What's new

French troops in Mali campaign face storms, mud, mistrust

.
So can you bring me a credible source about France "taxing its former colonies" ? Credible sources,official documents those kind of things. What a nobody writes on the internet doesn't qualify as "credible".

I gave you :
  1. White man al jazeerah,
  2. English man BBC,
  3. African credible source from those directly impacted.
  4. Others included more
No matter what source or evidence is provided, you will always deny because of your inherent bias.

Caio
 
.
Is it true that 14 African countries are still forced to pay colonial taxes to France?

Since nobody can correctly assess the claim, once again Galactic Penguin has to spent some of His precious time debunking the hoax.
:disagree:
The Debunking

Quora gives a good clarification.

Answered Nov 25, 2017

This question is asked so often that I am tempted to believe that it is done on purpose in order to attract the usual conspiracy theories in the answers, and hope they'll catch on by their sheer volume.

The rumour of the "colonial tax" has its origin in the monetary spaces that France created in Africa in order to guarantee some economical stability in these regions. Countries who wish to join or remain in these monetary spaces have to deposit 50% of their exchange reserves in a special account of the French Central Bank. The French state cannot access these funds. They still belongs to the countries that have deposited them. They can withdraw them should they decide to spend some of their reserves. Whatever interest is made is redistributed to them. And they are free to leave/join any time (and many have).

While there is a lot of valid criticism towards these monetary zones, some people have recently been playing on the ignorance of the masses on these issues to give a very deformed view and claim something like "former French colonies have to pay 50% of their GDP to France as a colonial-tax". A pity that there is no international treaty nor any sort of bookkeeping that substantiate this. Even the anti-colonial pro-African French left press has largely debunked it :

Confusions autour d’un « impôt colonial » et du franc CFA

Non, les pays africains ne «versent pas un impôt colonial à la France»

http://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-tha...-still-forced-to-pay-colonial-taxes-to-France
https://archive.is/rkyb7

In short, there is no such tax, but Africa is suffering from a massive loss of capital being siphoned to the E.U., amounting in some case annually to 50% of the GDP.
The economic policy of these nations being decided in Bruxelles as the CFA is pegged to the Euro, thus not in their interest.

The Motives Behind the Hoax

There is no doubt that the U.S. is since 1945 hell-bent trying to cannibalize all the other powers of the Big 5 victors of WWII: the British Empire, the Republic Of China, the French colonial Empire, and the Soviet Empire.

The latest move against the remnant of the French sphere of interest remind one of the 'independence movement' wire-pulled by Washington in French New Caledonia.

This special collectivity of France is known to holds 10% of the world's nickel reserves.

While French Indochina is reported to host more than 17.2 millions tons of Rare Earth Elements reserves, it was naturally subverted in the 1950s and then finlandized by the U.S. after the Cold War as we see today.

scr.png

https://archive.fo/kmbN4/c1cfc7d6f419eec7de3bc19e3108998e2ddd3f2d/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20190825...0/?temp_hash=4c38f622dde651252d19936be94dc7a0
1. Dien Bien Phu, or the beginning of the end of the French Empire
Street lamp post as a FUGO hovering over the world, notice the purple death ray



America’s critical minerals problem has gone from bad to worse

2 May 2018

It is no secret that the United States has a critical minerals problem. As the Pentagon’s top acquisition official Ellen Lord said recently, “We have an amazing amount of dependency on China.” Lord called the findings of a forthcoming report on the defense industrial base “quite alarming,” and noted that China is America’s “sole source for rare earth minerals.”

According to the United States Geological Survey, the United States relies on Chinese imports for at least 20 minerals and has little or no capacity to mine, refine, and process its own minerals from start to finish. As a recent executive order on critical minerals makes clear, this “strategic vulnerability” poses a significant national security risk.

Although President Trump has taken great strides to address this national security threat—through executive orders and trade investigations—it’s time for Congress and the administration to take a whole-of-market approach to critical minerals and to enact policies that will spur innovation at every step in the minerals supply chain. This should start with mine permitting reform and investment in promising materials technologies and processes.

Critical minerals are the building blocks for military equipment. From minerals that are ubiquitous in the supply chain, such as copper and steel, to those that are very specialized—like rare earth elements and beryllium—America’s technological superiority hinges on maintaining reliable access to key materials. Without access to such minerals, our precision-guided missiles will not hit their targets, our aircraft and submarines will sit unfinished in depots, and our war-fighters will be left without the equipment they need to complete their missions.

