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Archbishop Joseph Tlhagale of Johannesburg, South Africa Vatican City, Oct 8, 2009 / 11:41 am (CNA).- Archbishop Joseph Tlhagale of Johannesburg, South Africa said this morning at the Synod for Africa that the continent faces a "second wave of colonization" from "liberalism, secularism and from lobbyists who squat at the United Nations."The South African archbishop began his five-minute intervention by noting that moral values are "embedded in the diverse African cultures," and that, "alongside the Gospel values, are threatened by the new global ethic." This ethic, he said, "aggressively seeks to persuade African governments and communities to accept new...

Here's how reporters Steven Lee Myers and Marc Santora of the New York Times described the highly touted American withdrawal from Iraq's cities last week: Much of the complicated work of dismantling and removing millions of dollars of equipment from the combat outposts in the city has been done during the dark of night. General Ray Odierno, the overall American commander in Iraq, has ordered that an increasing number of basic operations - transport and re-supply convoys, for example - take place at night, when fewer Iraqis are likely to see that the American withdrawal is not total. Acting in...

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa. Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western...

Here, in the courtyard of an ancient convent, the Wall of the Disappeared lists the names of some 2,700 “pieds noirs” — black feet, as the white French former colonists in Algeria were called. Pieds noirs (the term’s origins are obscure, but perhaps had something to do with black boots) mostly emigrated originally from Spain, Italy, Germany, Malta and other European countries, often as laborers and farmers. They became French citizens during the 130-odd years Algeria was under France’s thumb. Then during the chaotic weeks and months after France, under Charles de Gaulle, ended its colonial war with Algerian nationalists...

This report is astonishing. The South Korean firm Daewoo is negotiating with the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar to use half the arable land for farming of crops to be sent to Korea. The deal encompasses over 3.2 million acres of farmland,

MONTFERMEIL, France--Where is Europe's Barack Obama? Not only are droves of Europeans hoping for a victory by the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, many are asking when France, Germany or Britain will get a chance to cast a ballot for a leader from their own burgeoning minorities. The answer: not any time soon. "Obama is rather far away. It's a bit of a fiction here, a bit of a dream," said Kadar Mkalache, tending a stand at the weekly market in Les Bosquets, a tough housing project in Montfermeil northeast of Paris. Born in France 48 years ago of Algerian descent,...

The first West African conference of the African Socialist International has ended in Freetown, with delegates calling for reparations to be paid to Africans for 400 years of slavery. A presentation by Ismail Rashid, a Sierra Leonean professor of African History at New York's Vassar College, captured the mood when he insisted that it is long overdue for the West to pay for the "heinous crimes committed against Africans for our enslavement and dehumanisation." "Asking for reparations is no favour demanded from the west," the radical pan-Africanist exploded. "It is our right because through slavery, the West stole our labour,...

VIENTIANE, Laos - A high-rise Chinatown that is to go up by Laos' laid-back capital has ignited fears that this nation's giant northern neighbor is moving to engulf this nation. So alarmed are Laotians that the communist government, which rarely explains its actions to the population, is being forced to do just that, with what passes for an unprecedented public relations campaign. The "Chinese City" is a hot topic of talk and wild rumor, much of it laced with anxiety as well as anger that the regime sealed such a momentous deal in virtual secrecy. The rumblings are being heard...

China The new colonialists Mar 13th 2008 From The Economist print edition China's hunger for natural resources is causing more problems at home than abroad THERE is no exaggerating China's hunger for commodities. The country accounts for about a fifth of the world's population, yet it gobbles up more than half of the world's pork, half of its cement, a third of its steel and over a quarter of its aluminium. It is spending 35 times as much on imports of soya beans and crude oil as it did in 1999, and 23 times as much importing copper—indeed, China has...

