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Четверг 27-ое февраля 2008
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По мере того как Джордж Буш посещает Африку к большое поднимающему вверх его профиль помощи, SchNEWS показывает как 90% из той помощи `' кончается вверх в карманах компаний США…

«Я получаю фирму, heartfelt принятие окончательного решения к материку Африки и имею ever since я стал президентом.» - Джордж Буш.

Джордж Буш закончило его путешествие 6 дней Африки на среде (20th). Доктора закрутки Белого дома сказали средствам как было aim at его путешествие сражая маларию и HIV/AIDS. Но за моралистический posturing о AIDS (он только фондирует группы абстиненции и отказывает помочь любому пытаясь помочь работникам секса), приходит обычный блок хозяйственного взяточничества по мере того как США пытают высечь вне африканские рынки для своих собственных концов дел regardless of последствия для местных людей.

Путешествие пришло с объявлением миллионов долларов экономическое содействие от Международн Приватн Облечения Корпорации (OPIC) и Тысячелетия Бросать вызов Корпорации (MCC). Но реальность что экономическая помощь пропускает в направлении немного компаний США rather than странах на itinerary кустика лоснистом. Почти 90% из всей помощи OPIC идет до 10 Нас-основанных реципиентных фирм включая гусеницу, Citibank и корпорацию Bechtel. Прежде чем крышка была дунута на развращении на фирме, Enron было одним из самых больших получателей этого корпоративного выдаваемого благосостояния.

И здесь немного примеров компаний фаворита кустика в действии: Bechtel whacked вверх по ценам so much в проекте инфраструктуры воды, котор оно привело к в вольнонаемном восстании в боливийском городе Cochabamba и они были booted вне (см. SchNEWS 611 для уточнения на боливийском сопротивлении). В большом пакете «помощи» к Турции £25m далось к корпорации Ritz-Carlton для конструкции, деятельности, и обслуживания их гостиницы в Istanbul. Другое £7m было потраченными алмазными россыпями в Намибии - никаким сомнением минирования offshore как раз стране нужно когда только четверть населенности имеет доступ к чистой питьевой воде.
Кустик начал с посещением к малюсенькой стране Бенина, где 1/3 из населенности в реальном маштабе времени в совершенно скудости - но страна тратит почти 10% из своего дохода обслуживая внешния долги. Some of that debt is being written off under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, but only because Benin has agreed to adopt neo-liberal economic policies.

W.T. EAU

Tanzania have been given a handout of £400m for transport, energy and water to “stimulate economic growth”, but have a guess whose pockets most of that booty will flow into. Certainly not Tanzania’a population, 60% of whom live on less than £1 a day - while the country spends a fifth of its income to repay a £4bn debt. For every £10 spent on health, in a country where about half of all malaria hospital admissions and deaths are in children under 12 months, Tanzania forks out another £6 on debt repayments. It’s true that there is some real aid behind Bush’s visit, to tackle HIV / AIDS and malaria – but unless a country plays the ‘free market’ game, they’re not going to see a penny.

World Trade Organisation rules, which are also enforced by the US, IMF and World Bank, make countries open up their infrastructure to foreign competition (See SchNEWS 524). Water companies, gas, oil and any remnants of a welfare state must be available for purchase by those corporations receiving a helping hand from the US treasury. Sadly, the largest helping hand seems to be to consultants who dream up and promote the corporate rape and pillage schemes. The big con was highlighted only last month when the government of Tanzania won more than £3m from a subsidiary of British company Biwater following a disputed and controversial contract to run the water system of Dar es Salaam (see SchNEWS 499 and 611). Biwater had merely whacked up prices while failing to install any pipes or deliver any improvement to water provision - but at least project partners - the Adam Smith Institute - did manage to spend nearly £300,000 on a pop-aganda video extolling the virtues of privatisation!

DRAGONS DEN

Of course, as well as the stated benevolent humanitarian desires to help the continent exploited for centuries by the West – or, alternatively, the desire to open up their economic markets for the more sophisticated but ultimately similar type of plundering of their resources as in Colonial times - there’s also the question of the looming influence of new superpower on the block, China. They’ve been out liberally dishing out dosh and investing in Africa – and with no reform strings attached. The US is naturally out to preserve its influence and keep ahead of the new ‘red menace’ for as long as possible.
But US businesses are often reluctant to take too many risks when it comes to investing abroad. Africa is seen as a bad place to do business because of the level of political instability. We don’t want some revolution redistributing our honestly earned profits now do we?

In essence the ‘aid’ offered by Bush pays the companies to take these risks, encouraging them to do business in places they might otherwise be reluctant to bother with. That’s why each of countries visited by Bush are the seen as the continent’s model market democracies and the most stable for wannabe shareholders who might be looking for government subsidised investments.

But government subsidies have always been a necessary way of a country protecting emerging or temporarily struggling industries. Unfair competition by a rival willing to sell at a loss, for example, could put the industry out of business only for the rival then to whack prices sky high (practices US corporations know nothing about obviously!) The lesson was well learnt in Britain during its ‘golden’ era rise to global industrial dominance, and is still well appreciated in er, America where major US industries like cotton, steel, farming and aviation all receive generous handouts to protect them from oversees competition. In fact, US domestic subsidies are worth around 25% of the earnings of the 500 biggest US firms combined!

But what’s good for the goose is no good for Uganda – or any other African country. If a country wants its foreign debt written off, or any other type of Western investment then these subsidies must go - even though they may be needed to keep the price of essential items, such as bread, below the cost of production so that they are within the reach of the poorest people. As the cost of once-subsidised housing and food rises – so does poverty and hunger. Local factories find they are suddenly competing with technologically advanced corporations and they go bust, leading to unemployment, poverty and ever more reliance on costly imported goods from places like, er, the USA. An African clothing company could never compete with corporations like Gap which spend billions on research, design and marketing while outsourcing all their labour costs to wherever the wages are at their lowest. By taking the aid smaller nations are signing away their right to do anything other than follow the path of neoliberalism and are committing their countries to years of economic dependence on the whim and will of the richer nations.

Privatisation doesn’t work. Free trade ruins small economies. Wherever the IMF and World Bank tread, poverty, hunger and inequality soon follow. There’s no way that western countries are going to write off third world debt without some kind of kickback for its corporations and that’s where the welfare state for business comes in.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Breaking News, General, Human Rights . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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