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Showing posts with the label neocolonialism

Imperialism in Context – The Case of France

After reading Serfati’s analysis, I would consider his essay as an introduction to why the French state and its ruling class act the way they do at home and abroad . France has maintained a major role on the international scene, especially militarily, despite experiencing a relative decline in world economic power since the 1990s. In 2011, it ranked fifth in terms of military spending and sixth in terms of arms exports. It is a major zone of capital accumulation in the world economy and is centrally integrated into the global dynamics of economic, political, and military power. The overall closeness of elites in state institutions and large transnational corporations. French TNCs are increasingly dependent on profits earned in emerging or peripheral economies. when analysing the role of France in Africa, one must consider an interrelated set of economic, geopolitical, and domestic socio-political drivers. In 2009, France ranked third as a trading partner with Africa as a continent, beh...
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Poison is Better - a Review of Two Books

“Telepneva and Williams both trace with regret the arc of movements that started off calling for freedom and self-determination but ended up running neocolonial or authoritarian regimes. Williams’s portrayal of Lumumba and Nkrumah is hagiographic at times, but she also offers an alternative story of national liberation, told from the perspective of ‘minor’ characters, including Thomas Kanza (Lumumba’s ambassador to the  UN ) and Nkrumah’s secretary, Erica Powell. What emerges from these testimonies is not a picture of tragedy, romance or against-the-odds heroism, but a sober assessment of the tough and sometimes impossible choices facing left-wing anti-colonial activists who were under pressure from foreign enemies and foreign allies alike. ‘For better or worse,’ Telepneva concludes, ‘the Africans in this story were agents of their own liberation,’ however brief it turned out to be.” Africa’s cold war
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American Commentators, Academics and Others React to Queen’s Death

  If the queen had apologized for slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism and urged the crown to offer reparations for the millions of lives taken in her/their names, then perhaps I would do the human thing and feel bad. As a Kenyan , I feel nothing. This theater is absurd. Criticism of British empire intensifies Related Dozens of staff at King Charles’s former residence told they could lose jobs
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France-Sahel

A defeat of an imperialist state is always a good news. Macron’s signals military pullback from Sahel Related: “When they attack us in France, we say it’s Islam.” The arrogance of French imperialism vs. the pragmatism of the local regimes
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"The national economy, once protected, is literally controlled today. Loans and donations fund the budget. Fishing for capital, either the heads of state themselves or their governmental delegates pay a visit to the capital cities of their former metropoles each quarter. The former colonial power makes countless demands and secures concessions and guarantees, as it takes less and less care to mask its hold on national power. The people miserably stagnates in unbearable destitution and slowly becomes increasingly aware of its leaders’ heinous treason." — Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth . How much has changed since Fanon wrote those words in 1963?
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How fundamentalism works "As economics is not an exact science, the number of counter-examples is irrelevant. If I put forward a hypothesis in physics which is proved wrong by an experiment, I must question the theory. And the theory progresses through such invalidation. In economics, you can undermine the existence of millions of people, but none of that human evidence will affect the ideology of structural adjustment ." — Susan George, vice president of ATTAC France, December 6, 2000 See also "How poor countries develop rich countries" "A tonne of cocoa is roughly US $1,300, while one 4x4 vehicle is now about US $120,000. So you need about 92 tonnes of cocoa to exchange for one 4x4. But to get one tonne, you will need not less than 20 acres of land. The average cocoa farmer in Ghana has only around 2-3 acres, meaning it would take him or her well over 500 years to produce enough cocoa to buy a 4x4.” John Opoku, human rights lawyer and activist, Gha...
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