Unfortunately, America’s critical minerals problem has gone from bad to worse. The nation’s only domestic rare earth producer was forced into bankruptcy in 2015 after China suddenly restricted exports and subsequently flooded the market with rare earth elements. Adding insult to injury, the mine was then sold last summer for $20.5 million to MP Mine Operations LLC, a Chinese-backed consortium that includes Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Now, according to MINE Magazine, this same mine is exporting critical minerals to a processing plant in China—because the United States cannot process or refine these materials at commercial scale. Without a dramatic change in minerals policies, the United States will not be able to minimize the economic damage that will come when China decides to leverage its minerals monopolies against us.

https://www.defensenews.com/opinion...-minerals-problem-has-gone-from-bad-to-worse/
https://archive.fo/dgJRt

This painfull truth has caused such sleepless nights and uneasiness in the White House, that Trump has repeatedly tried to bribe the Suppreme Leader no less than three times over the last two years, while showing no restrain in his sycophancy toward Kim Jong Un, but all to no avail.

Thus, in a last ditch attempt to avoid the foreseeable demise of the Pax Americana, Trump went to mull the purchase of Greenland, known to harbour after North Korea (216 millions tons) some of the largest deposits of rare-earth metals on earth, with 100 millions tonnes.


Escalating Greenland fallout: Trump scolds Denmark over leader's 'nasty' rejection of his island purchase overture

Aug 22, 2019

COPENHAGEN – Escalating an international spat , President Donald Trump said Wednesday he scrapped his trip to Denmark because the prime minister made a “nasty” statement when she rejected his idea to buy Greenland as an absurdity.

“You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “I thought it was not a nice statement, the way she blew me off.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the whole thing “an absurd discussion” and said she was “disappointed and surprised” that Trump had canceled his visit.

Trump said Frederiksen’s comment labeling his idea as absurd “was nasty. I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to say was say, ‘No, we wouldn’t be interested.’ “

Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of the U.S. ally, and Frederiksen said the U.S. remains one of Denmark’s close allies.

The political brouhaha over the world’s largest island comes from its strategic location in the Arctic. Global warming is making Greenland more accessible to potential oil and mineral resources. Russia, China, the U.S., Canada and other countries are racing to stake as strong a claim as they can to Arctic lands, hoping they will yield future riches.

Trump was scheduled to visit Denmark on Sept. 2-3 as part of a European tour. But early Wednesday, he tweeted his decision to indefinitely postpone the trip. The move stunned Danes and blindsided the Danish royal palace. Spokeswoman Lene Balleby told The Associated Press that it came as “a surprise” to the royal household, which had formally invited Trump.

The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke Wednesday with his Danish counterpart and “expressed appreciation for Denmark’s cooperation as one of the United States’ allies and Denmark’s contributions to address shared global security priorities.”

Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said Pompeo and Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeppe Kofod “also discussed strengthening cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark — including Greenland — in the Arctic.”

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted, “Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time.”

The vast island of Greenland sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, has a population of 56,000 and has 80 percent of its land mass covered by a 1.7 million-sq.-km (660,000 sq.-mile) ice sheet.

For all of Greenland’s appeal, scientists consider it the canary in the coal mine for climate change and say its massive ice sheet has seen one of its biggest melts on record this summer, contributing to a global rise in sea levels.

Frederiksen said she is standing behind the government of Greenland.

“A discussion about a potential sale of Greenland has been put forward. It has been rejected by Greenland Premier Kim Kielsen and I fully stand behind that rejection,” she told reporters in Copenhagen.

Frederiksen, who took office two months ago in a minority Social Democratic government, went on to say that diplomatic relations between Copenhagen and Washington “are not in any crisis in my opinion” despite Trump’s canceled plans.

“The invitation for a stronger strategic cooperation with the Americans in the Arctic is still open,” Frederiksen said, adding “the United States is one of our closest allies.”

Others in Denmark were not as gracious.

Martin Lidegaard, a former Danish foreign minister, told broadcaster TV2 that it was “a diplomatic farce” and Trump’s behavior was “grotesque.”

Trump’s cancellation was “deeply insulting to the people of Greenland and Denmark,” former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt wrote on Twitter.

