By Udo W. Froese
non-institutionalised, independent political and socio-economic analyst and columnist, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
ALL African heads of State, ruling parties and more particularly, the African Union (AU), should take heed of foreign interests and their hidden agendas, that their counterparts in Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali, Madagascar, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe have gone through. In fact, to this day they still suffer the consequences of those powerful alien interests having mongered in their sovereign affairs.
Those neo-colonial interests have bled this continent not only of its strategic resources. Endemic civil, tribal and rebel wars, bribery and corruption with the subsequent compromising of elected leadership, structured poverty – all to enforce imperialist ownership and control over resources. That is the price Africa, including Namibia, has to pay. Always remember, there are not any free lunches. It has and will cost millions of innocent and poor African lives for some time to come. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening with horrifying results to come in the near future, if not addressed with urgency. Yet, Africa’s economic growth in the time of a global debt holocaust, the worst in man’s history, is anticipated. It is further expected that this economic growth will accelerate. In these times, Africa’s elected leadership however, finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Despite powerful historical alien interests and their cunning strategies to keep the majority of the African population out in the starving heat, presidents and governments have an obligation to ensure that the new opportunities are not limited to a privileged few.
It would be destructive to assist those alien elements in their expected ‘guidance’ to create a new buffer-elite against the majority of the electorate. In fact, it would be tantamount to national destabilisation and high treason, if their followers and their country were betrayed. The poor majority needs protection. According to international research, South Africa with a population of 51.05 million people, has the unfortunate attribute of having the highest inequality levels in the world. This indicates the least economic equality. And Namibia’s economy, like those of most of the SADC member countries, depends on its southern neighbour’s economy to a large extent.
South Africa’s GDP growth favours a small oligopolistic and crony-capitalist elite only, which calls Amsterdam, Antwerp, London, New York, Toronto, Perth and Tel Aviv its home. Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) identified South Africa’s economic exploitational structure as the single biggest global threat. Fairer and just global economic and tax systems need not to be debated. Margaret Thatcher’s doctrine of “Don’t just talk. Do!” now seems the most pragmatic standard to act by. Yet, the Doha trade talks seem to be nothing more than blowing hot air, waiting for a new industry to be developed – that of balloons to be filled with it. It also clearly indicates that there is simply no sincere will and pragmatic wish to change things for the better for African nations, as those talk shops work in theory, but are set up not to be executed.
African governments, including Namibia, the SADC, ECOWAS and the AU already have had too many warnings over what is still happening in the north of the continent – the highly treasonous so-called “North African style Arab Spring (Egyptian, Libyan and Syrian!)” in order to create a political and economic dustbowl. Such would only be to the advantage of alien imperialist interests, who would profit from asset stripping and the subsequent privatisation of parastatals and the consequential starvation of the masses. Meanwhile, they would travel to Africa just to buy the jewels of the economy for less than a song, immediately thereafter to return to their homes abroad. Be warned – dance with the devil at the peril of your kith and kin.
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