SEPTEMBER 2006

Uhuru Radio Needs Your Support!
info@uhururadio.com
September 22, 2006

This Sunday, UhuruRadio.com will have our first on-air fund drive. We need you to call-in (727-895-4016) on Sunday and pledge your support or go to http://www.uhururadio.com/pledge-donate.shtml and donate online.

Since our launch in April of this year, Uhuru Radio has continued to grow in programming quality and listeners. On our home page we are now presenting a weekly news summary, covering issues significant to the struggles of African and other colonized peoples for freedom and independence. Our talk programs now have archives available on the site for you to download and enjoy at your convenience.

2 weeks from today, we'll be presenting our most exciting broadcast yet - live coverage of the London Conference to Build the African Socialist International. While in London, we'll also be training comrades from around the world to prepare news reports from their regions.

To do all this, we need your support.  We need to raise $5,000 to cover our ongoing operating expenses and to expand our international broadcast capacity. If we meet our goal, we'll be able to provide our fledgling news bureaus with some of the equipment that they need to conduct interviews and prepare audio news reports for broadcast on Uhuru Radio. So tune in to UhuruRadio.com on Sunday and give generously!

Here's our broadcast schedule for Sunday, September 24th. All times are listed as EST.

9:00 am - "Colonialism is Bad for Your Health". Dr. Betty Martini, health care rights activist, returns to Uhuru Radio to discuss her campaign to ban deadly chemical sweeteners and other public health issues.

10:00 am - "Africa Live". Host Nyabinga Dzimbahwe interviews delegates preparing to attend the Conference to Build the African Socialist International, October 7-9 in London.

12:00 pm - "Omali Yeshitela Speaks". This week we present a powerful speech by African People's Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela on the need for Africans to regain the value of our stolen labor.

1:00 pm - "Uhuru On The Move". President Chimurenga Waller and Baye Moye, of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement will talk with Kobina Bantushango from Miami about the campaign to free the Liberty City 7, facing bogus charges of "terrorism".

2:00 pm - "White Solidarity with Black Power". Matthew Willis will talk with Mark Anderson, Uhuru Radio web programmer and technical consultant on future trends that will make internet and other forms of independent radio more widely accessible.

3:00 pm - "Revolutionary Reggae". The island sound, Uhuru style, with revolutionary, reggae vibrations. Hosted by DJ Speedy.

5:00 pm - "The Music Speaks". Experience lyricists, producers and DJs from the US to the UK, expressing oppressed peoples' conditions through hip-hop. Hosted by Bombai.




diamonds!
From Cheryl Sanchez
- sanchezcheryl@hotmail.com
August 07, 2006


African diamonds /Jewish /European Business : Patterns of Inequality

In this essay, the writer would outline how African diamonds from Namibia. South-Africa, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Angola and Congo is owned, mined, stockpiled or sold, cut and retailed, without the majority of Africans, in the countries mentioned enjoying any economic or social benefits. In addition, the World Diamond Congress born around 1947, has no African representatives on it's governing body. How did the concentration of ownership of African wealth end up in the hands of the Jewish community predominantly? What about the myths created by the diamond industrialist? All lies created to keep the price of diamonds high whilst keeping the cost of production low. ?How did all this begin?


History

Cecil Rhodes set up a company De Beers (Name of the Boer landowner, where the first diamond was found 1867), in South-Africa in 1888. The farmer was actually illegally occupying Griqualand. By 1893 Rhodes had begun excluding everybody else from the diamond selling business. How?
By giving the contract to 10 Jewish firms in London, to sell African gems. These are the firms:- Wernher, Beit& Co Brother, Mosenthal Sons & Company, A. Dunkelsbuhler, Joseph Brothers, I Cohen Compnay, Martin Lilienfield and Company. F.F Gervers, S. Neumann and Feldheimen Company. Rhodes gave them boast and an advantage which, they maintain up to the present. Afterwards forming the World Diamond Congress which, meets bi-annually since it's inception in 1947. During the 16th century in Europe, jews were excluded from most activities except two.

1) Cutting and polishing stones.
2) Lending money. The activities co-depended on one another.

When people failed to repay money, jewels were used as repayment, which were then re-sold and invested into business sectors.

Eg Once Portugal began their navigational adventures to Goa, jewish merchants started paying sailors to buy diamonds directly from Indian miners, on their behalf. Portugal became the diamond port until the Catholic Inquisitions forced Jews to move out and upwards to Antwerp-Catholic dominated Southern Netherlands then-now in modern Belgium since 1830. The community continued re-investing their money/profits from the diamond trade into companies such as the Dutch
East India Company. This is the same company on it's many pit stops, landed in the Western Cape and stayed there from 1652-1814,when the British bought the Cape for £6,000,00. This area was mainly used for providing the refreshment and sexual needs of sailors on their way from The East Indies to Europe. Epstein J.E-(2982)-The Investigation

So that when it came to responding to the DE Beers Diamond mining and selling monopoly, they used the oldest activity-They United themselves into a syndicate, and then, bought large amounts of stocks and shares in the companies. The leader in this deal was A Dunkelsbuhler. This company
hired a young german jewish apprentice. He started off sorting and classifying diamonds. He ended up managing that business in London. But Dunkelsbuhler wanted more control than it already had as part of an exclusive, powerful and secretive operation. They sent their main man- Ernest Oppenheimer who together with his family members from 1900 until the present see African diamonds as their personal belonging. The Africans's role is about digging diamonds.


Creating and maintaining myths about Diamonds.

Around 1930's, there was concern about the decline in prices world-wide especially De Beers bankers Morgan Bank-now Morgan Stanley. It was Morgan bank,which recommended the Lauck and N,W Ayers a top raking advertising agency in the USA to Harry Oppenheimer. Slogans -" A diamond is forever" and "diamonds are a girl's best friend as sung by Marilyn Munroe" became embedded in languages world-wide. Even Japanese women who did not traditionally use diamond engagement rings in their courtship and marriage arrangements, were sucked into the diamond myth. Oppenheimer wanted a changed image for diamonds to more accessible to American working class people. It made economic sense since America was the largest capitalist country. Diamonds has to be linked with love and romance. The larger the diamond meant a greater expression of the emotions.

De Beers continues to sanitize and glamourize the industry by using royalty and rich people for their own ends. De Beers gave Kylie Monogue a large solitaire pendant, which she has seen in many of her videos. J.K Rowling wore diamond drop earrings at one of the many Hary Potter premires. We cannot Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Liza Minelli. Caroline Herrera, Paloma Picasso,Lee Anneberg and the British Royalty. Roberts Janine (2003)

The British Royal Family was used to hike the prices by simply wearing diamonds. Queen Elizabeth returned the "favour" by visiting De Beers mines during a well publicized trip to South Africa. Besides the "crown jewels-African jewels", The Queen owns the following. 14 Tiaras, 46 necklaces, 98 broaches and 37 bracelets. Even during the war, it was suggested that," the Queen has a patriotic duty to wear diamonds". What kind of human being would publicly utter such an inappropriate statement in the middle of a war? This is 1940, when many soldiers and civilians were losing their lives in World War 2. Many families in Europe were forced to live on food rations and under curfews. Answer- somewhat of a cold, calculating, uncaring, unfeeling and emotionally distant character, parading as a human.

The book- Diamonds Famous and Fatal: The History, mystery & Lore of the world's most precious gem by Leo P Kendall presents the industry as a very law abidding and playing by all the rules laid down kind of operation. There are no victims, tragedies, no racism, no greed, no sabotage and no deaths of any kind. This book never reveals the facts. It seems to have lost it's way in the spin.


The Reality of the Diamond Industry

Namibia

Most workers get 1,300 Nrands= £130. Those are the one who are unionised. Their families live in abject poverty in real hovels without access to pipeborne water/electricity and universal free health care and education up to secondary level. The miners must remain in enclosed compounds with the minimal facilities. Let's put it another-if you had an animal you loved, you would not treat it like how the mining companies treat these African miners. Grown men with families are forced to share bunk beds-like children, without mattresses. There is no respect for elder workers. They are separated from their families for months on end. They are Xrayed without their consent. They are exposed to more dangers than the white workers. Last but not least-they are feed with alcohol like the winery owners do with their workers in the wine business. There are few recreational facilities in the compound except alcohol.

These workers always have to deal with the Diamond Protection Unit on a daily basis. Companies being and sold without their knowledge. But, the racist conditions under which these people work, go unchecked and unchallenged by either government or union. People do hazardous jobs without any insurance cover. When they die in the mines-their families receive nothing. One worker at the Western Holdings Min complained in 1976," We live like animals in the compounds without our wives.the life we lead is worse than slavery of the life of a beast of burden". When the company in question, was told the cost of improving the native Africans accommodation would be equivalent to 1/4 of a year's profits- they never bothered to carry out the renovations. So, the European workers continue to receive preferential treatment. So, no adherence to Equal Opportunities either, which seem to be above the South African/Namibian laws.


SWAPO came to power, the management structure has remained the same i.e all white.

