Thursday, April 24, 2008

The irony of the slave trade: African illegal immigration


It is ironic to observe that during the slave trade, millions of africans were captured, enchained and forced to cross land and oceans to end up as slaves in the "new world", and over 150 years after the abolition of slavery ( 1848), Africans are crossing deserts and oceans at the risk of their lives to end up as slaves in the West...

GLOBALISATION: The new Triangular Trade...



"Globalisation:" the new triangular trade of the 21st century.

The rules that regulate global trade are drawn by the industrialized (G8) countries and biased in their favor; the logic of the international rules regulating world trade are to source out the cheapest raw materials (neo-colonialism), produce in labor-cheap countries (neo-slavery) and re-export the finished products all over the globe at phenomenal profits, through the exploitation of both labor and resources in so-called Third World countries. (neo-imperialism). This strategy is referred to as “globalization”.

500 years ago, during Slavery, European Imperialism and Colonialism, global trade was based on what is historically labelled the Triangular Trade: Slaves were "imported" from Africa into the New World to work on plantations; the raw materials produced on these plantations ( coton, sugar, etc) were then shipped to the "old world" ( Europe) to be processed into finished goods; and finally, the finished goods were re-exported for sale throughout the world, in exchange for slaves, gold, and other "riches".

The new global trading system referred to as "globalisation" today is simply a new form of triangular trade. It is a global trading system which is based on both massive human exploitation and on the exploitation of natural resources in so-called "third world" countries.

Multinationals corporations loot mineral and other natural resources in so-called third world countries ( with the active support and hidden complicity of local politicians), export the looted raw materials in low-wage countries - such as India and China - to be processed into finished products using slave-wages and slave working conditions, and then re-export and sell the finished products in high wage countries - such as the US and the EU - at HUGE profits.

Thus, nothing has changed over the last 500 years; the gunpowder of Imperialism, the chains and whips of slavery and the looting, exploitation and human oppression that occured during the colonial era has simply been replaced by the the new global trading system referred to as "Globalisation", leading to the globalisation of poverty!

Globalization in its current form creates and sustains poverty and inequalities in the rest of the world!

Global exploitation of both labor and resources in so-called Third World countries is the foundation of globalization and leads to the globalization of poverty!

Reflexion by Vandana Shiva...


Quote by Vandana Shiva:

The most critical issue confronting the world today is:

1) Ecological sustainability
2) Social Justice

I think we have reached a stage where we need to find solutions to economic injustice in the same place and in the same ways that we find solutions to sustainability; sustainability on environmental grounds and social justice in terms of everyone having a place in the production and consumption system. These are two aspects of the same system. (Vandana Shiva, physicist, ecologist, environmental activist, author, etc.)

APE: Accords de Pillage Economique...


Les Accords dits de Partenariat Economique (APE) de L'Union Européenne (UE) sont (officiellement) des accords commerciaux de "libre" échanges « négociés » entre les pays de L'Union Européenne et les Pays de l'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique (ACP).

En réalité, les APE sont de véritables Accords de Pillage Economique dictés et imposés par l'Union Européenne aux pays ACP. L’objectif réel et visé des APE est d’enfermer DEFINITIVEMENT les économies des pays ACP dans l’économie de plantation et de renforcer le Pacte Colonial en Afrique sub-Saharienne.

Les APE constitue donc une véritable menace pour l’avenir économique, politique et social de l’Afrique et des pays ACP dont l’objectif final est la recolonisation (économique, politique, culturelle, sociale, etc.) des pays ACP et de l’Afrique par l'UE. En effet, les APE ne sont - dans le fond et en réalité - que le renouvellement et le renforcement de la politique du "Pacte Colonial" unilatéralement décidé, défini et imposé aux pays Africains par les pays colonisateurs Européen lors de la Conférence de Berlin en 1884/85...