The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Africa’s consumer market exceeds 900 Million people, the fastest growing market in the world.
For the purpose of this article  I will join those who often talk about Africa as if it was one country. Africa is not just a fast growing market it is also the 10th largest world market. According to the world bank the 2006 Africa Gross National Income was 978.3 B $, just after Canada at 9th position and before India, Brazil, Korea, Russian Federation, and Mexico who had the 11th until 15th position.

This being said I consider the 54 countries to be very diverse.  I recommend you have a look at http://www.gapminder.org/ where Professor Hans Rosling  provides the statistical facts in an exiting way that will make you understand the importance to look at African countries rather then to look at it as one Country.

The informal economy on average in Africa according to Friedrich Schneider accounts for 42 % of GNP in a survey of 1999/2000 where the US accounted for 9%, the UK 13%, Canada 15%, Sweden 20% and Greece 29% by comparison.
If we look at Africa  using the typical statistical data that is available to be factual, or if we want to go by the average notion on Africa based on the media, even in a worse case scenario the opportunities in reality are much better than what one expects.

The limited amount of suppliers that this growing amount of consumers can chose from however allow the vendors to provide very poor service, to dump dangerous products on the market, to overcharge customers for services and products and not to respect warranties or guarantees.The consumers have no proper legal framework that protect them from these practices to claim their rights. Governments do not proactively protect their citizens either from dangerous or poor quality products and services
France and the UK know this all too well and continue to protect their old vested interests stemming from the old colonial days and this translates into situations where the average African consumers have to take it or leave it with hardly any functional or affordable system in place to protect them.
Deutsche Telecom wanted to buy Sonatel in Burkina Faso, The French Minister of ICT told his German colleague to stay out of his territory and the deal was called off.  Vivendi took over with Maroc Telecom as the fronting company. Today the service has badly deteriorated and one can complain about the service but to no avail. New subscribers are accepted daily while insufficient investments are made in the total infrastructure causing very unstable networks.

New players like China have discovered the African market as well and do not meet many obstacles selling low cost and poor quality products including pharmaceuticals with Chinese descriptions leaving consumers at the mercy of the retailers guidance instead of being protected by health care regulations as is the case in most places in the world.

A few more examples across industries:

If you buy an airline return ticket with British Airways in Africa to the UK it will on average be more expensive than buying the same return ticket in the UK in countries where BA face little competition. The same is true for Air France or KLM.  While the flights to some of the destinations to Africa are shorter in miles and travel time the rates are higher than flights to the USA for instance that are longer in distance and time.  All the mentioned airline carriers in this example use the best airline configurations to the destinations where they face stiff competition and they continue to use their oldest configurations to places like Accra, Ouagadougou, Bamako where they almost still maintain a monopoly.
Each of these airline companies do face competition on destinations like Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg and therefore you will get a flat bed configuration flying BA to Lagos in business class, but not to Accra while the rates are almost the same. On flights to Lagos the mentioned carriers have US inbound passengers that work in the energy sector who have lots of alternatives to chose from once arriving at London, Paris or Amsterdam before continuing their destination to Lagos.
But what if you fly to Paris starting your journey in Ouagadougou, you have been a loyal frequent flyer of Air France and you want to use your air miles to upgrade your ticket or you want to sit in a business class lounge at the airport of Dakar using your club 2000 card ?
Well you can’t. Sorry sir on this route these perks are not available.  I was recently rejected even in transit at the airport in Paris to sit in the airport lounge coming from Ouagadougou. If you read the terms and conditions Air France clearly state that your club 2000 card gives you world wide club access regardless of the class you travel in and you have the right to invite a fellow passenger. Air France does not mention “except for the following African destinations”.
When you complain, you get letters explaining how terribly sorry the company is and they hope to soon welcome you on board of their flights again because they know that you have few or no alternative.
Emirates Airlines are expanding their network of destinations across the continent but frequent flyers of Emirates will notice that the cash and miles service does not include destinations like Ghana even if they have a daily direct flight between Dubai and Accra. How come ?

What about ordering through Amazon.com if you live in Africa where bookstores are not a commodity and the population is young and eager for knowledge ?
Well you can order books, but in todays technology driven world where youngsters increasingly look for multi media alternatives, unfortunately you cannot order any multi media nor software, nor any electronics that are on offer at Amazon.com.  The excuse in this case is the fear for piracy, but this is taking a short cut in my opinion. Today’s technology offer enough solutions to counter piracy if only one is willing to invest. Apparently 450 million youngsters is not a big enough market opportunity for Amazon to at least explore some alternatives.

What if you want to transfer money to relatives ?
Up until some years ago Western Union was the only viable solution for the large diaspora community to transfer money to and from Africa. The costs associated to the transfers exceeded even the highest fees one would pay using bank transfers anywhere around the world.  When Moneygram started to operate in Africa fees came down overall, but with only two service providers the fees are still disproportional if you consider the purchasing power of the majority of the beneficiaries and the main reason for these money transfers. Most of the transfers are made to support families in their most basic needs. The banking sector in Africa is still mainly focusing on corporate banking and the continent has the lowest bank account penetration rates in the world. Western Union and Moneygram can therefore charge any fees they like without too much risk of losing customers.  While central banks do control foreign exchange and limit currency outflows from some of the African countries, they don’t seem to feel a need to protect their population from being overcharged.
A few banks do have retail branches and for a handful of their client base they offer premium services, meaning that these clients have access to air conditioned areas to do their banking transactions, while the majority of the clients have to queue in long lines in the heat often moving from one counter to the next to queue again to conclude very outdated manual procedures to make a money draft.

What if you buy a computer or a cell phone while traveling overseas from world renowned vendors like HP or Nokia, just to name a few, and you use it in Africa?
Although the vendors when selling you the items claim that they offer world wide guarantees and warranties the reality check comes once your equipment fails on you back home in Africa.
Even when the vendor has a local distributor, the world wide agreements are not always respected and consumers either have to travel back with their equipment and have it repaired where the items were purchased or pay for the repair. Either way they lose.
Africans use places like Dubai and  China extensively to buy items that they cannot find in their home countries. On arrival the consumers often are charged high duties.
Guarantees and warranties very often are not respected in Africa and if you read the small letters you will see that some vendors exclude Subsaharan Africa all together.
The price does not reflect this exclusion and again considering purchasing power of average African consumers, they end up paying a premium for non-warranted items.

If you buy a Toyota in Ghana and export the car to say neighboring Burkina Faso, warranties will no longer apply and spare parts have to be imported at surcharges from the country where you bought the car because the local Toyota dealer will not keep parts in stock for different care types. Most car makers sell different versions of types of vehicles in different countries.

Pharmaceutical scams of trials using African human beings to test new drugs have been headline news items in many newspapers and cable new stations over the years.
Today anybody can buy drugs over the counter that would normally require a prescription. Drugs that are imported from China with only Chinese descriptions that nobody in Africa can read and that no health care institution has approved since  controls are either not in place or not enforced are sold even through small Chinese retail outlets exposing vast amounts of people to medical side effects in a place where medical care is unaffordable for the majority of the population in any event.

In Africa consumers have not yet found ways to organize themselves. Most governments are happy to see investors come and apart from tax and duties there are not too many regulations that have to be respected. But in the end the consumers who pay for the government services indirectly via their taxes have rights that need to be protected.
Hopefully we will see a private initiative take off soon somewhere that will set the example for others to follow protecting consumers interests…

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

“We don’t want money, we need skills” was a comment of some of the attendees during the Ghana Competitiveness Forum that was held in Accra in August 2009.

Following the visit of President Barack Obama to Ghana the Business Council on International Understanding organized the forum. A delegation of Members of the House of Representatives of the United States and participants from the public and private sector met over a round table discussion to seek solutions to make Ghana more competitive and attractive to foreign investors.

Not only has Ghana transitioned peacefully to a new government after its recent elections but today you will find that the private sector is taking a leading position as well to drive the economy forward. A new generation of business men and women are now limited by available skills more than by venture capital or other financial impediments.

With the discovery of oil in Ghana an entire new set of skills are required and some international companies operating in Ghana have already started to train people to get ready to embark on deep sea oil exploration.

If you drive around Accra you will also see a lot of activity in the construction sector. New hotels and office buildings are under construction and houses in the residential areas are being built to accommodate the increased demand.

Tema, one of the ports of Ghana receives cargo that finds its final destination in some of its neighboring and land locked countries such as Burkina Faso for instance.

Most of this economic activity also requires information. Here lies in itself another great opportunity for improvements on productivity and efficiencies to become more competitive using today’s information technology.
Border formalities for the most part rely on paper based systems and delay a swift passage. Trucks lose a lot of time during this process. This is just an example of course to illustrate the vast amount of opportunity that exists and at the same time the challenge we face to get enough skilled labor to fulfill the demand.

Golden times for training institutes, vocational education centers, universities and business schools.
Golden times for the Diaspora as well who would like to return to their country and exploit the opportunities benefiting from the acquired international experience.

Training however is only part of what a country like Ghana needs. Some of those who are driving business in Ghana are either locally trained staff or staff trained overseas but in both cases these business leaders have enjoyed international exposure that has provided them experience to deal with complex business situations. These leaders can run businesses up to international standards. They have the capacity to compete internationally. If companies are certified to international standards they will find it easier to export their products and services. Skills and standards are key to achieving sustainable growth in today’s global business.

One of the requests to the members of the House of Representatives was to support an exchange program that will allow for talented Ghanaians to work for a period of time on overseas projects and to receive skilled labor from the US in this case, to work and transfer skills in Ghana so that both business leaders and companies become more competitive.

Of course there are areas where foreign direct investment and loans are still required to assist the development efforts that Ghana is undertaking and where the public interest is better served by a public sector owned solution rather than a private sector one.

When the business community starts asking for skills rather than for money as a first priority it means that its leaders clearly see the opportunity. The opportunity has probably been there for a long time, but today the country is enjoying the fact that democracy and private initiative have both evolved and met each other ready to execute.

Things are changing in Ghana and in Africa and for the better.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Do you like spicy food?
Do you plan to go to Nairobi ?

I recommend Handhi’s to you. It means “clay pot” in one of the Indian languages and the restaurant serves a number of dishes using these clay pots. The variety and quality of the food is superb and among the Indian restaurants in Africa that I know I rank it within the top 5.

Those of you who chose to sit inside the restaurant instead of at their terrace, can see the cookes at work through a hugh glass wall that separates the kitchen from the main restaurant dining area.

In East Africa it is mostly the Indian cuisine that offer some very spicy dishes.  The African dishes in this part of the continent are generally mildly spiced. In West and Central Africa however the African dishes can be extremely spicy.

In Senegal you can order Poulet Yassa, stuffed chicken with lemon and onions served with rice and you have a choice to have some yellow chillies on the side and mix these with the food.

Africans enjoy their food most when sharing a dish with their family or friends.

In Nigeria,  Pepper Soup can be made of any kind of fish or meat depending on your preference.  If you are a Non African Adult with strong taste buts you may try it, but I recommend you take a very small sip first to see how you respond before going for the big spoons.

These are just a few examples since spicy food is very common in the West- and Central African cuisine.

Those of you who are not used to chillies should start carefully.  It is an acquired taste that you develop over time and gradually you can deal with larger quantities of chillies or use stronger varieties of chillies.
The Naga Jolokia and the Red Savina Habanero are the strongest versions and contain the highest levels of capsaicin 800.000 – 1000.000 and  350.000 – 570.000 respectively. The Naga Jolokia originates from North Eastern India and holds the Guinness World record. Compare this to white pepper that has 500 units of capsaicin or green tabasco sauce that has about 600 to 800 units.
The Scoville scale measures the heat levels in food by measuring the amount of capsaicin present.

One of my colleagues from Europe asked me if she could have a sip of my crab soup I was having at a restaurant in Dubai that had made some special orders on our request. Four of us were living in or originated from Africa while we had  two Europeans with us that evening ,my colleague being one.
We had ordered two separate bowls of crab soup, one hot one not. I warned my colleague and told her that this was seriously hot. She insisted.
The next 10 minutes or so all the waitresses were running back and forth to calm the effect of the chillies.
When she recovered somewhat and regained her ability to speak she started to call me names and asked me how someone could enjoy something like that ? We felt sorry for her but at the same time we could not stop laughing either. When she ran to catch her flight she was smiling again.

If you like spicy food I advice you to learn the traditional name of chilly for each country you visit. If you go to a local restaurant as
a Mzungu (white man)  and ask for very spicy food, you may otherwise not get what you ask for. Since not every European or American that visits Africa can handle the intensity of some of the dishes, waiters are careful and will bring you a very mild version of what you requested.
In Nigeria I asked for red chillies and got sweet red peppers instead. So I asked the waiter the name of red chillies in Yoruba. Now I got my “atta rodo”, as they call it and  every time I visit a restaurant in Nigeria and ask for fresh chopped atta rodo I am in business.

