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This bailout starts off with an initial pot of one trillion Euros from which Greece can borrow to pay off its debts. The hope is that similar debt crises in Portugal, Spain and Italy can be averted by a show of strength in the Greek crisis.

This agreement was not reached in an amicable discussion among the wealthier European states. The Germans, who provide the bulk of the cash, were bludgeoned into agreement by Sarkozy of France who twice threatened to pull France out of the Euro zone if the Germans wouldn’t go along with the plan. This is very important as France is not playing only with its own money. To a large degree it is cushioned by the reserves it holds from francophone Africa as part of the integration of the CFA francs into the Euro zone.

By Dr. Gary K Busch
Original Source: Ocnus.net

As we read of the current crisis in Greece and the emergency bailout of the European Union of the Euro it is may seem a little unclear as to the effect this will have in Africa. However, Africa, and francophone Africa in particular, is likely to be hit hard by the falling Euro and the diversion of national reserves in Europe to the propping up of the Euro zone. This bailout starts off with an initial pot of one trillion Euros from which Greece can borrow to pay off its debts. The hope is that similar debt crises in Portugal, Spain and Italy can be averted by a show of strength in the Greek crisis.

This agreement was not reached in an amicable discussion among the wealthier European states. The Germans, who provide the bulk of the cash, were bludgeoned into agreement by Sarkozy of France who twice threatened to pull France out of the Euro zone if the Germans wouldn’t go along with the plan. This is very important as France is not playing only with its own money. To a large degree it is cushioned by the reserves it holds from francophone Africa as part of the integration of the CFA francs into the Euro zone.

There are actually two separate CFA francs in circulation. The first is that of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) which comprises eight West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. The second is that of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) which comprises six Central African countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon), This division corresponds to the pre-colonial AOF (Afrique Occidentale Française) and the AEF (Afrique Equatoriale Française), with the exception that Guinea-Bissau that was formerly Portuguese and Equatorial Guinea, formerly Spanish.

The WAEMU CFA franc is issued by the BCEAO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest and the Bank of the Central African States (BEAC) controls the CEMAC CFA franc. These currencies were originally pegged at 100 CFA for each French franc but, after France joined the European Community’s Euro zone at a fixed rate of 6.65957 French francs to one Euro, the CFA rate to the Euro was fixed at CFA 665,957 to each Euro, maintaining the 100 to 1 ratio. It is important to note that it is the responsibility of the French Treasury to guarantee the convertibility of the CFA to the Euro.

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2010, French Africa commemorates 50 years of non-independence from France.

It comes with lies that smell of roses and champagne.

Our commentary on the CFA Franc, which in our considered opinion is a crimimal set-up, has been one of our most popular pieces. We re-visit this piece, published in 2008 in The Frontier Telegraph:

Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to the Communauté Financière de l’Afrique ( CFA ), where this is how things have been working for over sixty years. The January 2008 edition of the pan-African magazine, New African, reports that “the tale of this currency is extraordinarily mind-numbing!” and inspires this special commentary.

The CFA was created in 1945 by Gaullist officials in Paris. The CFA franc remains the currency of eight west African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo (UMEAO) and six central African countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon (CEMAC). In west Africa, the Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO) issues the currency, while in central Africa, it is the Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale (BEAC).

Reporter, Regina Jere Malanda, begins the New African exposé on the CFA franc thus:

“If you think it is bad enough that the majority of the former French colonies in Africa fall in the “Bottom 50″ of the least developed countries in the world, spare a thought for this fact: Poor as they are, they have, for over six decades, been depositing 65% of their foreign reserves in the French Treasury in Paris – thanks to an archaic colonial arrangement linking their local currency, the CFA franc , to the French franc and now the euro.” Later on, it is learned that “another 20% of reserves [go] to cover financial liabilities.”

Our largely English reading audience now gets to understand that this is an essential component of being a francophone in Africa. This is a critical underlying factor that maintains the crushing poverty in this sphere we happen to find ourselves as non-francophones. For this archaic arrangement, to have survived for so long, in part, is responsible for unending dictatorships with presidents for life, tyranny, coups and even genocides in francophone Africa.

Read the whole piece here: Slavery By Another Name: CFA Franc

Why has it been so difficult to unite the rather divided Southern Cameroons movements and why are there so many movements fighting for the same cause?