Despite all these human rights abuse taking place since 1900's up to the present, De Beers and it's fellow mining companies seems almost above the law. Stellenbosch University-a top Afrikaner University created a new chair in honour of Harry Oppenheimer called-The Harry Oppenheimer
Chair for the study of Human rights-is this a sick joke or what? The European and Coloureds view the native Africans as "trash". All the resources are meant for their minority. Lands which were stolen prior to 1994 have not been returned to it's lawful native African owners. Colonial mining deals struck with mining companies have been honoured instead of being dishonoured. Even beaches which, belong to the people now belong to De Beers-Surely this is illegal? Isn't it? Surely, if someone did not sign a contract-they should be honouring said contract. Wrong or right.

Diamonds can now be made in a laboratory with the tight chemical ingredients. Apparently this was being done as early as 1880. Then in 1953 and 1955. General Electric carried on making diamonds using a simple oxyacethylene torch and some bottles of gas -i.e methane gas. The story goes that De Beers quietly formed another company on the Isle of Man to manufacture diamonds. Apparently, as long as the substance contains carbon-it can produce a diamond. Another scientist also discovered that," passing microwaves through a mixture of methane and hydrogen= diamonds. Roberts J (2003)


What other industries need diamonds?


The arms industry needs diamonds for the following purposes-:

Airplane engines, torpedoes, tanks, artillery and other weapons of war. Diamonds are also needed for making radars and other electonics of war. Stabilisers, gyroscopes and guidance systems for submarines and planes needs jeweled bearings. They can be used to make the super-hard missile
cone or super-hard optical glass for spacecraft instruments. Can you imagine how powerful the Oppenheimers / DE Beers felt realising the millions of trump cards they held. They could and actually use that power, at a time when USA really, really needed supplies, to feed their weapons factories. One cannot forget Hitler as, Germany needed their diamond supplies as well. This information can be found in chapter 7- Diamonds for Hitler- Roberts J (2003). See Chapter 9; Diamonds for Hitler- The Investigations by Edward J Epstein internet site-The secret war report of the OSS.


The World Diamond Congress

It was formed in 1947 and has held bi-annual meetings ever since. There are no African Representatives at WDC either. All the members are from non-diamond producing countries. Basically, it is likely that 5 of the 6 members are Jews plus one non-jewish. Members listed from their website include Eli Izhakoff, Matthew a Runci, William E Boyajian, Peter Meeus and Zvi Shur. This is not a democratic or transparent organisation either. They talk in riddles most of the time. They never mention terms and conditions of labour, or the tactics used to cheat various African countries of taxes from their own mineral resources, racism, holding millions of Africans to ransom. This organisation and the mining companies continue to look after their interest-profit making margins. If 200 or so Africans die directly to unsafe conditions-well tough!

If families in Mbuyi Mayi and Luderitz die from preventable diseases and or live with high levels of alcoholism among parents or they have no access to free schools and an acceptable quality of life or access to affordable treatment and fair wages-then tough. It is actually quite patronising when people like USA democratic senator come up with meaningless remarks like," the diamond- a symbol of love in America(world-wide)-should not be paid for by the blood of Africans" Wake up Mr senator- Africans have been paying with their lives for the enrichment of De Beers/the Oppenheimer/The Rupperts and the other respectable business people.

Wake up Mr Senator- this method is over 400 years old. De Beers/ Oppenheimers/ The Rupperts Trivalence-Asian Canadian mining company in Guinea are new comers to this method. The stealing of African resources for the building of Europe and providing work for Europeans and Asians is not a new thing. It is called capitalism! The transformation of African resources into wealth and power for everybody else except the Africans is quite common Mr Dick Durbins-Democratic senator. Do not forget that, all your civil servants based in Africa had to do was mention the word " he might be a communist"- your embassies and your other " officials" would be helping the other side,to get rid of often times elected leaders. If the elected leader does not want to go, then you either get him murdered or fund wars, to deny people their just revolution eg Angola. Stop being a hypocrite now!

Eli Izhakoff, chairman of WDC had this very fine sounding hope of his industry when he said," we are committed to enactment of strong legislation that will help establish an international system to ensure that, only legitimate diamonds are traded. In addition, he said," our goal is to stop the abhorrent practices of rebel movements in Africa that use illegal diamond sales to finance their insurgencies". Perhaps, he conveniently forgot to add that, De Beers dumped all the "conflict diamonds on the USA. Perhaps, he is not aware that, Mobutu and his family normally came to the mines to select their share of the diamonds, which they sold in Antwerpen to "those ask no questions buyers. It smells of public relations exercise rather than, a real plan to carry out in-depth in house cleaning.