An Indian friend of mine once advised me to have some raw onion on the side whenever you are not sure of the food you are about to have. This simple addition will keep you out of trouble in most cases. I realized the effect of it when on another occasion I had dinner with four of my colleagues in a nice restaurant in Ghana. We all ordered shrimps and lobster, the specialty of the house. I was the only one who ordered a salad on the side with some raw onion because I happen to like salads not so much because I questioned the restaurant or its food.  Our host, a Ghanaian did not approve of my addition to this dish, since he felt you should not mix the taste of the fresh seafood with anything else.
The next day all four of my colleagues, including our Ghanaian host were not feeling well and had to run to the bathroom a few times for a couple of days. I was very happy to have ordered my salad on the side and remembered the advise of my Indian friend.
Since then I have made it a habit to order some raw onion every time I doubt the quality of the food.
If you think about it, the Dutch dip their raw herring in chopped raw onion. If you order a steak tartare the cook will propose raw onion as one of the spices to mix the meat with.
I don’t have the scientific proof to back my story but in all the years of my travels all over the world I have hardly ever had food problems and I am grateful for the advice of my Indian friend.

Back at Handhi’s one evening we had ordered more food than we could finish and before we left one of the guests asked the waiter to wrap the food.  I was a bit surprised since all of us were very satisfied and unable to finish but I was soon to learn another lesson of the African way of live.
We walked out of the restaurant and the guest who was carrying the bags with wrapped food saw a poor person walking by.
Without even thinking twice he gave some of the bags to this person.  Before we reached the car he had distributed the remaining bags to a few other poor people that we came across.

Have you ever considered asking to wrap the food to give it to a total stranger in the street on your way home?
I admit I had never done so before but I suggest you try this and I am sure you will enjoy the  experience…

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

If you consider doing business in Africa you have to ask yourselves the question:

Do we really want to do business in Africa?

If the answer is yes, you should approach the opportunity just like you would approach any investment decision anywhere else on the planet and prepare yourselves accordingly.
A cost-benefit analysis can give you a go or no-go, based on what you feel is an acceptable level of return on the investment you are willing to make, considering possible alternatives.

Recent studies have identified that some projects in Africa yield up to four times the returns these projects would yield in Europe and twice as much as they would yield in Asia.

When the opportunity is there and the understood risk is high, the measures that should be put in place to manage the associated risk, should be properly defined.
The initial cost of identifying exploitable oil fields are significant but the returns of the production side of the business are hugh as well, if the studies turn out correct.
Needless to say what the impact can be of mistakes….

Some companies make half-hearted decisions when it comes to running their operations in Africa and may end up getting disappointed after a while because they are caught by surprise on various fronts from productivity and efficiencies to facing infrastructural issues nobody had even thought of as potential challenges.

A recent CNBC broadcast titled “Dollars and Danger” had the intention to portray Africa as the final investment frontier.
The first 3 minutes of the program give an example of a Chinese project in Libya where China is accused to export their labor problems to Africa running more Africans into unemployment.
I think it is well understood by now that the US and China are both competing for African energy resources and one can read this between the lines here again.

Not to mention that the US is slowly losing its first trading position with Africa and of course this is not something that the US is happy with.

Most people in the US still believe that the investment and official donor assistance their country provide to Africa are among the highest in the world.  Facts have proven the contrary.

The next 4 minutes discuss the risks and dangers of doing business in Africa, where one could end up believing that you cannot walk the streets of Africa without at least one bodyguard because of the way that one conflict zone, limited to a small region of one country, is blown up to a level as if this is the standard across the continent. The reality is that the number of wars and conflicts at this point in African history are lower than ever before and lower than in Asia for instance.

I am not sure how many potential investors made it all the way to the end of the program. If there still were people watching I wonder how many of those ended up seriously considering Africa as an investment opportunity.

It is sad that this has become the standard of portraying a continent that has never been given a fair chance for as long as the developed world has been interacting with it.

I will share some of the considerations I made, with you,  when I started to work in Africa that have helped me  to exceed my expectations.

The first thing one need to realize is that Africa is a continent that consists of 54 countries and I am showing you a picture that will help you understand the size of the continent to put things in perspective.

You can read more on this topic in my post of http://dfafie.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/balance-the-view-and-opinion-on-africa/
Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish are the imported languages depending on what part of Africa you are at, apart from the thousands of local languages that are spoken by the African people.

Unless the nature of your business is linked to available natural resources, you need to decide on a location or multiple ones where you want to operate from.

Here you will have to strike a balance between business opportunities and cost of operation given that the level of available infrastructure differ from one country to another.

If the nature of your business requires mobility for instance you have a limited number of airports that will allow you to reasonably connect across a region. You may not have the business volume in the country from where you operate but you have the convenience of a workable infrastructure. The safest bet therefore in this case, is to consider offices to play a regional function rather than a local one, right from the start. You can read more on this topic in my earlier post: Africa is big and flights are short in supply at  http://dfafie.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/africa-is-big-and-flights-are-in-short-supply/

Companies that require skilled labor will have to make a decision to bring in the skills from overseas or to invest in local staff or a combination of these. When skills are a determining factor you also need to consider where you want to train your staff, on-site or overseas.
If you have to sent staff overseas for training you may face challenges obtaining visas for your staff based on where staff originate from unfortunately.  This is one of the so many imposed barriers to Africa’s development by the developed world, but one that should not be underestimated. Sometimes visa requests are rejected without even a plausible reason.
A more local consideration is that it can be more difficult in some African countries to obtain work- and residency permits for neighboring nationals because the hosting country wants to protect employment for their local citizens.

See my post on visa related issues at  http://dfafie.wordpress.com/2009/05/

Some companies work with or via local partners. My recommendation is to look for business partners on equal footing so that the partners can organize themselves similar to meet each other’s expectations in terms of investments, organizational structures and quantitative and qualitative standards.
If you are new to a region, working with a local partner can help you to get the local know how faster incorporated into your company.

The good news for Africa is that more nations have started to invest in Africa. While historically the Europeans were the main overseas players, today US, Chinese and Middle Eastern companies are present and compete for the business opportunities.

I see different approaches to doing business from some of the companies depending on where they originate from.
Knowledge transfer is a common practice for US based companies for instance, where the Chinese companies bring in most, if not all the work force from China thus providing less long-term benefits to the local population.

Not all companies will work with local staff at all levels of the organization and some even have different levels of employee standards for staff that come from overseas versus local staff.
This creates all sorts of human resource problems in the long run. This is not a specific problem in doing business in Africa.
There are plenty examples of companies applying duality everywhere in the world.
The average age of Africa’s population ranks very young and with proper training, skills can be developed. While doing business, we have a great opportunity to invest in Africa’s future at the same time. If there is one way we can make a difference in assisting the development process from within the private sector, it definitely is in the area of capacity building.

The size of a company will determine to some extend the possible investments that can be made. It is the initial cost of exploration that will represent more of a challenge to smaller companies than it will to larger ones. Given the many additional factors companies have to consider when doing business in Africa, it is a conditio sine qua non to have a chance for success. If your company does not have the means to do proper due diligence, you may be better off exploring easier terrain.

There are some conditions that we have to accept for the time being since in most cases companies can do little or nothing about these.
Some countries still have state owned utility companies that hold a monopoly position providing poor service while overcharging the consumer, to mention just one.

Similarly there are government owned cooperations for some of the natural resource related economic activities, that impose price and conditions to the producers. Cotton and cacao are good examples where the farmers work very much under cooperation’s set rules. Since these cooperations are most of the time the only one in its kind in the country, providing fertilizers, pesticides and some other basics to the farmers who have no access to capital,  it is difficult to change the conditions for some of these primary producers. Even with micro financing support, the farmers would still be stuck with price cartels once they want to sell their crop.

It is difficult to break this model as long as these monopolies exist.
If you are part of such a chain the basic conditions will be very much set for you when you approach your suppliers.

If you work regionally and you have to transport goods by trucks, crossing borders requires a skill all by itself, to ensure that your cargo does not lose time dealing with the formalities.
Specially perishable goods require close attention and working with solid partners will proof useful in most cases.

The public opinion on Africa is based on what the media cares to show and more often than not this is a very negative single sided reflection of the reality.
When there is a conflict in one part of one country the news headlines will state that there is a problem in Africa and thus the issue gets amplified by a factor of 54!

In all the years that I have lived and worked in Africa I have always applied a simple rule. If you are in Rome do as the Romans do!  So if you are in an unfamiliar place, you should pay attention to good advice from your local staff or local partner and you should not go experiment on your own. I have never used bodyguards nor any security personnel and I have worked in over 34 countries in Africa for years and I am enjoying my work and my life. I have come to terms  with the fact that sometimes there are power cuts, water cuts and other inconveniences but the flip side is that if you do, you can enjoy a very hospitable environment where nobody ever complains even if they have all the reason to do so at times.

If you are in London, people will complain about the rain or the sun. It is either too wet or too hot but it is never going to be fine..

You run into any person anywhere in the streets of Africa and you ask them how they are and they will tell you , I am fine and will do so with a sincere smile.

Of course there are issues. It would be naive to think that there wouldn’t be any issues across 54 countries. More so if we realize that there are so many issues with the rest of the world.
Somehow we have become myopic and we only manage to see what does not work in Africa, while we are stuck up to our eyebrows with issues in the developed world.
Did Africa create the economic crisis most of the western countries are currently struggling with just to pick on a recent one ? When these problems, that the western world created itself,  happen,  overnight billions of dollars can be found to fix the problems and everybody turns back to autopilot.

Those of us who are successfully working in Africa often ask ourselves the question how come “those back home” fail to see what it is that we see…

I have come to the conclusion that often the problems come from a pre-conditioned mindset that forgot to do due diligence before taking up the new challenge, irrespective of the location of the activity.

For you to proof me wrong!

© Desi Lopez Fafié

Good Afternoon  I am honored to be here today.   I am also humbled  by  so many of you taking  the time to be here, knowing as you do that I do not bring  announcements any different from those of my own government of the United States of America.  The position of the United States on Zimbabwe has been consistently stated, and includes those remarks made most recently by our new and very fine Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Johnnie Carson. 

 I am also honored to stand by the United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, who has fought for change and a greater voice for all people wherever he has served.  Having been in a number of very challenging assignments, it is no coincidence that he is here, in Zimbabwe.  He carries the highest confidence of his own government.   In each of his assignments, Ambassador McGee has witnessed an advancement of democracy for all.  Sometimes that progress was incremental, sometimes it was rapid.  But in every case there was an advance for all people.  Interestingly, as I stand here now, your Prime Minister addresses the U.S. business community in Washington, D.C.  My own organization, The Corporate Council on Africa, is hosting Mr. Tsvangirai later today at a luncheon in Washington that has attracted more than 120 people.  Some of America’s leading companies now invested in Africa will keenly listen to his account of what is happening in Zimbabwe.  Some of these companies are already doing business in Zimbabwe, while others look on from the sidelines as interested parties.  In both cases, however, we cannot expect that these companies will either enter Zimbabwe for the first time or expand their operations here until there are substantial changes in the way that business is done in your country.  Those businesses gathered in Washington also have no expectations of any change in U.S. policy until change comes to Zimbabwe.  

 Yet they will be there in Washington later today because they believe Zimbabwe matters.  They understand the potential of this great nation to again be a beacon of investment in a land that is quite capable of addressing many of Africa’s development needs, including food security.  We know intellectually the challenges under which Zimbabwe operates, and we as Americans are not without empathy, nor are we without voice. We fully know the challenges you face to build a nation for all people with economic opportunity for all.  We at The Corporate Council on Africa believe that a vibrant private sector unencumbered by many forms of control is essential to the development of a nation, just as we believe that a just and fair government is paramount if the private sector is to contribute to the development of a nation, as it must.    However, let me step back and explain what The Corporate Council on Africa is, and what it is not.  The Corporate Council on Africa is a not for profit organization composed of about 180 corporations.   Our membership is roughly divided equally among small, medium-sized and large corporations.  Collectively, they represent about 85 percent of all U.S. private sector investment in Africa.  This membership  contains some of the world’s largest energy companies, for sure, but we also have among our members the primary U.S. equity funds investing in Africa, as well as agribusiness and infrastructure companies, manufacturers and many others.  In all, our membership represents 19 different business sectors.  We also have a few trade organizations that represent other businesses.  For example, the Africa Coalition for Trade is also a member and represents more than 150 African companies doing business with the United States.    We are not your run of the mill trade organization, however. 

  We do not lobby the U.S. government, preferring instead to work with them as much as possible to shape a shared vision of U.S.-Africa relations, especially as that relationship concerns trade and investment between the countries of Africa and the United States.  We also are, in my biased view, a progressive trade organization.  We were and remain among the boosters of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Act, two of the most important parts of U.S. economic policy towards Africa.  We also have programs in health, with a strong respected program focusing on HIV/AIDS in the African workplace, one of the premier U.S.-Africa infrastructure programs of any kind, a growing agribusiness program and staff, and are addressing the issues that prevent more U.S. investment in Africa, including the difficulty in obtaining financing to invest in Africa.  We recently completed the first set of policy recommendations from the American private sector to the Obama Administration as it looks toward Africa.    Significantly, more than 100 companies worked together in nine different sub-groups over three months to prepare the recommendations for the Obama Administration’s Africa policies.   We continue to build upon those recommendations.    In a new venture, we have begun to find ways to place a few staff in Africa to help us work more directly with the private sector.  For example, we worked recently with our government to fund and hire the first director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia.  That person will work with the African Union as well, and cover the countries within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.   I do note that COMESA just concluded its summit here in Zimbabwe, where President Mugabe launched the COMESA Customs Union. We very much support the further development and integration of such regional economic communities.    In the past, we have also placed CCA staff inside the COMESA secretariat in Lusaka to work with and learn from their fine leadership. We hope to be able to do that again soon.

  Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention what has become the premier U.S.-Africa economic private sector meeting, the CCA U.S.-Africa Business Summit.  Every two years an average of nearly 2,000 business persons come from throughout Africa and the United States to meet new business partners, learn about new business models and opportunities, and to build partnerships. We hope many of you will be in Washington from September 28-October 2 this year for the summit.  It will be the first major U.S.-Africa event to take place in the United States during the Obama Administration. We have every expectation for participation from the U.S. Government at the very highest levels.   The summit is truly an extraordinary event and a unique opportunity.  I think it would be in your long-term interests to be there in Washington with us.  So, that is the Corporate Council on Africa.  What we are not is that we are not a development agency.  We are an organization that believes in business partnership and equal opportunity for all.  Now let me turn to why I accepted the opportunity to address you today.  I, of course, want to learn. I am, by nature, a curious person.  But I also want to reinforce that there is a great deal of interest in Zimbabwe from the American business community.  I have been fortunate to be employed by a Board of Directors who believes that CCA can be a business organization that makes a difference in this world.  My executive committee supported my being here because we believe in the people of Zimbabwe.  You have a proven potential to make a difference to the lives of men and women throughout Africa, as well as in Zimbabwe. We believe a strong Zimbabwe will help build an even stronger Africa. A strong Zimbabwe will make a decidedly positive difference for countless millions of people, both in Africa and beyond.  

But, just because we would like to invest in Zimbabwe and to work in partnership with you, does not mean we are ready to do so.  You are aware of the impediments to investment

and partnership with American businesses, and you understand quite well why the American business community is prevented from being even more present here.   You do not need yet another person to give a lecture on democracy, especially when you fight for this every day, in one way or another. You may, in fact, know better and more fully the meaning of democracy and opportunity than many Americans can ever hope to feel.  The person who thirsts for water appreciates better the taste of water than the man who swims in it daily.  Even without targeted sanctions against individuals and entities that are undermining democratic institutions and processes in Zimbabwe, or that have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial support to these entities, I do not believe you would see significant U.S. investment under the present conditions.    There is a reason that several countries in Africa are doing particularly well in attracting U.S. investment. There is equally a reason why several are doing poorly.  These decisions are not a reflection of the people of a nation, for we all have good and evil in our societies.  We each have to judge who is who in our respective societies.  Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once spoke of good and evil and mankind’s relationship to both.  He said, “Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”  To protect us from evil, societies need the rule of law that provides as much as possible an equitable form of government.    We all have imperfect societies, and none of us should be too proud about our own country when inequality of opportunity for all exists and when we all have obvious injustices that remain to be resolved.  We all have work to do before we die. I in my country, and you in yours.

   In the meantime, however, we can work together to support one another and to prepare for the day when, as partners in businesses, we will improve the lives of our families and of our respective nations.  In anticipation of this, we must work to change the laws of our countries so that we have better opportunity to work together in the future. You will need to tell us what we can do better to have a more open society in which you can do business.  We are proud of our nation, but we know ourselves to be an imperfect society. We need, for instance, to shrink the growing gap between rich and poor.    We need to continue to heal the wounds of a divided society.  I believe you have these challenges as well.  For U.S. businesses to do business with any country, we seek a nation that follows the rule of law, so that when we invest in a nation and in a company, we know that we will be justly and fairly dealt with.  We need to know that the judiciary is independent and that our course of law is clear and fair.  If we know the laws, and we know the laws will be consistently and evenly enforced, then we can do business with you.  You need to know the same about our society.   We need to know that public expression is an accurate reflection of the voice of the people.  We need to know that people are free to express their opinions regardless of whether we agree with those opinions.  If that freedom does not exist, how are we to know that what one says is an accurate expression of the conditions in which we want to work?  As much as media irritates us all at times, it is a vital part of a nation.  We cannot discern what is true and false if we know that one’s freedom of expression is imperiled. 

  There is also the complex issue of intellectual property rights.  If a person puts his or her ideas and life into an invention, what right is there to steal that idea and not pay the man or woman for their time, ideas and brainpower?   Again, it comes back to the consistent rule of law that allows us to better understand the investment potential of a nation.  This is part of what makes a country an attractive investment, and through that investment partnerships are possible.  We KNOW without a doubt the potential of Zimbabwe, and you know the image of Zimbabwe at this moment.    That image needs to change, not with a better public relations campaign, but with an increasingly better government committed to the rule of law, and that law committed to the welfare of all its people.  Again, no country has a perfect set of laws, and some of us have a greater challenge than others.   Let me now turn to a challenge specific to Zimbabwe.  It is an area that I think I have some background that qualifies me to address, and that is the challenges represented by the potential legislation related to the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, where, as I understand, the goal is that all businesses must be 51 percent black Zimbabwean owned.  I understand the reasons and logic behind it and I empathize.  The injustices of your history are as well-known as those of the present.  The Corporate Council on Africa was the first and remains one of the few U.S. business organizations whose Board of Directors in 2002 endorsed Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa.  We recognized why it was needed and supported it, even though it has presented a fair share of challenges to many businesses operating in South Africa. 

In South Africa, CCA directs a program called the South Africa International Business Linkages program, funded by USAID.  It has been running for ten years and is contracted

for another five years.  It is one of the most successful U.S. development programs in South Africa, according to the South African Government.     CCA works with primarily black and women-owned businesses to find them buyers and partners in the United States.  We have staff on the ground that helps prepare these companies to do business more effectively and to sell to the United States.    In the course of the ten years of the program, we have generated more than $1.8 billion (yes, billion) dollars of transactions for black and women-run businesses of South Africa.  The South African Government credits us with creating more than 20,000 jobs.  This, of course, is a drop in the sea of need in South Africa, but it is a program that could be replicated throughout Africa.  It might be a model for the future of Zimbabwe.  I note this program because we also work almost exclusively with BEE certified companies, and our U.S. companies often enter into partnership with these businesses.  The difference between the BEE program in South Africa, and what is proposed in the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act in Zimbabwe, is that new investment does not have to give up 51 percent of their company in South Africa.  Why would a company stay in Zimbabwe if they give up ownership, which also means that they have little say in how that company is to be operated, especially in an environment where the rule of law is inconsistent, at best?  It is a formula for losing one’s investment, not gaining profit that provides jobs and builds a nation.  In the end, under the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, I think you run the risk of having 51 percent of nothing, and that equals zero.  Forty percent of a million is $400,000.  Fifty one percent of an uninvested billion is still zero.  I would urge those who are pushing the implementation of this legislation to rethink their positions. 

So, in the end perhaps I came to tell you what you already know: that you should not expect any new investment from the United States private sector in the near term until

profound changes take place in the political and economic management of this great country, in particular in the area of rule of law and respect for human rights.     But I think it important that you know we do want to work with you.  This possible partnership could be mutually beneficial in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine as we look on it from our respective positions on this particular day in the month of June 2009.   You know what has to be done to get to that point where we can work together.    We in the business community are eager to work with you to build a better future.  I urge you to be a part of our conference in Washington in September, and I urge you to trust that you have our support and prayers in America.   We look forward to our future partnership. 

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

The answer to this question depends on the direction of the airplane that carries people around the world.
If  the airplane leaves New York or Paris and arrives in Accra, the disembarking passengers are called Expats, but arriving back in New York or Paris the passengers disembarking there are called Immigrants.

At one of the Infrastructure conferences organized by the Corporate Council on Africa  I asked the same question to the audience. Afterwards I was approached by a representative of the US State Department who explained that the US legislation has different terminology to describe movements of people.
Although the statement in itself most likely was correct, my point was not to find out the morphology nor the meaning of the words but to expose the spirit in which these different words are used when dealing with people.

Because of the nature of my work I travel frequently across continents and I have witnessed many instances where I felt that immigration officers practiced borderline behavior “welcoming” passengers, not adding any kind of security value to the process.

Up until recently Air France flights arrived for instance in Douala  accompanied by officers of the PAF (Police Nationale PAF), the police unit that deals with immigration at the French airports. Their task was to check passengers at the door of the airplane on Cameroon soil just before boarding the flight.
Passengers had already gone through all the local formalities and controls of the Airport of Douala.
Upon arrival at the airport in Paris at the gate of the plane, another team of the PAF unit, once  were shouting the word “Passeports” to the disembarking passengers, before allowing the passengers to join the queues at the immigration booths where , like every other passenger arriving in Paris, people’s passports were checked.

I asked a lady PAF officer why she was shouting at us, since in my opinion this did not add any value to the procedure other than creating a hostile setting between the officer and the passenger and I wanted to know if this was the first impression that she wanted to leave the passengers with. Instead of receiving an answer her superior officer took my passport and after examining he pointed out to me that my passport was in a bad shape. I acknowledged and suggested to the officer that he should complain to my government while I had taken notice of his badge number and name. I would gladly report the incident to his government officials likewise. Based on this the officer asked me to proceed and started to check the next passenger.

The incident worried me because I felt that if this was the way I, as a European,  had been addressed,  I could only imagine how my African fellow passengers were going to be treated.

All in all  passengers arriving from Douala were therefore checked four times ( once by the local authorities in Douala and three times by officers of the PAF) as opposed to passengers arriving from New York who’s passports were not checked leaving the US and were only checked at the Paris immigration booths for the first time since they left home.

Some of the flights from Africa to Europe take about 5 to 6 hours. Not long enough to sleep while too long to feel as if nothing happened. On top arriving in winter time in Europe at 6 am in the morning at around freezing point coming from tropical zones is a challenge in itself to put a smile on your tired face on arrival.  An incident like described can therefore result in a lot of needless frustration.

What this behavior and procedure illustrates is contempt for anybody arriving from Africa to France in this case and an expression of doubt about the intentions of the passengers arriving into the country. Similar incidents happen around Europe and the rest of the world.

Most countries in Europe apply the rule that someone is not guilty until proven guilty. This rule seem to be forgotten at times when passengers arrive at the airports of some of the European destinations. Not every passenger arrives planning to stay illegal in the country.
Given the old ties that Europe has with some of the African countries it is to be expected that people like to visit their relatives or come and do business with their European partners.

Many people arriving in Europe feel embarrassed or at times even humiliated by the way they are received after a long journey.

From a security point of view I don’t understand that in this day and age our identity documents are still not including biometric information.
Some airports like Amsterdam and Dubai use biometric data at their e-gates but only with those passengers that have subscribed to the service.
It would speed up immigration procedures at a fraction of the costs and eliminate all the emotion and frustration that passengers have to go through if biometric data could become a standard part of our travel documents.
To include visa requirements in this procedure,  barcodes or similar easy to incorporate tools can be used and checked before boarding a plane using barcode readers. The technology is there to provide an effective and practical solution.

To agree on standards across nations and deal with privacy legislation are probably the biggest challenges but if these can be overcome the rest is just a matter of volume and implementation.

Immigration staff find it difficult at times to compare pictures with faces if the person is from a different racial origin than he is himself. With biometric tools any doubt is eliminated and any fraud immediately exposed.

On a flight to Washington DC,  I ended up sitting next to Mrs. Christine Lagarde, who at the time was still Minister of Trade of the French Government. I shared my concerns regarding the immigration practices since many of my African colleagues have to travel to Europe and or the US to get trained.  Even with our companies supporting documents they struggle sometimes to get visas and if they do they may face an unfriendly welcome nevertheless.

Mrs Lagarde felt that it was important to ensure proper training for the immigration staff so that borderline behavior could be reduced to the minimum. I felt this was an encouraging statement and I hope that training is being provided adequately and other countries will follow this example so that all world citizens can travel and won’t have to worry if they will be received with respect and dignity upon arrival at their foreign destinations.

French tax payers may wonder why one PAF team had to check another PAF team before the final check at the Airport immigration booths if a decision was made to fly the PAF officers up and down to African states and maybe ask Mrs Lagarde, who now owns the French Budget the question when the government will implement biometric data in their identification documents if immigrants are of such a concern.   The French Embassies could start providing visas that include data that can be processed electronically and limit the risk of fraud.

Not only will this cut costs but it will improve security. It may set an example for other countries around the world to follow. The passenger will no longer be subject to humiliating behavior of some of the immigration officers.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

The challenge:

In order to make Africa the best place to be, we still have some homework to do and therefore I am hoping soon to see your questions for those leaders of nations that will impact the African economies probably most, appear on this blog or you can join my discussion board on facebook under the same title, Africa the place to be.

Here is a statement that may be provocative but hopefully will stir up some discussion:

The Global economic crisis according to some, is the result of the imbalance between Capital and Labor, or if you wish company profit ratios and employee wages. Companies have over-invested and wage increases have not followed accordingly and therefore demand fell short on the supply. Governments wanted to portray economic growth at all cost and found Housing as a target to fill the gap of demand, accepting unsustainable debt levels. The US and the UK copied the mistakes that Japan made earlier and after more than two decades is still trying to recover from.Once the housing bubble burst, we found ourselves where we are today.

