitarian volunteer." He was kidnapped purely because of his nationality, and murdered in retaliation for a failed rescue attempted.

These are the types of terrorists the U.S. is currently fighting -- people who think nothing of kidnapping & murdering harmless old humanitarian workers. It's something to bear in mind the next time some useful idiot bleats about such terrorists having "rights" under international law, or calls actions taken against them "war crimes."

African Joint Anti-Terror Force

Four African nations, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are creating a joint anti-terrorist commando force to oppose Al Qaeda activities in the Sahara. Libya, Burkina-Faso, and Chad are also associated with this effort, which appears to be an Algerian initiative.

the joint anti-terrorism force will be set up already next week and headquartered in Tamanrasset. Formally named the "Joint operational military committee," the joint command will include officers from all the seven Saharan-Sahelian countries. ... the aim of the joint command will be to fight terrorism in the vast region. It is in particular a group claiming to be attached to al Qaeda that is causing concern in the Sahara desert, standing behind several hostage-taking operations and attacks on isolated military posts.

There aren't any details available, so it's unclear whether this is a serious anti-terrorism effort, or just a hollow agreement that will accomplish nothing. But if these states can put together a force to kill Al Qaeda terrorists, more power to them.

Swordfish Terrorism

A new terrorist threat has arisen in Africa. And it comes from the sea. A small, highly-motivated group of swordfish struck back against human interference with their migration path, attacking and puncturing a oil pipeline in Angola. They did enough damage to cause a three-day delay in shipments.

The "attack" forced French oil company Total to declare force majeure, which frees companies from supply obligations due to extraordinary circumstances. ... "It was caused because of swordfish.

So far no swordfish group has claimed responsibility for the pipeline assault. The militant swordfish apparently escaped without being detected, and could be out there plotting their next attack, even as we recover from the shock of this incident. 

Should Africans Apologize for Slavery?

That's the question asked in a BBC article. A Nigerian Civil Rights Congress has called on traditional African rulers to apologize for their role in the slave trade.

"We cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless," said the Civil Rights Congress.

As the organization points out, African rulers collaborated in the slave trade, selling other Africans to Europeans.

I have talked with people who have a picture of advanced Europeans swooping down on Africans, capturing them, and taking them off into slavery. But such was not the case. At the beginning and through the height of the slave trade, Europeans held mostly coastal enclaves in Africa, many of which existed at the mercy of local rulers. Europeans didn't have the manpower to seize the massive numbers of slaves that would be transported to the Americas, nor did they have the drugs that would later allow them to penetrate the African interior without being struck down by tropical diseases against which they had little resistance. Slaves were procured through local rulers, many of whom sold their captured enemies, or hunted down less advanced people from the interior and sold them to the Europeans.

It is interesting that an African organization has the courage speak out on the shared complicity of Africans in the slave trade. It's obviously a touchy subject, and it would be far easier to just blame Europeans. I applaud the intellectual honesty of the Nigerian Civil Rights Congress.

Huge Solar Project in Africa

A consortium of twelve European companies announced a major solar energy initiative today. The ambitious $400 billion project aims to supply 15% of European energy needs by 2050, with the first energy flowing to Europe by 2015.  At its start, the project will utilize the abundant sunlight in the Sahara desert.

The first stage will be to build massive solar energy fields across North Africa's Sahara desert, utilising concentrated solar power technology (CPS), which uses parabolic mirrors to focus the Sun's rays on containers of water.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses, and if it can be kept on schedule and within budget.

UN Peacekeeping Forces Still a Bad Joke in Congo

The latest report from Congo, this time the eastern region, says that over 1,000 people have been killed since January, 7,000 women & girls have been raped, ,6000 homes burned down, and over 900,000 people "displaced." According to the article, a UN peacekeeping force has backed government operations in the region, targeting Hutu militiamen from Rwanda who are targeting civilians. But what is the government actually doing?

Congolese government soldiers also have targeted civilians through killings and widespread rape, looting, forced labor, and arbitrary arrests, the report said.

So the UN is supporting one side, even though that side is little better than the alternative. How is this in any way a "peacekeeping" operation?

Naturally the UN refused to comment. But the article notes that it has previously used the excuse that it just doesn't have enough troops. It will never have enough troops, let alone enough effective troops, to successfully intervene in a multi-faceted civil war. So what is it actually doing there? Why support the corrupt Congolese government and give them cover for slaughtering and otherwise abusing civilians?

