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Recent
Stories
June
13, 2003
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
June
12, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology
Ahmad Faruqui
The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day
War
Wayne
Madsen
Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign
Laura Carlsen
Hunger and Security
Tarif
Abboushi
Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/12
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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for More Stories.
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June
14, 2003
The G8 and Africa
Proliferating
Desperation
By YVES ENGLER and
BIANCA MUGYENYI
Sickening is the best word to describe the hypocrisy
between what G8 nations do and say with regards to Africa.
Last summer, the Canadian media was abuzz
with reports on how Canada and the rest of the G8 were going
to help Africa. Before the G8 met the media was full of stories
on the proposed New Partnership for African Development, allegedly
an African led initiative that the G8 was going to help implement.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was repeatedly hailed for
his commitment to Africa's less fortunate.
Skeptics denounced the government's claims
as a diversionary stunt, aimed at drawing attention away from
the growing criticism of the G8 and its undemocratic nature.
It turns out that the skeptics were not
far off the mark. One year later and Canada has only given $70
million of its well-publicized, though still meager, $500 million
in extra aid to Africa.
Similarly, the G8 nations have done little
in terms of reducing agricultural subsidies that undermine Africa's
agricultural exports.
Bush's recent complaints about how Europe
is causing famine in Africa by rejecting Genetically Modified
foods demonstrates not his care for the starving but his debt
to the biotechnology industry. GM foods do little in terms of
increasing yields. However, they have potential environmental
and health effects. Further, they increase the cost of food production,
which will disadvantage small-scale African farmers.
Likewise, Bush's recent plan to give
$15 billion worth of aid to combat Aids illustrates his commitment
to the pharmaceutical industry not his commitment to those suffering
with Aids. It was after all the Bush administration that recently
blocked access by poor nations to life saving medicines at the
World Trade Organization. Even more telling, this US aid is conditional
upon countries accepting American exports of Genetically Modified
food!
This should come as no surprise. The
vast majority of G8 assistance is tied aid, which is usually
set up in a manner to further African dependency. In fact, a
central component of NEPAD is the exchange of debt relief and
'aid' for the further opening of African economies.
The ideologically driven governments
of the G8 feel that the past 20 years of intense privatization/liberalization
throughout African economies has been insufficient. According
to the G8 more will do the trick.
Yet, the results thus far have been awful
for most Africans. Deprivation has proliferated. Even according
to standard economic figures the liberalization/privatization
process has been unsuccessful.
Africa makes up approximately 13% of
the world's population, however, it accounts for only about 2%
of world trade (Montreal Gazette). Foreign direct investment
into Africa is even more negligible, between 1% and 2% of the
world's total (Le Monde).
Still, G8 governments demand that Africa
further liberalize its economics. Ostensibly the reason is to
bring Africa into the world economy. The problem is, however,
that Africa is already overly dependent on the world economy.
As of 1990, the ratio of extra-regional trade to GDP for Africa
was 45.6 per cent while it was only 12.8 per cent for Europe
and 13.2 per cent for North America (these statistics have not
changed significantly throughout the century) (Monthly Review).
Therefore, as a percentage of GDP, Africa is more integrated
into (dependent on) the world economy than are Europe and North
America.
Nevertheless, the G8 through the IMF,
WB and now NEPAD continue to push African countries to further
liberalize their economies. Even though countries that prosper,
almost without fail, pursue auto-centered (inward looking) economic
policy. As do all G8 nations.
Instead of calling for any more opening
up of African economies or dumping GM foods, G8 nations seriously
concerned about the welfare of Africans would eliminate Africa's
debt. Approximately, eighty per cent of this debt is held by
public institutions (the Canadian government, the International
Monetary Fund, World Bank etc...) Debt held by individual members
of the G8 could be alleviated unilaterally. Similarly, G8 countries
control 48% of the IMF and 46% of the WB, resulting in de facto
control over all debt held by these institutions (Montreal Gazette).
The elimination of African debt would not even gravely harm the
IMF or the WB. It would, however, save thousands if not millions
of lives.
Not coincidentally, Uganda the country
that has received the most debt assistance in recent years also
happens to be one of the only African countries where Aids has
declined sharply from a high of around 20% of the population
to 6% (National Post). Nevertheless, the same G8 cou! ntries
that claim to have African poverty alleviation on their agenda,
when its politically expedient, have done little about the debt
crisis that soaks up billions of dollars across the continent.
This must change.
Surveys consistently demonstrate that
the majority of North Americans want an increase in their countries
aid, when told the actual amount given. Nevertheless, politicians
beholden to big business and warped by ideology, continue to
disregard their electorates' desires, which undermines domestic
democracy and is tantamount to a death sentence for many Africans.
Yves Engler
is a Montreal area activist currently working on a book about
activism at Concordia University. he can be reached at yvesengler@hotmail.com.
Bianca Mugyenyi is a Ugandan recently returned to Montreal.
Yesterday's Features
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
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