Now some also say that Companies have been given too much freedom to outsource labor to low cost countries like China and India as part of free trade and globalization without any oversight. Free trade is seen as part of the problem since the lost purchasing power in the developed world is not compensated by the gained purchasing power in the developing countries where companies have outsourced to.

Early in the crisis President Obama’s administration made some maybe premature statements about “Buy USA made products” and the media picked this up as a possible new wave of protectionism. If the developed countries were to embrace protectionism I am concerned that this will worsen the chances for the developing countries on top of all the other effects that this part of the world will have to deal with as a result of economic imbalance between the haves and the have-not. Global warming effects will hit Africa probably more than any other region while those who contribute to the global warming are outside Africa to mention just another challenge we put on the overloaded shoulders of Africans.

Over 1.7 million Australian jobs  are directly or indirectly connected to exports according to the  Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

The picture illustrates Australia’s top 10 agriculture export destinations.

In Africa on average Agriculture contributes to more than 85 % of the economic output but exports are still marginal compared to the big players.

How many millions of people in Africa would be able to make a living if their agricultural products could reach overseas markets ? What effect would this additional supply have on the current food prices that clearly indicate the shortage in supply with a world population that is still growing too fast.  So finding additional supply resources in agriculture should not be considered a threat to any current suppliers who cannot cope with the demand anyways.

I still am convinced that free trade and free market access is the only incentive to create a higher value chain otherwise Africa will remain condemned to export raw materials and will never be able to develop industries and services.  Cacao Farmers in Ghana pay 8% duties exporting raw cacao beans, and would have to pay 38% duties if exporting cacao powder. Not a great incentive considering cost of freight and all other competitive disadvantages that the farmers in Ghana have to face ?

Today US labor is outsourced to China, after finding an even cheaper labor force then in India. As you can see from the illustration of the US Department of Labor, free trade agreements are in place with labor provisions but the current picture does not yet include such provisions with China nor with India.

The African leaders who today have found China as a willing investor,  in my view, should also insist in agreements that provide for a fair deal. South Africa has seen a surge in unemployment as a result of cheap Chinese products being dumped on their markets. Dealing with the World Bank and IMF has never been easy for African leaders. The offers coming from China may be very tempting but like always one should be on alert if cheap and easy money is offered as to what the conditions are and how this will ultimately affect people.

Hopefully we will have pictures where the leaders of the developed world will shake hands with the leaders of Africa, like in the above case between the US and Korean presidents at the G20 in April,  to try and reach free trade agreements with proper labor provisions providing a fair deal for every world citizen.

So who wants to give his or her thoughts on how to handle this issue and what would be the best  question to Mr. Obama, Hu Jintao or Prahib Patil ?

Feel free to comment this blog or to participate in the discussing board on facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=7963&post=30586&uid=87956082428#/topic.php?uid=87956082428&topic=7963

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Over the years I have been dealing with event organizers in Africa, I have often requested events to take place outside the typical locations like
South Africa, Kenya or Nigeria. As such there is nothing wrong with these locations but if we don’t give a chance for events to take place
in the rest of the 51 countries some of the good intentions will become difficult to achieve when trying to promote regional integration to name but just one.

Regional and intraregional trade is high on the agenda of most African countries. Potential investors need to get a chance to explore all options not just a handful.
As the attached graph shows the share of regional trade is still a very small part of the total trade volumes although slightly growing.

What I have witnessed, during events in Lagos, Johannesburg, Sun City or Cape Town, is that participation from the French speaking countries is very
limited in a best case scenario. To make things worse, if there are a few participants very often the organizers fail to provide simultaneous translation
assuming everybody speaks English. Of course any next invitation to attend will become a harder sell. When you speak to the organizers they will tell you
that the participation rate is “surprisingly” low from French speaking countries and therefore it does not justify the investment while one of
the agenda items clearly states “regional integration”.

I have taken the example of events taking place in English speaking countries posing a risk to lose out on French speaking participants but of course the issue goes both ways.

To be fair to the organizers there are some challenges that have to be considered when organizing events:

Flight connections between African countries, specially between French and English speaking ones, are often routed via a limited number of airports and can make the journey long and unpleasant.
Daily flights are not always available and a stopover sometimes means being stuck a full day because the connecting flight is only available the next day.

Finishing meetings in Gaborone some time back on a Friday afternoon, I was stuck in Johannesburg on Saturday because my next flight back to Accra was on Sunday.
So one may lose a lot of time in some cases or one should consider a costly trip to Europe to connect via Paris or London to fly back south while the passenger is only trying to fly to a destination that should take him/her 3 to 4 hours had there been a direct connection.

Either way the organizers understand this and fear that by choosing an “odd” location the participation rate will be low.

Potential sponsors to the event will also raise questions when an event is taking place in an “odd” country and may not provide sponsorship as much as they would if the event would take place in the more usual countries.
What sponsors should take into consideration though, is the fact that sponsorship is still a form of investment, and investing in existing markets yield different returns than investing in new and often unexplored markets with low or non existing competition. The investment therefore may yield much higher returns.
If one considers the cost to explore a new market on ones own, both in time and in money, to reach potential business partners I am convinced that it pays off to sponsor the “odd” countries from time to time.

If potential foreign investors are part of the targeted participants, the organizers again are faced with another challenge:  the perception of the lesser known countries, or worse the biased opinion on some of these countries. Organizers of course try to attract as many participants as possible so the logic is easy to follow when a choice is made for the more typical countries.

Visas are another challenge that organizers face. Most of us who have worked in Africa know that the problem is not limited to Africans trying to fly to Europe or the US to attend events, but the problem also exists for Africans trying to visit another African country.

Some countries do have a serious accommodation challenge as is the case at this point in Angola. To get a hotel room requires in the worse case some months of upfront reservation. This sounds positive to me.
It means that the demand to partner with Angola exceeds the current available supply to host potential foreign investors but of course for the time being it poses logistical hindrance for organizers.
There are however many countries in Africa, outside the aforementioned ones, that can cater for events with auditoria that have simultaneous translation capabilities.

Most of these challenges are not limited of course to event organizers. They affect any company that wishes to expand their activities in the region.

My recommendation to the organizers would be, to discuss their logistical challenges with for instance the chambers of commerce, of countries they would like to consider outside the typical ones and seek ways to overcome some of these and to prepare the events in such a way that participants feel welcome regardless what language they speak.

If events get big enough maybe airlines are willing to provide charter planes to handle the peak passenger demand. If trade starts to increase significantly airlines may also consider to provide a more permanent connection between two trading countries. For the time being there is no direct flight between Ouagadougou and Lagos for passengers. Cargo flights are available however between the two cities. Once enough volumes of cargo moves between these two cities, it follows that at some point passenger flights will start to take off as well.

Globalization does not stop in the US, Europe, Asia or Japan. Years ago, if a Chinese passenger boarded a flight to Bamako, the cabin staff would double check to make sure the passenger was boarding the correct flight.
Today its often difficult to get a seat on a flight because of the increased demand coming from Asia on some of the routes into Africa. Increasing amount of Africans travel via Dubai to Beijing or Shanghai as well.
Dubai has understood this opportunity and has become a major connecting hub between Africa and Asia

Emirates Airlines are expanding their routes across the continent providing daily flights to a growing number of locations after starting their first flights to Cairo in 1986. Their planned flights to Angola, will become their 17th African destination.
Emirates Airlines have grown their African business by 17% recently and provide 4000 Africans with employment. Compare this for instance to South African Airlines who have 24 destinations within Africa after starting in 1934 and you realize the significance of the investment as well as the success Emirate Airlines are enjoying out of Africa and the benefit Africans enjoy from increased employment and from getting connected.

In addressing the sponsors, organizers should expect some initial resistance but if enough success stories are shared about the returns the events have generated for their participants I am confident that this issue is just a matter of time.
Organizers very often have a better overview of companies willing to invest and can play a significant role as an intermediary to bridge demand and supply.
To date many local countries statistical data is inaccurate or at times conflicting if you compare the data of for instance two trading countries.
Potential investors and sponsors get confused as a result and the biased opinion will be reinforced in the worse case.
Target the low hanging fruits, the market makers as your first choice of sponsors.  They realize the benefit of exploring the markets before anybody else has arrived. The laggards will follow in due course and will  face stiff competition like the always do no matter where in the world from those who decided to go first.  The telecom operators are a good example who are fighting to get into the most remote countries because of the growth their businesses are enjoying.

Here lies in my opinion also a wonderful opportunity for the organizers to become more vocal about the success stories of some of the countries as a result of their events. The more these event related successes are shared, the more participants the organizers should expect going forward, the more investors will consider the new country as a serious place for business. In the end everybody wins.

Some organizers get it right already, like eLearning Africa, http://www.elearning-africa.com which started in Ethiopia than moved to kenya and this year plan their event in Senegal.
Another good example is Africa.com http://africa.comworldseries.com which runs events in Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya and Tunisia, aiming to get their content to more than just Cape Town.
Business Excellence Global Media has taken the step of running their next event in Uganda instead of Johannesburg tapping into the East African market. http://www.be-excellent.com/dynamic.php?button=99&section=22

Please have a look as well at the following site for some more ideas for your next events http://www.africa-ata.org/cities.htm

So will the next World Economic Forum on Africa move again between Cape Town and Durban, or will the organizers be bold enough to try out a different location in Africa ?

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

To explore some parts of Ethiopia where tourists normally don’t go we have decided to take the west route around Lake Tana going north.

One of the highlights of this part of Ethiopia are of course the Blue Nile falls.

Bahar Dar is a few hours behind us and we still have a couple of hours to drive before we reach Gonder.
During our drive we pass some very small villages and in between we see a few people from time to time walking with animal skins on their backs heading to a nearby market place where they will trade them in return for some goods.
At one of these markets we stop to walk around a bit.  As we get out of the car all of a sudden everybody stops their activity and men, women and children come towards us. Nobody looks hostile so we carry on calmly and start greeting the curious looking people.

In less than a minute we are literarily surrounded by a crowd and nobody talks but the silence says a lot.  Eyes stare at us and all we can assume is that it may not be very often that they see white faces. The crowd follows every step we make and when we start to stretch out our hands to greet after some reluctance one hand reaches back and we make contact. Now everybody wants to shake hands and people start to talk again. I will never forget these few moments of almost absolute silence being surrounded by staring faces.
We are followed around and people try to sell us their goods that they exhibited on cloths in front of them.
Two women who are standing side by side look at us and when I pass by one touches my arm and wants to feel my skin. They look at each other again and start giggling.

We go back to our car and the crowd sees us off and keep waving at us until it can’t see us anymore.

At another village we decide to walk through it. The village has two entry points and the small huts and houses are built in a half circle with only one path leading through it. Children come out of the houses and follow us. We are the attraction of the day again. When I reach out my hands to greet them I have a hand at each finger and the children are cheerful and smiling. When we reach the end of the village just before we want to get back into the car that is waiting for us a man comes running towards me and asks me if I am a doctor. His wife is in labor and struggling and he looks desperate. He begs me to help.
A woman comes and enters the hut, the man follows and he steps out of the hut for a moment to tell us that she will help.
We offer to transport his wife to a clinic if there is one nearby but the woman tells us that it would not be safe to move the lady at this point.
The water has broken already and it would put her and the baby in danger. I apologize and regret not to have followed the wish of my father who wanted me to become a doctor when I was a young boy. How useless can one feel at these moments.

When we continue our road we say goodbye to the children who are still hanging on to us and the little hands don’t want to let go.
Looking back from the car the hands wave and wave while some of the faces show disappointment because we did not stay.

We are in the middle of nowhere in the North West of Ethiopia still on our way to Gonder.  For as far as the eye can reach there is nothing in sight.
A slightly hilly mix of dry savanna and steppe is the landscape that surrounds us. Our driver stops, gets out of the car and tells us that we have a  flat tire. He gets his tools and starts to unscrew the damaged wheel.
Than he gets under the car to release the spare wheel and finds that the screw that holds the wheel in place is broken and there is no way that we can get it unscrewed.

We look at our driver who does not show any sign of excitement nor panic. Instead he takes the wheel and tells us that he is going to find a place to repair it and will be back. Like children who play with a stick and a tire, he finds himself a stick and starts to roll the wheel alongside himself and disappears around
the turn of the road.

We look at ourselves puzzled and wonder where on earth our driver will find the repair shop because we have not seen anything that looked even close to a village for the last hour that we have been on the road.

We sit down in shade and as we are waiting for our driver to come back, some children come towards us. They must have seen us long before we saw them and when they see the car without the wheel they come and stand in front of us and start to sing a song and clap their hands.
The average age of the children must be around 10 years. They carry bags on their backs and they have finished school for the day and are on their way back home.
These children only speak Amharic and we have to use signs to communicate but we manage and it is kind of fun to try and get some messages across.
Time passes and the children hang around and keep singing songs to cheer us up it seems. Finally our driver appears and mounts the wheel. We say good buy to our hosts and continue our journey to Gonder.

