Thursday - January 05, 2012
boy killed by sister and friend cos he was a witch. the stone age ppl among us.
About to shut this thing down when this flew across my screen.
They’re among us. Vermin.
Just another normal day in the lives of these stone age Negroes who settle in civilized western countries.
They come from the bush and should be returned there. It’s their natural habitat.
This is pretty gruesome but it’s just another example of the sorts being allowed into the UK and France. And for that matter, all over Europe.
But I guess that’s raaaaaacist. Yeah. So?
Mr Altman told jurors that the couple were believers in ‘kindoki’ - a form of witchcraft that pervades almost all sections of their native Congolese society.
He said: ‘Kindoki usually denotes a negative, malicious force, by which people in conjunction with the spirits, or by spirits alone, deliberately inflict harm.
‘Kindoki pervades Congolese life, from high to low, rich to poor, and a believe in kindoki is not inconsistent with Christianity, because in the Congo it is practised in the churches with active support of the pastors.
Boy, 15, ‘tortured to death with hammer and chisels on Christmas Day because relative thought he was a witch’
· Kristy Bamu was killed by his sister and her boyfriend, Old Bailey is told
· Boy eventually drowned in bath, in such pain he couldn’t keep his head above water, court hears
· Police recovered bloodstained pliers, a hammer chisel and several knives from the flat
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
A teenager accused of witchcraft was tortured to death by his sister and her partner in ‘a tale of horror’ on Christmas Day, the Old Bailey heard.
Eric Bikubi, 27, and Magalie Bamu, 28, attacked Kristy Bamu, 15, and his two sisters with pliers, knives and a hammer after accusing them of being ‘sorcerers’, it is claimed.
Kristy was in such pain after days of being attacked with sticks, a metal bar, hammer and chisel that he begged to die, jurors heard.
The teenage boy had suffered 101 injuries - his face and head were covered in cuts and some of his teeth were missing when he was found in the blood-soaked flat.
See the source, read it, and you’ll see why the illustration below the fold.
Posted by peiper
on 01/05/2012 at 11:13 AM
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Permalink • Monday - December 19, 2011
they’re called protesters because we can’t use the proper term for them too boldly.
H/T LyndonB for the link.
Don’t know how I missed this one but it needs sharing here as opposed to the comments section, even though it’s a week out of date. But the date doesn’t matter. The story does.
What the hell, it’s all part of ‘diversity’ and ‘multi-culture’ and everything else that belongs to leftist mumbo jumbo.
So a group of foreign darkies, notice I have avoided calling them what they really are, want to protest something they think is wrong in their own damn turd world country. Do they go there to improve things? Of course not. They come to the oh so fuckin liberal west and spread their poison here where in addition to human rights they can have benefits. Then attack in the streets, the very culture that’s supporting them and giving them the freedom to do what they do.
They didn’t riot and trash things because something is still rotten in their homeland. They do this everywhere they are allowed to settle. And the better culture is expected to welcome them as equals and even as humans. Which in the end will cause the eventual decay of the superior culture. It will because it always does and time will prove this so again. White liberals will see to it. Just another example of the doings of the white man’s burden & curse.
Charity carol concert attacked by Congo protesters
Carol singers raising money for a cancer charity in Trafalgar Square were attacked by protesters during a night of disorder that saw 139 arrests.
By Matthew Holehouse
Shops were attacked, passers-by threatened and car windows smashed during a demonstration in central London against the election result in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The carol concert was raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support. It was organised by a group of friends whose loved ones had been treated for cancer.
Masked teenage boys ‘stormed’ the singers, throwing bottles of water and hot drinks into the crowd.
A woman in her 40s, said to be undergoing treatment for breast cancer, was pulled to the ground.
A youth attempted to set light to the Christmas tree, an annual gift from the city of Oslo since 1947, one witness said.“They were determined not to let us sing and have fun and utterly ruined the atmosphere. Have your protest and make your point, but why did you have to ruin a lovely occasion with your scuminess,” Mark Horton, a conductor of the choir, wrote in a message online. The concert was cut short amid safety concerns.
The attack was ‘egged on’ by teenage girls who screamed and shouted “like the possessed”, another witness said.
Other arrests were made for assaulting police officers, obstructing police and blocking a public highway. Police held demonstrators inside double decker busses before ferrying them to custody.
The demonstration began as an agreed ‘static’ protest in Whitehall on Saturday evening against the re-election of President Joseph Kabila, which international observers say “lacks credibility”.
The vast central African country has immense mineral wealth but has been ravaged by civil war, corruption and economic mismanagement. Protestors accuse Western governments of propping up the regime.
On Thursday a group of 200 Congo demonstrators forced the evacuation of Oxford Circus tube station, central London, after they set off a passenger alarm on an underground train.
It has nothing at all to do with an election in their home country. It has to do with genes and and a natural proclivity toward criminality and enjoying their natural racial pastime, which is described in this article. Any old excuse to riot will do.
Posted by peiper
on 12/19/2011 at 04:47 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - September 17, 2011
Must … Resist … Temptation
JOHANNESBURG — A South African court has blocked the government from buying 11 million female condoms from China, saying they are too small, a newspaper reported Friday.
The finance ministry had awarded a contract to a firm called Siqamba Medical, which planned to buy the Phoenurse condoms from China, the Beeld newspaper said.
A rival firm, Sekunjalo Investments Corporation, turned to the High Court in Pretoria after losing the bid, arguing that their condoms were 20 percent larger than the Chinese ones.
Judge Sulet Potterill blocked the deal with Siqamba, ruling that the female condoms were too small, made from the wrong material, and were not approved by the World Health Organisation, the paper said.
South Africa has more HIV infections than any country in the world, with 5.38 million of its 50 million people carrying the virus.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/17/2011 at 11:52 AM
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Permalink • Monday - July 25, 2011
What, Again???
yawn.
Food aid for Somalia could be flown into country within a week
The international effort to bring humanitarian relief to 3.7 million Somalis who need urgent help to beat drought and famine is being hampered by al-Shabaab’s refusal to let most agencies into their territory.
The al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents backtracked on an earlier promise to allow access.
But the United Nations said it was planning to fly food into areas held by the Islamists despite the ban.
“There are 2.2 million people yet to be reached,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the agency.
“It is the most dangerous environment we are working in in the world. But people are dying. It’s not about politics, it’s about saving lives now.”
Jane, you ignorant slut. It’s always about politics, first, last and forever. It’s not about saving lives at all, and never was. The warlords will take your food, feed themselves, then steal the rest and sell it for weapons the instant you turn your back, while starving their opposition. That story hasn’t changed in Africa in 60 years or more.
WFP was one of the many organisations that al-Shabaab effectively forced out last year after imposing strict conditions of operation including no foreign female staff.
The group also taxed aid convoys.
Regis Chapman, the head of WFP’s operations in Somalia, said that food deliveries would soon start into the limited parts of Mogadishu controlled by the internationally-backed government.
He added that “within a week to 10 days” WFP would be sending food into areas controlled by the Islamists.
The Red Cross on Sunday said that it had delivered 400 tonnes of food to 24,000 people in Gedo province, the first time it had taken supplies into al-Shabaab’s territory since 2009. More than 2 million Somalis in the worst affected areas, including two famine zones, live in al-Shabaab territory and cannot be reached by international aid.
They are among more than 11.5 million people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia who need urgent help to keep them from starving after at least two years with no rain.
Stop wasting your money. Let them all starve. It won’t make any difference even in the short run. There are always tens of millions starving in Africa. Or suffering from some dread disease. Or being cleansed ethnically. Or being molested by flamingos. Whatever. It’s what Africa does, because Africa is actually Hell. It’s their job.
You can’t feed the people because the other people are such heartless malicious bastards that they use starvation as a political and military tool. They always have, and they always will. Stop wasting your money. Wait. This is the UN we’re talking about. So it’s MY money they’re wasting. Stop even faster in that case.
Maybe they should petition those Somali pirates in their own midst to use some of those hundreds of millions in ransom money to, you know, BUY some food for once.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/25/2011 at 03:34 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - May 28, 2011
handouts for africa do not help
And speaking of Africa and aid to that place. Here’s an interesting note and it even compliments Wardmom’s comments on a previous post.
Call me Dave (Cameron), the Brit PM wants to increase foreign aid not just to the cause of the “Arab Spring” but more for Africa and poor countries.
How nice when one can be generous with other peoples money. But then, that’s what politicians do.
But this caught my eye, and how could it not? “Handouts are making Africa a spoilt child.” Well, well. What’s this?
Mandela aide: Lavish handouts are making Africa the ‘spoilt child of the planet’
By JASON GROVES
Lavish aid to Africa is turning the continent into a ‘spoilt child’, according to the head of a charity backed by Nelson Mandela.
Mike Kendrick, founder of the respected Mineseeker Foundation, warned that aid often increased the hardship faced by the world’s poorest people.
In a devastating verdict, he told the Daily Mail last night: ‘I sometimes use the analogy of a spoilt child. We have all seen rich parents give their child everything they need, without earning it.
‘Africa is a spoilt child of the planet. It is not their fault. It is ours.
‘It is completely pointless and totally detrimental to spend endless billions on projects that are well intentioned but badly thought out and poorly implemented.
‘The current government is apparently determined to repeat the mistakes of the former one.’
Mr Kendrick decided to speak out as David Cameron defended of his controversial pledge to increase spending on international aid by 34 per cent while cutting budgets at home.
He is now seeking a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss his experiences of the impact of aid on developing countries.
The Mineseeker Foundation was established ten years ago with the backing of Sir Richard Branson to help the victims of landmines in former conflict zones, including many parts of Africa.
Mr Kendrick said he had witnessed the failure of international aid at first hand and his views were ‘shared’ by Mr Mandela.
He said that as well as making people dependent on handouts, aid money often undercut local businesses and initiatives.
‘International financial aid, unless specifically targeted toward practical and ongoing projects, is of little use and should be stopped immediately to prevent yet more suffering,’ he added.
‘We need to change lives permanently, not just whilst funds last, and develop sustainable sturdy economies that will transform lives on a long-term basis.
‘The problem is that aid, when badly directed, actually kills people and this is a matter of fact – not opinion. In the past few decades the West has provided several trillion dollars in aid, yet the average African is now twice as poor as he was before all that started.’
Mr Kendrick said that even well-meaning initiatives, such as Gordon Brown’s project to supply £100million of mosquito nets to Africa, could have damaging unintended consequences.
‘I doubt he realised that in doing so he was committing many hundreds of people into a poverty trap that would possibly reduce them to starvation.
‘Making and repairing mosquito nets is one of the few remaining cottage industries in Africa and by dumping millions of dollars worth of nets in various areas it simply shut all of those local businesses down.’
Mr Kendrick is pioneering a series of ‘aid-free zones’ in Mozambique to attract investors to directly support local businesses. The first project, to create a major coconut plantation, could eventually sustain 50,000 people and is being set up without a penny of aid.
Mr Kendrick said similar projects could transform Africa in the long term, while aid would never be more than a quick fix.
Posted by peiper
on 05/28/2011 at 02:37 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - April 14, 2011
Well, they did invent the banjo after all
dada deeda deeda deeda dee ...
Consanguinity ("con- (with/together) sanguine (blood) -ity (noun marker)") refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person.
The percentage of consanguinity between any two individuals decreases fourfold as the most recent common ancestor recedes one generation. Consanguinity means the amount of shared (identical) DNA, the genetic material. For example, first cousins have four times the consanguinity of second cousins. First cousins once removed have half the shared DNA as full first cousins. Half-fourth cousins sometimes cannot be detected at the DNA level.[5] Finally, double first cousins share twice the consanguinity as first cousins and are as related as half-siblings.
As a working definition, unions contracted between persons biologically related as second cousins or closer (F ≥ 0.0156) are categorized as consanguineous. This arbitrary limit has been chosen because the genetic influence in marriages between couples related to a lesser degree would usually be expected to differ only slightly from that observed in the general population. Globally, the most common form of consanguineous union contracted is between first cousins, in which the spouses share 1/8 of their genes inherited from a common ancestor, and so their progeny are homozygous (or more correctly autozygous) at 1/16 of all loci. Conventionally this is expressed as the coefficient of inbreeding (F) and for first cousin offspring, F = 0.0625. That is, the progeny are predicted to have inherited identical gene copies from each parent at 6.25% of all gene loci, over and above the baseline level of homozygosity in the general population. In some large human populations genetically closer marriages also are favoured, in particular uncle-niece and double first cousin unions where the level of homozygosity in the progeny is equivalent to 0.125.
Everywhere in the western world, people look at the savage violence that is a daily occurrence in the Muslim world and shake their heads in stunned disbelief. A pastor of a very small Christian flock in Florida burns a Koran. Weeks later at literally the global antipode, Muslim imams drive through neighborhoods in a vehicle with loudspeakers attached, calling the townsfolk to riot. The townsfolk respond, and before it is all over, at least 22 innocent people are dead at the hands of these townsfolk, with at least two of them beheaded. How is this possible? How can this be? How can human behavior and culture be so monstrously different? Is this difference attributable to nothing more than environmental nurture theory?
No. There is something else. There is a catalyst—absent in every other culture on earth—that has poisoned the cultural soil, thus yielding the fruit of bad harvest for nearly 1,400 years. That catalyst is inbreeding. As a direct result, the Muslim population is mentally developmentally disabled on a mass scale.
But there is one culture, one faux “religion,” that expressly condones and encourages consanguineous marriage and breeding. That system is Islam, and the document that explicitly ratifies incest is the Koran, specifically Sura 4 verse 23
...
First cousin marriage for just one generation is extremely risky in and of itself. This is why virtually every other culture on earth prohibits it, and treats it as a cultural taboo. When two people come together who carry so many similar genetic alleles, the chance of an undesirable recessive trait expressing itself in their offspring soars. Now, understanding that single-generational risk, understand that Muslims have been marrying their first cousins over and over again for 1,400 years. Sit in stillness for a moment with the full, terrifying gravity of this.
| Country | Inbreeding |
| Algeria | 34.0 % |
| Bahrain | 45.5 % |
| Northern Egypt | 32.8 % |
| Southern Egypt | 80.4% |
| Iraq | 60 % |
| Jordan | 63.7 % |
| Kuwait | 64.3 % |
| Libya | 48.4 % |
| Palestine | 66.3 % |
| Qatar | 54 % |
| Saudi Arabia | 66.7 % |
Selected countries, rates of maximum consanguinity
Information on the history of the banjo and it’s descent from the plucked lute of dynastic Egypt can be found here. “Modern” versions of the instrument that are still widely played across the Middle East, like the teharden pictured above, can be found here.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/14/2011 at 11:08 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - April 07, 2011
Brits give savage mau-mau boo-boo. mau-mau now want com-pin-say-shun
Yeah. Like those savages didn’t bring it on themselves. They were doing these things to each other long before any Brits dreamed of the place. So now these innocents want to sue.
Mau-mau deserved everything they got. There is not one example where they showed anything but the savage cavemen they were. Piss on em. I hope their lawyer gets hit by a bus. These sub-humans look pretty old. Maybe they’ll croak before any court can screw the country any more then has been done.
Get a load of some of the names. Ndiku Mutwiwa Muta? Wambugu wa Nyingi? Oh yeah ...
Hussein Onyango OBAMA???? Scrambled alphabet names for scrambled sub species. Take a look at some of the pix at the link.
Castration and conspiracy: How British government covered up torture of the Mau Maus for 50 years
By MICHAEL SEAMARK
Last updated at 9:55 AM on 6th April 2011‘Torture victims’ in court for landmark claim against British government
Files exposing abuse were flown out of Kenya on eve of independence
50 year cover up as damning papers languished in Foreign Office
Successful case could open floodgates from claims around world
A Government ‘cover-up’ of one of the darkest episodes in British colonial history emerged yesterday on the eve of a High Court battle by veterans of Kenya’s independence war.Around 300 boxes of documents ‘lost’ for almost half a century have been unearthed as four elderly Kenyans claim compensation for torture carried out against Mau Mau rebels.
The Kenyans say they suffered ‘unspeakable acts of brutality, including castrations and severe sexual assault’ in British-run detention camps during the rebellion against colonial rule between 1952 and 1960.
The 1,500 files – documenting efforts to put down the Mau Mau guerrilla insurgency – were spirited out of Africa on the eve of Kenya’s independence in 1963 and brought to Britain. The missing documents, with material that ‘might embarrass her Majesty’s Government’ removed, were thought to have been lost or destroyed.
But after a High Court judge ordered the Government to produce all relevant evidence, the files – which filled 110ft of shelving – were found in the Foreign Office.
They are expected to play a key role in the court action beginning tomorrow by Kenyan claimants who want a statement of regret from the Government and a welfare fund for victims. With at least 1,400 other former Mau Mau detainees still alive, Britain could face a multi-million-pound compensation bill if the Kenyans win their case.
I don’t suppose their victims can claim any com-pin-say-shun. Course not. Those that aren’t dead are mostly white. No hint of a pay out for them.
Posted by peiper
on 04/07/2011 at 11:52 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - April 03, 2011
Rolling Rolling Rolling
UAE Special Forces stormed a hijacked Dubai-bound ship yesterday, rescuing the crew and arresting all the pirates who had seized it.
Special counter-terrorism units, with support from the Air Force and Air Defence, as well as the US Fifth Fleet, stormed the MV Arrilah-I, a bulk carrier en route from Australia to Jebel Ali, the Armed Forces General Headquarters said in a statement.
The ship was hijacked in the Arabian Sea, east of Oman, early on Friday.
The military said the vessel was now headed towards Emirati shores, guarded by UAE Special Forces. The pirates will be handed over to the Ministry of Interior once they arrive in Dubai.
The Armed Forces said the rescue showed the UAE’s commitment to acting “firmly” in the face of piracy, adding that the country would “not succumb to such threats”.
The 37,000-tonne ship is owned by the Abu Dhabi National Tanker Company and the National Gas Shipping Company, two subsidiaries of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).
...
Pirate attacks are estimated to cost between US$7 billion (Dh25.7bn) and $12bn annually in losses to the global economy, according to a December study by the One Earth Future Foundation.
See, even the arabs can take down pirates if they feel like it. And muzzies have no compunction at all about killing fellow muzzies. They simply apply their “religion”, and it’s “Hassan chop!”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the continent, certain people have no compunction at all about killing anyone. As the battle for the presidency rages on in the Ivory Coast, word gets out about a head chopping massacre. At least 1000 dead in the streets, whacked into chunks by barbaric animals for the “crime” of ... of nothing really. Just being in the way I guess. Typical africa.
Machete thugs hack to death 1,000 in just one town as Ivory Coast battle rages
A thousand civilians have been found massacred in a small town in Ivory Coast amid worsening civil conflict in the West African state.
The victims were discovered by aid agency workers in Duekoue. Some had been shot and others hacked to death with machetes.
It was not clear last night who carried out the attacks, but the area is thought to be in the control of supporters of Alassane Ouattara, who won Ivory Coast’s election late last year. President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step down.
Red Cross spokesman Dorothea Krimitsas warned: ‘There is a risk this kind of event can happen again.’
Last night 10,000 refugees crowded into Duekoue’s Catholic church, guarded by 1,000 United Nations peacekeepers.
Yeah, and?? Then what happened? You don’t ever ever hear a story out of Africa that starts “10,000 refugees hid out in a church” without the follow-on “where they were all burned to death by opposition forces while useless blue helmets stood around picking their asses”. So far ... that news hasn’t been reported. Keep your fingers crossed.
Col. Chaib Rais, the U.N. military spokesman, told The Associated Press that nearly 1,000 peacekeepers at Duekoue “are protecting the Catholic Church with more than 10,000 (refugees) inside and we have military camps in the area.”
But he said “I have no special report of (mass killings).”
Rais said there was fighting in and around the town on Sunday and Monday, between forces loyal to the rival leaders.
On Monday, fighters loyal to Ouattara took Duekoue.
ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said “communal violence” erupted there, apparently on Tuesday.
International and Ivorian Red Cross teams visited Duekoue Friday and saw a “huge number of bodies,” estimated at more than 800, she said.
...
Human Rights Watch issued a statement Saturday saying it had documented abuses, with the vast majority perpetrated by forces loyal to Gbagbo against real or perceived Ouattara supporters, as well as against West African immigrants and Muslims.“The documented abuses include targeted killings, enforced disappearances, politically motivated rapes, and unlawful use of lethal force against unarmed demonstrators,” the statement said. “These abuses, committed over a four-month period by security forces under the control of Gbagbo and militias loyal to him, may rise to the level of crimes against humanity.”
Africa ... it’s where you want to take your next vacation. NOT IN TEN MILLION YEARS THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!
Oh - the bit of info that should not be lost in the story of this atrocity? The UN “peacekeepers” already control the town where this atrocity occurred. So, WTF are they good for? Why did this happen? Did they forget that they’re there to protect people, not just treat the local underage girls like whores while stuffing their pockets with whatever they can steal or extort?
JOHANNESBURG - More than 800 people have been massacred in a western Ivory Coast town where hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers are based
, the International Federation of the Red Cross said Saturday, but the U.N. military spokesman said he had no information about mass killings there.
The Roman Catholic charity Caritas put the toll at more than 1,000 dead, an estimate reached by its workers who visited the town of Duekoue on Wednesday.
The REAL title that these new reports should have is UN Cowards Allow Vile Giant Massacre To Happen Under Their Noses, Do Nothing To Prevent It.
Yeah sure, “Colonel” Rais didn’t know nothing ‘bout no killings. Not a thing. Didn’t see or hear anything, even though Duekoue is a tiny town of perhaps 40 streets and covers one square mile. Pull it up on your map software and see.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/03/2011 at 09:18 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 31, 2011
Your Pound Of Beans
Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara have seized the major cocoa port of San Pedro, extending a nationwide offensive that has left incumbent Laurent Gbagbo isolated in the main city, Abidjan.
In a blow to Gbagbo, his army chief of staff, General Phillippe Mangou, sought refuge in the South African ambassador’s residence in Abidjan. A South African spokesman denied rumors that Gbagbo was on the way to South Africa.
Residents and combatants from both sides said the pro-Ouattara forces were in control of western port town of San Pedro, and that it was now largely calm apart from some sporadic shooting.
Reuters witnesses in the main city, Abidjan, Gbagbo’s last remaining stronghold, said the streets were virtually empty and gunfire could be heard overnight and on Thursday morning, but it was not clear who was involved.
Gbagbo has resisted pressure from the African Union and the West to step down since a presidential election last November, which U.N.-certified results showed he lost to Ouattara by an 8-point margin, sparking a deadly power struggle.
But forces loyal to Ouattara launched an offensive this week on three fronts, and towns across the country fell, mostly without resistance, one after another as they swept south.
Cocoa prices have fallen about 9 percent since on the push. The capture of San Pedro, which ships half of the top grower’s beans, could, in theory, mean a resumption in exports.
Diplomats said on Thursday that European Union sanctions, including an embargo on cocoa shipments from San Pedro, would remain in place and if any exemption were discussed it would take four or five days to come into force.
So, who cares? Well, you do, even if you don’t know it. The Ivory Coast provides nearly half the world’s cocoa, and the unrest there has caused the commodity price to skyrocket. Neighboring Ghana and Nigeria Cocoa together produce a bit less than le Côte d’Ivoire; the 3 West African nations account for a touch more than 2/3 of world production. Ghana and Nigeria are having their own political instabilities.
Cocoa bean production is not a huge business; only about 3.4 million metric tons (1000 kilos = 2200lbs) a year of beans are grown worldwide. With more than 6 billion people in the world this amounts to just about 1 pound of cocoa beans per person annually.
Politics in the Ivory Coast are typically African, tribal crossed with religious, and too complicated for outsiders to understand, but when they had a civil war there 8 years ago cocoa prices took a huge jump from which they never fully recovered. Laurent Gbagbo was president before, during, and after the war, so I guess his forces won. A few months ago they held an election and he lost, although his people obviously rigged the numbers and he claimed victory. Since then he has refused to step down, and this has plunged the country right back into civil war. Thanks a lot. At this point in time it looks like rebel leader and election winner Alassane Ouattara and his followers are winning, and with their troops seizing the one decent port in the country international market fears are easing.
This is some interesting economics, considering that there is a worldwide sanction on cocoa from the Ivory Coast right now. In theory they are not part of the current market, so how could the situation there impact global pricing? I guess the answer is that they are still growing the beans, and they have to be piled up in warehouses somewhere. World demand is fairly stable, so with only 1/3 of the product currently available from the other producer nations, this would cause a rather skittish market. But it is more complex than that, because cocoa is not created in a factory. The beans are grown on trees, and the pods ripen whenever they feel like it. This means the main harvest season lasts 7 months, and the minor secondary harvest season lasts another 3 months. Right now we are just into the no harvest at all period.
Cocoa farming is on the decline in several of the other producer nations. The trees take 5 or 6 years to mature and can produce for 50 years or more, but there just isn’t much money in it for the farmers. I find that interesting in itself, because the commodity price is more than half again as high now than it was when the Ivorian civil war started, and that price (around $2200/mt) was nearly 3 times as high as the price was just 2 years earlier in 2000 ($800/mt). Even if you ignore February’s record shattering price of over $3700/mt, a 32 year high and the current drop from there, cocoa beans are selling at more than 4 times the price they were a decade ago. Go figure. You’d think people would be planting left and right. I guess it’s just too much hard work, even though most of it is done by children.
Some analysts say that up to a quarter million of the pod pickers are small children, and there are very strong allegations that many of these children are kept as slaves. But given the typical abhorrent living conditions in Africa and their standard horrific inhumanity and barbarism, how could you tell? But before you feel all guilty and start searching for only Fair Trade chocolate to buy, you should know that the cocoa pods can usually only be harvested by children. The cocoa tree is fragile and the pods grow from the trunk, not from the branches. Adults climbing the trees damage them, and monkeys can’t be used because they don’t differentiate between the ripe pods and the unripe ones. So child labor is it. Don’t forget that the Turd World has a very different view on child labor than the spoiled and decadent west. What we see as child abuse they see as giving children the work opportunity to not starve to death.
Oh, and the root of all the problems in the Ivory Coast? You don’t even have to guess; you know what the answer is. Pisslam. Of course! When the French controlled the Ivory Coast it was a wonderland, with some of the highest per capita income and standard of living on the entire continent. This continued for several decades after independence in 1960, but at some point the Ivorians started importing foreign labor to do the scut work. And guess who showed up?
A former French colony and the world’s top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast was once regarded as a haven of peace and stability, until a 1999 coup that toppled president Henri Konan Bedie. Long considered a peaceful country, that welcomed millions of immigrant workers to sustain a booming economy after its independence from France in 1960, up to 40 percent of the 16 million population is now foreign. The immigrants inflamed political, religious and ethnic frictions between the largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south and west.
Until his death in 1993, these disputes were kept under control by the country’s post-independence president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. But like Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the ancient ethnic and religious animosities were still there, and were exploited by rival politicians after Houphouet-Boigny was gone. Elections were held and Laurent Gbagbo, a southern nationalist, won. He tried to improve his control of the country by forcing northerners out of the security forces, and have millions of them declared foreigners, and ineligible to vote.
This led to the first round of fighting in 2002. The French sent in troops, to at least prevent escalation, and with UN help, a ceasefire was achieved in 2003. But in late 2004, the ceasefire was broken with government air raids on rebel bases in the north.
Until the push south this week, the worst of the violence had centered on Abidjan, where anti-Gbagbo insurgents, who do not necessarily support Ouattara, have seized parts of town.
In a sign violence could spin out of control, the army called on Gbagbo’s often violent youth wing to enlist in the military. They have been fired up with anti-French, anti-foreigner and anti-U.N. propaganda, and on Wednesday the army started openly handing out weapons to them.
Currently there are 11,000 UN Blue Helmets in the Ivory Coast, the vast majority of them being other Africans. So you know what that means ... it’s a mess. A chocolate mess.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/31/2011 at 09:33 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 24, 2011
aid to africa has been money wasted. who’d have guessed that?
This fellow isn’t the most popular man in the UK I confess. Only know what I hear ppl say about him. The wife tells me he is referred to as The Prince of Darkness.
However .... being of the left doesn’t mean he has always been wrong. At least he has this right.
The question is .... why has it taken so long for someone associated with the left, to say what most already know and have known for years and years.
No need to post the entire article. It caught my eye and thought I’d share this huge surprise for all conservatives, who will I know be shocked by the news.
Africa aid has been wasted and created army of beggars, says Mandelson
By GERRI PEEVMost of the aid sent to Africa in the past half century has been wasted and has turned the region’s countries into ‘professional beggars’, according to Peter Mandelson.
The former Cabinet minister gave one of the harshest assessments yet of successive governments’ aid policies, warning that Britain had failed to help African economies grow.
Lord Mandelson, a former business secretary, insisted that the money should have been poured into trade rather than handouts.
The Labour peer told The Times Summit on Africa in London: ‘Most of the aid we have sent to Africa over the last five decades has probably, in the main, been wasted as far as growth is concerned.
‘I’m not anti-aid, but if you ask me where I would put my money, it would go on trade rather than aid as a key to African economic development.’
His extraordinary intervention comes as many on the Tory backbenches are questioning the wisdom of the Coalition’s policy to ringfence overseas aid while making cutbacks elsewhere.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Friday - February 25, 2011
A & R Friday, Part 2
Looks like Peiper had the same idea. Not that there isn’t always room for more.
This is the replacement post. I wasn’t even going to do it. I was going to write about how the Cairo Museum is open again, and how, against all odds, TV personality, martinet, staunch Mubarak supporter, and Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass still has his job. I had neat pictures of tanks in front of the museum, which is right there on the edge of Tahrir Square in Cairo. Pictures of Hawass inside with Egyptian Special Forces guards, rumors of how the museum was used as a police detention and torture center during the protests, links to the ruckus surrounding the looting that went on there and at other archaeological sites around the country, stories about how the people worked with the army and the police to guard as many of these places as they could, quotes from Hawass’ pro-Mubarak speeches. The little glory hound must have unimaginable pull in that country. It’s amazing. Not only did he survive the falling government, but he managed to scrounge up the money to hire 900 new Egyptian archaeology graduates for half a year, followed by 500 more. But the post wouldn’t gel, so finally I just threw it out. I had this one in reserve. Mostly.
Swim for miles in the dark, in a labyrinthine cave underground, and then dive further down a giant shaft to nearly 200 feet below sea level? No thanks. But that’s what it takes to find ancient evidence that people went to Cancun ages before there was anything called Spring Break.
“This is the Holy Grail of underwater cave exploration.”
Explorers have discovered what might be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas. Alex Alvarez, Franco Attolini, and Alberto (Beto) Nava are members of PET (Projecto Espeleológico de Tulum), an organization that specializes in the exploration and survey of underwater caves on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
Alex, Franco and Beto have surveyed tens of thousands of feet of mazelike cave passages in the state of Quintana Roo. The team’s relatively recent explorations of a large pit named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole, in Spanish), deep within a flooded cave, resulted in their breathtaking and once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the remains of an Ice Age mastodon and a human skull at the very bottom of the black abyss.
Hoyo Negro was reached by the PET team after the divers travelled more than 4,000 feet [1,200 meters] through underwater passages using underwater propulsion vehicles, or scooters, which enabled them to cover long distances in the flooded cave system.
Once they reached the pit, they began to survey and document its dimensions. The pit is approximately 200 feet [60 meters] deep and 120 feet [36 meters] in diameter and is located inside the Aktun-Hu cave system in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico.
...
“The immense size of Hoyo Negro is difficult to comprehend. Once you enter the pit you cannot see the floor below, and all that can be seen in front of you is a black void—an inviting entrance to the abyss, “ recalls Franco.The team of explorers touched bottom at 197 feet [57 meters], where they made their incredible discovery.
Approximately 12,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, Earth experienced great climatic changes. The melting of the ice caps caused a dramatic rise in global sea levels, which flooded low lying coastal landscapes and cave systems. Many of the subterranean spaces that once provided people and animals with water and shelter became inundated and lost until the advent of cave diving.
“The findings of Hoyo Negro are a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The skull looks pre-Maya, which could make it one of the oldest set of human remains in the area. Gaining an understanding of how this human and these animals entered the site will reveal an immense amount of knowledge from that time.
...
The human found with the megafauna remains in Hoyo Negro could represent the oldest evidence of humans yet discovered in the Americas.Archaeological and genetic data have long supported a northeast Asia origin for the populations that first settled North and South America. The so-called “First Americans” or Paleoindian peoples likely entered into these new lands sometime between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.
...
“During the Late Pleistocene, these caves were dry. The first people to occupy what is now the Caribbean coast of Mexico wandered into these caves, where some ultimately met their demise.“As the last glacial maximum came to end, the melting of the polar ice caps and continental ice sheets raised sea levels worldwide. The caves of the Yucatan Peninsula filled with water and the First Americans were hidden for millennia—only to be discovered by underwater cave explorers
“It is within these dark reaches that cave explorers are discovering and documenting the oldest human skeletons yet found in the Western Hemisphere,” Rissolo said.
Plenty more info and pics at the Nat Geo source.
And if those eyes looked interesting, the “R” part of this “A & R” post is below the fold:
Posted by Drew458
on 02/25/2011 at 01:46 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - February 24, 2011
Arab turmoil could mean an orgy of bloodletting and rocketing oil prices.
It’s almost 6:30pm here and on the 6 o-clock news there was an interesting theory from the Colonel in Libya. No, I’m not kidding.
Gaddaifi suspects that the ring leader behind all the trouble in Libya is ..........
OSAMA Yeah. That Osama. OBL!
As you’d expect, Libya is almost wall to wall and especially as there are so many Brits trying to get out of there.
Very embarrassing for the govt. here. They got a flight yesterday to go and bring back a bunch of their citizens BUT .... the plane left 10 hours late due to tech problems. Couldn’t get the dam,n thing in the air. Oh boy. What next?
Then there are all the accusations of the former govt. cozying up to Gaddaifi and selling him weapons etc. Which really is hypocritical. I have zero love or tolerance for the govt. I think helped to wreck this country. But come on. It isn’t like the cons here raised any kind fuss and fury over the years I’ve been here. They have known for years. There isn’t any way they could not have known. So to now take the moral high ground is pretty raunchy.
Ppl here have known as we have in the USA, that the colonel is a creepy killer and a terrorist of the first rank. And we came to an accommodation as well.
OK so .... There was an interesting column in The Mail this morning. I won’t post much here, and it’s long. But it is worth the reading and some may not agree. He is one of those who holds the belief that the war against Iraq was wrong. But his column isn’t all about that.
The headline in the paper is different from that of the one on line. Here’s what I saw. It made me read the whole thing which isn’t easy because they cram an awful lot into a page in very small print.
I can’t say I agree with him on all points. That doesn’t make this any less interesting.
I’ve edited for space.
MANY HAIL EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AS A BRIGHT NEW DAWN.
BUT REVOLUTIONS HAVE A NASTY HABIT OF KICKING NAIVE IDEALISTS IN THE TEETH.
By DOMINIC SANDBROOK
Last updated at 8:38 AM on 24th February 2011Even by the repressive standards of Middle Eastern autocrats, Colonel Gaddafi has long cut a brutally capricious figure.
But while nobody who remembers the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher or the appalling slaughter at Lockerbie will mourn Gaddafi’s downfall, this year’s tumultuous events in North Africa could mark a shocking and seismic shift in the balance of power.
We are at a hinge moment in world history. As the Arab revolutions have shown, the old certainties are cracking apart.
And despite the naive predictions of a new liberal order, the future might well prove a very dangerous place indeed — with potentially devastating economic repercussions for millions of British families.
Indeed, in all the excitement at the fall of the Arab autocracies, it is hard to miss the whiff of Western hubris.
Like the arrogant neo-conservatives who thought it would be child’s play to export democracy to Iraq, many of the idealists exulting in the giddy triumphs of street politics believe history is on their side.
Sadly, history has a habit of kicking idealists in the teeth. The revolutions in the Arab world are far from over.
And when events have played themselves out, there is a good chance the results will be very different from the utopian fantasies of the armchair pundits.
But what the idealists often forget is that not all uprisings, like the peaceful transition in the former Czechoslovakia, come cloaked in velvet.
All too often, as in Mexico in 1910 or Russia in 1917, violence begets violence.
And eventually, as the French politician Pierre Vergniaud — who ended up on the guillotine — famously put it, the revolution devours its own children.
Posted by peiper
on 02/24/2011 at 01:23 PM
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Permalink • Lines in the sand of nomenclature
When Tunisia had it’s turnover some weeks ago, the nation-wide protest movement was quickly relabeled as the “Jasmine Revolution”.
Egyptian protesters managed to oust their leader, force a new cabinet to be installed, and wound up with the army in charge for now but promising all sorts of reforms and elections. Somehow this was never a “revolution” even though it effectively toppled the government.
The situation in Libya looks more and more like an actual civil war every day. It looks like a classic old-school South/Central American revolution, other than the niggling absence of one new tinpot dictator appearing to replace the one about to be pushed out of the catbird seat.
News items:
Libyan Protesters Vow to ‘Liberate’ Tripoli as Army Unleashes Attack
BENGHAZI, Libya—A Libyan army unit loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi attacked anti-government protesters holed up in a mosque in a key city west of the capital Thursday, blasting a minaret with anti-aircraft missiles and automatic weapons, a witness said.
Protesters who had been camped inside and outside the mosque suffered heavy casualties in the attack on Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, the witness said, but he couldn’t provide an exact toll.
Pro-Qaddafi forces have fought back fiercely as the longtime leader has seen his control whittled away, with Zawiya and other major Libyan cities and towns closer to the capital falling to the rebellion against his rule. In the east, now all but broken away, the opposition vowed to “liberate” Tripoli, where the Libyan leader is holed up with a force of militiamen roaming the streets and tanks guarding the outskirts.
Report: Libyan capital deserted; opposition seizes major city
Benghazi, Libya (CNN)—The Libyan capital was a ghost town Thursday morning, witnesses said, as anti-government protesters declared victory elsewhere after reportedly seizing control of the country’s third-largest city.
Misrata—also spelled as Misurata—is now in the hands of the opposition, who have driven out the mercenaries, according to witnesses and multiple media reports. Witnesses and multiple reports also said that the town of Az Zintan was under opposition control. The opposition also controls Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, where crowds cheered as international journalists drove through the city. The only shooting that could be heard was celebratory gunfire.
U.S. Fears Tripoli May Deploy Gas As Chaos Mounts
WASHINGTON—The government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi hasn’t destroyed significant stockpiles of mustard gas and other chemical-weapons agents, raising fears in Washington about what could happen to them—and whether they may be used—as Libya slides further into chaos.
Tripoli also maintains control of aging Scud B missiles, U.S. officials said, as well as 1,000 metric tons of uranium yellowcake and vast amounts of conventional weapons that Col. Gadhafi has channeled in the past to militants operating in countries like Sudan and Chad.
Fleeing Egyptians Tell of Qaddafi’s `Bloodbath’ Across Libya
“It’s a massacre in there,” said Mohamed Yehia after he crossed into Egypt at the northwestern town of Salloum, speaking of the deadly crackdown by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. “He is crazy. The world must know what he’s doing to his people.”
Yehia, 23, is one of thousands of Egyptians working in Libya who gathered their belongings and left the oil-rich country yesterday after Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, this week accused foreigners, including Tunisians and Egyptians, of inciting the ongoing revolt.
...
Many of those arriving said they had seen mercenaries from Africa and elsewhere, some dark-skinned and some fair, some speaking French. They had been deployed to attack anti- government protesters in Libyan cities, including the capital, Tripoli, and Benghazi, which has seen some of the worst violence since the uprising began last week, the eyewitnesses said.
Anti-aircraft missiles? Concerns over WMD? Mercenaries? Tanks? Cities “falling” and being “seized”? Bloodbath? That certainly sounds like a whole lot more than just a protest movement. It sounds like full scale civil war. I think it’s time to change labels and start calling this one a revolution. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck ... and doesn’t have a portable indoor duck bin ...
Maybe the world needs to coin a new phrase that defines a popular uprising with no obvious leaders that is designed to change the existing government by any means possible. Right now the only term we have for something like that is ... Tea Party. [ Drew lets that one sink in for a few moments ]
The Libyan situation is different though. Isn’t it? Their mass protests were met with violence, so they returned violence in spades. So it seems. And the Tea Party people don’t really want to change the system as much as they want to purify it and return it to it’s original more limited form. Aside from removing Gaddafi, I don’t know what the “protest movement” in Libya wants in terms of government. But it certainly seems to be an actual revolution.
And now it looks like Algeria is next on the list. The whole of North Africa is going up in flames. You’d think the West would be cheering them on to throw off their chains of oppression. But we’re not, because we don’t know where they are going. Do the Libyans themselves even know?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/24/2011 at 10:00 AM
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Permalink • Friday - February 11, 2011
Your Foreign Aid Dollars At Work
In an attempt to increase the range of the endangered Masai Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi), wildlife biologists have taken to ferrying young adult males and females about to enter estrus across Lake Tanganyika from Tanzania into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to the massive size of the lake, it would take longer for even these long legged creatures to walk around it than their mating season gives them, so the biologists built them their own ferry.
“Putting a cage on the barge wasn’t hard” states Mbulati Gahlwana, chief biologist for the Giraffe Project, “but rounding up half a dozen giraffes and getting them all aboard without injury was a challenge. They are very energetic creatures, and a kick from even a young one can kill a man in one go.”
The land and climate in most of the DR Congo is not perfect for giraffes, but the area on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika is moist enough to support the kind of vegetation and cover that these giraffes need. The Giraffe Project hopes to be able to move 4 dozen pairs of Masai Giraffes this year, enough to establish a small breeding population.
“We worry about poachers over there” says Gahlwana, “but if they don’t know the giraffes are around they might not go looking for them.”
The Giraffe Project is funded both by US foreign aid to Tanzania and by the World Wildlife Foundation.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/11/2011 at 09:46 AM
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