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SAMSON123

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Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media
« on: June 12, 2010, 08:38:10 AM »
Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media

From WikiLeaks

By Lord Aikins Adusei (Modern Ghana)

Quite often when you read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television in the West you will are bombarded with how poor and corrupt Africans are. However, you will never watch, read or hear anything in these media outlets on the role play by : Western banking institutions; property development and estate companies; technology corporations; oil and mining cartels; defense and engineering companies; and western political and business elite in promoting corruption in Africa.

When it comes to Africa and the developing world, the Western media pretend to be doing a good job only when there is an embarrassing story or a scandal that undermines their own credibility as the watchdog of the state. It is not uncommon to see poverty stricken Africans being shown in documentaries, movies, and television screens in the West but these same documentaries fail to show the involvement of Western capitalist institutions in fanning the poverty. Although corruption involves a giver and recipient, it is always the taker who is reported in the media. In many instances bribes are offered in order to secure contracts, secure official favour or to induce officials in order to influence the out come of a government decision. In other instances people become corrupt because of the existence of favouring conditions as can be seen in most western countries with their banking secrecy laws.

Why does the media in the West ignore the role of western institutions in corrupt deals? The media in the west tend to ignore the role of western institutions for many reasons. They would rather show the poverty level in Africa but refuse to show the role play by western institutions for fear of loosing revenue through adverts. Most media outlets survive through advertisements from mega businesses and the multinational corporations so for fear of loosing revenues the media turn a blind eye to their activities such bribing politicians, public officials and polluting the environment. Again the editors, programme directors and the other big wigs in the media are thelselves shareholders in the companies in question so why would they want to jeopardise the source of their own wealth?

The enthusiasm with which CNN, BBC, ABC, CBS, ITN, SKYNEWS, television producers portray Africa as poor, backward, least developed and corrupt is not displayed when they report on the role play by Western institutions in perpetuating the aforementioned. They fail to tell the world that the looted funds that make Africans poor are sitting in Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand and other offshore Islands controlled by the West. They fail to tell the world that Africa would be a different place if all the stolen monies are returned from Switzerland, Britain, America, France, Luxembourg, Austria and Liechtenstein. After years of foot draggings Swiss authorities decided to repatriate monies stolen by the Abacha regime. So I asked myself where was the western media when Swiss and British Banks were receiving the looted funds? The fact still remains that until recently and with the exception of the BBC none of the western media establishment had permanent reporters based in Africa with reason only best known to themselves. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3577032.stm

Corruption is rife in Africa because banking institutions in Europe especially Switzerland, France, Jersey Island, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria and US among others accept money from African leaders without questioning its source. According to the UN and the AU around $148 billion is stolen from the continent annually by political leaders, multinational corporations, the business elite and civil servants with complicity of banking and property industries in Europe and North America.

Even though western banks act as safe havens for looted funds, very little attention is received from the western media to expose them. No effort has been made by the political elite in Europe and America to force the banks to return these stolen monies because they are often the shareholders and beneficiaries of profits made by these banks. They have no agenda to combact corruption as that would mean no fat dividends for them and no cheap credits for their citizens.

Within five years of his reign (1993-98) Sani Abacha of Nigeria according to official sources was able to stash four billion dollars and between 12 and 16 billion dollars according to unofficial sources. After his death in 1998, investigators in Nigeria, Europe and America stumbled on over 130 bank accounts in Australia, New Zealand, London, New York, France and Switzerland among other countries where some of the money stolen was kept.

According to France24, a French police investigation has established that Bongo and his family own at least 33 luxury properties in France, including a villa located at Rue de la Baume, near the Elysée Palace, in Paris bought in 2007 for 18.8 million Euros. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy was spotted greeting Bongo in this villa bought with funds looted from Gabon. http://www.france24.com/en/20090226-french-court-seizes-gabonese-presidents-accounts-omar-bongo-bank. Other investigations have uncovered that he and his family have at least 59 properties, several bonds and stocks in France alone.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was embarrassed when it was revealed that Bongo’s government paid his consultancy firm a staggering 2.64 million Euros for advice on health policy drawn up by Kouchner before he took office. Source: Timesonline February 5, 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5661746.ece.Kouchener is not the only person in France, Europe and America to have benfited from the shady and corrupt dealing of Africa's political and business establishments. It has recently come to light that Omar Bongo secretly financed Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterand election campaigns using money he had stolen from his country.The question is who assisted him to steal and hide his ill-gotten wealth in France I mean the 70 banks accounts stashed with hundreds of millions of euros and the 33 luxury mansions that he bought? Is it not those he helped to become presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers? The fact is that Bongo was able to steal, mismanage and poorly run his country because of the support he received from those he helped win elections in France.