Claus Oxfeldt, chairman of Denmark’s main police union, told Danish media that authorities had been busy planning the third visit by a sitting U.S. president to the Scandinavian NATO member. “It has created great frustrations to have spent so much time preparing for a visit that is canceled,” Oxfeldt was quoted as saying.

Ordinary Danes shook their heads at the news, with many calling Trump immature.

“He thinks he can just buy Greenland. He acts like an elephant in a china shop,” said Pernille Iversen, a 41-year-old shopkeeper in Copenhagen.

“This is an insult to (Queen) Margrethe, to Denmark,” said Steen Gade, a 55-year-old road worker.

In Greenland, Johannes Kyed, an employee with a mine company, told Denmark’s TV2 channel that wanting to buy a country and its people is a relic of the past.

“This is not the way the world works today,” Kyed said.

The U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, was apparently not informed of Trump’s decision ahead of time.

Shortly before Trump canceled the trip on Twitter, she sent a tweet saying “Denmark is ready for POTUS,” using an acronym for “President of the United States” along with Trump’s Twitter handle and a photo from Copenhagen’s City Hall square, where a Dane had paid for two pro-Trump ads on giant electronic screens.

Trump said Sunday he was interested in buying Greenland for strategic purposes, but said a purchase was not a priority for his government at this time. Both Frederiksen and Greenland leader Kielsen responded that Greenland is not for sale.

“The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct,” Trump said in the tweet Wednesday. “I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!”

Trump is still expected to visit nearby Poland beginning Aug. 31.

Retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources in Greenland which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the island’s fortunes. However, no oil has yet been found in Greenlandic waters and the thickness of the ice means exploration is only possible in coastal regions.

Even then, conditions are far from ideal, due to Greenland’s long winters with frozen ports, 24-hour darkness and temperatures that regularly drop below minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) in the island’s northern regions.

American leaders have tried to buy Greenland before. In 1946, the U.S. proposed paying Denmark $100 million to buy Greenland after flirting with the idea of swapping land in Alaska for strategic parts of the Arctic island.

Under a 1951 deal, Denmark allowed the U.S. to build bases and radar stations on Greenland.

The U.S. Air Force currently maintains one base in northern Greenland, Thule Air Force Base, 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) south of the North Pole. Former military airfields in Narsarsuaq, Kulusuk and Kangerlussuaq have become civilian airports.

The Thule base, constructed in 1952, was originally designed as a refueling base for long-range bombing missions. Since 1961, it has been a ballistic missile early warning and space surveillance site.

http://web.archive.org/web/20190822...ers-nasty-rejection-island-purchase-overture/

ECXzFuBXkAc0Dbf.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20190821030730/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECXzFuBXkAc0Dbf.jpg ; https://archive.fo/eqiR0/d85bfec5d7fd0898c8b3161238f17b3a51aff4de.jpg
2. Trump's last ditch attempt to delay the U.S.' demise.

:rofl:
rolling%20on%20the%20floor.gif
:rofl:
rolling%20on%20the%20floor.gif


Following the 1994 plot against France in Rwanda, this ongoing "colonial tax" smearing campaign against France in Africa is only a prelude for stealing more of the remnants of the French colonial possessions.


Conclusion

And indeed, since the defeat of the Grande Armee in 1815, France is treated as a doormat by the Anglo-Saxon victors.

scr.png

https://archive.fo/mkrW4/30db7c2cc14b530285ca97c9b28d3e1d7ac2b0c1/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20190825....jpg?97bb33537ebe846d4c08fcb503d0427a0f3e3c09 ; http://web.archive.org/web/20190825...johnson-puts-foot-table-emmanuel-macrons-pal/ ; https://archive.fo/eqmJv
3. France is treated as a doormat by the Anglo-Saxon victors since 1815.


QED ✔

tootha_thumb.gif

200w_d-gif.459351

:cool::smokin:8-)
cool_thumb.gif
 
Last edited:
.
I gave you :
  1. White man al jazeerah,
  2. English man BBC,
  3. African credible source from those directly impacted.
  4. Others included more
No matter what source or evidence is provided, you will always deny because of your inherent bias.

Caio

I'd like you twice! Jean-Fraude has his 'ex colonies' by the balls. They have first rights to all natural resources according to the Pacte Coloniale,one of the most egregious documents ever conceived. A cuz was in Gabon recently and said they pay France for all buildings built during the colonial era-imagine that!?