We reach the town late in the evening and after a shower we share our thoughts of the day between ourselves over dinner and conclude that we have learned a lot again about human kindness and uncompromised friendliness of people to complete strangers.
It comes from within and it starts at very young age.
We have discovered yet another amazing place….

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

This is not a commercial for London Business School or INSEAD.

I was visiting the Masai Mara in Kenya and while we passed through a small Masai village I met with the village elder. A tall young man in his early thirties.
He took me around the village and explained to me how the community lived. Their most valuable items were their live stock and they had a place in the middle of the huts that was made of branches with a very small passage for the cattle to go through.

Cows were kept inside the huts with the Masai itself.
Wild animals could otherwise come and attack the cattle.

I entered one of the huts. There was no window and it was pitch dark inside. I was taken by the hand and lead to a small place that served as the living area where the family would come together to cook and to eat. Food was made on open fire inside the hut so the smell of smoke was intense to say the least.

The elder showed me the spots on his skin where he had put out burning sticks. He also showed me his teeth, or what was left of those and explained to me that he pulled his teeth out.
These somewhat horrific exercises are part of the rituals of the Masai to train the men to withstand pain.

Once back outside some of the other Masai men came and they formed a circle and one man at the time stood in the middle and started to jump two feet at the same time and managed to jump at least high enough to pass his waist line over the heads of those standing around him. The man was of similar hight as his neighbors in the circle. Each of the men took a turn while the others cheered the man jumping.

We concluded our visit at the school in the village. The children were having their break and were playing in the field.
When the elder had shown me the classrooms I asked him if it was alright to wait until the children came back from their break.
I wanted to see a class in action. The elder stepped outside and called the children back to the class.
I felt sorry for the children to have put a sudden end to their break. In a few minutes the classroom was filled with smiling and curious faces staring at me.

The age of the children ran from 3 to 12 years. A second classroom was under construction and once ready the elder children would move to the new classroom but for now they had to share the available room.

On the blackboard different topics were explained for the different age groups. One age group at the time took a turn to answer some of the questions.

The elder asked the older boys to explain to him what the characteristics were of a Leader?
Hands went up and a boy age 9 started:

A leader has to be honest, has to have a goal and must never put his men at risk.

Another boy took a turn and added a few more traits he felt were required to be a true leader like discipline and the need
to understand the strengths and weaknesses of himself and his men.

What I heard from these very young children made me realize how much we can learn from the Masai who have no television, no computer, no internet connection and yet are teaching the fundamentals of leadership to primary school age children.

I wonder how many 9 year olds in Europe or the US will be able to explain without any hesitation what the characteristics of a leader are. Some may not even know that the word leader means…..

At times I ask myself who is better off ?

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

A boy of about 9 years old walked along with us up the hills in North West Ethiopia. We were on our way to visit some monasteries that were hidden in the slopes of the hills. This way the orthodox Christian communities protected their places of worship from the eyes of different religious invaders. Some of the monasteries were so well hidden that you almost had to fall into them before you could actually see them. Lalibela is probably one of the best kept secrets of ancient Ethiopian times and the construction is believed to have taken about 20.000 men 40 years to complete.
A hugh square trench was hewn from solid rock. The hugh mass of rock that remained in the middle was consequently chiseled out from the inside until a monolithic church was formed.
Similar to places like Petra in Jordan, in the case of Lalibela, twelve churches were rock hewn and connected to each other by tunnels in the late 12th to early 13th century.
A “draft” project was constructed first and collapsed in part. With the lessons learned a second complex was built successfully.
The river Jordan separates the two complexes.

During our climb the boy who had followed us for some time now was talking about life in the village.
I asked him where he had learned to speak English so well because most of the locals spoke very broken English or only Amharic. He told me he had learned English at school.
So I asked him why he was not at school. He told me that you needed a pen and a notebook to attend classes.
Unfortunately he had run out of both and his mother had no money to buy new materials for him.
So I asked again, how much he would have to pay for a pen or a notebook. One pen would be 2 Birr, and one notebook 6 Birr.
If I were to give you 20 Birr what would you do with it, I asked ? He thought about it for a moment and answered me that in that case he would buy four pens and two notebooks. That added to 20 Birr.
I realized that the boy had also learned some basic arithmetic. When I gave him the twenty Birr, ( 2US$) I asked him how I would know that he was going to use it as he had told me. He said that he would come to my “hotel” and show me the purchased items.

The boy ran back to the village and kept running until I lost sight of him.
I started to understand why Ethiopia produces so many good marathon runners.

We were in a remote area a couple of hours drive from a small airport about 800 kilometers north of Addis Ababa and throughout the fields you could see UN bags of milk powder that the UN planes had dropped. A burned out military tank reminded us of the war that had taken place not so long ago with neighboring Eritrea.

The area was extremely dry. Flies were trying to get as close to your eyes as possible to pick up some of the fluid and the only way to keep the flies away was to sweep a branch of a tree back and forth from your left shoulder to your right one. At night it cooled down to almost chilling temperatures because of the altitude we were at while during the day the sun was burning.

In the center of a village five small one-bedroom lodges formed the “hotel”. You had to go outside to use the shared shower. In the middle of the place was an open space covered with a straw roof that served as the dining room.

We arrived in the late afternoon and were welcomed by the owner of the lodge who asked us what we would like to eat that evening and what kind of breakfast we would like the next morning so that he could sent people to villages nearby to get the necessary ingredients.

After dinner we enjoyed the traditional coffee ceremony that Ethiopia is famous for. It’s said that coffee originates from Ethiopia.
Coffee beans are washed and roasted on charcoal and the guests are first invited to smell the aroma that is released from the roasted coffee beans.
Next the beans are ground. A clay pot with the coffee powder and water is put on the fire until the water boils.
The first round of coffee is served in small cups to the guests, as it is the strongest version. Two more rounds of coffee are served, each time releasing a milder version since more water is added.

While the coffee is being prepared incense is lit to chase the flies.

The next morning we woke up at 5 AM because we had a long trip ahead of us again. The boy was already sitting in front of our lodge with his notebooks and pens.
He told me that his mother had invited us for a coffee ceremony at her place that evening. A small cross made from stone hanging at a piece of rope was the gift
his mother insisted us to accept because we had given the boy back the opportunity to attend school and with that his future.

Rural life in Ethiopia is harsh but makes very honest people.

Back in Addis Ababa a child was asking me money at a traffic light. Instead I offered a pen I had in my pocket. The child took the pen and looked confused.
Probably the child had never seen a school from the insight. Some elder children shook their heads and explained that they wanted money instead.
It seemed to me that the influence of the big city on children in Addis Ababa was similar to that of New York or Madrid.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

One newspaper headline in Europe some years ago highlighted some rebellious actions against the extravaganza of Christmas- and New Year dinners.

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

December 26th is a day that I remember from my childhood related to Christmas.
In Western Europe it is the 2nd Christmas day, in the USA its often referred to as Boxing Day.
In Burkina Faso people just go to work. This time December 26th was chosen to decorate citizens of Burkina for their contribution to the economy in one way or another.

When you think of a civil engineer you may think of someone who is creative and likes to use imagination to create something new or find ways to improve constructions based on traditional understanding of civil engineering. Add to this that the civil engineer at the same time owns and runs a company, takes care of a myriad of logistical challenges in an environment that is predominantly Muslim and conservative where old ways of doing things prevail over exploring new technologies what kind of man was it many of you were thinking of ? Someone who has stamina or determination or courage or creativity or a clear set of goals?
All of the above perhaps?

Maybe I forgot a few traits you had in mind?
How many of you were thinking of a woman ?

In Africa 85% of Agricultural output is the hard work of women. Increasingly in leadership roles we see women stand up and drive initiatives, not just in medical care or education, the typical areas, but also in mining, politics, finance and indeed even in civil engineering.

We have our first Afro-American president-elect in the USA, soon to be sworn in, we have our first female African President in office in Liberia.

This is the story of someone, who from very early days in her live, has stood up and decided that after her practical experience she had gained in Burkina as an employee in civil engineering companies, she should be able to set up a company of her own.
That accomplishment in itself, she felt was not enough.
On various occasions she participates at trade missions to promote her country where she stands up and speaks in favor of women who try to establish themselves in an environment that is run mostly by men.

Women, even if they are equally skilled and trained, will still have to proof themselves so they have no choice but to excel and outperform their male colleagues if they want to succeed.
In a society where the majority of men still ask their country what it can do for them, this lady most of the time asks herself what she can do for her country and considers anything her country does for her a bonus and she will receive it with gratitude but if it does not come, she will make sure she can take care of it herself.

This attitude of determination and this positive approach to challenge is what made her stand up and stand out and got men to realize that a woman can do the job.

December 26th her hard work and determination was recognized by President Blaise Campaore via his Minister of Commerce.
She was knighted for her merits in Industry and Commerce by her country. The French title is Chevallier. Kings and even Queens in Europe who knighted their fellow men were not thinking of women for the harsh role of a Knight or a Chevallier.
Hundreds of years later we still don’t as it seems.
Hopefully one day we will have a female title for these outstanding women who try to make a difference.

I am a proud husband of a Chevallier who at the same time has not lost her femininity. She can be a beautiful woman, a loving mother and wife and a tough negotiator getting excited by a truck or a bulldozer all at the same time.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Some years ago I attended a conference on sustainable growth and development using IT and I was impressed by a grass root project with an immediate impact.
Students from the University of Dakar had developed a text message service that provides Senegalese fishermen information about the locations of the fish, the price
of the various fish on the market and the latest meteorologic information. For 5000 CFA per month (about 10 US $) the fishermen could subscribe
to this text message service and as a result their productivity and efficiency increased significantly.

Today fishermen go out and make informed decisions on what fish to catch and where to find them and they
know when it is time to go back if the weather is getting too rough. All of this for 10 US $ per month.

Will it be Red Snapper, Barracuda or Thioph ?

The students that worked on this project of course gained a wonderful experience by applying todays technology showing immediate returns.
What better motivation can you provide a student to carry on investing time and effort in his or her study and not become a drop out by showing
him or her their capabilities to add value to their communities.

The University has a wonderful reference story to tell students who consider to sign up.

The consumers are better served and in the long run will pay a price without mark ups of middle men.

This is a very simple example demonstrating how ICT impacts day to day life and adds value to all layers of a(n) (developing) economy that
leap frogs when it uses state of the art technology, that is accessible and affordable at the same time.

All that is needed is creativity and understanding of what is locally needed and considered a priority and the opportunities to create wealth using
todays new technologies can change the face of African economies. Some low cost projects can make the difference to get people out of a poverty trap.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

You may have wondered why I have put this picture on my main Blog page?

I am sure that those of you who work for foreign companies in Africa have to respond to questions from Head Quarters explaining why you would like to have an office in Cape town while you already have one in Johannesburg, or one in Ghana and another one in Kenya.

Not many people realize that it takes almost two hours to fly from Johannesburg to Cape Town on a commercial flight to travel 1600 kilometers.
Yes we are still in the same country.

If you take a closer look at a map you will see that the real size of Africa does not correspond to the size you would find Africa to be on a world globe. In a two dimensional mercator projection the error of the third dimension had to be placed somewhere and most maps favored the economic powers of the Western Hemisphere at the expense of the African continent. As a result the picture is distorted on most maps that you can find.

If you compare both pictures you can see immediately what I mean.

Size is one, airline networks is another aspect to consider.
If you want to fly across language zones you will have to connect in most of the cases via one of the main hubs like Accra, Abidjan, Dakar, Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg.
If you want to fly from Bamako to Banjul, you must make a stop in Dakar. Again if you look at the map you will see that Banjul and Dakar are 155 kilometers apart.
If you want to fly from Bamako to Lagos one option is to make a stop in Abidjan and connect the next day to Lagos, but that option is not available every day of the week.

The third issue is that some airlines still hold almost monopoly positions. You will find out once you pay for your airline fairs trying to connect from countries like Burkina Faso or Togo to France.

The last point I want to draw your attention to is linked to the previous and has to do with the service levels.
International airlines that operate between Africa and France and the UK realize all too well the position they maintain and you can tell this from the seats for instance you will find on their aircrafts. A flight to Lagos will have the latest seats available to their passengers. Lagos is operated by many international airlines so they cannot sent an outdated airplane since this will result in losing passengers.
The same airline sends its oldest airplanes with outdated and often malfunctioning service components like inflight entertainment systems to places like Accra, Abidjan and Dakar.
No competition, Outrages prices,No service, the NON airlines so to speak.

Now the good news:

South African Airlines has just opened a direct Service from Johannesburg to New York to “further support trade between the two continents” as Stephen Hayes from the Corporate Council on Africa mentioned recently.

Hopefully some of you who work in the airline industry see the opportunity here. Maybe the model of low cost carriers as we see them in Europe and the United States is one to explore.
Specially flights between Anglophone and Francophone countries will be very helpful to passengers who today lose a lot of time waiting in between flights or flying amazing routes to get from A to B.

Apart from a fragmented airline network there is not much competition from railways or road transport systems while most countries in Africa realize the need for regional trade.
In other words the demand is there, where is the supply?
A fantastic opportunity.