The reason is that those fighting occupation hardly ever do so under one constituted organization or structure. Ideology, tactics and strategy dictate this course. In the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, there was the African National Congress, the United Democratic Front, COSATU, Black Consciousness Movement, Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania, Inkhata Freedom Movement, Black Sash etc. In Zimbabwe, there was ZANU and ZAPU amongst the most prominent. In Angola there was MPLA, UNITA , etc. The story was the same for Mozambique, Eritrea, East Timor, and so on. In Palestine, there is Hamas and the PLO. All these groups do constitute one Liberation Movement for their various peoples.

The Southern Cameroons is no exception. There is one Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement that is fighting for the sovereign independence of the former British Southern Cameroons. And yes, there are several groups such as the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL), the Southern Cameroons People Organization (SCAPO) and other groups that have been formed by fighters for freedom that are all are united in purpose for the common cause of freedom from colonial captivity. I would be surprised if you do not know that the occupying state, République du Cameroun expends a lot of time and huge sums of money on what are demonstrably futile efforts to scuttle our national liberation struggle: rented groups and paid individuals (including some of its own citizens) are deployed to cause confusion, diversion and give the perception of division. These are ancient but familiar and ineffectual rearguard actions of all colonial occupiers. No one has ever been fooled, and we are not.

To continue, click: Carlson Anyangwe Interview at CAMACDA

But as the cases in the report reflect, the objective of the vast majority of tainted money transfers is the self-enrichment of corrupt officials who’ve pilfered public funds, not terrorism. And that’s clear outside the U.S., as well. In France, Transparency International has brought a case against three African leaders — Congo’s Denis Sassou Nguesso, Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang and Bongo’s estate in Gabon — claiming they allegedly used public funds to purchase around $200 million in French properties for themselves. A group of Cameroonian nationals based in France has also lodged a lawsuit in Paris accusing Cameroon President Paul Biya of buying French homes worth hundreds of millions of dollars with taxpayer funds. The three surviving leaders have rejected all accusations of corruption levied against them.

By Bruce Crumley

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the West moved quickly to crack down on the money laundering and secret banking systems that fund much of the terrorism in the world. But as evidence in both the U.S. and Europe suggests, illicit finances continue to circulate around the globe — and quite often the money has nothing to do with violence, but plain greed. Indeed, a new report released by the U.S. Senate this month cites cases of huge volumes of suspect cash being moved from Africa to the U.S. for no other reason than to fatten the bank accounts of crooked leaders, shady arms dealers and conniving middlemen. And experts warn that if these people can still shuttle suspected corruption money across borders for personal gain, similar methods remain open to terrorists, too. (See pictures of a jihadist’s journey.)

“As long as mass corruption, dirty money and banking secrecy are not eradicated together as a single priority, you’ll never defeat the sub-activity within that funding terrorism,” says Jacques Valerian, head of private sector programs at the Berlin-based anti-corruption organization Transparency International. “Western nations recognize the urgency to treat this problem when it involves terrorism, but they become more pragmatic when it’s in the form of ordinary corruption bleeding entire countries dry.”

Read the rest of this article at Time Magazine

Continuing, Yembe observed that as a journalist and writer himself, he has never known of an occasion when a book launch is done in the absence of the author or even his representative to be presented and to autograph the bought copies! He wondered why the entire Government bench composed only of Southern Cameroonians have to leave their demanding tasks in Yaoundé to join the entire North West ‘Etat Major’ to launch the book of an obscure French writer. Was the Cameroon government mandated by this French boy to promote and launch the book for him, Yembe wondered aloud.

By Martin Yembe as Observer and Participant in Bamenda

Biya’s latest agenda to crush the Southern Cameroons’ struggle and completely implant his “Mr. Clean” image on the citizens of this territory has been made public. The event took the Bamenda people like a storm, when the state-owned CRTV began broadcasting a special news bulletin from NW Governor, on a very high profile delegation from Yaoundé to launch a very important book in Bamenda. The invitees to the book launch were all North West Fons; All CPDM Section Presidents; All members of the Civil Society; all sons and daughters of the North West.