United Nations reports in 2001 implicated conflict diamonds also heading for Tel-Aviv. Congolese, Sierra Leone and Angolans diamonds were leaving in Israeli planes piloted by former airforce pilots. In exchange for diamonds, they sellers would receive weapons, training and hard currency. These conflict were the sold at the Ramat Gan Diamond Centre. UNITA managed to keep their civil war going by selling their "conflict diamonds" to De Beers via DeBeers for 6 years between 1992-1998 through De Beers buyers-whatever that means. Unita made $4 billion. UNITA carried on the terror on unarmed civilian targets, with the sale of diamonds totalling $100 milioin-the people's birthright ended up being made into jewels for american consumption. Whist Angolans are without free education, universal health care or access to free medicines and pipeborne water.


Conclusion

The moral of this very tragic story for the diamond producing African nations is quite simple. Unite! Demand reparation from De Beers and all their companies registered in places like Bermuda, Leichenstein, Luxembourg and Panama and in Liberia. Naivety is a hindrance to conquering that great Octopus De Beers/The Oppenheimers. How can it be that, the government and the 1.5 million people are being ransom by one family? Mathematics tells me it is near impossible. It could very well be that, Namibia government does think researching and keeping tabs on De Beers is either urgent or necessary. It is okay for an agent De Beer to be stealing from the country, without the owners asking questions. Why are Namibian diamonds leaving the mines in armoured cars and vans, without government official knowledge? Why is the government allowing De Beers to practise and exploitation? What the ANC and SWAPO and 4 other African governments do not want to entertain is this, 6 governments and their 83 million population can surely get rid of this one family. Come on now Africans-you can do it!

sanchezcheryl@hotmail.com One could additionally argue that, diamond mining is a low paid, non-unionised job with practically no adherence to health and safety laws. Whilst everybody else is making a killing, those governments are not receiving any taxes- One could actually conclude-it is one of the greatest scams with a multitude of African tragedies eg Mbuyi Mayi, a diamond centre in the Congo has a population on 1 million residents , no access to health care as there are no state hospitals, limited power supplies and very few communications lines to the outside world. Same conditions could be found in Luderitz - another mining town in Namibia.

References:
Epstein E.J (2006) The Investigation; Chapters 8&9
Epstein E.J (1982) Have you ever tried to sell a diamond? Atlantic
Monthly USA
Kendall Leo.P( 2001) Diamonds famous and fatal; The history, mystery &
lore of the world's most precious gem. Barricade Books NJ USA
Roberts J (2003) Glitter and Greed: the secret world of the diamond
cartel Disinformation Press NY USA

Join The African Socialist International:

By Luwezi Kinshasa, Chair of the African Socialist
International Interim Committee

On October 6-9, Africans from all over the globe will be descending upon London, England to participate in a historic event that stands to change the way Africans are struggling in our various locations. This event is the Conference to Build the African Socialist International (ASI) and is exciting Africans everywhere who hear of it.

The African Socialist International will be an international party of African revolutionaries that
will take on the task of uniting and liberating Africa and her dispersed people. The ASI is to be an
organization of the African working class in alliance with the poor peasantry.

This process to build the ASI comes during a new and most critical phase in world history =97 the era of the complete defeat of imperialist white power. The ongoing crisis of imperialism, caused by the rise of resistance of the vast majority of the peoples of the world, is deepening. Even neocolonialism, the imperialist strategy of placing faces that look like us in power to administer our colonial oppression is failing.

This is not a new process, however. It was at the African People=92s Socialist Party=92s (APSP) 1981 Congress that it put forth the resolution to build this single worldwide party of African
revolutionaries.

From that point on, APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela has worked tirelessly to organize Africans from around the world into this process. He immediately began traveling throughout Europe in an effort to win African organizations into the ASI project.


The history of the process to build the ASI

In 1999, the first Conference to Build the African Socialist International was held in London, England. At the first conference, it was clear that the ASI process was the only all-African solution to build a common future and a common identity. It was the only process that took on the task of developing one consciousness throughout the African liberation movement to give the entire movement the same explanation to our crisis and the same solutions to the same causes of our misery.

It is at this conference that the opportunism of the African petty bourgeoisie in the 1990s was summed up from its rise to power in the form of the African National Congress in Occupied Azania (South Africa) to the genocide in Rwanda where France and the U.S. fought a proxy war using different sectors of the African petty bourgeoisie and leaving in its wake the massacre of one million Africans.=20

It was also in this period that the U.S. government initiated the fall of Mobutu using the armies of
Uganda and Rwanda that resulted in the rise of Laurent Kabila to power. These armies would later on return to Congo in a proxy war of aggression that resulted in more than four million African people being massacred in less than six years. All of these were manifestations of opportunism of the African petty bourgeoisie.

