'WESTERN LOANS WE CAN NEVER PAY'

For decades, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programmes have forced Global South countries to impose austerity policies that have led governments to lay off workers, impose wage freezes and reduce public spending to repay IMF loans. Countries find themselves in a so-called ‘debt trap,’ where they must borrow more to service existing debt instead of providing for their populations.

In this clip, former African Union Ambassador to the US Arikana Chihombori-Quao highlighted the stark disparity in lending terms for African and Western countries. While the IMF and other Western lending institutions offer favourable low-interest rates on dollar loans to their Western ‘friends,’ African nations endure harsh conditions. Some have referred to this situation as ‘financial apartheid,’ with Chihombori-Quao saying the truth about these inequalities is coming to light.

Continued........Last year, ActionAid released a report noscriptd, ‘Fifty Years of Failure: The IMF, Debt, and Austerity in Africa,’ based on testimonies from 10 African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The report outlined how instead of pursuing systemic solutions to address the growing debt crisis in Africa, the IMF continues to insist on cuts and freezes to public spending, undermining health, education, and overall development across the continent and driving up the cost-of-living crisis in many African countries.

Chihombori-Quao does not shy away from addressing these issues on the African continent. As always, we encourage you to listen and share your thoughts.

Credit: @VOAafrica

SOURCES:

https://actionaid.org/publications/2023/fifty-years-failure-imf-debt-and-austerity-africa

https://energychamber.org/africas-energy-sector-to-litigate-banks-and-financiers-for-financial-apartheid-in-oil-and-gas-sector

Continued.....SOURCES

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/30/botswana-elections-ruling-party-seeks-to-extend-58-years-in-power

https://reliefweb.int/report/botswana/botswana-2023-ifrc-network-country-plan-maabw003#:~:text=When%20it%20gained%20independence%20in,high%2Dincome%20country%20by%202036.

https://futures.issafrica.org/geographic/countries/botswana/

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/WEOWORLD/GHA/ZAF/SLE/BWA
https://www.botswanaembassy.org/page/botswana-at-a-glance#:~:text=There%20were%20only%203%20secondary,are%20over%20300%20secondary%20schools
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/115608/1/MPRA_paper_115608.pdf
https://www.debswana.com/our-shareholders

https://www.debeersgroup.com/reports/socio-economic-impacts/botswana/building-on-diamonds

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/BWA/botswana/life-expectancy
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/botswanas-debswana-diamond-sales-fall-over-50-first-nine-months-2024-2024-10-30/

https://www.mmegi.bw/news/gruesome-unemployment-engulfs-287000-batswana/news
https://www.debeersgroup.com/reports/socio-economic-impacts/botswana/building-on-diamonds
https://www.scholaro.com/db/countries/botswana/Education-System

https://www.unicef.org/esa/media/2471/file/UNICEF-Botswana-2018-Education-Budget-Brief.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jul/08/aids

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/WEOWORLD/GHA/ZAF/SLE/BWA

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/pt/304221468001788072/930107812_201408253094647/additional/634310PUB0Yes0061512B09780821387450.pdf

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/30/botswana-elections-ruling-party-seeks-to-extend-58-years-in-power

https://4cs.gia.edu/en-us/blog/botswana-diamonds

https://www.debeersgroup.com/~/media/Files/D/De-Beers-Group/documents/reports/botswana/deb081-03-buildingondiamonds.pdf

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/BWA/botswana/life-expectancy

https://www.mining.com/web/botswanas-debswana-diamond-sales-fall-over-50-in-first-nine-months-of-2024

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/lab-grown-diamonds-and-khama-s-return-masisi-s-tough-road-to-re-election-in-botswana/ar-AA1t01HW?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds&apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

https://english.news.cn/africa/20240822/fda6c0c4391d4bfeb9f035ddefb00183/c.html

GIULIANI CLAIMS PALESTINIAN TODDLERS ARE K*LLERS

The US presidential election is taking place in less than a week, on 5 November, so candidates are rushing to secure last-minute votes by holding campaign events.

Recently, at Republican presidential contender Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden, an arena in New York, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed Hamas trains children as young as 2 years old to k*ll Americans.

However, as @DueDissidence podcast co-hosts pointed out, the audience standing behind Giuliani quieted down and did not cheer for his inflammatory pro-Israel remarks. Someone was also seen putting their thumbs down. Polls show the US population across the political spectrum does not support the US arming and funding Israel.

Giuliani, 80, has been disbarred in New York State and the District of Columbia, home to the US capital, for attempting to pursue lawsuits to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on Trump's behalf.

Continued.......A court also ordered Giuliani to sell his New York apartment and memorabilia to pay $148 million in damages to two Georgia election workers who claimed he singled them out when he claimed they rigged ballots. 

Before representing Trump in court, Giuliani was best known for how he handled the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks as New York's mayor (1994-2001). However, he is also known for supporting a 'stop-and-frisk' policy that began during his first mayoral term that disproportionately searched and detained Black and Brown men. In 2013, a court ruled the policy unconstitutional.

Video credit: PBS News Hour (@NewsHour on X)

SOURCES:

https://apnews.com/article/rudy-giuliani-disbarred-dc-washington-2020-election-trump-new-york-f555f010338fddbac0b0cbeb4a11d73d 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/politics/rudy-giuliani-bankruptcy-georgia-election-workers/index.html 

https://youtu.be/jSYqnMr4j4w?si=2iK_w8blKenps0Gr

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1198/016214506000001040

https://washingtonsocialist.mdcdsa.org/ws-articles/24-09-stop-and-frisk 

https://civilrights.org/edfund/resource/nypds-infamous-stop-and-frisk-policy-found-unconstitutional/#

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/poll-ukraine-israel

ANOTHER HERO EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH

Dedan Kimathi is a name that is etched into the history of Kenya, and today, we celebrate what would have been his 104th birthday. Kimathi was a revolutionary leader of the Mau Mau independence movement, fighting against British colonialism.