The Right Way to Launch a Commando Raid

Get in, complete the mission, and get out. No explanations. No identification, just some dead bodies left behind. That's what happened in Somalia today.

Eyewitness Abdi Ahmed said six helicopters buzzed the village before two of the aircraft opened fire. After the helicopters fired, white foreign soldiers in military fatigues got out and left with the two wounded men. 

"There was only a burning vehicle and two dead bodies lying beside it," said Mohamed Ali Aden, a bus driver who drove past the burnt-out car minutes after the attack, some 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Mogadishu.

Who carried out the raid? No one knows. But the dead and captured were apparently associated with a militant group tied to Al Qaeda. A Pentagon spokesman had no comment -- exactly the right response. Was this a U.S. operation? I don't know. And that's a good thing.

UPDATE

There are reports that a senior Al Qaeda leader, the man behind the attacks on U.S. African embassies in 1998 was killed in the attack.

No, Really?

From Reuters, "U.N. rights chief sees possible war crimes in Congo." War crimes, in the Congo? No way! The Congo is an atrocity-ridden hellhole, yet the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has to hedge her words. As the report shows, it's hard to keep track of all the horrors since they are committed both by government forces and various rebel groups. Here's the U.N. chief:  

judicial response to the abuses had been "wholly insufficient" and called for "concrete and immediate action to hold perpetrators accountable, particularly since sexual violence continues to take place on a daily basis".

I'm sure the same government carrying out rapes and massacres is going to be really worried about prosecuting them.

The Congo situation is a prime example of the impotence of the U.N., as if we needed another one. According to the report, one massacre occurred two miles away from a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Naturally the troops there had excuses for doing nothing: they didn't know about it, and they couldn't have helped if they had. Which leads one to ask, what good are they? Even using the term "peacekeeping" in regard to the Congo is nothing more than a joke.

South Africa, Not Much of an Ally

Jamie Kirchick has an article in Newsweek asking why South Africa is "acting like a rogue state." Does that sound too harsh? Here's what our supposed ally has been up to.

peddling arms to police states and terrorist havens (in deals that were revealed just a week before Clinton's arrival); continuing, as Mbeki did, to prop up the despotic Mugabe; and even doing China's bidding to keep trade relations intact

It's been selling weapons to Libya, Syria and Venezuela, and is considering arms sales to Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea. At the UN it has opposed resolutions aimed at totalitarian states, and has a particularly cozy relationship with China.

Speaking only for myself, I've personally never considered South Africa an ally, although I wasn't really well-informed about all the things they've been doing. I've always been highly suspicious of the ANC, because of its communist influences, ties to various enemies of the U.S., and its use of terrorism in the fight against apartheid. As Kirchick writes, the idea of South Africa as a U.S. ally is little more than a "comforting facade." But no doubt we'll continue to pretend that the South African government is a friend of the U.S. for as long as possible.

Did You Know You Are Helping Sheepherders in Botswana?

That's right. The U.S. just gave a grant to a  organization representing a community of 1500 in the Kalahari Desert. The grant is "designed to help the group’s members raise themselves out of poverty" and to "empower them to become competitive in the wool trade." That's mighty nice of us isn't it? When I saw this story I first thought that it must be some charitable organization at work.  But the charity is us.  The US African Development Foundation is a government agency with an annual budget of over 30 million dollars. I wonder how many people know that some of their tax money is going to help people raise sheep and market wool in Botswana? 

If you object to U.S. tax money going to help Botswanans rather than Americans, look on the bright side. These people probably really need it, might even be grateful, and aren't our enemies. At least it isn't more money going to the Palestinians. If we have to hand out U.S. tax money like candy to foreigners, wouldn't it be great if we could take that entire 900 million in Palestinian aid and distribute it instead to poor African farmers & herders struggling to better their lives? At least it would be put to better use than buying rockets, AK-47s, building tunnels, and teaching children to hate Jews.

Bad Ideas in South Africa

There's an interesting article at CATO called, "The Zimbabwe-ification of South Africa?" Apparently the South African government is considering expropriating land (ie stealing it from its owners by force), and redistributing it (no doubt to political supporters). Despite the terrible failure and economic destruction wrought by such policies in neighboring Zimbabwe, South African Marxists have learned nothing. Of course if they had, they wouldn't continue to hold Marxist views. Here's a comment by one of the South African ministers pushing such a program,

"It shouldn't be a situation where we can't get land because it's too expensive because it's owned by Americans, by Germans, by other Europeans and people outside this country, and not Africans. . . ." "To redress [the] imbalances of the past," Mr. Nkwinti continued, "the government must have enabling laws that can allow the pace and the price of land acquisition to be in the hands of the state, rather than in the hands of the seller."