Patriotism lessons would glorify Britain's morally dubious past, say teachersBy LAURA CLARK - More by this author » Last updated at 20:17pm on 31st January 2008 New study: Patriotism lessons could be introduced to foster nation pride but teachers think it could exclude non-British pupils "Moral failings" in Britain's past mean pupils should not be taught patriotism, teachers said in a survey.  Nearly 90 per cent opposed plans for history and citizenship lessons aimed at fostering national identity and pride. One of the 47 London teachers questioned said the lessons might encourage "BNP-"type thinking". Another said the idea "reeked of...

The view that support for human rights around the world is tantamount to imperialism is based on a series of misconceptions What - if anything - should we do about human rights abuses in other countries? This may prove to be one of the key moral and political questions of the 21st century, not just because of the abuses themselves, but because whatever answer we give hinges on our attitude to several of the most crucial issues in international relations today: national sovereignty, cultural differences, the rule of law, globalisation and "liberal intervention" (the new term for what many would...

PRETORIA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Resource-rich Africa should increase trade and strengthen ties with China to secure its development and stake in the global economy, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Monday. On the first stop of a four-nation swing through Africa, Yang told reporters in Pretoria, South Africa, that China and its partners in Africa would benefit from closer cooperation in a number of areas, including trade and investment. "If you view development against the backdrop of globalisation, I think there is all the more reason for China and African countries to work better to support each other,"...

Sarkozy speechwriter 'racist'09/10/2007 17:26  - (SA)    Paris - A star French philosopher attacked President Nicolas Sarkozy's speechwriter as a "racist" on Tuesday over an address suggesting Africans were to blame for their continent's problems. Speaking on France Inter radio, Bernard-Henri Levy attacked presidential advisor Henri Guiano over the contents of a speech delivered by Sarkozy in the Senegalese capital Dakar in July, which sparked an uproar on the continent. "Guaino, he's a racist.... He's the one who wrote this vile speech... saying that if Africa wasn't developed it was because Africans were not part of history," Henri-Levy charged. The writer stressed...

KARRATHA, Australia - For nearly three decades, Chinese peasants have left their villages for crowded dormitories and sweaty assembly lines, churning out goods for world markets. Now, China is turning the tables. Here in the Australian Outback, Shane Padley toils in the scorching heat, 2,000 miles from his home, to build an extension to a liquefied natural gas plant that feeds China's ravenous hunger for energy. At night, the 34-year-old carpenter sleeps in a tin dwelling known as a "donga," the size of a shipping container and divided into four rooms, each barely big enough for a bed. There are...

Ian Smith, the Grand Old Man of Africa, Speaks "What we believed in was responsible majority rule, as opposed to irresponsible majority rule and I stand by that," Mr. Smith tells the interviewer. "I think it is important that before you give a person the vote you ensure that his roots go down, that he's part of the whole structure of the country." "Smith is an African," Ernest Mtunzi says. "He understands the African mentality. [...] Smith was being realistic. If you give people something before they're ready, they're going to mess it up. And that has happened." Why did...

As the Pelosi Democrats attempt to steer the debate on Iraq and the war on terror away from President Bush's approach, it is useful to examine the premises behind the liberal Democratic understanding of the war on terror. So far the Democrats have been successful in faulting the president's admittedly-flawed approach. But there is no advantage in trading one bad model for another. Here, then, is my critique of some of the major elements of the liberal explanation for "why they hate us." They're very upset at us for the Crusades: James Carroll’s recent book Crusade, portrays the Crusades as...

Thanks China, now go home: buy-up of Zambia revives old colonial fears The Guardian, UK[Tuesday, February 06, 2007 23:56] Backlash as cheap Chinese labour and products follow investment from Beijing By Chris McGreal in Lusaka Members of Zambia's Chinese community wait to greet their country’s president, Hu Jintao, at Lusaka international airport. Photograph: Reuters When the foundation stone was laid for the Mulungushi textile factory three decades ago, the project was hailed as another demonstration of communist China doing for Zambia what the capitalist west would not. Beijing put up the money to build Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles and provided...

THE Chinese are rapidly developing a successful capitalist economy — it would be a shame if the commies took over... New visitors to Beijing might be tempted to utter this paradox, especially at Christmas when the shops and tourist hotels are decked out in western festive paraphernalia. The most upmarket shops boast Eu-ropean mannequins, predominantly English signs and western fashions. Senior communist party officials seem rather embarrassed when westerners ask about the great revolutionary leaders of the past: Mao is as long dead as Marx. I attended a conference in Beijing in late December on Sino-Africa relations. The senior party...

A generation ago, Christopher Columbus was a hero. No longer. Even my preteen kids can tell you that Columbus' followers brought disease and death to many New World natives. But as the forerunner of European colonization, can Columbus also claim to have ushered in an era of higher standards of living? One of the deep questions in economics is why some countries are rich and others are poor. It is widely believed that institutions such as clear and enforceable property rights are important to economic growth. Still, debates rage: Do culture, history, government, education, temperature, natural resources, cosmic rays make...

One of the staples of progressive thought, especially as taught at the University level, is the historical record of colonialism and exploitation of less-developed countries at the hand of Western Europe and the United States. According to this model, much of what is currently the Third World is only in that condition because it has been plundered, and its goods and natural resources expropriated for the benefit and profit of others. Examples include sub-Saharan Africa, many Central American and South American countries, and Southeast Asia. There are a couple of comments to make about this. First of all, is it...

Ancient tomb sheds new light on Egyptian colonialismSkeletal remains suggest conquered Nubians participated in governance of colonized state New evidence from ancient grave site reveals that Egyptian colonialists shared administrative responsibilities with conquered Nubians. In approximately 1550 B.C., Egypt conquered its southern neighbor, ancient Nubia, and secured control of valuable trade routes. But rather than excluding the colonized people from management of the region, new evidence from an archaeological site on the Nile reveals that Egyptian immigrants shared administrative responsibilities for ruling this large province with native Nubians. "The study of culture contact in the past has conventionally used ideas...

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's president vowed Tuesday to defend a string of islets against Japanese claims in Seoul's strongest criticism yet of Tokyo in the long-running territorial dispute.

Last week’s saber rattling by Hugo Chavez, a blunt threat to remove the Dutch from the Netherlands Antilles islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, clearly demonstrates the existence of a misguided national policy that can only result in an armed conflict in the Caribbean. The fabricated territorial and maritime claims against the Netherlands by the current Venezuelan government are certainly a recipe for disaster. But by also seeking to expel what he refers to as the other “colonial powers” of France, the United Kingdom and the United States from their possessions in the Western Hemisphere, he risks armed confrontation with...

VENEZUELA'S president has called on Tony Blair to return the Falkland Islands to Argentina, accusing the Prime Minister of being a "pawn" of Washington. "We have to remember the Malvinas [the Argentine name for the islands]; how they were taken away from the Argentines. Mr Blair, return the Malvinas to Argentina," said president Hugo Chavez. The socialist leader has long been the most vocal critic of US president George Bush, but Mr Blair was added to his list of "imperialists" after the Prime Minister said in parliament on Wednesday that if Mr Chavez wanted to be respected, he "should abide...

Liberté, Egalité, Colonialisme - A new French law stokes interesting fires ANTHONY DANIELS There is nothing quite like a stupid and unnecessary law to raise the ideological temperature. On February 23 of this year, the French National Assembly passed such a law, requiring school teachers of history to emphasize the positive role of French colonialism overseas, particularly in North Africa. There were immediate anti-French demonstrations in Algeria and the Antilles. The French minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, felt obliged to cancel an official visit to the French West Indies, legally part of France rather than a colonial possession, at...

WASHINGTON -- There is plenty of blame going around these days for the horrific London bombings. A small minority criticizes London authorities for not expecting the attacks. Even many tolerant Brits are saying that the British Muslim community should have been more watchful. The vast majority, of course, rightly blames the perpetrators themselves, the young Muslim radicals who refer to London as "Londonistan." But there is one group that is almost escaping censure -- and it was this group that deliberately and self-righteously set the stage for what happened nearly two weeks ago: the sweet, well-meaning, all-knowing liberal multiculturalists who...

CALL me naive, but I thought it was possible 2005 could achieve even more than a historic breakthrough deal on debt relief and aid for Africa. The conjunction of this key political moment with a huge cultural festival, Africa 05, seemed to hold the promise of achieving one of those lasting shifts in public understanding of Africa. What seemed within grasp was the start of a new relationship, finally drawing a line under the colonial themes of "saving" and "civilising" the continent. The wealth of African creativity evident everywhere - art, music, sculpture, film - would reinject into the public...

British troops raise the flag on the Falklands during the conflict A forthcoming book has revealed Chile's military intelligence helped Britain during the 1982 Falklands conflict.The book has threatened a possible diplomatic row between Chile and Argentina over the revelations of a secret alliance with the UK. Chilean president Ricardo Lagos has forwarded parts of the book to the Argentine foreign ministry. The book alleges Chile provided intelligence in return for half-price military aircraft. 'Cut-price deal'The book, The Official History of the Falklands War, details the deal between the governments of Margaret Thatcher and General Augusto Pinochet, said the...

In India, the leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, Lal Krishna Advani, has resigned as the party's president after Hindu hard-liners expressed outrage at his praise of Pakistan's founder. Mr. Advani made the remarks during a recent weeklong visit to Pakistan. The controversy over Mr. Advani's remarks was triggered during his six-day visit to Pakistan, where he described the nation's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, as a secular man who wanted Hindu and Muslims to live in friendship. The remark led to an uproar among Hindu hard-line groups that are closely allied to Mr. Advani's Bharatiya Janata Party. Hindu hard-liners...

After a couple of lighthearted columns about my trip to Havana - the latest about Canadians participating in a political march and trying to dance - I came under some criticism from readers who felt that my perspective on the island "was unusually low-key and even somewhat clueless." I was trivializing the massive problems faced by Cuba and making a mockery of serious political processes. My column was "more of a postcard sent from a half-drunk co-ed to her sorority sisters." For the record, I was fully drunk. While I cannot entirely disagree with those assessments, I am unapologetic for...

  White South Africans say the name Pretoria is part of a proud history A long-running row over a move to rename the South African capital, Pretoria, is a reminder of the popular significance attached to city names - and the sensitivities that can be stirred by trying to change them.Pretoria was named after a settler and folk hero from the Afrikaner group, which went on to create the apartheid system. It is now expected to take the name Tshwane, after a black tribal leader who ruled long before white colonisation. The name also means "we are the same" in...

Rome - In a stern criticism of colonialism, Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday that along with Christianity, Europe had brought corruption and violence to the African continent. The newly-elected pontiff said in a meeting with Rome's clergy: "We have to confess that Europe has exported not only faith in Christ, but also all sorts of vices, the sense of corruption, and violence that devastates" the continent. The German-born pope, answering a question of an African priest posted in the diocese of Rome, said: "Our responsibility is that the export of faith be stronger than the export of vice." The...

On the eve of the Iraq election, the Times treated us to a riveting columnar collaboration: ‘We need to fix an exit timetable, say Robin Cook, Douglas Hurd and Menzies Campbell’ — in perfect harmony. To modify Churchill, defeat may be an orphan, but defeatism has many fathers, and these three were in tripartisan agreement about what a disaster Iraq had been. You’d have got a better idea of how election day was likely to proceed from that week’s Speccie, which blared across its cover ‘Iraq — the unreported triumph: Mark Steyn says that things are going Bush’s way’ —...

Western nations should make reparations for enslaving and colonising Africans and finance a Marshall Plan-type fund for Africa, says US actor Danny Glover. "I believe in reparations for slavery and colonisation as well, in the shape of a Marshall Plan," Glover told the Associated Press on the sidelines of month-long celebrations in Ethiopia of the 60th anniversary of reggae legend Bob Marley who died in 1981. "Our basic attitude towards Africa is still one of the coloniser," said Glover, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for the UN children's agency that has co-organised the celebrations with the Bob Marley Foundation. "The...

Wise words to recall. We covered it at the time on Winds of Change.NET as part of the whole debate over neo-sovereignty and an emerging neo-colonialist movement with adherents on the left (hard to describe the UN as anything else) and the right. It acquires new meaning in the wake of the recent Iraqi elections, coming as it did from a leading Iraqi dissident who called the key issue long ago.... [Editor's Note: Kanan Makiya, a leading Iraqi dissident and intellectual, and author of the Democratic Principles Working Group report for the State Department's Future of Iraq Project, will be...

The United States acted wisely, courageously and with well-considered dispatch in turning over control of Iraq to it’s people. We have reaped considerable good will from the vast majority of the populace in this and in freeing them from the arbitrary and capricious tyranny of a megalomaniacal despot. It is to our eternal credit as a people and a nation that we adhered faithfully to our touchstone principles and have born our burden with equanimity. However, in light of ongoing difficulties in quelling the terrorist violence in some parts of the country it may be time to consider reverting to...

President Thabo Mbeki's denunciations of western imperialism were contradicted yesterday by his brother, who said Africans had been better off under colonial rule. Moeletsi Mbeki, head of the South African Institute of International Affairs, told a meeting in Durban that Africa was in a spiral of decline. "The average African is poorer than during the age of colonialism," the president's younger brother said. He accused Africa's post-colonial rulers of neglecting development and wasting money on "enormous entourages of civil servants". He contrasted this with the record of colonial governments who built the roads and cities that Africa depends on today....

Brother criticises Mbeki policiesBy David Blair in Johannesburg(Filed: 23/09/2004) President Thabo Mbeki's denunciations of western imperialism were contradicted yesterday by his brother, who said Africans had been better off under colonial rule. Moeletsi Mbeki, head of the South African Institute of International Affairs, told a meeting in Durban that Africa was in a spiral of decline. "The average African is poorer than during the age of colonialism," the president's younger brother said. He accused Africa's post-colonial rulers of neglecting development and wasting money on "enormous entourages of civil servants". He contrasted this with the record of colonial governments who built...

The phenomenon of outsourcing has become an issue in the American election campaign: Jobs - and in particular those that require education and technological skills - are fleeing from the United States to India. How has India succeeded in achieving a status that enables it to compete with the U.S. in these fields? Indian democracy has always been an achievement worthy of note. In recent years, India has also advanced rapidly in the economic realm and become a technological power. There is still vicious poverty rife in India, but overall, the story of modern India is an impressive success story,...

Teresa Heinz Kerry was born in Mozambique in 1938 and lived as a priveledged colonialist in a social system that used forced labor (government sanctioned slavery)until the revolution of 1960. The Mozambique system was so bad during her life time that 250,000 blacks per year FLED TO SOUTH AFRICA to work in the gold mines. She was sent off to college in South Africa when things got bad in Mozambique. Her father only left after everything he owned was siezed by the new revolutionary government. It's all in this very long article. Teresa has created various myths to insulate her...

In early May, Niall Ferguson, the celebrity Scottish historian, looked out at a packed house seething with antagonism. He had come to Washington to deliver a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations defending his idea that the war in Iraq had not only been the right thing to do, but also ought to be the first step towards a wide-ranging American empire. It would be difficult to imagine a moment when the capital's bipartisan policy elite --Ferguson's audience--were less inclined to be receptive to his ideas. The first accounts of the torture at Abu Ghraib had just appeared, and...

What is being prepared is a wave of mass killing aimed at terrorizing the Iraqi people into accepting the continued occupation of their country by the US military. Lacking anywhere near the forces necessary to police a country of 25 million people, Washington is determined to make an example out of Fallujah and Sadr’s movement, much in the same fashion that the Nazi occupiers of World War II Europe leveled the Czech town of Lidice and razed the Warsaw ghetto. Given the sadism and backwardness of the occupant of the White House, who is said to be making the ultimate...

Kingdom sues Britain for age-old atrocitiesFrom correspondents in Kampala March 5, 2004A KINGDOM in western Uganda said it was seeking £3 trillion ($7.3 trillion dollars) from London in reparations for alleged atrocities and plunder committed during the British colonial era. "We are suing the British government for the killings and atrocities their soldiers committed between 1894 to 1899 as they tried to force their rule on the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom," Ernest Kiiza, the speaker of the kingdom's small parliament, told reporters. "What they did is worse than what Osama bin Laden or Joseph Kony (the leader of the notoriously brutal Ugandan...

In a word, I gave up African studies because I found it depressing. But that is hardly an explanation, even if it is an emotionally precise description of what occurred. To explain my giving up African studies I have to say why I came to find the activity depressing. This requires a little history - both personal history, or autobiography, and history of Africa. I began to be interested in Africa whilst an undergraduate student of economics and politics at Sheffield university (1965-8) and I began my doctoral work in African politics in Oxford in 1969. That means that I...

What happened to Liberia? Only three years ago, things were going swimmingly, at least according to President Charles Taylor’s Ministry of Information: ‘We say “well done” to Mr President, and advise him to always keep the communication highway free and clear of any hindrance, so that a people-to-leader and leader-to-people approach can be adopted and maintained, so that everyone will at least have the opportunity to have the ears of the Chief Executive, instead of a select few.’ By contrast, in 1990 only a select few got the opportunity to have the ears of the then Chief Executive, Samuel Doe....

There's a lot of debate these days about the Congo, Liberia, and what the USA should do. What if the answer is "nothing"? How do we make choices like that? This 5-way discussion among liberals and conservatives addresses some of these issues, providing solid background on the situations and history at play in The Congo & Liberia, the limits on foreign intervention, and the USA's capacity to intervene. We can't be everywhere. As Kaplan notes, we need to be in some of these places. How do we think about those choices? Sometimes, too, the depressing answer to how much we...

Operation Infinite Freedom Link to the previous thread Good Morning. Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room. It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.

The Independence Party has historically handicapped itself in Puerto Rico by saddling its case with failed Socialist dogma and reflex anti-Americanism. No cause in the Caribbean can succeed under the crushing weight of those twin burdens, and the sooner they are shed, the brighter prospects for independence will be. Socialism has proved, on a worldwide basis, to be a formula for economic blight, frequently accompanied by painful sacrifices in human freedom and dignity. Less obvious is the cost of hostility to the U.S. This impractical and totally unnecessary tactic is self-defeating for the following reasons:

Should the U.S. Offer Iraq Statehood? By J. Neil Schulman © 2003 Despite the endless repetition from campus Trotskyists and unreconciled supporters of Ohio Senator Robert Taft’s 1952 presidential bid, the United States of America is not now, nor has it ever been, an empire. If the United States were an empire, the Stars and Stripes would today be flying over Ottawa, Mexico City, Havana, Panama City, Managua, San Salvador, Manila, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Saigon, and Kuwait City. At least. The United States does not have colonial ambitions, and that defines imperialism. We back friendly foreign...

The majority of Africa’s economic and political lag behind the remainder of the world can be attributed to three key factors, the fomentation of strife and lack of preparation for independence on the part of certain Western powers, power-lusting governments that drain wealth from the nations into their own rulers’ accounts, and a prevalent tribalist/collectivist mindset within the populace that has frequently been evoked to bring about colossal tensions. Numerous Western powers performed scant actions to grant their African colonies the requisite experience with the democratic system, technological preparation, and overall enlightenment of the population to achieve genuine functionality at...