This region is an entire clusterfuck. You have fragile states that can't control most of their territory,where the state has basically no hold or presence,coupled with inter ethnic tensions (different ethnic groups slaughtering each others on daily basis) on which criminal and terrorist groups benefit from the sitation to carry on their activities and different politico-armed groups pushing for different agendas.



The local states are simply too fragile and do not have enough ressources to stand alone against the terror threat,but I don't think sending in more troops will help improve the situation.

We should strenghten their forces and provide them the means in order to secure their large territories. Train and equip them. We can't stay there forever,there's going to be a day where most of French troops will leave,however we should leave some capacities there such as air and intelligence support,which these countries critically lack.

And above all,some actors are trying to drag France into their internal political and inter-ethnic tensions,we should only focus on our anti terror mission.



Because the said African countries allowed this "European country" to operate on their territory and asked this "European country" for military assistance. Without this "European country" the countries of the Sahel region would fall within weeks (as we nearly saw with Mali in 2013) and be replaced by some kind of jihadist superstate.



Still posting that BS...

Fyi,I'm a Kenyan but I KNOW WHAT FRANCE HAS DONE IN AFRICA! The list of coups and destabilisation
is looonnggg! Dating from the early 60s til today in Cote de Ivoire,the CAR,Burkina Faso,even Boko Haram is a Paris try to steal the L Chad oil basin with Chadian and Cameroonian mercs.
The same war mongers will now properly train and equip their victims-REALLY,NIGGA!?
 
.
14 African Countries Who Still Pay Colonial Tax To France
article-2243946-0C7884D200000578-682_634x449-e1421762952730.jpg



Are you aware that many African countries still pay colonial tax to France till today? One would say that Africa is still being exploited even till date. It brings us to the conclusion that the Europeans may not want us to be greater than they are after all. An article by Mawuna Remarque Koutonin, peace activist and editor of SiliconAfrica.com discussed this act. The writer drew attention to the bad influence of French on the African continent and how they are still subjected to pay colonial tax for the benefits of slavery. And what’s more worrying is that French as of yet flourishes and prospers in this action and earns around over 400 billion dollars from a continent that is about to be as developed as theirs. Well, after going through this article, you will not help but say that Europeans still manipulate our dear motherland.

African Countries Who Still Pay Colonial Tax To France
Guinea used to be a French colonial possession in West Africa until 1958 during the fall of French Fourth Republic as a result of its political instability and its failures in handling colonies, particularly Indochina and Algeria. And the country’s independence came as a result of Sékou Touré of Guinea’s bright decision to pull out of the French colonial empire that year and pick out independence for Guinea. That notwithstanding, a lot of harm was done due to the decision which Sékou Touré took as the French colonial members in Paris didn’t find his decision pleasing. Out of sheer displeasure as great as others in the past, the French administration in Guinea wrecked anything and everything in the country that is a symbol of what they dubbed the “benefits from French colonization”.

toure-2.jpg


According to Mawuna Remarque Koutonin, the author of the article, more than two thousand French relocated from the country, collecting virtually everything they had put in place and tearing down immovable things including schools, nurseries, public offices. They ruined even the administrative buildings, cars, books, medicine, research institute instruments, tractors and they slaughtered the horses, cows in the farms. The foods were not left out of the mass destruction as they both poisoned and set food stored in warehouses on fire. Though the reason for the shockingly bad action of theirs was not stated bluntly, the underlying truth hidden in their action is basically to let other French colonies know that declining France is synonymous to facing dire and severe consequences.


Read Also: These Three African Countries Shocked The World

As expected, the atmosphere of fear was created making the superior selected groups of Africa gradually afraid and just the way bad odour can spread easily, the scare spread to other African countries. As a result of that, nobody was willing to copy Sékou Touré’s action, whose catchphrase was “We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”

The first President of the Republic of Togo, a tropical, sub-Saharan nation in West Africa which greatly depends on farming, named Sylvanus Olympio discovered a middle ground answer to the puzzle with the French elite because there were not many solutions available. He wants his country to get out of the French dominion list, and hence turned the signing of the Colonization Continuation Pact proposed by De Gaule. But alternatively opted to pay a yearly debt to France, and shockingly or funnily enough, the annual debt is for the benefits Togo got from French colonization. Isn’t that exploitative? Since that was just about the only better way to keep the wrath and anger of Europeans at bay particularly their massive destruction before moving out of the country, a country which solely depends on farming opted to enrich a nation that was and is still way richer than them from their seemingly tiny pockets of farming. This no doubt reflects the use of cork of a bottle in fetching water into the ocean in an attempt to get it filled up.


sylva.jpg


More so, the amount that was approximated by France as the so-called colonial debt was so huge that it was almost 40% of the country’s budget in 1963. Meanwhile, the financial situation of the just independent Togo was something short of stable.