Using the above picture has helped me to answer a lot of questions I received from my company in this regard. I would like to thank W.Bediako Lamousé-Smith and Joseph School for making the issue so clear for everybody to understand.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Two very characteristic trees that decorate the African continent are the Baobab tree, which looks almost like a tree that was planted upside down showing its roots up in the air and the Acacia tree with its umbrella shape.

Unlike most trees the Baobab tree does not have growth rings to tell its age.

A story goes that the Giraffe nibbles leaves from the Acacia tree one at a time only for a short while and always moving against the wind going from one Acacia to the next.

So the questions are:
Why only nibbling a few leaves at a time and why does the Giraffe move against the wind?

The Acacia tree will start to produce a flow of liquid that will run through the branches and will reach the leaves that is toxic to the Giraffe. So before this liquid reached the leaves the Giraffe will go on to the next Acacia tree.

This leaves us with the second question, why against the wind. The tree will excrete some of the liquid and the wind will carry this on to the neighboring trees. As soon as this liquid reaches the trees they will also start the production of the liquid. So if the Giraffe moves against the wind it will find trees that have not been informed yet.

It demonstrates how nature is in harmony allowing the Giraffe to eat without a complete destruction of a tree. I am still confused what balance the human race has brought to Nature, but that is a different chapter all together.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

During a meeting in Bamako earlier this month I was impressed by two young Americans who work for Junior Achievement as members of the US Peace Corps speaking Bambara, a local language spoken in some parts of Western Africa.

Although it is often said that those who speak English make little or no effort to learn a different language, since the whole world speaks English anyways, you may have run into native English speaking nationals that have learned to speak Spanish or French.

I have met a few Americans and Irish in the past who learned to speak Dutch.
Dutch is difficult to many foreigners because of some combination of vowels that are unique to the Dutch language and because of a strong pronounced G that comes from the back of the throat.

Meeting a new generation that comes to Africa learning local African languages is very encouraging and I am sure that it must have made a world of a difference for both the two as well as for the communities that they are working with in their mutual acceptance, understanding of and respect for each others cultures.

Six of the foreign languages that have been imported into Africa (Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch) are widely spoken in the respective regions.

Arabic mainly in the North of the continent with French as a second language, an evolved version of Dutch in South Africa, Portuguese in five countries, Spanish in one. The remainder of the region either speak English or French.

There are hundreds of native languages in Africa, some of which are only spoken, not written. It is not unusual to find even hundreds of languages in just one country. Nigeria and Cameroon are good examples.

Speaking the language makes a difference in enjoying the place anywhere in the world. The more one invests the more one will get in return.

Foreign languages can be considered as a tool. In a world where distances become increasingly irrelevant, we use the language for business or for leisure during our holiday travels.

In some countries in Europe people take it for granted that one speaks a few languages and socially this has limited added value since most of the people speak at least a few foreign languages anyways.

When two similar cultures meet, it is easier to measure respect and it is less likely to get confused even if foreign languages are involved.

In Africa investing in a local language will yield respect and lasting friendship. Speaking one of the imported languages is a minimum. If one really wants to integrate into a local community learning the local language is probably the best way and it will help to discover elements of the culture that otherwise would remain unknown.

If one speaks a local language in Africa the local community will value this different. It will be seen as a token of respect and open mindedness. Cultures are very different in this case and it is very easy to be misunderstood or to misunderstand someone. Language therefore becomes more essential.

The young Masai is using a western cell phone, but that does not change the fundamental culture of the Masai.

One of the two Peace Corps members has almost completed his term in Mali, and will soon go back to the US to finish his studies and told me that he hopes to get back to Africa to put his studies into good use. Maybe it was due to speaking Bambara that a seed was planted for a tree to grow in the future.

If you have read my earlier post, I mentioned the fact that people either don’t like the region or they do.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Originally from Europe I have traveled and worked 5 continents over the last 32 years but nowhere have I found any characteristic to be as intense as in Africa.

The climate, the distances, the opportunities, the smiles and tears, the differences, its people and the list goes on.

Every day I meet people who like myself live and work in Africa. Some are new to the region, others have been around for many years, like me.

More often than not, when I ask if the picture people had in mind before arriving to the continent corresponds to the picture they see with their own eyes, the response I get is NO!

The most positive things people can think of when talking about Africa are some Safari images that they recall from a holiday brochure.

Overall the picture has a strong negative disposition fueled by what the commercial media presents on a daily basis to millions of people around the world.

This unbalance has a very serious impact on many fronts.

Some do not like Africa for various reasons and decide to return after a while and when I ask why the bottom line is the intensity of the conditions.

When I ask those who do like Africa to the extend that they have decided to stay and call Africa their new home it is interesting to hear that it is because of the very same intensity of the conditions.

Those who return to their countries of origin will often confirm the public opinion out of discontent with their experience. Having been there of course the weight of these stories is significant and if there were people in their circles considering to explore Africa the chances will dim after an evening listening to friends who came back. All the positive experiences that they had as well seem to have been forgotten.

When visiting friends and family often those who decided to stay in Africa get skeptic ears from their audience who are being overwhelmed with negative news by the media.

The media treats Africa in general as if it was one large country where in reality Africa consists of 54 nations. When something therefore happens in one corner of the continent, it is presented to the world as if 54 nations are affected. This has become a pattern with very negative consequences.

I think it is fair to say that Africa is probably one of the most resource rich continents on the planet. In any case rich enough for the US and China to currently compete in securing their shares of it.

Collectively, those who came from overseas and those who are native have a chance and a responsibility to tell the untold about Africa in order to create a more balanced view of Africa.

Investors, business men, tourists and anybody that can make a positive contribution to trade and commerce in general and therefore add to the economies in Africa are very sensitive to the public opinion and the perception of the region.

I have decided to create this blog to open the floor to those who would like to share their positive experiences in working and living in Africa.
Today the internet offers a wonderful tool to tell the untold, on a voluntary basis, non commercial, unfiltered, uncensored, directly from the source.

Hopefully this will trigger the curiosity of potential investors and business men and women to explore Africa and start to consider it a serious opportunity.

In case you are interested to know about my own activities in Africa:

I work for an American Software Company and on a day to day basis I am responsible for our operations in Africa.

I am a member of the board of Directors of the Corporate Council on Africa. This organization promotes trade and investment between the United States and Africa.

I am an adviser to Africa Investor, a UK based organization that promote trade and investment in Africa.

I am a member of the Regional Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of Junior Achievement. This organization helps children around the world with their education efforts.

In one of my capacities I have asked one of the former Presidents of the World Bank at one point to ensure that the results of World Bank funded projects would be published on their Websites.
Both successes and failures but than at least one of the largest funding institutions operating in Africa would start telling the world.

The African Development Bank has implemented this good practice. I hope the World Bank will soon do so as well.

What I found is that like everywhere else in the world, customers in Africa expect value and service from their business partners.

If someone comes with an open mind and with respect for the individual it does not matter where in the world one is to do business or enjoy ones stay in a foreign nation. This is not different in Africa.

If you apply this common sense in doing business in Africa, you will find that the opportunities are immense.

The majority of the people in Africa are very young and eager to learn. With today’s new technology it is possible to reach out faster and to larger numbers of people using available resources from the diaspora or from other partners in the world to build local capacity, which in my opinion is the number one priority to accelerate wealth creation.

I invite you to share your successes for others to follow. It might be helpful for those considering Africa to learn from our experiences.

What works, what to plan for that one would not consider in other parts of the world.

Please come and see for yourself, rely on your own judgment and decide if Africa is the place to be.

© Desi Lopez Fafié

repris de ocnus.net et Zmagazine:

(Photo: Uraguayan special forces MONUC hunting FDLR in Kahuzi Beiga National Park under Operation Falcon Sweep.)

Behind the Numbers

Untold Suffering in the Congo

By Keith Harmon Snow & David Barouski, CCA 26/10/06
Oct 30, 2006, 11:28

The British medical journal Lancet recently took greater notice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) than all western media outlets combined. A group of physicians reported that about 4 million people have died since the “official” outbreak of the Congolese war in 1998 (1). The BBC reported the war in Congo has claimed more lives than any armed conflict since World War II (2). However, experts working in the Congo, and Congolese survivors, count over 10 million dead since war began in 1996—not 1998—with the U.S.-backed invasion to overthrow Zaire’s President Joseph Mobutu. While the western press quantifies African deaths all the time, no statistic can quantify the suffering of the Congolese.

Some people are aware that war in the Congo is driven by the desire to extract raw materials, including diamonds, gold, columbium tantalite (coltan), niobium, cobalt, copper, uranium and petroleum. Mining in the Congo by western companies proceeds at an unprecedented rate, and
it is reported that some $6 million in raw cobalt alone—an element of superalloys essential for nuclear, chemical, aerospace and defense industries—exits DRC daily. Any analysis of the geopolitics in the Congo requires an understanding of the organized crime perpetrated through multi-national businesses, in order to understand the reasons why the Congolese people have suffered a virtually unending war since 1996.

Some people have lauded great progress in the exposure of illegal mining in DRC, particularly by the group Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose 2005 report “The Curse of Gold” exposed Ugandan officials and multi-national corporations smuggling gold through local rebel militias. The cited rebel groups were the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) and the People’s Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC). The western companies targeted by HRW were Anglo-Ashanti Gold, a company headquartered in South Africa, and Metalor, a Swedish firm. The HRW report failed to mention that Anglo-Ashanti is partnered with Anglo-American, owned by the Oppenheimer family and partnered with Canada-based Barrick Gold described below (3). London-based Anglo-American Plc. owns a 45% share in DeBeers, another Oppenheimer company that is infamous for its near monopoly of the international diamond industry (4). Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, a director of Anglo-American, is a director of Royal Dutch/Shell and a member of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Advisory Board (5). The report also suppressed the most damning evidence discovered by HRW researchers—that Anglo-Ashanti sent its top lawyers into eastern DRC to aid rebel militia leaders arrested there.

Several multi-national mining companies have rarely if ever been mentioned in any human rights report. One is Barrick Gold, who operates in the town of Watsa, northwest of the town of Bunia, located in the most violent corner of the Congo. The Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF) controlled the mines intermittently during the war. Officials in Bunia claim that Barrick executives flew into the region, with UPDF and RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) escorts, to survey and inspect their mining interests (6).

George H.W. Bush served as a paid advisor for Barrick Gold. Barrick directors include: Brian Mulroney, former PM of Canada; Edward Neys, former U.S. ambassador to Canada and chairman of the private PR firm Burston-Marsteller; former U.S. Senator Howard Baker; J. Trevor Eyton, a member of the Canadian Senate; and Vernon Jordan, one of Bill Clinton’s lawyers (7).

(Photo: Rape has been used as a systematic means of instilling terror in the
people all over DRC. This girl (20) fled Eastern DRC and crossed the
country on foot to find some refuge in Western DRC.)

Barrick Gold is one of the client companies of Andrew Young’s Goodworks International lobbying firm. Andrew Young is the former Mayor of Atlanta, and a key organizer of the U.S.-Uganda Friendship Council. Young was chosen by President Clinton to chair the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund in October 1994. Goodworks’ clients—or business partners in some cases—include Coke, Chevron-Texaco, Monsanto, and the governments of Angola and Nigeria (note weapons transfers from Nigeria cited below). Young is a director of Cox Communications and Archers Daniels Midland—the “supermarket to the world” and National Public Radio sponsor whose directors include Brian Mulroney (Barrick) and G. Allen Andreas, a member of the European Advisory Board of The Carlyle Group.

Barrick Gold’s mining partners have included Adastra Mining—formerly named America Mineral Fields (AMFI, AMX, other names), formerly based in Hope, Arkansas, Bill Clinton’s hometown. Adastra had close ties with Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest diamond brokerage firm in the U.S., whose president, Maurice Tempelsman, has been an advisor on African Affairs to the U.S. Government and has been the U.S. Honorary Consul General of the Congo since 1977 (8).

Maurice Tempelsman accompanied Bill Clinton during his African tour in 1998, and he sails with the Clintons off Martha’s Vineyard. He serves on the International Advisory Council of the American Stock Exchange, and is a director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a
”scientific” front for his offshore diamond mining—raking the seabed into oblivion.

Adastra also purchased a diamond concession on the Congolese-Angolan border from the Belgian mercenary firm International Defense and Security (1998), and currently has cobalt and copper concessions in Congo’s Katanga (Shaba) province (9). Adastra is a member of the Corporate Council on Africa, along with Goodworks, Halliburton, Chevron-Texaco, Northrop Grumman, GE, Boeing, Raytheon, Bechtel and SAIC—the latter two being secretive intelligence and defense entities involved in classified and supra-governmental “black” projects.

In April 1997, Jean-Ramon Boulle, a co-founder of Adastra (then AMFI), received a $1 billion dollar deal for mines in the Congo at Kolwezi (cobalt) and Kipushi (zinc) from Laurent Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire (ADFL) before they were even officially in power. The ADFL were even allowed to use Boulle’s private jet (10). Meanwhile, directors of Adastra are also former directors of Anglo-American (11). Other Clinton-connected founders of Adastra include Michael McMurrough and Robert Friedland—both involved in shady, criminal, offshore businesses in Indonesia, Africa, Burma and the Americas (12).

Barrick sub-contracts to Caleb International, who has also partnered with Adastra in the past. Caleb is run by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s half-brother Salim Saleh, the former acting General of the UPDF. When Uganda withdrew from the Congo in 2002 following a so-called “peace” agreement, Saleh began training paramilitary groups to act as Ugandan proxies to sustain the flow of minerals into Uganda (13).

Salim Saleh is a shareholder in Catalyst Co. of Canada, who has a 100% interest in Uganda’s Kaabong gold fields (14). He is a part owner of Saracen, a private military company created by the mercenaries-for-hire firm Executive Outcomes (15). The U.N. Panel of Experts on Illegal Exploitation of Congo’s Mineral Resources recommended Salim Saleh be put on a travel ban and have his assets frozen, but nothing was done.

Recent interventions by the armed U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo (MONUC) have concentrated on disarming or eliminating the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group that opposes Rwanda, and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group that opposes Uganda. (Note that the Rwanda military has partnered with its erstwhile “enemies”—the FDLR—when necessary to secure resource plunder while Uganda has its own pattern of complicity with its “rebel” enemies. Rebel alliances are to perpetually shifting.) The removal of these rebel groups will effectively clear the eastern Congo for large–scale multi-national mining. The Mai-Mai militia, whose stated goal is “to protect Congo from Rwandan and Ugandan invaders,” has committed documented human rights abuses, yet they appear to be off the agenda for MONUC. The Mai-Mai operate in northern Katanga (Shaba) province and in the Kivus.

Katanga’s militias and racketeering are connected to criminal networks of businessmen, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Billy Rautenbach, John Bredenkamp, and Marc Rich. U.S. diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman has profited from Katanga concessions since the Kennedy era. Lawrence Devlin, the old CIA station chief of Lubumbashi under Eisenhower, maintained Tempelsman’s criminal rackets with direct ties to Zaire’s former President Mobutu, and was subsequently employed by Tempelsman (16).

The Forrest Group has the longest history of exploitation in the Congo, gaining its first mining concessions before the Congo declared independence from the Belgians. The group, which includes the Ohio-based OM Group, has numerous concessions in Katanga (Shaba). Chairman George Forrest is the former chairman of the Congo’s state-owned mining firm GECAMINES, and owner of the New Lachaussee weapons manufacturing company.

Coltan ore is widely used in the aerospace and electronics industries for capacitors, superconductors and transistors after it is refined to tantalum. The U.S. is entirely dependant on foreign sources for tantalum, an enabling technology for capacitors essential to aerospace weaponry and every pager, cell phone, computer, VCR, CD player, P.D.A. and TV. U.S. import records show a dramatic jump of purchases from Rwanda and Uganda during the time they were smuggling tantalum and cobalt out of the Congo.

Sony dramatically increased their importation of coltan following the release of their Playstation 2, while Compaq, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nokia, Intel, Lucent, and Motorola are also large-scale consumers (17). Sony’s current Executive Vice-President and General Counsel Nicole Seligman was a former legal adviser for Bill Clinton through the D.C. firm Williams and Connelly, LLP, whose clients included Bill Clinton and Oliver North (18). Sony Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Robert Wiesenthal is a former banker with First Boston, a supporter of Refugees International’s “humanitarian” relief efforts at Rwandan refugee camps in Eastern Congo, just before the fall of Mobutu in 1995; Wiesenthal was also financial adviser to Cox Communications, OM Group, Time Warner and The New York Times (19).

(Photo: FDLR “genocidaires” — children with guns — in eastern DRC.)

Walter Kansteiner, the son of a coltan trader in Chicago, is the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa and former member of the Dept. of Defense Task Force on Strategic Minerals. Kansteiner’s speech at The Forum for International Policy in October of 1996 advocated partitioning the Congo (then Zaire) into smaller states based on ethnic lineage (20). Ironically, while the speech was given, Laurent Kabila and his ADFL were beginning their march to overthrow Mobutu with the aid of Rwanda, Uganda, and the U.S. (21). Kansteiner is a trustee of the Africa Wildlife Foundation—another euphemistic front for resource acquisition in Congo.

Bechtel, a U.S. aerospace & construction company, provided satellite maps of reconnaissance photos of Mobutu’s troops for the ADFL invasion of Congo in 1996; they also created infrared maps of the Congo’s mineral deposits (22). The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan President graduate of the U.S. Army officers school at Fort Leavenworth, used Bechtel’s NASA maps to locate Rwandan Hutu civilians that fled the cataclysm in Rwanda in 1994. An estimated 800,000 refugees were hunted down and killed in the Congo’s forests (23). Bechtel’s friends in high places include former Secretary of State George Shultz (Board of Directors), former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger (Bechtel Counsel) and retired U.S.M.C. general Jack Sheehan (Senior Vice President), who is also a member of the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon (24). Riley P. Bechtel is on the Board of J.P. Morgan (25). Bechtel’s Nexant Company is the prime contractor on the Uganda-Kenya pipeline project, believed to ultimately facilitate petroleum transport out of the Semliki Basin of Lake Albert.

The U.N. Panel of Experts named New England-based Cabot Co. for conducting unethical business practices (26). Cabot is one of the largest tantalum processors in the world. The current Deputy Director of the U.S. Treasury, Samuel Bodman, was CEO and chairman of the board for Cabot from 1997-2001 (27). Current Director John H. McArthur is a Senior Advisor to Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank (28).

Private Military Contractors (PMCs) are also big business in Africa. Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, helped build a military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda just next to the Congo-Rwandan border. ”Officially,” Brown and Root was there to clear land mines, but instead housed mercenaries from Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) who trained the RPF and Laurent Kabila’s ADFL for invasion of the Congo in 1996, and the Rwandan army’s re-invasion in 1998, after
Laurent Kabila threw out the Rwandans, Ugandans, Bechtel and the IMF (29). The French intelligence service reported that U.S. Special Forces and mercenaries from MPRI participated in the murder of Rwandan Hutu refugees on the Oso River near Goma in 1996 and even claims to have turned over the bodies of two American soldiers killed in combat near Goma (30). The circumstances surrounding the unofficial recovery of these two U.S. soldiers remain very mysterious (31).

MPRI is based in Arlington, Virginia and is staffed and run by 36 retired U.S. generals. It is contracted by the Pentagon to fulfill the African Crisis Responsive Initiative (ACRI). This program includes the Ugandan military, and it supplied military training in guerrilla warfare to Ugandan officers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in July 1996. During the invasion of the Congo in 1998, Ugandan soldiers were found with ACRI equipment while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have implicated Ugandan battalions trained by ACRI in rapes, murders, extortion, and beatings of Ugandan civilians (32).

Executive Outcomes founder Tony Buckingham has established other Private Military Companies that operate around Africa. Buckingham’s Heritage Oil & Gas works closely with his PMC Sandline International to manipulate the petroleum options around Lake Albert, and is believed to have signed concession deals with warring armies and governments on both sides of the Uganda-Congo border. Branch Energy is another Buckingham affiliated company operating in the Great Lakes region.

Investigations of illegal weapons sales to Rwanda last year, in violation of the U.N. arms embargo on the region, have been hampered by the Rwandan government’s refusal to provide a list of serial numbers of the 5000 AK-47s delivered there. The shipping country, Bulgaria, also refused to provide serial numbers, and would only confirm that the weapons were sold legally to a non-embargo country, Nigeria, en route to Rwanda and DRC. The governments of Uganda, Congo, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea—a major U.S. petroleum protectorate—are equally culpable in supporting the clandestine arms sales to the region (33).

Weapons shipments arriving by boat from Tanzania, and the Government of Tanzania’s role in supporting war in DRC, are never questioned. This may have something to do with Barrick Gold’s mining licenses in Tanzania’s Masaai territories. Aircraft flying between Tanzania, DRC, and from Kenya, are allowed to do so without proper documentation, record-keeping or customs oversight.

Another shady “untouchable” arms dealer operating behind the scenes in the region is an Indian-American named Mr. Kotecha. Kotecha’s interests in South Kivu are substantial, and he is openly fingered as dealing in money laundering, arms, coltan and diamonds. After the first U.S.-sponsored invasion of the Congo in 1996, Kotecha is known to have repeatedly boasted of being the “United States Consulate” in South Kivu. Kotecha holds a U.S. passport and owns a mansion in California.

When an outspoken local defender of human rights working for a small NGO (Pascal Kabungulu of Heritiers de la Justice) was assassinated during the summer of 2005 in Bukavu, the alleged killers, including a local Congolese military commander, were identified but MONUC and the international “community” took no action. The killing revolved around his role in exposing the Congolese commanders’ involvement in contraband smuggling (which continues today).

A U.N. Panel of Experts in a forthcoming report will challenge many airlines and companies for undertaking illicit flights (illegal, secret, unregistered or falsely registered) into and out of DRC. One of many notable companies apparently connected to Victor Bout’s arms trafficking networks is Simax, an Oregon-based company using an address in Sierra Leone. However, the U.N. Panel of Experts has once again ignored certain western agencies—with histories of illicit activities—whose flights remain equally surreptitious and unaccountable. At the top of the list is the International Rescue Committee (IRC)—directors include Henry Kissinger —whose flights in and out of Congo, and internal flights to and from isolated airports in eastern DRC, are completely unmonitored by MONUC arms embargo inspectors. In Bukavu, for example, all light aircraft are subject to MONUC arms embargo inspections, but IRC flights are not within the MONUC mandate. As one MONUC Military Observer admitted, “The IRC should be subject to the same standards as everyone else; otherwise we have to assume they are shipping weapons, because they do not let us confirm they are not.”

Similarly, while the U.N. Panel of Experts have investigated and reported on certain illegal criminal networks and activities in Congo, they never attend to the top-level deals brokered behind closed doors by executives from Adastra, Anglo-American, the companies of Sweden’s Adolph Lundin (a close friend of George H.W. Bush), who have control of mining concessions in Lubumbashi, Kolwezi and Mbuji Mayi areas in the Katanga (Shaba) and Kasai provinces. U.S.-based Phelps Dodge is partnered in Katanga copper/cobalt mining projects with Lundin’s Tenke Mining. Phelps Dodge director Douglas C. Yearly is also a director of Lockheed Martin, and the World Wildlife Fund—partnered with USAID and CARE in “conservation”—read: acquisition—projects all over Congo while CARE’s “humanitarian” agenda is also funded by Lockheed Martin.

“Conservation” interests provide the vanguard of western penetration in Central Africa: USAID, WWF, AWF, and Conservation International lead the charge. Evidence from USAID cases all over Congo quickly contradicts all fanfare about USAID bringing “sustainable” or “community development” projects. Most notable are the Central Africa Region Partnership for the Environment (CARPE) and Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), two programs pressing hidden military, intelligence and economic agendas. Notably, National Geographic is involved in furthering the mythologies of conservation, democracy, community development, or the lip service paid to respecting and supporting indigenous people.

Some people have suggested the reason that there isn’t greater awareness and equitable intervention in the Congo is because “we simply don’t know what to do” to remedy the situation. However, it is fairly clear what needs to be done, the West is just unwilling to do it because of powerful economic and geopolitical reasons.

1. U.S. Military Training programs must have an oversight committee and total transparency. Western governments must end their hypocritical stance and ensure they don’t train any “rebel” or ”dissident” groups, especially if they are against a democratically elected government (provided the elections weren’t fraudulent), even if the elected government isn’t politically aligned with the western ideology and/or economic ideals. To do otherwise would refute claims that the west is intervening to “spread democracy.”

2. In parallel with number 1, a committee must be set up to ensure the same doesn’t occur for the private military companies. As multinational corporations, these firms aren’t subject to obey laws of warfare as an established country’s armed forces are supposed to. The U.N. must pass resolutions mandating the World Court and International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute such corporations. Lastly, when such companies are exposed for conducting illegal activities, such as aiding coups or trafficking human slaves, the corporations who conduct these activities must be blacklisted from receiving government contracts, domestic or international, and the guilty individuals must be prosecuted (34).

3. In the arms arena, more substantial efforts must be created to intercept and prosecute “embargo busters,” illegal brokers, and arms sellers. Furthermore, those selling, transporting, brokering, funding, or wiring arms transactions for weapons specifically intended for children should receive the harshest of the penalties (certain ”small weapons” are modified to reduce their weight to make it easier for a child to carry). Firms that participate in arms shipments, transport and/or the movement of the flow of the money generated from these sales with countries, people or organizations that are embargoed or act against national or international law should be held accountable for their crimes. Assets can be frozen, travel bans imposed, and all government and economic business ties with such firms severed. These penalties must also have an assurance of enforcement.