This is typical of statists/collectivists everywhere, including here in the U.S. Look at the healthcare debate and you will see echoes of this sort of thinking. We don't like market-generated prices because they just don't meet our ideas of the way things should be. Therefore we will use the power of government in order to artificially force things into whatever mold we think should be best. The authors point out that,

Land expropriation does not lead to justice or prosperity. As the case of Zimbabwe shows, it is a road to economic destruction. South Africa must turn back now before it is too late.

Unfortunately this type of advice, based in reality and on examples of past failures, will likely fall on deaf ears. Ideology, "fairness," and the need to "do something" are just far more important.

Sudan -- Somehow it's Our Problem

Former envoy to Sudan, Andrew S. Natsios, has an article in today's Washington Post called, "Obama, Adrift on Sudan." Natsios argues that the U.S. needs to be more involved with Sudan, and that referring to atrocities in Darfur as "genocide" is not an "accurate term." He makes te case that the genocidal actions occurred in the past, whereas today the situation is chaotic and a merely a "low-level insurgency."In his view,

The United States ought to be in a commanding position to mediate in these negotiations, as it did in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 22 years of civil war between Sudan's North and South. But disputes within the Obama administration are inhibiting U.S. efforts to stop Sudan's slide toward civil war at a time when unified American leadership is essential.

The problem with this sort of thinking is that it ignores U.S. interests. What U.S. advantage is gained by meddling in what is, to all appearances, an intractable situation? What vital U.S. interests are at stake in Sudan? If there are any, Natsios doesn't bother to point them out. He simply assumes that U.S. "leadership" in trying to solve Sudan's many problems would be a good thing.

More Terrorists Filing Lawsuits

Former members of the Kenyan Mau Mau Rebellion against British rule (1952-60) are suing the British government over their treatment in captivity.

Today, the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Mau Mau War Veterans Association will file a suit in London against the British Government for human rights abuses and torture. It is expected that the British Government will present a range of legal arguments to stall the case, deny responsibility or refute the allegations. The case could drag on for years.

What the British should do is laugh the suit right out of court. The Mau Mau war was a vicious insurgency, with atrocities a regular feature on both sides. The idea that one side gets to sue the other almost 50 years later is so silly that only a European or U.S. court would even entertain something that crazy. 

Wasting Money in Africa

The Independent has an article up called, "France and Italy renege on pledges to aid Africa." A better title would be something like, France and Italy wisely refuse to waste more money on Africa. Or maybe, France and Italy fall behind on payments to African dictators, strongmen & oligarchs. According to the report, in 2005 the G8 agreed to pay 21.5 billion -- yes billion -- to sub-Saharan Africa. According to the UN, the money was designed to "eradicate extreme poverty by 2010." That sounds like a realistic objective, doesn't it?

Congratulations to France & Italy for not being quite as stupid as other members of the G8, such as Germany and the UK.

Britain is singled out "as the first G8 country to meet the UN goal of spending 0.7 per cent of national income in overseas development assistance"

Such a massive waste of taxpayer money has to be a real point of pride.

Christians Promoting "Witch" Hysteria

CNN reports that thousands of children in Nigeria have been labelled witches, abandoned by relatives, and singled out for abuse.

They are blamed for causing illness, death and destruction, prompting some communities to put them through harrowing punishments to "cleanse" them of their supposed magical powers.

The witch hysteria is being promoted by among others, Christian pastors, who claim to be able to identify witches, and who allow their churches to serve as prisons.

"Children accused of witchcraft are often incarcerated in churches for weeks on end and beaten, starved and tortured in order to extract a confession," said Gary Foxcroft, program director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, a nonprofit that helps alleged witch children in the region.

Another aid worker fighting to put a stop to this abuse points out that

"The role of the international Christian community in this cannot be underestimated,"...""Unfortunately, the fact remains that this belief system is being spread by so-called Christians."

Rather than fighting against primitive superstitions, Nigerian Christians are instead reinforcing them with their own religious hatred & fear of supposed witches.