Naomi Klein (Guardian Utd): A noose, not a bracelet for Africa

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Friday June 10

A noose, not a bracelet
Africa is a rich continent made poor by rapacious western corporations. G8 leaders must be forced to deliver justice
By Naomi Klein

Gordon Brown has a new idea about how to "make poverty history" in time for the G8 summit. With Washington so far refusing to double its aid to Africa by 2015, the chancellor is appealing to the "richer oil-producing states" of the Middle East to fill the funding gap. "Oil wealth urged to save Africa," reads the headline in the Observer.

Here is a better idea: instead of Saudi Arabia's oil wealth being used to "save Africa", how about if Africa's oil wealth was used to save Africa - along with its gas, diamond, gold, platinum, chromium, ferroalloy and coal wealth?

With all this noblesse oblige focused on saving Africa from its misery, it seems like a good time to remember someone else who tried to make poverty history: Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was killed 10 years ago this November by the Nigerian government - along with eight other Ogoni activists, he was sentenced to death by hanging. Their crime was daring to insist that Nigeria was not poor at all but rich, and that political decisions made in the interests of western multinational corporations kept its people in desperate poverty. Saro-Wiwa gave his life to the idea that the vast oil wealth of the Niger delta must leave behind more than polluted rivers, charred farmland, rancid air and crumbling schools. He asked not for charity, pity or "relief", but for justice.

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People demanded that Shell compensate the people from whose land it had pumped roughly $30bn worth of oil since the 1950s. The company turned to the government for help, and the Nigerian military turned its guns on demonstrators. Before his state-ordered hanging, Saro-Wiwa told the tribunal: "I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial ... The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come."

Read more.

[carincross]

1. Kudos to Naomi

Ms. Klein is one of the most perceptive writers today. Her criticism of unfettered capitalism is right on the mark. She and Amy Goodman make a powerful pair.

[newyawker99]

3. Hi carincross!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Vladimir]

2. Yes!!!

an article about Africa which does not mention governance or corruption... Klein gets it right this time, and painfully so.

[cap]

4. Condi Rice whitewashed Chevron helicopters mowing down

Africans protesting Chevron policies -- I believe it was in the Niger Delta as well.