For that reason, Olympio opted for a change in the money they were using, all in a bid to build a nation that will not depend on others for its growth. He then dumped the French colonial money FCFA (the Franc for French African Colonies) and launched the country’s own currency which got him dead barely three days after he began the printing of country’s own currency. His death was caused by a small group of ignorant and uneducated soldiers supported by France whose only aspiration was to waste the life of Olympio; the first elected president of the newly independent Togo.

Modibo-Keita.jpg


In the same vein, Keita Modiba who was the first president of the Republic of Mali also on June 30th, 1962 decided to pull out from the French Colonial Currency FCFA that was forced on 12 the newly independent African countries as at then.

The Malian President knew that if he allowed his country to continue being a French colony, it will not only be a liability or load but also an inevitable trap for Mali. Sadly, there was another striking coup on November 19, 1968, which destabilized his plans and sent him to prison in the northern Malian town of Kidal. The coup was backed by another member of Foreign French legion whose name is Lieutenant Moussa Traoré. Keita Modiba who devoted all his life for African unity was thrown into prison and the most annoying aspect of everything is that after he was transferred back to the capital Bamako in February 1977 in what was asserted to be Government action towards national reconciliation in preparation for him to be set free, Modibo Keïta died, still a prisoner, on May 16, 1977.


Olympio, who is today known as the first President to be assassinated during a military coup in Africa and his wife were asleep when many members of the military broke into their house, waking them from their sleep. Before dawn, Olympio’s body was found by the U.S. Ambassador Leon B. Poullada three feet from the door to the U.S. Embassy. This sent shocking and frightening messages to other African leaders who became even more shocked and afraid of being caught in the same kind of predicament.

According to reports, he was killed on January 13, 1963, by an ex-member of French Foreign Legion army, a sergeant referred to as Etienne Gnassingbe who claimed to have personally fired the shot that took the life of Olympio while Olympio tried to escape and he supposedly had received a reward of $612 from the local French embassy for the killing job. The ideas of Olympio which was enough to make his nation independent, a self-sufficient and self-reliant country cost him his life. After all, he isn’t supposed to build an independent nation when French hasn’t granted them the go-ahead order to do so.


To substantiate the facts mentioned above, throughout the past 50 years, 67 coups took place in 26 countries in Africa and 16 of those countries in Africa were colonized by France. This, therefore, shows that nearly 61% of the Coups that took place happened in the French-speaking countries of Africa. Don’t you think France is surely desperate by the way it strives tirelessly to maintain a strong contact with her colonies no matter what it would cost? Of course, you are right to say yes.

77.jpg


The ex-French President Jacques Chirac in March 2008 stated that without Africa, France will smoothly go down in the rank of a third (world) power. Also, the former President of France François Mitterand who left the seat for Chirac also said that if there was nothing like Africa, France would not have had any history in the 21st century.

Did you know that 14 countries in Africa are by colonial pact required to pay nearly 85% of their foreign reserve to the France central bank under the of control French Finance minister even as we speak? It is really disturbing that Togo and other 13 countries are required to pay a colonial debt to France. For the stubborn African leaders who declined this offer, they were either killed or overthrown through a coup, but the docile ones were backed and recompensed with extravagant lifestyles while their subjects embraced abject poverty and distress.

Read: African Empires That Have Been So Easily Forgotten

My anger gets even worse knowing they are not ready to condemn or cancel the act as these countries have already paid in 2014. It seems our leaders are really afraid of being killed and therefore need a powerful nation to support them. In case you are wondering why most leaders send their revenue abroad, it is because they are oppressed by colonial countries. Is that so hard to believe?

Check Out the content of the ‘Almighty’ Colonization Continuation Pact:

  • Colonial Debt for the benefit of France colonization:
The newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France in the country during colonization.

  • Automatic confiscation of National reserves:
This simply means that France holds the National reserve of fourteen African countries which are; Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Hence, they pay their national monetary reserves into the central bank of France.

