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

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Geopolitical Stakes in Nigeria: The Curious Role of the IMF

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from Voltaire Network.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war.
Western media sources, as usual, provide extremely poor coverage of African affairs. This suits the Empire perfectly because it allows their actors (political operatives, oil companies, finance institutions, etc.) to have a much freer hand in exploiting African resources to enrich Western corporations and banks. 

Engdahl in this piece sheds some light on what lies behind the current scene of unrest following the government's removal of fuel subsidies. There appear to be a lot of familiar elements that are found in many resource rich 3rd world countries: the IMF, importation of finished products made from abundant local raw materials, government corruption, poverty, terrorism, illicit drugs, and China.

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