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There is an edge to Kagame’s independence. He is dismissive of international advice, pointing out that Western experts told him his reconciliation plans were flawed and that his country was “unviable” economically. He has fueled the conflict in neighboring Congo by supporting local warlords and militias, and he accuses United Nations peacekeepers of exacerbating the problems there. He is not a supporter of the International Criminal Court, even though it indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for actions that resemble, in smaller degree, the genocide in Rwanda. “International justice is a fraud,” Kagame said to me, arguing that French officials, for instance, should be tried for helping to train and arm the Hutu–dominated military that carried out the Rwandan genocide. “Why does it appear strange that justice would apply to somebody in Europe who has a responsibility? They can never do wrong, therefore justice does not apply.”

Source: Newsweek
By Fareed Zakaria

President Obama was right to give his recent address in Ghana, highlighting an African success story rather than casting his speech against the backdrop of poverty and pity. One of the great underreported stories of the last decade has been the rise of this new Africa. In 2007, before the economic crisis hit, 37 countries on the continent were growing at 4 percent a year or more, and 34 countries there are classified by Freedom House as “free” or “partly free.” The OECD reports that, in a first, Africa gets more money from investors than from foreign aid. The continent remains poor, disease-stricken, and often poorly governed. But for the first time in a long time, there is forward momentum.

Nowhere is this more true than in Rwanda. If ever a nation seemed destined to fail, it was Rwanda. A little more than 15 years ago, the country suffered the most brutal genocide since the Holocaust. In 100 days, Hutu mobs slaughtered more than 800,000 Tutsis, one tenth of the population, a literal decimation. Many thought Rwanda would plunge into a death spiral like other “postconflict” countries, such as Somalia.

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By Christopher Thompson

Bongo’s demise at the age of 73 had the air of a tragi-comic Shakespearean play. Officially, Africa’s longest-serving leader died from a ‘heart attack’, having suffered from cancer, but some suggest foul play, citing the possibility that he was poisoned by ambitious palace plotters. Whatever the truth, his body was flown on Thursday from Spain to Gabon, for a period of lying-in-state before he is buried this week.

The death sent French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his mandarins into a spin: Bongo has been France’s most important ally in Africa since the De Gaulle era. The French army has a military base in the capital, Libreville, and French business giants such as Total and Bollore dominate Gabon’s economy.

Ali Ben Bongo, Gabon’s Defence Minister, who as The First Post reported last week is the presumed successor to the presidency, keeps a Ferrari 456 GTA, a Mercedes S-600 limousine and a Porsche 911 in France.

Original The First Post Report Here

The death last week of Omar Bongo, president of the oil-rich west African state of Gabon, has focused attention on why a French police investigation into the assets of the late dictator was shut down last year.

Bongo’s French real estate holdings were so numerous and valuable that he was rumoured to be the country’s biggest property owner. The investigation, launched in 2007, was intended to examine how Bongo and his family could possibly amass such a portfolio without embezzling state funds.

A list of the assets, made by French police before the investigation was abruptly halted by Paris’s public prosecutor, has been seen by The First Post. It details 39 of the Bongo family’s French properties – mostly in Paris’s chic 16th arrondissement, including the apartment on Rue Laurent Pichat photographed above, plus several homes on the Cote d’Azur.

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By BBC News 12/6/09
Jun 15, 2009 – 8:13:13 AM

The BBC’s Peter Lewenstein has compiled a list – in reverse order, by length of continuous time in office – of the 10 African heads of state who have stood the test of time.

No 10: PRESIDENT ZINE AL-ABIDINE BEN ALI of TUNISIA
Tunisia’s President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali

21 YEARS IN POWER

President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came to power in a bloodless coup in November 1987.
He took over from Habib Bourguiba amid claims the latter was unfit to govern owing to senility.
Mr Ben Ali marked the 21st anniversary of office by releasing 44 political prisoners.

No 9: PRESIDENT BLAISE COMPAORE of BURKINA FASO
Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso

21 YEARS

Mystery still surrounds the death of President Blaise Compaore’s predecessor and friend, Thomas Sankara.
But after he was shot dead by a group of soldiers in October 1987, Mr Compaore, as his number two, stepped into the breach.
President Compaore has since won three elections, scraping in last time round in 2005 with 80% percent of the vote.

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