  • The right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource discovered in the country:
  • Priority to French interests and companies in public procurement and public bidding:
  • The exclusive right to supply Military equipment and Train the country’s Military officers:
  • Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene in the country to defend its interests:
  • The obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language for education:
  • The obligation to use France colonial money FCFA:
  • The obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report:
  • Renunciation to enter into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France
  • Obligation to ally with France in situation of war or global crisis
Untitu.png


Isn’t that looting and a very obvious exploitation? To me, looking at the content of the said document signed by our leaders you could say that some African countries are still slaves to French colonials. But the truth remains that we are the only ones who can really help ourselves. We may wait as we might, and help will never come our way. Unless we stand up for Africa, we might pay this debt forever.


Source
https://answersafrica.com/about




Here is another one from Al Jazeera written by a white man for your satisfaction...

Torpedoing Africa, and then complaining about 'migration'
European countries are still shaping the lives of millions of Africans, determining both their present and future.

by Lorenzo Kamel
18 Aug 2018 GMT+3
Out of the 67 coups in 26 African countries in the last 50 years, 61 percent took place in former French colonies. Fifty percent of the monetary reserves of 14 African countries are still today under full French control: none of them has any control over its macroeconomic and monetary policy. France makes billions of euros from Africa annually under the form of "reserves", and lend part of the same money to its owners on market rates.


These few numbers hide one major truth: many European countries, France first and foremost, are still today shaping the lives of millions of Africans - three quarters of whom live on less than two dollars a day - determining both their present and future. They take the best out of Africa, while largely ignoring, or complaining about, much of the rest (noteworthy: Muslims represent about eight percent of the total French population and yet, between 40 percent and 70 percent of the population of France's prisons are estimated to be Muslims, mainly originate from African countries).

How are the European Union (EU) and many European citizens responding to this reality? They tend to focus on the "final rings of the chain" (including NGOs, "hotspots", or how to "divert irregular migration"), meaning that they focus on "the migration crisis plaguing Europe" without addressing some of the main structural conditions behind these phenomena.

Post-colonial "possessions"
A number of agreements signed in recent years by the EU in different parts of Africa have been largely detrimental for local populations, not least because they have exposed weak economies to unfair competition, adopted "divide and conquer" tactics when negotiating with African countries, and reduced trade between African nations.

On top of this, these agreements are often signed by countries that are still heavily dependent on external powers. A case in point is represented by the accord - the covers goods and development cooperation - reached by the EU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on February 24, 2014.

Almost all countries that are part of both ECOWAS and UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) - including Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, and Senegal - are still today de facto "post-colonial possessions".

The Central Bank of each of these African countries is in fact compelled to maintain at least 50 percent (it was 65 percent until 2005) of its foreign exchange reserves in an "operations account" controlled by the French Treasury. Moreover, each Central Bank is required to maintain a foreign exchange cover of at least of 20 percent of its liabilities.

It should also be mentioned that still today - despite the efforts made by ECOWAS to create a new common currency (ECO) for West African states - the CFA Francs, which are in reality two different currencies both guaranteed by the French Treasury, are the official currencies in 14 West and Central African countries.

CFA Francs, contrary to the dollar or euro, cannot be converted into any other currency. This means that all these countries are excluded from the international foreign exchange market (FOREX), the largest and most liquid market for options of any kind in the world.

It could be claimed that the countries that operate with these currencies might freely leave the arrangement at any time. In truth, dozens of African leaders, from Silvanus Olympio in Togo to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, have tried in recent decades to replace these tools of monetary and financial control with a new common African currency. Almost all of them - with the possible exception of Malian President Modibo Keïta (1915-77) - have been killed or overthrown the very moment in which their attempts were close to succeeding.

Tackling structural interests
For many centuries, Europe contributed to intercontinental migration more than any other continent. On the other hand, migrants from other continents rarely chose Europe as a destination.

Much is changed during the 20th century, and yet, still in 1990, migrants from West Africa, where many of the current migratory waves directed to Europe stem from, represented only the 0.005 percent of the annual population growth in Europe, which at the time was 0.184 percent.

