$10K TOILET SEAT? PENTAGON’S BLOATED BUDGET

If you had to guess which country’s military has splashed out $10-thousand on a toilet seat, what would you say? Well, it’s not a ‘corrupt’ African nation, it’s the United States.

News that the Pentagon failed its 7th audit in a row reveals that galactic levels of corruption pervade the US Department of Defence, (DOD).

Its defence budget is set to top $1-trillion for the first time in 2027, or thereabouts. And its massively inflated deals with contractors helps explain why.

African Stream’s Kenneth Kaigua looks at the eye-watering prices being paid for low-end goods. And he also exposes the revolving door connecting politicians and weapons manufacturers.

Washington’s $824-billion defence budget is more than the next 10 biggest spending countries combined.

Maybe it’s time to call the US military HQ the Penta-con!

Continued……Sources:

https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/exclusive-inside-secret-world-us-commandos-africa

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-air-forces-10000-toilet-cover/2018/07/14/c33d325a-85df-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html

https://insidedefense.com/insider/austin-discloses-financial-ties-defense-contractors

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/13/us/politics/lloyd-austin-private-public.html

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2000/08/cheneys-multi-million-dollar-revolving-door/

https://www.wired.com/2008/09/dumb-as-a-bag-o/

WEAPONISING ANTI-SEMITISM

Accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ lodged against revolutionary African people have been plentiful in the last century. Listen to the breakdown in this 6 November 2018 video by Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. You might be surprised by some of the names on the list. We know we were.

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https://youtu.be/5T_qsCUczyo?si=O9la6GeEAS9PditD

WHITE JESUS MUST PACK HIS BAGS AND GO

It’s time for Africans to start asking uncomfortable questions, according to renowned Pan-Africanist Joshua Maponga. And that includes scrutinising what warped interpretation European Christianity has brought to our continent. In his view, ‘White Jesus should pack his bags and go home’.

Mr Maponga was speaking on the Zimbabwean podcast The Denny J Show. To back up his line of thinking, he said if the Chinese colonised Africa, we would be Buddhists. Therefore, Africans proclaiming they’re Christians, even though it’s the ‘colonisers’ religion, doesn’t make sense, especially as very few Africans follow the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (328 AD). That predates the European Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Church founded in 590 AD, which the colonisers brought and weaponised.

Is Mr Maponga talking sense, or is he taking things too far? Let us know in the comments.

Video credit
@MapongaJQuotes

THE TRUTH ABOUT LIBYA

As Libya today celebrates 73 years since its independence from Italy, it is important to remember how this once uniquely thriving African country ended up in its current turbulence.

Libya, a land of ancient civilisations and vast stretches of Sahara Desert landscape, enjoyed the best fortunes in Africa after nationalising natural resources, such as oil. This was all before factional violence, competing governments and external interventions were engineered after the 2011 NATO-led bombardment. That led to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi being overthrown and killed that year.

Continued….. Listen to Rizza Islam of the Nation of Islam making a compelling argument in a 2020 interview on the hip-hop broadcasting network Revolt on the very insidious reason for destroying the once most prosperous country in Africa, Libya. Western governments and media have smeared former leader Muammar Gaddafi as a monster, but the prosperity he delivered to Libya was on the verge of going continental.

They say money is the root of all evil, so it's not hard to imagine what happens when you have plans to disrupt the global financial order.

It is usually curtains after that, and there is no better example than in Libya.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Video Credit: Revolt

AKALA: DON’T BLAME RELIGION FOR INDIVIDUAL CRIMES

International media is quick to condemn an entire religion for the crimes of an individual, especially when the perpetrator is a Black, Brown or Muslim. That’s according to Akala, a British rapper and activist, in a 2016 episode of UK-based Not For the Radio.

He argues Europeans’ crimes are whitewashed, citing the example of Norwegian Anders Breivik, who shot and k*lled 77 people at a Norwegian summer youth camp in 2011. Akala (@akalamusic) said the media did not describe Breivik as a white nationalist Christian t*rrorist, but as a ‘lone wolf.’ 

Continued……Yet, when Seifeddine Rezgui k*lled 38 mostly European tourists at a Tunisian resort in 2015, Tunisian authorities cracked down on mosques for supposedly radicalising the youth, blaming Islamists for breeding terrorists in the North African country. However, the core issue for Tunisian youth is economic and political disenfranchisement due to decades of mismanagement. A sad reality that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings was when 26-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in 2010 to protest government corruption.

Do you agree with Akala’s assessment? Let us know.

Video credit: @notfortheradio 

SIDGI KABALLO SAYS THE SUDANESE ARMED FORCES ARE AN ISLAMISTS-LED ARMY

Sudanese generally acknowledge that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are historically guilty of many crimes and atrocities. More recently, a SAF airstrike on a market in north Darfur killed over 100 people and left many more injured.

In the current war, however, many have rallied behind the army, celebrating moments when the SAF prevails over the genocidal UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Many consider the SAF as the lesser of two evils, their argument pinned on the belief that the army will be held accountable once the RSF is defeated.

In this clip, economist, academic, and Central Committee member of the Sudanese Communist Party, Sidgi Kaballo, tells us why this point of view is problematic.

Continued……. He contends that such a position allows for the continuation of a war whose death toll is now said to be grossly underestimated, with reports of 60,000 people killed just in Sudan’s Khartoum State. He emphasizes that the SAF has been hijacked by Islamists dating back three decades. Consequently, the Sudanese regular army, rather than being representative of the Sudanese people, is an Islamist-led force.

Islamist rule in Sudan is mainly responsible for the vicious cycles of wars the country has been subjected to. Therefore, professor Kaballo argues that the current military leadership cannot spearhead genuine reform or justice and that Sudan needs civilian-led governance.

The whole episode of this critical discussion between African Stream’s editor-in-chief Ahmed Kaballo and his father is available on X, Patreon, and Rumble.

Sources:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-army-air-strikes-kills-over-100-north-darfur-market

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/14/sudan-war-death-toll-much-higher-than-previously-recorded-new-study-finds

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/14/sudan-war-death-toll-much-higher-than-previously-recorded-new-study-finds