Araminta Wordsworth of Nationalpost.com says:"The French media are operating under no constraints in commenting on Africa’s longest-ruling despot, a man successive French presidents played a huge role in keeping in power and vice-versa. Bongo contributed to the election campaigns of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac; Nicolas Sarkozy’s first act as president-elect was to call the Gabonese president and thank him for his advice. Bongo also worked for the French secret service. But oil was key to his power, as Laurent d’Ersu notes in La Croix". Source: National Post, June 9, 2009

The disgraced Elf-Aquataine executives said they paid Bongo between 30 to 50 million dollars through secrete bank accounts in Switzerland but no attempt has been made to expose and prosecute these banks.

On February 26, 2009 a French court had Omar Bongo’s nine bank accounts containing several millions of Euros frozen. In confirming the court’s decision, lawyer Jean-Philippe Le Bail said, “This concerns Crédit Lyonnais, in which the president of Gabon has two current accounts, two savings accounts and a share account, and BNP, in which he has two checking accounts, a savings account and a share account”. These are the banks whose shady deals with the political and business elite impoverish African countries but which for profits sake the media refuse to tell the world about. The banks know these corrupt leaders have stolen the money yet they pretend not to know until there is a scandal before they begin to act as if they are responsible institutions. How and why Bongo was able to open so many bank accounts in France is only known to the banks and the political establishment in France but it is an undisputable fact that the media in France did notdo enougth to expose the rot in involving Bongo and the institutions in that country.

Most foreign banks have been implicated for receiving billions of dollars of looted funds from the late Mobutu of Zaire; Lansana Conte of Guinea; Eyadema of Togo; and a number of tyrants such as Omar Bongo of Gabon; Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea; Dos Santos of Angola; Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo; Paul Biya of Cameroon; Arap Moi of Kenya; Jerry Rawlings of Ghana; Ibrahim Babadjinda of Nigeria and a number of sitting and ex-presidents in Africa yet western media is silent about where the funds are being kept.

The banks in Europe and America that aided, abetted and provided sanctuary for Abacha´s $4 billion stolen funds are: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, ANZ, London Branch; Bank Len, Zurich; Bankers Trust Company, London; Bankers Trust Company, Frankfurt; Bankers Trust Company, New York; Banque Barring Brothers, Geneva; Bank in Liechtenstein A. G. Vaduz; Barclays Bank, New York; Barclays Bank, London; Banque Edouard Constant, General; Banque Nationale De Paris, Geneva; Banque Nationale De Paris, London; Banque Nationale De Paris, Basle; Citibank N. A. London; Citibank N. A. New York; Citibank N. A. Luxembourg; Citibank Zurich; Credit Lyonnais , New York; Credit Suisse , New York; Credit Suisse, General; Credit Suisse, Zurich; Deutche Morgan Grenfell, Jersey; FIBI Bank (Schweiz) A. G. Zurich; First Bank of Boston , London; Goldman Sachs and Company, Zurich; Gothard Bank, Geneva; LGT Liechtenstein Bank, Vaduz; Liechtenstein Landesbank, Vaduz; M. M. Warburg and Company, Luxembourg; M. M. Warburg and Company,Zurich; M. M. Warburg and Company, Hamburg; Merrill Lynch Bank, New York; Merrill Lynch Bank, Geneva; Midland Bank, London; National Westminister Bank, London; Paribus, London; Paribus, Geneva; Royal Bank of Scotland , Leeds; Standard Bank London Limited, London; UBS AG, Zurich; UBS AG, Geneva; Union Bancaire Privee, Geneva; Union Bancaire Privee, London; London Branch; Verwaltungs Und Private Bank A. G., Vaduz; and ANZ, New York; ANZ, Frankfurt. Source: Tell Magazine, October 7, 2002. Only heaven knows how much of Abacha´s loot still remain in these banks. We did not hear anything about these banks in the Western media and how they were helping Abacha to loot Nigeria's resources until his death in the until his death in 1998.

According to a 110 page report prepared by international risk consultancy firm Kroll, Arap Moi and his family have banked £1 billion in 28 countries including Britain but the media in the west will not expose the banks involved.The Guardian, Friday 31 August 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/31/kenya.topstories3

Apart from the banking sector, the property sector in Europe, America and Australia have also connived with the political and business elite in Africa to impoverish the people. Several African leaders have bought properties in Europe and America using monies stolen from their poor countries. It is on record that Mobutu of DRC (Zaire) bought several villas in France, Switzerland, Belgium and many European Countries. Yet again the companies selling the villas have been kept secret by the media. Why ?

It has recently come to light that Arap Moi of Kenya and his family bought several multimillion pound properties in London, New York, South Africa including 10,000-hectare ranch in Australia and bank accounts containing hundreds of millions of pounds. While majority of Kenyans live in slums and in rural areas, with little roofing on their heads and lacking water and other basic necessities of life, Moi’s family live in a £4m home in Surrey and £2m flat in Knightsbridge yet the media will not expose the estate companies involved. The Guardian, Friday 31 August 200, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/31/kenya.topstories3

It is common for western companies looking for lucrative contracts to pay bribes and kickbacks to induce officials into awarding them contracts. For example on 17th September 2002, a Canadian firm called Acres International was convicted by a High Court in Lesotho for paying $260,000 bribe to secure an $8 billion dam contract. Source: Probe International.http://www.eprf.ca/pi/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=5484

In 2002, Halliburton, a company once controlled by Dick Cheney (former US Vice President) was accused of establishing $180m fund and used it to bribe Nigerian officials in order to secure a $10 billion Liquefied Gas Plant contract in Nigeria. Source: Royal Dutch Shell plc .com http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2008/09/04/halliburton-paid-180-million-in-bribes-to-senior-nigerian-government-officials/

Achair Partners (a Swiss company) and Progresso (an Italian company) have been accused of bribing Somalia’s Transition Government officials in order to secure contracts to deposit highly toxic industrial waste in the waters of Somalia. Such corrupt practices by western companies seeking contracts in Africa are one of the reasons why poverty and diseases are rife in the continent.

The catastrophic environmental damage being caused by Oil, mining and timber companies such as Shell, BP, Total, Elf, Texaco, Mittal, Anglo-America Corporation in Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, DR. Congo, South Africa, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal do not make the news in the West. How often do we hear about the huge environmental price Africans are paying to satisfy the west’s insatiable appetite for energy and technology? Apart from the huge profits being made by these conglomerates which we often hear in the news, do we hear also their complete disregard for environmental rules; the pollution of rivers, lakes, streams, wells, and the environment? On June 30, 2009 a report by Amnesty International entitled "OIL INDUSTRY HAS BROUGHT POVERTY AND POLLUTION TO guy DELTA" catalogues list of environmental destruction and damage that the Oil Cartel is causing in the region. http://www.amnesty.org/en/guy-delta-20090630, http://www.democracynow.org/features/shell_on_trial.

In October 2002, after a three year investigation a UN Panel of Experts implicated Cabot Corporation (Boston), Eagle Wings Resources International, and George Forrest’s OM Group (Ohio) for arming rebel groups and collaborating with them to traffic from DR. Congo gold, diamond, timber and most importantly coltan (columbo-tantalite)-a precious ore essential to Sony playstations, laptop computers, and cell phones. Coltan is often spirited out of DRC to U.S., Swiss, Belgian, and German clients by Uganda and Rwanda army officers, rebel groups and through a network of criminal syndicates. In all 85 companies were implicated by the report.http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4999, http://globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/181/33592.html

Except the wars and the stranded faces of hungry refugees, do these illegal activities by the corporations make the news in the Western media? Definitely not. Even when local journalists and writers document this for broadcast in the west, it is not published as it does not serve their interests. The media only publish stories after NGOs and civil society organisations have fought to expose corruption and shady deals involving western corporations, business and political leaders.

This is the hypocrisy and double standard of the western media. They want the world to know how poor Africans are but fail to tell the world that Africans are poor because Western banking institutions, property development companies, defence companies and defence contractors, oil and mining corporations are major stakeholders in promoting Africa’s poverty and underdevelopment. Corruption and bribery in Africa and indeed the developing world could be reduced tremendously if the media for once put aside the pick and choose journalism and attached the same importance to show the degree of involvement by western capitalist institutions Europe, America and Japan and their role in keeping Africans poor.
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24KT

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Re: Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2010, 10:18:33 AM »
Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media

 :o  You mean all those Nigerian emails I got were REAL?!   :o
I could have collected the $138 million bank account afterall? Oy!

It's unfortunate, but corruption by public officials is a way of life over there. It's systemic.
You sometimes even have to bribe people to do their actual jobs... for real.
We had a helluva time getting packages into Ghana. It got so bad that I know an individual who out of sheer frustration actually sought out the postal official he had to bribe, just to ensure any packages he sent into Ghana, did not get stolen, and actually made it to their destination.

Whenever they were sent directly by the company... they were stolen.

It got to the point where a distributor group got together and had all shipments for Ghanaian distributors automatically shipped to this distributor in Florida. He had his own little mini warehouse, and would supply his diownline this way. He'd mail the packages to Ghana himself directly to one distributor, who would then release them to the individual distributors respectively as soon as their packages arrived at the guys place in Florida.

We also had to use the same set-up for Jamaica as well. In Jamaica it wasn't because of corruption and packages getting stolen, simply to expedite fulfillment and get around transit times & customs delays. A huge shipment was sent to a leader in Jamaica in advance, with plenty of time for it to clear customs, while all the subsequent Jamaican auto-ships went to a distributor in Banff Alberta. As soon as she got the autoshipments, she'd email the distributor in Jamaica to release the product sent in advance to the individual distributors respectively. The transit time from the Canadian warehouse in Calgary to Banff was alot quicker than from Orlando to Montego Bay.

You should have seen the creative solutions we used to help Africans pay for their products too.
What a nightmare, ...especially in countries where credit cards aren't so prevalent, and when they do exist, can only be used within the territorial limits of the issuing country, and where you can't send more than $50 USD outside of the country. Thank Goodness the company came up with an internal payment system whereby earned commissions could be accumulated and used as tokens to pay for products. This allowed foreign distributors to dictate how much of their commissions were loaded onto ATM paycards week to week, and how much to simply leave on deposit into their virtual bank accounts to pay for signups and product purchases.

It's staggering that these officials are able to loot such enormous amounts out of countries that only let people send no more than $50 out of the country at a time. I guess it's alot easier to do if the money never actually makes it into the country in the first place, ie: deposits directly into Swiss bank accounts.  :-\
w

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Re: Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2010, 10:28:31 AM »
Jag
You know in Ghana we actually had to hire a black "handler" to handle all the bribes and cops or we just got no where.
Tanzania I think was even worse for me as far as corruption goes EVERY ONE wanted a bribe just to do their own job and I mean every one.
I am going back up to Mozambique next month and we have actually budgeted 2000MT a week per person for bribes that the cops always demand  :-\

Its not easy

24KT

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Re: Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2010, 02:01:44 PM »
Jag
You know in Ghana we actually had to hire a black "handler" to handle all the bribes and cops or we just got no where.
Tanzania I think was even worse for me as far as corruption goes EVERY ONE wanted a bribe just to do their own job and I mean every one.
I am going back up to Mozambique next month and we have actually budgeted 2000MT a week per person for bribes that the cops always demand  :-\

Its not easy

I believe it!

Maybe they consider being bribed to do their jobs as payback or some kind of vicarious remuneration for the centuries of unpaid forced labour their ex-pat cousins had to endure in distant lands. Who knows?  but man-oh man does it ever make dealing with them a sometime nightmare, an albeit predictable one, ...but still a bloody nightmare nonetheless. In some ways dealing with the Ghanaians is worse than the Nigerians, ...'cause the nigerians don't pull their punches. They'll be blunt and upfront in your face with everything, ...but the ghanaians... OMG, ...they'll kill you with their politeness and good manners, always maintaining a polite, respectful, almost regal demeanor, while squeezing you like a bloody sponge! LOL! All my life I've frequently heard the phrase "Think Yiddish, ...act British"... but man-oh-man, the Ghanaians have raised that to a fine art! How do people ever get anything done that way?!! Talk about a culture-shock!!!  :o
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SAMSON123

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Re: Hiding Africa's Looted Funds: The Silence of Western Media
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2010, 07:24:19 PM »
Quote
:o  You mean all those Nigerian emails I got were REAL?!   :o

No they weren't...those e-mails came directly from Israhell (figures...money was involved) they set up proxies and made it look like the Nigerians had a scam going...sadly the news covered the scam and provided the facts and people are still believing it was the Nigerians.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3750122,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/9-israelis-suspected-of-scamming-millions-from-u-s-pensioners-1.279377
Quote

I could have collected the $138 million bank account afterall? Oy!

No...all of your hard earned saving would have ended up in some israeli bank!!!

Quote
It's unfortunate, but corruption by public officials is a way of life over there. It's systemic.
You sometimes even have to bribe people to do their actual jobs... for real.
We had a helluva time getting packages into Ghana. It got so bad that I know an individual who out of sheer frustration actually sought out the postal official he had to bribe, just to ensure any packages he sent into Ghana, did not get stolen, and actually made it to their destination.

The only thing systemic in Nigeria and Africa is the white presence of american and European and their games of corruption and stealing of which the innocent Nigerian/African is blamed while the white ashkenazim scum walks freely.. Throughout Africa (not just South Africa) the system of Apartheid is still in full operation, the creation of Civil War and unrest, the religious battles, the deliberate deprivation to cause chaos are all american and european tools. I posted this thread to make that apparent, but somehow BLAME THE VICTIM is the mindset in the responses so far.

Quote
Whenever they were sent directly by the company... they were stolen.

Sadly these systems are set up all over the world and when you trace them back to who is running it, it is NOT the indigenous people of the particular nation. Money sent to any Central and South American nations encountered the same theft, by way of its postal service...who is running the postal service?. Even in cases where money was sent for humanitarian aid, for food and/or clothing during natural disasters. Remember the aid that was sent to Ethiopia...only for the bulk of it to be stolen by american and jewish banks/companies and food allowed to rot in the ships after america and Israhell refused to allow it to be unloaded even 6 months after it was sent.

Quote
It got to the point where a distributor group got together and had all shipments for Ghanaian distributors automatically shipped to this distributor in Florida. He had his own little mini warehouse, and would supply his diownline this way. He'd mail the packages to Ghana himself directly to one distributor, who would then release them to the individual distributors respectively as soon as their packages arrived at the guys place in Florida.

Quote
We also had to use the same set-up for Jamaica as well. In Jamaica it wasn't because of corruption and packages getting stolen, simply to expedite fulfillment and get around transit times & customs delays. A huge shipment was sent to a leader in Jamaica in advance, with plenty of time for it to clear customs, while all the subsequent Jamaican auto-ships went to a distributor in Banff Alberta. As soon as she got the autoshipments, she'd email the distributor in Jamaica to release the product sent in advance to the individual distributors respectively. The transit time from the Canadian warehouse in Calgary to Banff was alot quicker than from Orlando to Montego Bay.

Why post this then?

Quote
You should have seen the creative solutions we used to help Africans pay for their products too.
What a nightmare, ...especially in countries where credit cards aren't so prevalent, and when they do exist, can only be used within the territorial limits of the issuing country, and where you can't send more than $50 USD outside of the country. Thank Goodness the company came up with an internal payment system whereby earned commissions could be accumulated and used as tokens to pay for products. This allowed foreign distributors to dictate how much of their commissions were loaded onto ATM paycards week to week, and how much to simply leave on deposit into their virtual bank accounts to pay for signups and product purchases.

Truth of the matter is these limiting systems keep the Africans from amassing any wealth or having the funds to start their own businesses or make better lives for themselves...Keeping them impoverished is a way of controlling them.

It's staggering that these officials are able to loot such enormous amounts out of countries that only let people send no more than $50 out of the country at a time. I guess it's alot easier to do if the money never actually makes it into the country in the first place, ie: deposits directly into Swiss bank accounts.  :-\


So far as the looting of Africa goes I am surprised that people are totally unaware that Africa makes/made America and Europe possible. The full wealth of the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, DeBeers etc etc all come from the direct theft of GOLD, SILVER and DIAMONDS from South Africa. Places like Antwerp and the entire London stock Exchange would be nonexistent without that theft. So far as the raw goods and natural resources...Africa (like Brazil) is slowly being turned into WASTE LAND over this theft being that the american and European installed puppets in each African nation allow this rampant theft and destruction...lets not mention the off shore dumping of extremely toxic waste in Somalia....why do you think those people are drawing such attention to this matter in GREENPEACE style..while your so called western news makes them out to be PIRATES  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia

Waste dumping
See also: Radioactive waste dumping by the 'Ndrangheta

Following the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, there have emerged allegations that after the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in late 1991, Somalia's long, remote shoreline was used as a dump site for the disposal of toxic waste. The huge waves which battered northern Somalia after the tsunami are believed to have stirred up tonnes of nuclear and toxic waste that was illegally dumped in Somali waters by several European firms. The European Green Party followed up these revelations by presenting before the press and the European Parliament in Strasbourg copies of contracts signed by two European companies—the Italian Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian waste broker, Progresso—and representatives of the warlords then in power, to accept 10 million tonnes of toxic waste in exchange for $80 million (then about £60 million). According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) assessment mission, there are far higher than normal cases of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, abdominal haemorrhages and unusual skin infections among many inhabitants of the areas around the northeastern towns of Hobbio and Benadir on the Indian Ocean coast—diseases consistent with radiation sickness. UNEP continues that the current situation along the Somali coastline poses a very serious environmental hazard not only in Somalia but also in the eastern Africa sub-region.[60][61]

Under Article 9(1)(d) of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, it is illegal for "any transboundary movement of hazardous wastes or other wastes: that results in deliberate disposal (e.g. dumping) of hazardous wastes or other wastes in contravention of this Convention and of general principles of international law".[62]

According to Nick Nuttall of the United Nations Environmental Programme, "Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste starting in the early 1990s, and continuing through the civil war there," and "European companies found it to be very cheap to get rid of the waste, costing as little as $2.50 a tonne, where waste disposal costs in Europe are something like $1000 a tonne." [57][63]


Illegal fishing

At the same time, foreign trawlers began illegally fishing Somalia's seas, with an estimated $300 million of tuna, shrimp, and lobster being taken each year, depleting stocks previously available to local fishermen. Through interception with speedboats, Somali fishermen tried to either dissuade the dumpers and trawlers or levy a "tax" on them as compensation. In an interview, Sugule Ali, one of the pirate leaders explained "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits (to be) those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." Peter Lehr, a Somalia piracy expert at the University of St. Andrews says "It's almost like a resource swap, Somalis collect up to $100 million a year from pirate ransoms off their coasts and the Europeans and Asians poach around $300 million a year in fish from Somali waters."[22][64]

According to Roger Middleton of Chatham House, "The problem of overfishing and illegal fishing in Somali waters is a very serious one, and does affect the livelihoods of people inside Somalia […] the dumping of toxic waste on Somalia’s shores is a very serious issue, which will continue to affect people in Somalia long after the war has ended, and piracy is resolved."[65] To lure fish to their traps, foreign trawlers reportedly also use fishing equipment under prohibition such as nets with very small mesh sizes and sophisticated underwater lighting systems.[56]

Under Article 56(1)(b)(iii) of the Law of the Sea Convention:

    "In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has jurisdiction as provided for in the relevant provisions of this Convention with regard to the protection and preservation of the marine environment".

Article 57 of the Convention in turn outlines the limit of that jurisdiction:

    "The exclusive economic zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured".[66]


These examples above reflect what is going on in Africa by way of america and Europe both of whom have the temerity to talk of the environment, global pollution/warming/weather change... While the Africans and those people of the South Pacific fight both nations with their pollution and its ill effects both americans and europeans sit in sicking stupidity thinking somehow the ways of their  nations are just when in truth it is the absolute opposite.
C