The upsurge of net migration from Africa from the late 1990s, and more specifically the upswing of migratory traffic across Sahara from West to North Africa, is the result of an unprecedented "perfect storm", meaning the (never so) well organised exploitation of Africa - mainly at the hands of single European countries and companies, with the connivance of corrupted local leaderships - the increasing destabilisation of the entire region (to which European weapons are also contributing much), and the epochal challenges posed by the combination of climate change and demographic growth (according to the United Nations, more than half of global population growth between 2015 and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa).

Instead of tackling these epochal challenges and acknowledging that 87 percent of world refugees are hosted in low and middle-income countries, a number of European politicians and millions of average citizens have chosen the "easiest path": they are invoking a Europe-wide alliance against "mass immigration", or, more precisely, quoting Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, "a League of the Leagues of Europe, bringing together all the free and sovereign movements that want to defend their people and their borders".

"Europe", in truth, is not defending itself, but "attacking". It is doing so in a more sophisticated way than in the past, while receiving only limited "side effects". In this sense, concerns about "migrations" cannot but generate a positive outcome for European countries and citizens: in the medium-long term, they will be compelled to reconsider their attitudes and policies. And this process starts with broadening awareness on these issues.

Indeed, complaining about "migrants" - not dissimilarly from focusing on NGOs, or on the "financial" cost of the "migration crisis" for European countries - is a self-assuring shortcut that speaks at the gut of millions of disillusioned European citizens. Challenging and tackling the structural interests of (mainly) European businessmen, companies and governments - like Africans are doing through initiatives like the "West Africa leaks" - would be much riskier: this is why it won't easily happen.

Fostering local agency
The "West Africa leaks" investigation, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) last May 22, has confirmed that real change will ultimately come from African citizens themselves. The end of the exploitation of their countries passes, in fact, primarily through their structured and organised efforts.

Through the analysis of 27.5 million leaked documents, the "West Africa leaks" shed further light on how government officials, arms merchants and corporations have syphoned off millions of dollars from some of the poorest West African states through offshore tax havens. The latter is, to a large extent, linked to European and American companies and businessmen.

The result of the investigation, the largest-ever collaboration of journalists from West Africa, is particularly meaningful if considering that the region (West Africa) accounts for more than one-third of the about $50bn that leave Africa each year illegally.

There is still much to inquire about the role played in these processes by some of Africa's most powerful politicians and business leaders, although the OPL 245 case in Nigeria, from where one in every five Africans is from, might be considered as a poster child for understanding how the system works, and how it should be tackled.


The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

Ignore Vergennes;otherwise keep the truth coming! Here's Matteo Salvini explaining what we've all been saying:

https://www.ft.com/content/ebe797c0-1e2f-11e9-b2f7-97e4dbd3580d

Matteo Salvini has accused France of “stealing wealth” from African countries in the latest salvo in the spat between Paris and Rome over Europe’s migration crisis. The head of the anti-migration League party on Tuesday followed the lead of the Five Star Movement, his coalition partner, in linking France’s colonial history in Africa to the influx of refugees into Europe. “In Africa there are people who steal wealth from the population. France is obviously among them,” Mr Salvini said in an interview on Italian television. “In Libya France has no interest in stabilising the situation because it has oil interests opposite to those of Italy.” He added: “Let us not take lessons from France which in recent years has rejected tens of thousands of migrants at the border [between France and Italy], including women and children.”

There's also a peculiar pathology dubbed 'Fashoda Syndrome.' At the dawn of the 1900s France would've ruled Africa from east to west but had to back down to Johnny Brit in an unknown Sudanese village called Fashoda.

Fashoda syndrome, or a 'Fashoda complex',[1] is the name given to a tendency within French foreign policy in Africa, giving importance to asserting French influence in areas which might be becoming susceptible to British influence. It is considered the climax of the imperial territorial disputes between the United Kingdom and France in Eastern Africa, drawing these two nations to the brink of war in their bid to control the African Upper Nile region.[2]
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Fashoda_syndrome

Coming soon after the complete battlefield dismantling by Prussia on their own homeland in Sedan 1870 it was a devastating blow to their collective well being. Near capitulation to their nemesis in WW 1 and surrender in WW 2 encapsulated a compensatory mentality-a desire to fight on and on despite geopolitical realities. Look at Dien Bien Phu and Algeria-the Brits with their long colonial history could never get caught out so comprehensively.
This complex leads them to endless military engagements in Africa to dominate,grab resources and appear puissant (powerful) simultaneously.
 
.

Pakistan Defence Latest Posts

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom