We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The coup in Cote d’Ivoire

Click here to access article by Jean Damu from the San Francisco Bay View [US]. 

Neo-colonialism rears its ugly head once again, this time in the Ivory Coast. Africa's resources are attracting many predatory capitalists like vultures to dead meat. I've been seeing more and more articles about land and resource grabs by Saudi Arabia, China, and many Western multi-national corporations. Much of the theft of the continent's riches is being facilitated by various Western armed forces either overtly or, more often, covertly. And, of course, the events are either ignored, or if reported, are reported with the usual "humanitarian" and "human rights" propaganda framing.
As peace loving and progressive forces in the West and in the U.S. in particular deliriously celebrated the awakening of pro-democratic movements in white dominated Islamic countries that routinely and officially kick Blacks to the curb, growing evidence suggests the West, led by France, engineered a political and military coup in Cote d’Ivoire that some say is designed to re-colonize that country.