Greetings, Peace and
Blessings to you, your family and loved ones.
My name is Nana Baakan and I have a lot of questions about what is
happening in our world today.
I am going to upload
a few videos over the next few days. I just want to share with you some of my
questions and get your responses.
Thanks to all my
subscribers who stopped by and to new visitors by sure to subscribe.
The topic of Today's
video is "We Fell Asleep in a world, and woke up in another."
We fell asleep in a
world, and woke up in another.
Suddenly Disney is
out of magic,
Paris is no longer
romantic,
New York doesn't
stand up anymore,
the Chinese wall is
no longer a fortress, and Mecca is empty.
Hugs and kisses
suddenly become weapons and not visiting parents and friends becomes an act of
love.
Suddenly you realize
that power, beauty and money are worthless, and can't get you the oxygen you're
fighting for.
The world continues
its life and it is beautiful.
It only puts humans
in cages. I think it's sending us a message:
You are not
necessary. The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine. When you come back, remember that you are my
guests, not my masters." Anonymous
Something to think
about.
How easily
governments can change your reality.
How easily they can
enforce new measures and attach different values.
How easily what once
was considered wholesome and human acts of kindness have been relegate to acts
of terrorism, fear and social injustice.
How soon we realize
that our values are predicated by the dictates of supposed authority, and not
from our own basic and human knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.
If we don't learn
anything from this, we learn that we are severely and unequivocally conditioned
out of having any single independent thought.
And should anyone
escape the conditioning, they will be quickly relegated to the pits of hell by
the prevailing society and land in the dustbin of history.
Life will go on with
reset after reset. Memories of what once was will be shrouded in a new
conditioning that will categorically deny that a different world ever existed.
The reset will
continue to condition the masses into one paradigm shift after another. And the
people will continue to forget. It's kinda sad.
NB Commentary: Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head
around the dichotomy that the US calls foreign policy. On one hand they support
"freedom fighters" who want to dispose of an evil dictator, on the
other hand they prop up evil dictators and guarantee them long life and
protection.
In the
case of immigration they want to take in Syrians, whom they have no idea what
type of social ills they may bring to this country or how many of them may be
disgruntled refugees ready to be radicalized, and yet, not far away to the
south of the US are poor and starving people, not terrorist but folks who are
suffering unfathomable obscenity due to their position on top of tremendous,
gas, oil and various other mineral reserves. I am so struck by this and often
find myself in a quandary to make sense of it.
Then
like clockwork, the little voice inside my head reminds me of what the
geopolitical priority of the US & NATO are really based on. And while these
"facts" may give way to lesser confusion, it still boggles my mind.
Along this arid strip of borderland, the river brings life. Its
languid waters are used to cook the food, quench the thirst and bathe the
bodies of thousands of Haitian migrants who have poured onto its banks from the
Dominican Republic, fleeing threats of violence and deportation. These days, the river also brings death. Horrid sanitation has led
to a cholera outbreak in the camps, infecting and killing people who spilled
over the border in recent months in hopes of finding refuge here. Nearly 3,000 people have arrived in the makeshift camps since the
spring, leaving the Dominican Republic by force or by fear after its government
began a crackdown on illegal migrants. Some, born in the Dominican Republic but
unable to prove it, cannot even speak French or Creole, Haiti’s main languages,
showing how wide a net the Dominican government has cast.
Haitian officials have done almost nothing to support them. The
population is scattered across the drought-racked southwest border, mostly
barren plains. Families of eight sleep in tents fashioned from sticks and
cardboard. They drink river water, struggle to find food, and make do without
toilets or medical attention.
Families
wash clothes in the river that runs by Tête à l’Eau, Haiti, where many who fled
the Dominican Republic have settled. CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York
Times
Now
stateless, the refugees exist in the literal and figurative space between two
nations that, along with their island, share a history steeped in hostility.
Some of the camps were created decades ago, during another iteration of their
troubled pasts, but had long since been abandoned. Now, in a new cycle of
tension between the nations, they are packed to capacity once again.
The
plight along the border is reminiscent, on a smaller scale, of the devastating
2010 earthquake, which claimed the lives of 100,000 to 316,000 Haitians and
summoned a wave of billions of dollars in aid. Even today, more than 60,000
displaced people still reside in tent cities around the country.
Only
this time, the upheaval is man-made, the result of the policies of the
Dominican Republic and the seeming indifference of the Haitian government. The
authorities in Haiti do not even formally recognize that the camps exist.
“I
haven’t felt normal since my son died,” said David Toussaint, 55, whose
9-year-old boy was one of at least 10 people in the camps to die of cholera.
Officials say more than 100 people have been infected.
He
lifted himself from a bed his family built in their tent, covered with a frayed
tarp. He spends his days there, immobilized by grief. An acrid smell filled the
hot air as dust swirled into the tent, cloaking everything.
“This is
no way to live,” he said.
When the
Dominican government announced that all migrants in the country illegally had
to register this June, mass deportations were feared. Those later rounded up
were taken largely from remote areas, and bused quietly to border crossings. In
total, more than 10,000 people were expelled officially, with nearly another
10,000 people claiming to have been kicked out as well, according to the
International Organization for Migration.
But in
this climate of fear, an even bigger phenomenon emerged: Tens of thousands of
people of Haitian descent decided to leave the Dominican Republic on their own,
rather than risk deportation, including some who were born on Dominican soil
and knew nothing of Haiti.
Hugo
Chavez shares thoughts of why Haiti is poor. The following is a transcript of
the speech given prior to Hugo Chavez's death on March 05, 2013. Hugo Rafael
Chávez Frías born on July 28, 1954 - passed away on March 5, 2013)
Haiti, the Black
Jacobins, that of Toussaint Louverture.
Haiti that of
Pétion.
Haiti, from where
Miranda arrived with our flag, it, and a dream of several years, and a project:
the South American revolution.
Haiti, that of
Bolivar.
Haiti, that of the
expeditions of Los Cayos, sister Haiti, Haiti, painful reality.
Fidel Castro, as
always, continues to launch his thoughts, his ideas, his contributions to the
world in which we live. And this afternoon I received - this morning, rather -
the reflections of Fidel, his most recent.
Fidel said, permit
me to read some of these deep thoughts of our companion, comrade, commander.
I read: "The
tragedy excites, in good faith, a lot of people, specially because of its
natural character. But very few of them stop and ask the question: why Haiti is
a poor country?
Why does the
population depend almost 50% on orders sent from the outside by its families.
Why not also analyze
the realities that led to the current situation of Haiti and its enormous
suffering? "
I would add that
this painful moment seems opportune to reflect and get to the bottom of things:
why haiti is so poor?
Why is there so much
misery in Haiti?
I continue reading
Fidel:
"The most
curious in this story is that nobody said a word to remember that Haiti was the
first country in which enslaved Africans 400,000 of them, trafficked by
Europeans, rose against white owners 30,000 plantation sugar cane and coffee,
fulfilling the first great social revolution of our hemisphere. Pages of
unsurpassable glory could be written around the earth.
The most eminent
general was defeated, Napoleon, out there. Haiti is the net product
colonialism. Haiti is the net product of colonialism and imperialism, of more
than a century of use of its human resources in the hardest work, of military
interventions and the extraction of its wealth.
This historical
oblivion is not so serious to the reality which is that Haiti is the shame for
our time, in a world where those prevail on the exploitation and plundering of
the vast majority of the inhabitants of the planet. "
And then continues
in Fidel and his reflections by launching rays of light that lives for this
moment humanity. But it is by here we start:
"Haiti is a net
product of colonialism. Haiti is a product of imperialism. As not only will
complete colonialism, as not only will complete imperialism, and I go further:
as not only will complete capitalism, we have situations and people living the
painful situation facing Haiti."
I confess my
personal experience, when several years, for the first time, we visited Haiti.
I confess, I wanted to cry myself. With one of my companions, I went to see
these people in the street, with elation, hope, magic and misery, and I
remembered a phrase that came out of the soul, I told my companion nearest the
descent of a van - we wanted to walk for a while and we ended up running into a
street - I told him: look, mate, the gates of hell, inhabited by black angels.
Because it is a
people full of it: this is an angelic people.
I ratify what
President Sylia has decreed: while our commitment to our people, all the
people, the Venezuelan people are with Haiti, the Bolivarian revolution is with
the people of Haiti, with its pain, with its tragedy, with its hope.
For some Haitians, the deportation order invoked memories
of the notoriousParsley
Massacre of 1937, when Dominican President
Trujillo ordered troops to kill thousands of Haitian migrants living along the
border of the two countries.
14
African Countries Forced by France to Pay Colonial Tax For the Benefits of
Slavery and Colonization
By:
Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN
Tuesday,
January 28th, 2014 at 3:41 pm.
Africa-France-relationship.
Did you know many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France
since their independence till today!
When
Sékou Touré of Guinea decided in 1958 to get out of french colonial empire, and
opted for the country independence, the french colonial elite in Paris got so
furious, and in a historic act of fury the french administration in Guinea
destroyed everything in the country which represented what they called the
benefits from french colonization.
Three
thousand French left the country, taking all their property and destroying
anything that which could not be moved: schools, nurseries, public
administration buildings were crumbled; cars, books, medicine, research
institute instruments, tractors were crushed and sabotaged; horses, cows in the
farms were killed, and food in warehouses were burned or poisoned.
The
purpose of this outrageous act was to send a clear message to all other
colonies that the consequences for rejecting France would be very high.
Slowly
fear spread trough the african elite, and none after the Guinea events ever
found the courage to follow the example of Sékou Touré, whose slogan was “We
prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”
Sylvanus
Olympio, the first president of the Republic of Togo, a tiny country in west
Africa, found a middle ground solution with the French.
He
didn’t want his country to continue to be a french dominion, therefore he
refused to sign the colonisation continuation pact De Gaule proposed, but agree
to pay an annual debt to France for the so called benefits Togo got from french
colonization.
It was
the only conditions for the French not to destroy the country before leaving.
However, the amount estimated by France was so big that the reimbursement of
the so called “colonial debt” was close to 40% of the country budget in 1963.
The
financial situation of the newly independent Togo was very unstable, so in
order to get out the situation, Olympio decided to get out the french colonial
money FCFA (the franc for french african colonies), and issue the country own
currency.
On
January 13, 1963, three days after he started printing his country own
currency, a squad of illiterate soldiers backed by France killed the first
elected president of newly independent Africa. Olympio was killed by an ex
French Foreign Legionnaire army sergeant called Etienne Gnassingbe who
supposedly received a bounty of $612 from the local French embassy for the hit
man job.
Olympio’s
dream was to build an independent and self-sufficient and self-reliant country.
But the French didn’t like the idea.
On June
30, 1962, Modiba Keita , the first president of the Republic of Mali, decided
to withdraw from the french colonial currency FCFA which was imposed on 12
newly independent African countries. For the Malian president, who was leaning
more to a socialist economy, it was clear that colonisation continuation pact
with France was a trap, a burden for the country development.
On
November 19, 1968, like, Olympio, Keita will be the victim of a coup carried
out by another ex French Foreign legionnaire, the Lieutenant Moussa Traoré.
In fact
during that turbulent period of African fighting to liberate themselves from
European colonization, France would repeatedly use many ex Foreign legionnaires
to carry out coups against elected presidents:
– On
January 1st, 1966, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, an ex french foreign legionnaire,
carried a coup against David Dacko, the first President of the Central African
Republic.
– On
January 3, 1966, Maurice Yaméogo, the first President of the Republic of Upper
Volta, now called Burkina Faso, was victim of a coup carried by Aboubacar
Sangoulé Lamizana, an ex French legionnaire who fought with french troops in
Indonesia and Algeria against these countries independence.
– on 26
October 1972, Mathieu Kérékou who was a security guard to President Hubert
Maga, the first President of the Republic of Benin, carried a coup against the
president, after he attended French military schools from 1968 to 1970.
In fact,
during the last 50 years, a total of 67 coups happened in 26 countries in
Africa, 16 of those countries are french ex-colonies, which means 61% of the
coups happened in Francophone Africa.
Number
of Coups in Africa by country
Ex
French colonies Other African countries
Country
Number of coup Country number of coup
Togo 1
Egypte 1
Tunisia
1 Libye 1
Cote
d’Ivoire 1 Equatorial Guinea 1
Madagascar
1 Guinea Bissau 2
Rwanda 1
Liberia 2
Algeria
2 Nigeria 3
Congo –
RDC 2 Ethiopia 3
Mali 2
Ouganda 4
Guinea
Conakry 2 Soudan 5
SUB-TOTAL
1 13
Congo 3
Tchad 3
Burundi
4
Central
Africa 4
Niger 4
Mauritania
4
Burkina
Faso 5
Comores
5
SUB-TOTAL
2 32
TOTAL (1
+ 2) 45 TOTAL 22
As these
numbers demonstrate, France is quite desperate but active to keep a strong hold
on his colonies what ever the cost, no matter what.
In March
2008, former French President Jacques Chirac said:
“Without
Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power”
Chirac’s
predecessor François Mitterand already prophesied in 1957 that:
“Without
Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century”
At this
very moment I’m writing this article, 14 african countries are obliged by
France, trough a colonial pact, to put 85% of their foreign reserve into France
central bank under French minister of Finance control. Until now, 2014, Togo
and about 13 other african countries still have to pay colonial debt to France.
African leaders who refuse are killed or victim of coup. Those who obey are
supported and rewarded by France with lavish lifestyle while their people
endure extreme poverty, and desperation.
It’s
such an evil system even denounced by the European Union, but France is not
ready to move from that colonial system which puts about 500 billions dollars
from Africa to its treasury year in year out.
We often
accuse African leaders of corruption and serving western nations interests
instead, but there is a clear explanation for that behavior. They behave so
because they are afraid the be killed or victim of a coup. They want a powerful
nation to back them in case of aggression or trouble. But, contrary to a
friendly nation protection, the western protection is often offered in exchange
of these leaders renouncing to serve their own people or nations’ interests.
African
leaders would work in the interest of their people if they were not constantly
stalked and bullied by colonial countries.
In 1958,
scared about the consequence of choosing independence from France, Leopold
Sédar Senghor declared: “The choice of the Senegalese people is independence;
they want it to take place only in friendship with France, not in dispute.”
From
then on France accepted only an “independence on paper” for his colonies, but
signed binding “Cooperation Accords”, detailing the nature of their relations
with France, in particular ties to France colonial currency (the Franc), France
educational system, military and commercial preferences.
Below
are the 11 main components of the Colonisation continuation pact since 1950s:
#1. Colonial Debt for the benefits of France colonization
The
newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France
in the country during colonization.
I still
have to find out the complete details about the amounts, the evaluation of the
colonial benefits and the terms of payment imposed on the african countries,
but we are working on that (help us with info).
#2. Automatic confiscation of national reserves
The
African countries should deposit their national monetary reserves into France
Central bank.
France
has been holding the national reserves of fourteen african countries since
1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal,
Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial
Guinea and Gabon.
“The
monetary policy governing such a diverse aggregation of countries is
uncomplicated because it is, in fact, operated by the French Treasury, without
reference to the central fiscal authorities of any of the WAEMU or the CEMAC.
Under the terms of the agreement which set up these banks and the CFA the
Central Bank of each African country is obliged to keep at least 65% of its
foreign exchange reserves in an “operations account” held at the French
Treasury, as well as another 20% to cover financial liabilities.
The CFA
central banks also impose a cap on credit extended to each member country
equivalent to 20% of that country’s public revenue in the preceding year. Even
though the BEAC and the BCEAO have an overdraft facility with the French
Treasury, the drawdowns on those overdraft facilities are subject to the
consent of the French Treasury. The final say is that of the French Treasury
which has invested the foreign reserves of the African countries in its own
name on the Paris Bourse.
In
short, more than 80% of the foreign reserves of these African countries are
deposited in the “operations accounts” controlled by the French Treasury. The
two CFA banks are African in name, but have no monetary policies of their own.
The countries themselves do not know, nor are they told, how much of the pool
of foreign reserves held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group or
individually.
The
earnings of the investment of these funds in the French Treasury pool are
supposed to be added to the pool but no accounting is given to either the banks
or the countries of the details of any such changes. The limited group of high
officials in the French Treasury who have knowledge of the amounts in the
“operations accounts”, where these funds are invested; whether there is a
profit on these investments; are prohibited from disclosing any of this
information to the CFA banks or the central banks of the African states .”
Wrote Dr. Gary K. Busch
It’s now
estimated that France is holding close to 500 billions African countries money
in its treasury, and would do anything to fight anyone who want to shed a light
on this dark side of the old empire.
The
African countries don’t have access to that money.
France
allows them to access only 15% of the money in any given year. If they need
more than that, they have to borrow the extra money from their own 65% from the
French Treasury at commercial rates.
To make
things more tragic, France impose a cap on the amount of money the countries
could borrow from the reserve. The cap is fixed at 20% of their public revenue
in the preceding year. If the countries need to borrow more than 20% of their
own money, France has a veto.
Former
French President Jacques Chirac recently spoke about the African nations money
in France banks. Here is a video of him speaking about the french exploitation
scheme. He is speaking in French, but here is a short excerpt transcript: “We
have to be honest, and acknowledge that a big part of the money in our banks
come precisely from the exploitation of the African continent.”
#3. Right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource
discovered in the country
France
has the first right to buy any natural resources found in the land of its
ex-colonies. It’s only after France would say, “I’m not interested”, that the
African countries are allowed to seek other partners.......Continued click the link below.
AFRICANGLOBE – The West
African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) is an organization of eight West
African states. It was established to promote economic integration among
countries that share the Communauté Financière d’Afrique (CFA) franc as a
common currency. The currency is issued by the Banque Centrale des États de
l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO), located in Dakar, Senegal, for the members of
the UEMOA. The union administers the West African CFA franc, now a
Euro-pegged currency that is used in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire,
Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Read More…
Sylvanus Epiphanio Olympio (6 September
1902 – 13 January 1963) was a Togolese politician who
served as Prime Minister, and then President, of Togo from 1958 until his
assassination in 1963. . He was assassinated during the 1963
Togolese coup d'état.
A great
illustration on how corporations take control of countries, and how
capitalism drives the expansion of the Military Industrial Complex. Made by
Studio Joho who have allowed me to upload their video.
“Without Africa,
France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power” and that
Chirac’s predecessor François Mitterand already prophesied in 1957
that: “Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century”.
The
CFA franc, used by 14 African countries, was created in 1945 by
a decree signed by Charles de Gaulle [EPA]
A
hoard of cash sits in the Bank of France: $20 billion in African money
held in trust by the French government and earning just 0.75 percent
interest. Now economists and politicians from 14 Central and West African
countries say they want their funds returned and an arrangement dating back
to the days of France’s colonial empire ended.
France
holds the money to guarantee that the CFA franc, the currency used in the 14
nations, stays convertible into euros at a fixed exchange rate of 655.957.
The compulsory deposits started more than half a century ago, when the
then-colonies had to place all their financial reserves in the French
Treasury. The deposit requirement has dropped over the decades: Today the
African members entrust 50 percent of their reserves to Paris. Source..
Three weeks ago, a
rumour emerged that the CFA franc - two closely-related currencies used by 14
countries in western and central Africa - would be devalued by 35 per cent on
January 1, 2012.
As a result,
anxiety is taking hold of the 140 million citizens of francophone Africa. The
devaluation could create a liquidity crisis and cause inflation rates to
soar. Although the two governors of the central banks of Western and Central
Africa have dismissed the rumour, the fact that French authorities and
African heads of state failed to comment fuels peoples' fears and could
result in a massive financial outflow.
The eurozone
crisis and France's struggle to maintain its credit rating deepened fears
that devaluing the CFA franc could be indirectly used as. Source
François Mitterrand
French Complicity in the Crisis in Central African Republic
By the end of
2013, “the White man’s burden” was proving too heavy to bear for France.
Feeling militarily and materially outstretched, Paris cried for help from
other European powers to help it shoulder “its responsibility” to quell
violence, restore peace, order and political legitimacy in its backyards of
Mali and Central African Republic, both in turmoil: the Islamists terrorists
linked to Al-Qaïda in Maghreb (Aqmi), Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria and so
on, are wreaking havoc in northern Mali and Christians and Muslims are
hacking each other to death in Central African Republic (CAR). Both Belgium
and the United States responded positively by providing logistics and
transport for the French and African troops.
“Without Africa, France will slide down into the
rank of a third [world] power.”
By
the end of 2013, “the White man’s burden” was proving too heavy to bear for
France. Feeling militarily and materially outstretched, Paris cried for help
from other European powers to help it shoulder “its responsibility” to quell
violence, restore peace, order and political legitimacy in its backyards of
Mali and Central African Republic, both in turmoil: the Islamists terrorists
linked to Al-Qaïda in Maghreb (Aqmi), Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria and so
on, are wreaking havoc in northern Mali and Christians and Muslims are
hacking each other to death in Central African Republic (CAR). Both Belgium
and the United States responded positively by providing logistics and
transport for the French and African troops.
"
Chirac’s
predecessor François Mitterand already prophesied in 1957 that ‘Without
Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century’ (François
Mitterrand, Présence française et abandon, 1957, Paris: Plon)."
African
Countries whose Official Language is
French
In short, the
Colonial Pact has created a legal mechanism under which
France obtains a special place in
the political and economic life of its former colonies. Source:
