Premier praises Mugabe, Gaddafi

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Premier praises Mugabe, Gaddafi
2011-05-26 15:52

Bela Bela - Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale has warned leaders of African countries to protect themselves from Western politicians “who view the continent as a tool to perpetuate imperialist agendas”.

Mathale, who was addressing delegates during the Africa Day celebrations held in Bela Bela on Wednesday, applauded Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi as leaders who fought against Western oppression.

"From time immemorial, Africa has been viewed as a storehouse of raw material for the first world countries, in particular the Western forces," said Mathale.

"Offers to invest in the economy of the continent have been, in all respect, attached to heavy political strings, which are meant to further the current trends of the continent depending on the former colonial principals."

Celebrating African leaders

Mathale said the continent had good reason to celebrate its own great leaders, whom he said had left a legacy that deserved permanent recognition.

“It is on this note that we should dedicate this Africa Day celebration to all leaders of the African continent who fought against the colonisation of Africa against all odds.

"In this regard, we salute Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, Agostinho Neto, Eduardo Mondlane, Ahmed Ban Bela, Modibo Keita, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Seretse Kgama, Kenneth Kaunda, Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Goven Mbeki, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Krumah, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Colonel Gaddafi and Kgotsikgolo Moshoeshoe, among others," he said.

Mathale said it was unfortunate that some of these leaders were assassinated by Western-sponsored forces.

“We must appreciate the fact that our continent has [gone] through many dark chapters. So it is proper not to celebrate this Africa Day in isolation.

“We must use our history of oppression, struggle, and economic exclusion to define the present and shape the future,” he said.

Mathale accused the West of planning, funding and sustaining some of the civil wars that have ravaged Africa for many years.

He said the "colonisers" were still persistent, refusing to afford Africa full independence and respect for the "sovereign rights" of each African country.

"In order to claim cheap political mileage, they stood up in numerous platforms praising themselves for building the continent and handing it back to indigenous people while they knew exactly what they were doing,” he said.

Self-liberation

The premier also encouraged Africans to appreciate one another and reject all forms of xenophobia.

“First and foremost, as Africans we must be united before we can invite others to join in the unity. The sooner we accept that we must liberate ourselves from the situation we are presently in, some of which are not of our own making, the better,” Mathale said.

Africa Day is celebrated annually on May 25 to commemorate the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

On this day, leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed a founding charter of the OAU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The objective of Africa Day was to build a positive image of Africa.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Premier-praises-Mugabe-Gaddafi-20110526

Guess he failed...

From the "Related Links" on the right of the article...

Protest against Limpopo govt
2010-03-31 20:34

Johannesburg - About 3 000 Samwu members marched to Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale's office in Polokwane on Wednesday to protest against the "disappointing" management of municipalities in the province.

The South African Municipal Worker's Union (Samwu) provincial secretary, Alfred Sithole, said the union was disappointed with the manner in which municipalities in the province were managed.

"Our members in Limpopo are actively implementing the government's position on corruption (whistle blowing) but when we try to implement this position, we receive suspensions and bribes, in an attempt to divide us," he said.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Protest-against-Limpopo-govt-20100331

'Farmer' premier cashes in
2011-01-02 20:53

Johannesburg - Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale received a R400 000 government grant in 2007 to buy shares in a farming project meant for emerging farmers.

Mathale, who was ANC provincial secretary at the time, has admitted to benefiting from the multimillion-rand Mabete citrus project.

He is a director of Mabete Sitrus, a private company that owns six portions of the Mabete farm at Letsitele, outside Tzaneen, spanning 1 285ha.

...

When City Press visited the farm, worker shareholders complained that their living standards had not been improved.

They said four years after Mathale had personally asked them to sign papers for the shares they still had no shareholder certificates and did not even know the value of their shares.

They reached a verbal agreement with the premier, which was followed by handwritten letters from the firm’s management confirming their status as shareholders.

Since then they had been paid between R1 000 and R1 300 a year each as dividends for their shares, they claimed.

Lives not changing

“We are not happy because they say we own shares in this farm but we are getting very little money. Our lives are not changing and we are still suffering,” said 57-year-old Maria Ramalobela.

She added they had no toilets or running water and the roofs of their houses were leaking.

“What can you do with R 1 000 a year? They are just playing with our minds,” said a tractor driver who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation.

A supervisor said management told them at a meeting four weeks ago that their dividends would increase to R10 000 a year in 2016.

He added they were told that was the year the company would stop deducting money from their dividends as repayments for their shares and contributions towards input costs.

Smit did not respond to the workers’ claims, saying he was on holiday and needed more time to respond fully.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Farmer-Premier-Cassel-Mathale-cashes-in-20110102

 

[Picard]

protect themselves from Western politicians “who view the continent as a tool to perpetuate imperialist agendas”.

The world needs Africa's resources. If I am to follow liberal ideals then I will say that we are all humans living on one planet. If there are to be no more racial discrimination then there should be no more geographic discrimination either. The rest of the world will pay the Africans for their resources but we can't wait for the Africans to do it themselves just because it is on their land. If we were to continue to wait for them we would be waiting for the next 500 years for them to scrounge up the technology and bureaucracy to do it effectively.

And another thing ... if the Africans are to be concerned about imperialism ... they should rather look to the east. A tsunami is coming!

 

[nivek]

Then its time Africa started rejecting Western aid

 

[satanboy]

It is all well and fine standing up against Western imperialism but don't kill, torture and prosecute your own people.

 

[dabbler]

Since when has Africa ever created anything from their raw materials? Watches? Cars?

Sent from my GT-I9000 using MyBroadband Android App

 

[killadoob]

Then its time Africa started rejecting Western aid

It's time the western world stop offering it. I must give qaddafi some praise though, he is really doing well in this war actually. Most thought o it will be easy go in bomb them and the war is over. I can bet an american made that speech . As for the rest of africa if the west stop giving them money perhaps they would be forced into making their money by running a country well. Instead it is way to easy to get AID.

I also hope the western companies will stop dropping their waste in somalia and numerous other poor countries. Africa is not your bloody dumping grounds!!!!!

 

[satanboy]

Since when has Africa ever created anything from their raw materials? Watches? Cars?

What? Are you living in a cave?

 

[Nothxkbi]

Well, she's not far from the truth tbh. From the very moment they landed on this continent and tore hundreds of thousands of sons and fathers away from their families as slaves, they been siphoning off of this continent and enriching themselves, everything from oil to gold. I do agree it's time African leaders stood up and said enough is enough. I don't agree that it should come at the expense of fellow Africans.

 

[killadoob]

Well, she's not far from the truth tbh. From the very moment they landed on this continent and tore hundreds of thousands of sons and fathers away from their families as slaves, they been siphoning off of this continent and enriching themselves, everything from oil to gold. I do agree it's time African leaders stood up and said enough is enough. I don't agree that it should come at the expense of fellow Africans.

Yea but it is already coming at the expense of their fellow africans. They need to step up and get africa right because the west won't do it. They are too busy fighting for oil in places that matter to them.

 

[Lightscribe]

Well, she's not far from the truth tbh. From the very moment they landed on this continent and tore hundreds of thousands of sons and fathers away from their families as slaves, they been siphoning off of this continent and enriching themselves, everything from oil to gold. I do agree it's time African leaders stood up and said enough is enough. I don't agree that it should come at the expense of fellow Africans.

Africa
Main article: African slave trade

Southern Central Africa in 1880.

Hamoud bin Mohammed, Sultan of Zanzibar from 1896 to 1902. He complied with British demands that slavery be banned in Zanzibar and that all the slaves be freed.

In early Islamic states of the western Sudan, including Ghana (750–1076), Mali (1235–1645), Segou (1712–1861), and Songhai (1275–1591), about a third of the population were enslaved. In Senegambia, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In Sierra Leone in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of enslaved people. In the 19th century at least half the population was enslaved among the Duala of the Cameroon, the Igbo and other peoples of the lower Niger, the Kongo, and the Kasanje kingdom and Chokwe of Angola. Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third of the population consisted of enslaved people.[81] The population of the Kanem (1600–1800) was about a third-enslaved. It was perhaps 40% in Bornu (1580–1890). Between 1750 and 1900 from one- to two-thirds of the entire population of the Fulani jihad states consisted of slaves.[81] The population of the Sokoto caliphate formed by Hausas in the northern Nigeria and Cameroon was half-slave in the 19th century. Between 65% to 90% population of Arab-Swahili Zanzibar was enslaved. Roughly half the population of Madagascar was enslaved.[81][82] According to the Encyclopedia of African History, "It is estimated that by the 1890s the largest slave population of the world, about 2 million people, was concentrated in the territories of the Sokoto Caliphate. The use of slave labor was extensive, especially in agriculture."[83][84] The Anti-Slavery Society estimated there were 2 million slaves in Ethiopia in the early 1930s out of an estimated population of between 8 and 16 million.[85]

Hugh Clapperton in 1824 believed that half the population of Kano were enslaved people.[86] According to W. A. Veenhoven, "The German doctor, Gustav Nachtigal, an eye-witness, believed that for every slave who arrived at a market three or four died on the way... Keltie (The Partition of Africa, London, 1920) believes that for every slave the Arabs brought to the coast at least six died on the way or during the slavers' raid. Livingstone puts the figure as high as ten to one."[87] One of the most famous slave traders on the East African coast was Tippu Tip, who was himself the grandson of an enslaved African. The prazeros slave traders, descendants of Portuguese and Africans, operated along the Zambezi. North of the Zambezi, the waYao and Makua people played a similar role as professional slave raiders and traders. The Nyamwezi slave traders operated further north under the leadership of Msiri and Mirambo.[88]

...

Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.[168] In 1833 the BritishParliament decreed an end to slavery throughout the British Empire, and on August 1, 1834, the British Emancipation Act came into effect.[169] Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.[170]

..

Apologies

On May 21, 2001, the National Assembly of France passed the Taubira law, recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity. Apologies on behalf of African nations, for their role in trading their countrymen into slavery, remain an open issue since slavery was practiced in Africa even before the first Europeans arrived and the Atlantic slave trade was performed with a high degree of involvement of several African societies. The black slave market was supplied by well-established slave trade networks controlled by local African societies and individuals.[187] Indeed, as already mentioned in this article, slavery persists in several areas of West Africa until the present day.

There is adequate evidence citing case after case of African control of segments of the trade. Several African nations such as the Calabar and other southern parts of Nigeria had economies depended solely on the trade. African peoples such as the Imbangala of Angola and the Nyamwezi of Tanzania would serve as middlemen or roving bands warring with other African nations to capture Africans for Europeans.[188]

Several historians have made important contributions to the global understanding of the African side of the Atlantic slave trade. By arguing that African merchants determined the assemblage of trade goods accepted in exchange for slaves, many historians argue for African agency and ultimately a shared responsibility for the slave trade.[189]

The issue of an apology is linked to reparations for slavery and is still being pursued by a number of entities across the world. For example, the Jamaican Reparations Movement approved its declaration and action Plan.

In September, 2006, it was reported[190] that the UK Government may issue a "statement of regret" over slavery, an act that was followed through by a "public statement of sorrow" from Tony Blair on November 27, 2006.[191]

On February 25, 2007 the state of Virginia resolved to 'profoundly regret' and apologize for its role in the institution of slavery. Unique and the first of its kind in the U.S., the apology was unanimously passed in both Houses as Virginia approached the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, where the first slaves were imported into North America in 1619.[192]

On August 24, 2007, Mayor Ken Livingstone of London, United Kingdom apologized publicly for Britain's role in colonial slave trade. "You can look across there to see the institutions that still have the benefit of the wealth they created from slavery," he said pointing towards the financial district. He claimed that London was still tainted by the horrors of slavery. Jesse Jackson praised Livingstone, and added that reparations should be made, one of his common arguments.[193]

In June 2009, the US Senate passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery".[194]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

Read it all.

 

[SoulTax]

Read it all.

Nice, I was going to dive into some lecture about how Africans were the biggest slave traders of their own people, before during and after the "westerners". This article is far more accurate and concise than I would have been.

I get so sick of people claiming that the Colonialists went into Africa and stole babies from homes. Or fathers from families. If anything, Africans have been the greatest offenders of human slave trade over the last 1000 years. People must pull their heads out of their asses and stop believing the propoganda that Africa spews about the past. The west must stop feeling over-guilty about deeds that were not fully their fault to begin with and call these idiots out on their false claims.

 

[darkevil]

Mathale accused the West of planning, funding and sustaining some of the civil wars that have ravaged Africa for many years.

Would love to know....who is supplying the various factions within Africa with arms and ammunition?
Years to sustain a civil war costs loads of money in armaments.

I would give it a guess that Mathale...has a point.

 

[Vrotappel]

Mathale accused the West of planning, funding and sustaining some of the civil wars that have ravaged Africa for many years.

Would love to know....who is supplying the various factions within Africa with arms and ammunition?
Years to sustain a civil war costs loads of money in armaments.

I would give it a guess that Mathale...has a point.

The ANC government?

 

[TJ99]

And another thing ... if the Africans are to be concerned about imperialism ... they should rather look to the east. A tsunami is coming!

Yup, this is one thing everyone conveniently ignores. Western imperialism is long dead and gone, but because the African style is to keep dwelling on the past and demand, demand and look for excuses while waiting for someone else to fix your problems, they're completely ignoring the very real present eastern imperialists which are slowly but surely taking over the world.

Unlike the western nations they don't give a crap about human rights, guilt or any of that, even to their own people. They've now got modern, western technology (hell, they even build most of ours for us), combined with their massive population and great determination to rule the world, and that's a very dangerous combination. In short:

The Chinese are coming. They are legion. Expect them.

 

[Lightscribe]

The Tsunami's first waves have already hit...

For South Africa’s workers, a Chinese-supplied Print This ShareThis
job comes at a price. Wednesday, Dec 8, 2010

Call me Raymond, he says. He doesn’t want his real name known. He knows he could get into serious trouble for the illegally low wages that he pays his workers.

Raymond grew up in China, found it too fiercely competitive, and came to Africa in search of easier opportunities. Now he owns a clothing factory, toils long hours and makes a steady profit – but only because he violates the law by paying below the minimum wage.

“Here the people work too slowly,” he complains. “Even if they could get more money, they would rather drink beer or something.”

Raymond is one of dozens of Chinese entrepreneurs who own clothing factories in Newcastle, an industrial town in an impoverished rural region of South Africa. With unemployment at nearly 60 per cent in the surrounding region, the factories have a steady supply of workers – but they’ve been condemned by unions for ignoring the wage laws.

As African countries increasingly become the target of a wave of Chinese investment, they face a dilemma: should they accept the money and the entrepreneurs in every case, even if the jobs are poorly paid and illegal? Are any jobs better than no jobs at all? How many concessions should be made in exchange for Chinese investment?

Across the continent, Chinese businesses have invested billions of dollars in African economies, creating hope for the future. But they’ve also clashed with workers in a number of countries. In the most notorious case, two Chinese mine managers in Zambia were charged with attempted murder after they allegedly opened fire on workers who were protesting against low wages and poor working conditions. Eleven workers were injured.

In Newcastle, Raymond has been penalized with fines for failing to pay the minimum wage. He and the other Chinese factory owners in his town were recently given the “Worst Employer Award” by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions. But he warns that he’ll have to shut his factory if he has to pay the legal minimum of about $70 a week.

Most of his 200 workers, desperate for jobs in a South African region with high unemployment, accept wages of less than $50 a week. Some work for just $30 a week. “We can’t pay more,” Raymond says. “If the wages go up, many of the Chinese-owned factories will have to close.”

In fact, the Chinese-owned factories in South Africa are paying wages at the same level as factories in China. Economically it makes sense, since they are competing against a flood of clothing imports from China. Yet it puts them on a collision course with South Africa’s powerful unions, which gained moral legitimacy during the fight against apartheid.

Raymond sees it as a culture clash between Chinese entrepreneurs he thinks are hard-working and South African workers he considers lazy. He routinely works a gruelling schedule from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and sometimes all night when he has an urgent shipment to prepare. Many of the Chinese factory owners in Newcastle work such long hours that they sleep in a room at the back of their factory to save time.

The profits that Raymond reaps at his factory have a simple purpose: to pay for the education of his son, who is studying at a university in the United States and wants to be a doctor. When his son graduates and begins earning money, Raymond will finally retire.

“Chinese people think that tomorrow will be better,” he says. “If you don’t work hard, you won’t make money. But here in South Africa, the people think that tomorrow you could die, so you should live today. It’s a different way of thinking.”

Betty Mbele, a single mother of two children, has worked in Newcastle’s clothing factories for 15 years. Now she earns about $50 a week at her job in a storeroom at Raymond’s factory. She says she needs the wage to raise her family. “I have to take it,” she says.

She believes that the unions and the government aren’t doing enough to enforce the minimum wage. “Nobody is doing anything about it,” she says.

As for the threat that factories will close if wages are increased, she is skeptical. “Who knows if it’s true? Maybe they’re just saying it. Maybe some of them will leave, but not all of them.”

Patrick Vundla, an organizer for the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union, admits that the Chinese factories have created thousands of jobs in Newcastle. But he doesn’t believe their pleas of poverty or their threats to leave. “If they weren’t making a profit, they would have left already,” he says. “Some of them have been here for 10 years – that tells you that they’re making a profit.”

South Africa’s government is caught in the middle of the dispute. It has close links to the trade unions, and relies on them to deliver votes. But it has also become increasingly fascinated by the Chinese economic and political system as a model for South Africa.

The ruling party, the African National Congress, has sent many of its executive members on tours of China. Its new political school is explicitly modelled on the Chinese Communist Party’s central school. The government’s new Minister of Arts and Culture gives speeches filled with long quotations from Chinese leaders. And the President, Jacob Zuma, has praised the “discipline” of China’s authoritarian political system, calling it a potential recipe for economic growth in Africa. The government has welcomed Chinese investment in South Africa, which totals more than $6-billion so far, but it is unclear whether it will accept illegally low wages as part of the bargain.

If there is hope for a solution to the conflicts in Newcastle, it could come from a new Chinese-owned factory, Sen Li Da, which has invested $12-million in a state-of-the-art factory here, using Chinese equipment to recycle plastic bottles into chemical fibres. When the factory opened last year, it was plagued by work stoppages by its South African workers. So it contacted the unions and invited them in – and the conflicts stopped. Even its 75 Chinese workers (nearly half of the work force) have joined the unions.

“Some people think that unions do strange things, but actually they help,” says Frank Fang, the factory’s office manager. “When we call Patrick Vundla, he always comes on time to sort out any little problems. It’s good for both sides. We need peaceful and friendly working conditions.”

The factory, like most others in Newcastle, is still paying below the minimum wage. But it aims to increase the wages as its finances improve. “If you want to keep the company running, you have to do it step by step,” Mr. Fang says.

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_61762.shtml

 

[Lightscribe]

South African Workers Pay The Price For Cheap Chinese Imports. May 26, 2011

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (CNN) -- China is now South Africa's biggest trading partner. But cheap Chinese imports are threatening local industries and thousands of ordinary South Africans are paying the price.

Trade between South Africa and China increased from more than $8 billion in 2006 to a record $20 billion last year. As a result China has now overtaken the U.S. as South Africa's biggest trading partner.

Unlike Europe and America, China continued to invest in South Africa throughout the global economic crisis, lessening the blow to the South African economy.

However, its investment is proving to be a double-edged sword because South Africa's once successful textile sector is now struggling to cope with cheap Chinese imports flooding their market.

The repercussions are being felt across the country as thousands of workers struggle to keep their low-paid jobs.

Even in a remote village in Kwazulu-Natal, the impact of China's growth is being harshly felt.

Sindi Mkalipi, a local clothing factory worker, irons 70 pieces of clothing an hour to earn $34 a week. She wakes up at 5:30 every morning to begin her hour-long journey to the factory.

She is the only employed member of her family and with seven mouths to feed her job is vital to their survival.

"We earn very little, but at least I can buy a pack of maize meal, some chicken pieces and a bus ticket," she says. "It's better than not earning anything at all."

In a country where more than a third of the population is jobless she is only too aware that many people would be willing to take her job.

The South African government expects a machinist in this kind of factory to earn a minimum of $68 a week -- twice what Mkalipi earns.

But Alex Liu, Mkalipi's boss and the factory owner, says he cannot pay that and stay in business.

Liu came to South Africa a decade ago with other members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to exploit business opportunities. The irony of the situation is not lost on him.

"Some of our members are really considering to close down here and relocate their factories to other neighboring countries, like Lesotho or Swaziland," he says.

In neighboring Lesotho, the minimum wage is $32 per week.

But in South Africa manufacturers are either trimming their workforce or closing down entirely.

According to the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union, in the last three years more than 18,000 people have lost their jobs in the sector.

With employers like Liu calling for a lower minimum wage, South Africa finds itself in a situation where it is desperate to create work, but unable to guarantee what the government considers decent pay.

However, South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies believes that although China may be shrinking the local clothing sector, South Africa and the continent at large benefit from its huge mining investments.

"China and the industrialization of China is what is propelling the mineral boom and its one of the major areas in which Africa is experiencing a growth surge which is, in fact, placing Africa as the next growth story after China, India and Brazil," he said.

That is probably of little comfort to South Africa's ailing textile industry, or Mkalipi, and other workers like her.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/05/25/china.imports.south.africa/index.html

Pension fund drained after loans
Textile workers demand cash back. May 29, 2011

Factory workers are demanding R1-billion worth of assets from a company that invested its pension money in a scandal involving Deputy Minister of Economic Development Enoch Godongwana.

Ironically, Godongwana is head of the ANC's economic transformation commission, tasked, as deputy to Ebrahim Patel, with reviving the fortunes of factory workers.

...

"If this is true, I'm shocked by a number of things. Firstly, my heart is down because textile workers are among the lowest paid in the country, with some of them earning as little as R280 a fortnight," said Vavi.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/338379-Pension-fund-drained-after-loans

...

 

[DigitalSoldier]

The Tsunami's first waves have already hit...

Good article. Maybe if the ANC had their tshirts made at one of these Chinese factories instead of China these factories could increase wages.

Sent from my HTC Desire using MyBroadband Android App

 

[BLIXEMPIE]

Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale has warned leaders of African countries to protect themselves from Western politicians “who view the continent as a tool to perpetuate imperialist agendas”.

I fully agree. The "Imperialists" must leave Africa to suffer all alone.

 

[Shibal]

U.S. budget ax threatens successful AIDS program in Africa

I fully agree. The "Imperialists" must leave Africa to suffer all alone.

Just like the ANC blaming apartheid for their bribery, corruption and incompetence, Africa will continue to blame their lack of progress on the evil white west and slave trade.

Maybe China will step in and fill the AID gap when the US pulls the plug ?


U.S. budget ax threatens successful AIDS program in Africa
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.co...-threatens-successful-aids-program-in-africa/

One moment, men, women and children suffering from AIDS are lying at death's door, barely able to move, open their eyes, or speak. Then a few days or weeks later, they are walking, talking, laughing; truly appearing to have come back from the dead.

This astonishing transformation has been repeated all over the continent thousands of times over the past decade. And, since 2003, America has been helping to pay for it.

But a budget-slashing effort in Congress this year threatens to bring much of that progress to a sudden and catastrophic halt.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Awww shame, poor Africa....

lets take another moment to feel sorry for the continent that can`t pull up its own bootstraps... its what it wants.