This opportunism also manifested itself in England, where we saw elements of the African liberation
movement joining the white liberal campaigns for debt cancellation in opposition to reparations. In reality, we must demand reparations for these so-called "debts!
too

Most of the organizations that participated in the 1999 ASI Conference chose to sit on the sidelines
instead of actively building the ASI. So in 2000, we found ourselves with masses of Africans attending the meeting, but no organizations, despite the severity of the crisis of imperialism.

This ASI conference was dominated by the land crisis in Zimbabwe. We called for a demonstration outside Britain's foreign office, under the slogan "British imperialism, hands off Zimbabwe! Power to the workers, land to the peasants!"

Out of this conference would be written and passed three resolutions: the Manifesto of African people, the resolution on trade and debt and the resolution on the question of white people.

The next ASI conference was held in July 2002. During the same weekend, some Pan Africanist forces organized a meeting for the youth in contention with the ASI at a short distance from where the ASI meeting was held. Notwithstanding this, the conference was successful.

The conference was marked by the renewed contact with the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), the primary liberation organization that combated the apartheid regime in Occupied Azania (South Africa). The PAC was represented at the conference by its Secretary General, Thami ka Plaatjie. Subsequently, APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela was invited to the PAC's 8th Congress, where he was the keynote speaker. The influence and efforts of the African People's Socialist Party to consolidate the Azanian front of the ASI is at critical juncture with the upcoming ASI conference in October.

From 2003 to 2005, we witnessed a most decisive articulation of the most critical question of our
times: the class question inside the African liberation movement. In 2003, some organizations that attended the conference, mainly from UK, who identified themselves as Pan Africanists openly refused to recognize the class question within the African nation. Their denial of the class question in the conference was simply a defense of the African petty bourgeoisie class. As stated in the June-Sept 2003 issue of The Burning Spear Newspaper, In the era of neocolonialism, where white power is generally indirect and comes in black face, we believe that our struggle must be led by a theory that recognizes that African unity and liberation must result in victory
for the African working class aligned with the poor peasantry. We recognize this theory as African Internationalism. African Internationalism is also an effort by our party to bring the science of revolution or revolutionary theory to the masses of African people, because without science, our people will be denied the understanding of the laws of the development of society and of class struggles.

We also raised at this ASI conference the necessity to fight against spontaneity inside our movement, where movement is everything but the long term strategic goals and interests of the African working class is neglected or liquidated. This only leads to opportunism within our movement, which serves the interests of a tiny sector of our community at the expense of African revolution. At the 2004 Conference to Build the ASI, Chairman Omali Yeshitela introduced the main resolution document that was distributed to all participants. It was read and voted for almost unanimously by the conference attendees as the document to guide the work to build the African Socialist International.

Through the ASI process, the African People's Socialist Party has also introduced the concept of
international solidarity with black power. At the 2004 Conference, solidarity statements were made by Union del Barrio and Mexicans United in Defense of the People, two Mexican liberation organizations.

It was also in 2004 that the U.S. and French governments overthrew the democratically elected
president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. That year's ASI conference experienced the participation of a militant from Haiti, and the conference produced a resolution in support of Africans struggling in Haiti.


In 2005, the ASI Conference continued the process of resolving critical ideological questions in the
African Liberation Movement with workshops covering the question of reparations, the definition of a nation in the context of the Africa and her dispersed people, the question of what is the State as an apparatus of oppression, and the ideology of African Internationalism versus the concept of Pan Africanism.



ASI 2006 Conference points way to Founding Congress

This October ASI conference may be the last one, as it will set the stage for the Founding Congress of the African Socialist International. The ASI Interim Committee is excited because we can see all signs of African people coming together. We have been receiving many communications from Gambia, Ghana and Congo from Africans who want to attend the conference in October. We will have the participation of leading progressive and revolutionary organizations in Occupied Azania, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and more.

It must be said that the ASI in places like Sierra Leone and Guinea has become a concrete aspiration of thousands of African workers, who are now pushing forward for the urgent creation of the ASI as the only solution that guarantees a life of human dignity to African people everywhere.

Other Africans will come from France, Holland and Belgium. Africans in Guyana, Colombia, Venezuela, and Canada are also making plans to come to the conference. More and more people are saying,"We have been looking for this type of all-African solution. Where have you been hiding?" All these signs indicate that we are going to have a significant representation of the African world that will allow us to call for the Founding Congress of the ASI.

The growing recognition by the African world that African Internationalism and the building of the ASI are the necessary answer for the one billion African people on this planet adds to the excitement that makes us anticipate the battles to come with imperialism with the confidence that our victory is certain. The days of a dying social system of imperialism are indeed numbered.