4. Debt relief is essential, but ways must be found to protect IMF and World Bank loans from being used for military expenditures. The motivations of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz are suspect. Dr. Wolfowitz is a former Deputy Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, a former ambassador to Indonesia under Ronald Reagan, a PNAC member, and dual citizen in Israel. Likewise, the World Bank and IMF must shift their policy of privatization as a stipulation for loan approval in order to stimulate business growth within the state instead of having the business sector growth be almost entirely from multinational corporations. The World Bank and IMF must also provide debt relief to the counties that need it most according to economic indicators. Some countries receiving debt relief, like Uganda and Rwanda, are among the biggest spenders of their loans in the military sector (35). It must be ensured that a majority of spending occurs on infrastructure and public services, and that this does not benefit the standard set of “embedded” western corporations. It must also be ensured the loan money is used in areas that need development the most. For example, in Uganda, the loan money Museveni has used for development has focused in the south in Kampala, the capital, and in Mbarra, his hometown. Meanwhile, the Acholi people, who always vote against Museveni’s party in the polls, are ignored and the situation in the Lira, Gulu, and Kitgum districts continues to deteriorate. In addition, individual countries must examine the aid they give to countries that spend a high percentage of capital on military, as well as commit human rights abuses. Lastly, debt relief doesn’t harm banks that gave the loans in the first place and collect on some of the interest rates, not to mention the American businesses that make profit on the privatized businesses as part of the loan deal. The debt is transferred to the taxpayers, so transparency is needed to insure that costs are also incurred by the firms granting the loans (if they want credit for their “humanitarian” debt relief).

5. Western countries must end the impunity for those responsible for looting minerals from Congo. Firms that purchase smuggled minerals, and/or purchase concessions from illegitimate rebel groups must be prosecuted. The World Court recently made a start by convicting Uganda and fining the government, but Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe remain unaccountable for their direct pirating, as are the Western firms that purchased the minerals, and Western individuals supporting them. (The Kimberly Process, established with the support of academic and intelligence experts at Harvard University, is a perfect example of the gatekeepers policing their own gates: the huge, entrenched, but secretive interests like the Oppenheimer/DeBeers and Maurice Tempelsman owned companies are legitimized as dealers of “clean” diamonds; while the other, far less connected competitors and challengers of the status quo, including Congolese children sneaking into mines and being shot for “stealing” the diamonds off their own starving families’ former lands, are demonized as dealers of “blood” diamonds.)

6. The World Court and International Criminal Court must hold all military and civilian leaders—African, U.S., European—that are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable for their actions. The West must not be allowed to shield criminals from prosecution by virtue of their economic and political alliances with Western governments. Governments that harbor these criminals should be subject to prosecution. Economic sanctions may not be proper, as poor nations generally suffer severe civilian casualties as a result; specific involved individuals in government and the military must be held accountable.

7. “Peacekeeping” forces, in particular MONUC, must be examined to ensure that the mission is being conducted with the interests of promoting stability in the country. As illustrated, elements of MONUC have used the mission as a cover to further the agenda of the West and its corporate sponsors under the banner of “peacekeeping,” causing the death of civilians in the process: those responsible should be tried and prosecuted. It must also be ensured that the investigations don’t stop at individual soldiers or brigades committing crimes, but to examine the chain of command and their allegiances to uncover the motivations behind MONUC operations. There have been reports of MONUC troops looting ivory, gold, and animal skins in National Parks. Villagers say that they have seen murders occur right in front of MONUC soldiers and they didn’t act to prevent the killings (36). MONUC soldiers have raped Congolese women (37). When pro-Rwandan rebel leaders Laurent Nkunda and Jules Mutibusi, both war criminals wanted by the U.N., took over Bukavu by force in May 2004, MONUC provided them with weapons and vehicles. Nkunda himself has stated the head of MONUC, William Swing, personally gave him a telephone to use during the raid. (38)

8. The international media is completely silent on virtually every major issue of significance with respect to war in DRC—and the international and criminal networks behind it. Misinformation about Africa prevails due to a concerted effort by the mainstream media to blackout the truth. A boycott of key publications is imperative, and must include the most offensive: Boston Globe, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, US News & World Report, USA Today, New York Times, the New Yorker (Conde Nast Publications), Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly (highly subsidized by Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman) and, especially, National Geographic.

9. The fog of war needs to be cleared away from so-called ”humanitarian” and “human rights” programs, organizations and individuals currently aligned with the Western corporate enterprise. Notables in this category include: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, CARE, USAID, Norwegian People’s Aid, International Crises Group, International Rescue Committee, Refugees International, the Genocide Intervention Fund, and many U.N. bodies, but especially UNHCR. Most of these agencies appear to exist merely to perpetuate their own survival. Doctors Without Borders also deserves scrutiny for their recent actions in DRC.

10. The peace and justice community remains unaccountable for its failure to take any significant actions to mitigate war in Congo and expose the true reasons behind it. A first step should be open up the spaces to alternative voices currently excluded by major social justice media venues. Second is to declare a total boycott on diamonds and gold, and an organized campaign to protest and economically castigate diamond stores where Lazare diamonds are sold. A third action is the commitment of meaningful funds—both from individuals and from organizations—to support the vibrant grass roots organizations and individuals working for human rights, women’s health, disarmament, education, food security, rainforest and environmental defense in Congo. Fourth, people need to break through their fear (inculcated by the western media) of taking action to help people in the Congo: there is no reason—except the unacceptable—that westerners cannot establish a “Witness for Peace” program situated in the Congo.

11. Rights groups with missions pertinent to Congo’s need must expand their missions to include Congo. Rape is endemic in the Congo: a source of psychological and physical trauma, it contributes to the spread of HIV, Ebola and other sexually transmitted diseases. Survivors often give birth to HIV positive children with no prospects for medical or financial help. This has lead to an insurmountable need for aid to care for the orphans. Mothers of children conceived of rape are often disowned by their village and families. Western feminist and women’s rights activists and organizations must get involved and provide resources for the victims of rape in Congo. Those responsible for rapes must be tried and punished as per the law if guilty. Indeed, evidence from rape cases in rural DRC shows that sexual violence is significantly reduced simply by holding military officers accountable for their troops’ actions, but this is not happening.

12. MONUC’s Radio Okapi is the lifeline of news in DRC today, but programming is largely comprised of U.N. programming. The United Nations needs to be pressured to open up the Radio Okapi network, eliminate the “fluff” pieces, and diversify and deepen its programming and reportage. As a simple example of how things could easily be improved in DRC, programs that sensitize the public o the issue of rape, and sensitize the military to the punishment for it, could easily be implemented; such programming is never considered.

13. The transitional government in Congo is comprised of military leaders and government officials who must be held accountable for their crimes. Like the individuals, organizations, corporations and governments that have supported them, all are responsible for crimes against humanity. The current profiteering in DRC is enabled by these key players, who hold the highest levels of the DRC government, and whose crimes remain hidden by the western press. The transitional government must not be allowed to appoint war criminals to cabinet or parliamentary positions, as well as local governor positions in the provinces.

References

(1) “Mortality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: A Nationwide
Survey.” Benjamin Coghlan, Richard J. Brennan, Pascal Ngoy, David
Dofara, Brad Otto, Mark Clements, and Tony Steward. The Lancet, 7
Jan. 2006. Number 367 pp. 44-51

(2) “Thousands’ dying in DR Congo war,” BBC News, 6, Jan. 2006:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4586832.stm .

(3) “Depopulation & Perception Management Part 2: Central Africa,”
keith harmon snow. Pioneer Valley VOICE, Feb. 2001:
http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-32Depop&PercepMan.htm ;”Congo: Capitalist Mineral Lust Fuels Bloodshed,” Direct Action:http://www.directa.force9.co.uk/back%20issues/DA%2028/regulars3_1.html
.

(4) “The Lost World War,” Erik Vilwar, Corporation Watch Newsletter,
Issue 13, March-April 2003:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue13

(5) “Depopulation As Policy, or, How the Despair and Death of Millions
of African People is Daily Determined by the Lifestyle of Ordinary
Americans, in Small Town USA, With Nary a Word of Truth In the US
Press, If Anything At All, And Why Most of Us Know Nothing About It,
And Do Nothing To Stop It When We Do Know,” keith harmon snow, 2003: http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-52Depopulation%20As%20Policy.htm
.

(6) Private interview, keith harmon snow, Bunia, 2005.

(7) “Central Africa: Hidden Agendas and the Western Press,” Pioneer
Valley Voice, keith harmon snow: http://www.audarya-fellowship.com/showflat/cat/WorldNews/48471/0/collapsed/5/o/1

(8) “Genocide and Covert Operations In Africa 1993-1999,” United
States One Hundred Seventh Congress. Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. First Session. 17 May 2001. comp. Centre for Research on Globalization.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD111A.html .

(9) Ibid.

(10) “Stolen Goods: Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo,” Dena Montague, SAIS Review, vol. XXII no. 1
(Winter-Spring 2002); “Congo: Capitalist Mineral Lust Fuels
Bloodshed,” Direct Action:
http://www.directa.force9.co.uk/back%20issues/DA%2028/regulars3_1.html; “Congo: The Western Heart of Darkness,” Asad Ismi, The Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, October 2001.

(11) “Depopulation & Perception Management Part 2: Central Africa,”
keith harmon snow, Pioneer Valley VOICE, Feb. 2001:
http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-32Depop&PercepMan.htm .

(12) “Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury
Goods for the White World—Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the
Blacks,” keith harmon snow, World War 3 Report, Issue No. 100, 19 July 2004: http://ww3report.com/proxy.html .

(13) “Named and Shamed,” Ruud Leeuw: http://www.ruudleeuw.com/vbout17.htm .

(14) “Uganda, Sanctions, and Congo-K: Who is Who in Uganda Mining,”
Africa Analysis, 5 June 2001:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/congo/2001/0606uga.htm .

(15) “Corporate Soldiers: The U.S. Government Privatizes Force,” Daniel
Burton and Wayne Madsen:
http://www.totse.com/en/politics/us_military/162741.html .

(16) David Gibbs, “The Political Economy of Third World
Interventions,” University of Arizona Press; and Wayne Madsen,
”Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellen Press,
1999.

(17) “The Lost World War,” Erik Vilwar, Corporation Watch Newsletter,
Issue 13, March-April 2003:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue13 .

(18) “Sony Corporation of America: Executive Biographies,” Jan. 2006.
http://www.sony.com.SCA/

(19) “Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury
Goods for the White World – Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the
Blacks,” keith harmon snow, World War 3 Report, Issue No. 100, 19 Jul. 2004: http://ww3report.com/proxy.html .

(20) “Genocide and Covert Operations In Africa, 1993-1999,” United
States One Hundred Seventh Congress, Subcommittee on International
Operations and Human Rights, First Session, 17 May 2001, comp. Centre
for Research on Globalization:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD111A.html .

(21) “The U.S. (Under)mining Job of Africa,” :
http://cryptome.org/us-africa.wm.htm .

(22) “Stolen Goods: Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo,” Dena Montague, SAIS Review, Vol. XXII, No. 1,
(Winter-Spring 2002).

(23) “A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa,”
Howard French, 12 April 2005, Vintage, New York, NY.

(24) “The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Polititians, War
Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them,” Amy Goodman, David Goodman,
2004, Hyperion Press, New York, NY.

(25) See: “Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story.”

(26) “Stolen Goods: Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo,” Dena Montague, SAIS Review, Vol. XXII, No. 1,
(Winter-Spring 2002); Named and Shamed, Ruud Leeuw:
http://www.ruudleeuw.com/vbout17.htm .

(27) “Rwanda’s Secret War: U.S.-Backed Destabilization of Central
Africa,” keith harmon snow, 12 December 2004:
http://traprockpeace.org/keith_snow_rwanda.html .

(28) “Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury
Goods for the White World – Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the
Blacks,” keith harmon snow, World War 3 Report, Issue No. 100, 19 Jul. 2004: http://ww3report.com/proxy.html .

(29) “The U.S. (Under)mining Job of Africa,”
http://cryptome.org/us-africa.wm.htm .

(30) “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” United
States One Hundred Seventh Congress. Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. First Session. 17 May 2001. comp. Centre for Research on Globalization.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD111A.html .

(31) Private interview, keith harmon snow, eastern DRC, July 2005.

(32) “Corporate Soldiers: The U.S. Government Privatizes Force,” Daniel Burton and Wayne Madsen:
http://www.totse.com/en/politics/us_military/162741.html .

(33) Confidential report, received, February 2006.

(34) “The Controversial Commando,” Pratap Chatterjee, 14 Jun. 2004:
http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc4644.html ;
”CSC/DynCorp.” Corporation Watch:
http://www.corpwatch.org/print_article.php?list=type&type=18 ;
”Crossing the Rubicon,” Michael Ruppert, 2004, New Society
Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: p. 79-80.

(35) “The Use of Rwanda’s External Debt (1990-1994): The
Responsibility of Donors and Creditors,” Michel Chossudovsky, Pierre
Galand, 30 March 2004:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=364 .

(36) “Rwanda’s Secret War: U.S.-Backed Destabilization of Central
Africa,” keith harmon snow, World War Four Report, 12 Dec. 2004:
www.WorldWar4Report.com .

(37) “Proxy Wars in Central Africa: Profits, Propaganda, and Luxury
Goods for the White World—Pacification, Rape, and Slavery for the
Blacks,” keith harmon snow, World War 3 Report, No. 100, 19 Jul. 2004:
http://ww3report.com/proxy.html .

(38) “Report on Events in Bukavu, South Kivu: May 26 to June 9, 2004,” Network of Women for the Defense of Rights and of Peace,