This revolutionary elder was born into a poor family as Kimathi wa Waciuri on 31 October 1920 in Thege village near Nyeri in central Kenya. His family is part of the Ambui clan, one of the nine comprising Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group.

Known for his brilliance as a child, he could only enrol in elementary school at age 15 and later joined the Church of Scotland Mission Secondary School but dropped out. Kimathi's school records show he stood out in English and poetry and was a member of the debate club.

Continued........Kimathi was among thousands who joined the independence movement in 1951 and rose to become a key figure in the fight against imperialism. The Kenya Land and Freedom Army came to be known colloquially as Mau Mau, an acronym for 'Mzungu arudi Ulaya, mwafrika apate uhuru.' That is the Swahili interpretation for 'Let the foreigner go back to Europe, so the African can regain independence'.

While the British captured and executed Kimathi on 18 February 1957, his legacy lives on with a street, a statue, a stadium, a university and other institutions in Kenya named in his honour. 

In this video, Wambura Mwai walks us through the life and legacy of Dedan Kimathi, highlighting why his name is one to remember. 

Happy birthday, Dedan Kimathi! May you continue to rest in peace, comrade!

In another display of the flaws of the current global political order, the US blockade on Cuba will remain in place, despite UN members overwhelmingly voting to end it.
During the 30 October vote on the non-binding resolution, a resounding 187 countries voted in favour, while Moldova abstained, and two countries—the US and Israel—voted against.

For the last 32 years, most UN members have voted to end the US policy that economically strangles the Caribbean island nation. In 2018, the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean revealed the blockade has cost the island nation $130 billion in the last six decades.

Continued.......The US refusal to lift the blockade comes at a time when Cuba is reeling from Hurricane Oscar, which hit the country's eastern region on 20 October, damaging critical infrastructure and more than 14,000 homes. The blockade has severely restricted the government's ability to respond to the needs of the more than a half-million citizens severely affected by the hurricane. Natural disasters have occurred many times in the more than 60 years since the blockade was implemented. However, successive US administrations have refused to heed the international consensus to end the Cold War-era measure.

Image credit: @un_news_centre (X)

SOURCES:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1156316

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/10/30/the-world-once-again-votes-to-end-the-us-blockade-against-cuba/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/general-assembly-condemns-us-economic-embargo-cuba-32nd-115323747

https://reliefweb.int/report/cuba/plan-action-united-nations-system-cuba-hurricane-oscar-response-october-2024

https://latindispatch.com/2018/05/10/cuban-economy-lost-130-billion-due-u-s-embargo-says-u-n/

'I will continue to support Israel,' said professional boxer Floyd Mayweather during a recent visit to Orthodox Jewish students in Israel. That remark and this photo that shows him smiling and shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to the shock of people witnessing devastating online images of Israel's military onslaught in Gaza that has k*lled at least 43,000 Palestinians and as many as 335,000 over the past year under Netanyahu's leadership.

Continued……Other photos the boxer and real-estate investor posted on his Instagram account showed him posing with active Israeli military forces and wounded Israeli soldiers. Yet another picture showed Mayweather standing at the US embassy to Israel at its new location in Occupied Jerusalem. The embassy moved from Tel Aviv in 2018 despite the United Nations designating Jerusalem as an international city in 1947. Israel has a long history of operating outside international boundaries. According to the Associated Press, 'Netanyahu's government published its platform, which stated that the 'Jewish people have exclusive and indisputable rights' over the entirety of Israel and the Palestinian territories and will advance settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.' Not only is the West Bank deemed Palestinian territory by the United Nations, but the article said Netanyahu's government is 'destroying any remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood.'

Yet, Mayweather wrote in his caption, 'Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine having such a positive impact on society or sitting down with world leaders.'

@floydmayweather, we wonder if you visited Gaza to see what it looks like first-hand? If you were forbidden from doing so, did you ask why? Were you able to meet with Palestinians living in portions of the West Bank occupied by Israeli settlers?

We can only guess you didn't.

SOURCES:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwYKH8OsE9/?hl=en&img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwPKK0O_ag/?hl=en&img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwPKK0O_ag/?hl=en&img_index=3

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBubjVQOZjy/?hl=en&img_index=2

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-swears-in-netanyahu-as-prime-minister-most-right-wing-government-in-countrys-history

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/10/29/its-raining-bombs-in-a-city-by-the-sea

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/05/scientists-death-disease-gaza-polio-vaccinations-israel

https://www.blackenterprise.com/floyd-mayweather-402m-real-estate-affordable-housing-nyc

https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/10/30/floyd-mayweather-praises-wounded-idf-soldiers-brave-warriors-true-heroes-during-solidarity-trip-israel

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBuYRbEtmij/?hl=en

FIREFIGHTERS SLAMMED FOR 'KKK' HALLOWEEN OUTFITS

Halloween is a time for donning scary costumes, but some Canadians went overboard.

After four people showed up wearing Ku Klux Klan-style white hoods, robes and a makeshift cross at a Halloween party on 26 October at the North Sydney Firefighters Club in Nova Scotia, Canada, the fire department faced backlash. The Klan is a white supremacist terrorist group known for intimidating and k*lling Black people in the United States. 

The community responded with outrage to the incident, labelling it a ‘racist’ act that ridiculed the persecution Black people in the US face. In light of this, the deputy fire chief issued an apology. The fire club released a statement on Facebook that the four individuals were not members and it also apologised to all those who felt ‘offended or hurt by our lack of action.’ However, some called for anti-racism training to be implemented.