Borders between us soon to be a thing of the past

African Internationalism informs us that there is only one African people scattered around the world. No African community or country can win freedom against capitalism within the colonial borders imposed on us. None of our struggles are  confrontations with a single imperialist nation.

In the real world, each of our struggles is a struggle against capitalism as a worldwide system. The borders only undermine our consciousness and exclude the majority of Africans from joining on any front of the African liberation movement fighting imperialist white power. It reduces most of us to simple supporters if not spectators, whilst imperialism and black neo-colonial puppets operate in unity to crush our struggle one by one, front by front.

Today, we can say the ASI is moving to make this a thing of the past. It is going to be one African
liberation movement, one solution: the African Socialist International. The ASI will pull all of our human and economic resources together to build the ASI and win in every front as conscious Africans fighting for a United Socialist States of Africa. The ASI process is a process of ending colonial borders as well as our colonial minds that see ourselves as different from each other just because some of us have lived against our will outside of Africa for centuries or simply because we speak different languages.

The ASI is the logical conclusion of the visions of Garvey, Nkrumah, Lumumba, Malcolm X and others who dedicated their lives to achieve African unity and self-determination. Their sacred dreams could only be concretized through African working class worldwide unity under the banner of the ASI.

At this October ASI Conference, participants will be equipped with the African Internationalist analysis of the critical questions of this period. This will include the question of national identity, Pan
Africanism versus African Internationalism, what is the State, the Arab and African question, the question of African women in the struggle, the African Cultural Revolution and more.

Africans who want to register to participate in the 2006 Conference to Build the African Socialist
International can do so online by going to www.asiuhuru.org or can contact the ASI Interim
Committee at uhuruasi@aol.com or 020.8265.1731. No African who loves Africa and African people can afford to miss the next and last ASI conference in October in London.


A Little Poverty Never Hurt Anybody - Ruthless Exploiters, Inc.

By Jason Miller
August 23, 2006

"It is like paradise and hell. They throw our petitions in the dustbin. They have everything. We have nothing. If we protest, they send soldiers. They sign agreements with us and then ignore us. We have graduates going hungry, without jobs. And they bring people from Lagos to work here."
Eghare W.O. Ojhogar, chief of the Ugborodo community in Delta State (of Nigeria)

In describing the situation in Nigeria, Eghare presents us with a microcosm of a modern Inferno, Purgatorio, e Paradiso (about which there is little divine or comic). In the timeless struggle between the "haves and "have nots", alarming numbers of "useless eaters" ("have nots") are sliding from Purgatorio into the abyss of abject poverty's Inferno.

And what heinous transgression did they commit that necessitated their banishment into the Inferno? They were born, of course. Most of those experiencing the misery of indigence had the misfortune to enter this world bearing a losing lottery ticket. From their birth, the psyches of the poor and homeless in the "developed" nations and those of the impoverished in the "developing" nations are battered with the hopelessness and despair of their harsh realities. (Realities carefully created and perpetuated in a variety of ways by their "betters"). After spending their formative years pitted against nearly overwhelming economic and social forces, the message many of them internalize probably reads something like this:

Sorry, washout. You are the wrong color, ethnicity, caste, social class, or nationality. Surviving to age 40 will be no small task for you. And if you manage to do so, your chances of significantly bettering your situation are quite slim. After all, the lottery winners invest a great deal in maintaining structural barriers to hold you down. But the good news is that you can add meaning to your miserable existence by working for slave wages( or simply withering and dying) to ensure that the tiny percentage of humanity enjoying economic Paradiso continues to do so and that the shrinking number of fortunates in Purgatorio experience a degree of comfort and security.

To gain some perspective on the extent of human suffering, avarice, and depravity associated with the gross imbalance in wealth and power, weigh these facts:

1. More than half of the 6.5 billion human souls populating Earth subsist on less than $2 per day. 790 million of the deeply impoverished suffer from chronic malnutrition (while 65% of US Americans are overweight).

2. 20% of the human race does not have access to clean water and 31% of the world's population has no electricity.

3. Combining the gross domestic products of the 48 poorest nations (representing 25% of global population) yields a figure that is less than the wealth of the three richest people in the world.

4. "Developed nations" account for 80% of the world's consumption and 20% of the world's population.

5. The wealth gap between the richest and poorest countries went from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 72 to 1 in 1992.

6. Corporations account for over half of the 100 wealthiest entities in the world.

7. And most tragically:
"According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they "die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death." That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year."

(Thanks to Global Issues.org for the above information)

Earth's ruling oligarchs and plutocrats have created and perpetuated a socioeconomic dynamic in which the destitute have little or no access to education, basic healthcare, decent employment, or even basic necessities. From the United States to sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, those isolated in despairing communities with crumbling or non-existent infrastructures find themselves mired in impoverished breeding grounds for crime, high birth rates, substance abuse, and AIDS.

Perhaps an apt message for those impoverished children arriving in this world with three strikes against them would be: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", which is most commonly translated as "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

How humane and politically correct those monopolizing Earth's bounty have become. Monarchy has essentially been relegated to the dustbin of history. Empire building through brute force is becoming an increasingly rare event. Certainly the ruling elite maintain potent militaries to exercise their right to "defend themselves" (as they are doing in Iraq and Lebanon). But more often then not, the masters of the human race have learned to wield their economic power like a heavy cudgel, capable of battering their foes into submission with a few swift strokes.

New age dawning?

As humanity basks in the nurturing rays of a long-awaited sunrise marking the dawn of a glorious new paradigm, a determined privileged class is determined to make utopia a reality for themselves. Ushering in a veritable paradise of free trade, "robust economies", "ownership societies", "freedom and liberty", and unprecedented profits generated by massive companies unfettered by frivolous government regulation, predatory human beings now issue their edicts from corporate skyscrapers rather than moated castles.

Wage slaves and sweat shop laborers have supplanted serfs and chattel slaves. Five major corporations comprise 90% of the mass media in the United States. What are their specialties? Shaping public opinion to maintain the illusion that one of the world's most rapacious and bellicose
nations is a "benevolent superpower" and enticing those who fall prey to their charms to experience a virtually insatiable desire to acquire more material possessions. A brain-washed complacent citizenry perpetually ready to go on a buying binge is a wet dream for the ruling elite.

For many, the survival of their families depends upon the meager pay they receive from corporate behemoths like Wal-Mart. More fortunate wage slaves earn enough to cover the cost of necessities and to attain the goods the corporate media push like Ecstasy. Shopping..what a rush!

Between the US Americans who have high discretionary income and the easy credit issued to those who don't, demand for consumer goods is nearly infinite. With grossly unfair laws (protecting consumers, the environment, and workers) squeezing their profits, those ingenious devils amongst the ruling elite concluded they would locate in "developing" countries where they could truly rape, pillage and plunder. Hence the worsening plight of those beholden to their corporate masters both in the United States and abroad.

Where is the wealth?

And just how heavily are the world's assets concentrated into the hands of the elite? While the United States is by no means home to the entire world's de facto aristocracy, it is the "leader of the obscenely rich world" and by default is the "leader of the (ostensibly) free world".

For example, Professor G. William Domhoff of the University of California at Santa Cruz wrote in 2001:

"In terms of types of financial wealth, the top 1 percent of households have 44.1% of all privately held stock, 58.0% of financial securities, and 57.3% of business equity. The top 10% have 85% to 90% of stock, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America."

And thanks to the Bush administration, that 10% is maintaining a firm grasp on what they own.

Pernicious and Enduring Lies

The predator class pacifies its subservient underclass with the myth that in the United States and the satellite "free market economies" it has established (at gun-point or through the subversive activities of the CIA), everyone can become a successful entrepreneur by starting their own business. Yet like the lie that all impoverished individuals except widows, orphans, and the infirm are responsible for their own circumstances, this malicious fairy tale ignores several realities. Like the fiction about the impoverished, it assumes that all people are on a level playing field. However, that notion is far removed from reality. Some people have a higher quality education than others. Individuals receiving a high degree of support from friends and family are much more likely to succeed than those who have little or no support. While some starting a business have financial resources behind them, others have virtually nothing but their drive and ideas. Market forces, weather patterns, competition, health, and many other variables can serve to make or break a "budding capitalist". And no two people are alike or face the same conditions.

Approximately 150 million of those young and healthy enough to work in the United States earn a wage or salary. (Versus a relatively paltry figure of 20 million who are self-employed). 85% of small businesses fail within 5 years. Corporate leviathans like Wal-Mart and Microsoft have defied
anti-trust laws to crush myriad competitors, including many small entrepreneurs. Horatio Alger success stories are none too plentiful in the "land of opportunity". And the grim reality is that the Goliath corporate giants usually prevail against the David small businesses.

In 2003, the average worker in the United States was netting $517.00 per week. How much were CEO's taking home at that time? A mere $155,000. 52 times per year. That is a staggering 301 to 1 differential. In 1982 the ratio of CEO to average worker pay was "a mere" 42 to 1. From 1990 to 2003 US corporate profits rose 128%.

To further appreciate the obscene avarice of the world's plutocracy, consider that the average garment worker in Bangladesh earned 13 cents per hour in 2004. The "10% of the people who own the United States" and their counter-parts in nations around the globe are doing very well thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of the remaining 6 billion or so human beings on the planet.

Incorporating their Avarice

Corporations are the Holy Grail for the rich and powerful. They provide moneyed individuals investment vehicles which afford them extremely limited personal liability, financially and criminally. By the late 19th Century in the United States, corporations had acquired many of the legal rights of a human being. Despite their roots in British colonialism and the deep apprehensions of founders like Thomas Jefferson, corporations have come to dominate the United States and much of the world culturally, politically, and economically.

Jefferson's expression of concern to George Logan in 1816 was well-founded:

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

Not only was the aristocracy of moneyed corporations born. Its power has grown to such monstrous proportions that it has virtually crushed the life from a still relatively nascent social experiment based on democratic ideals and Constitutional law.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, the pharmaceutical industry alone has spent $675 million lobbying the government to shape public policy over the last seven years. The insurance industry spent even more if one includes campaign donations. Through their corporate proxies, the
moneyed elite invest a great deal in the United States' political system. They expect and receive a great deal in return.

"Defending" the predator class is an expensive proposition

Spending at a clip of $600 billion per year (including Iraqi Occupation costs), the United States accounts for 50% of the world's military spending. As George Bush (the current public face of the world's plutocracy) so sagely reminded us, "Free nations are peaceful nations." To manufacture the many instruments of peace which prove how free we are, the United States relies on 737 defense contractors, sometimes known as the military-industrial complex. Of those 737 contractors, a mere five have received government contracts totaling $284 billion over the last six years. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics do quite well at the public trough. Halliburton has also fared nicely since former CEO Dick Cheney took office and helped lie the United States into the Iraqi Occupation. Facilitating killing is their business, and business is good.

Sedating the masses with consumerism, spin, fear-mongering and historical revisions; lobbying heavily; donating huge sums to political campaigns; and maintaining the military industrial complex are powerful means of securing the seats of power in DC and Tel Aviv. However, the predator class has yet another weapon at its disposal: the revolving door between government and major corporations. Men like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are but two stalwarts of the privileged class who have traversed back and forth from roles of great influence in major corporations to
positions of power within the government. But they are not pioneers. Theirs is a path blazed by many before them and almost certain to be followed by many after them.

A glimpse of the ugly reality of pathological avarice in action...

To move beyond an abstract analysis of the machinations of the oppression and exploitation of most of the human race by a select and privileged few, consider one of many specific examples. For years, British and US oil interests have enjoyed the complicity of the criminal ruling elite in
Nigeria in plundering an incredibly valuable natural resource. In return a majority of the indigenous people have received land too polluted to farm, brutal attacks by government forces, and extreme poverty.

According to an article written for Amnesty International:

"It's 10 years since the Nigerian Government executed the well-known Ogoni writer and human rights campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa. But little has changed for the people of the Niger Delta, reports Seth Jordan..

.Oil was discovered in the Ogoni region in the late 1950s by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group..by the 1990s an estimated US $30 billion worth of oil had already been extracted, and oil revenues accounted for over 98 per cent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings; the 550,000 local farmers and fishermen who inhabited the coastal land had received little except a ravaged environment. Once fertile farmland had been destroyed by uncontrolled pollution, and virtually all fish and wildlife had vanished. Only a handful of local people were employed by the oil companies or benefited economically in any way..

"On 4 February 2005, soldiers from Nigeria's Joint Task Force fired on protesters from the Ugborodo community at the Escravos oil terminal run by Chevron Nigeria. One man was shot and later died from his injuries. Thirty other demonstrators were injured by blows from rifle butts and other weapons. Neither the government nor the oil company provided adequate medical care or helped to transport the injured."

Nigeria provides a potent example of the blatant abuses of the impoverished masses by the privileged few. But sadly, it is but one of many such cases.

While the rapacious individuals who wield the power in this world have stacked the deck heavily in their favor, there are glimmers of hope. The United States and Israel are both failing in their wars of aggression in the Middle East. A wave of democratic socialism is beginning to sweep South America. A populist leader may still win the presidency in Mexico. Joe Lieberman was ejected. And checks and balances were at least temporarily restored in the United States when a federal judge ordered George Bush to obey the Constitution.

A collective populist movement is slowly evolving. It is only a matter of time before humanity's oppressed put aside their religious, racial, and nationalist differences to unite against their common enemy. When six billion people act in unison against a few million, there will indeed be a new world order.

Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He writes prolifically and his essays have appeared widely on the Internet. He welcomes constructive correspondence at willpowerful@hotmail.com or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.