Africa Development

“Electricity is the lifeblood of a nation” Nuclear Energy Can Be A Solution To The Continent’s Dearth of Electricity

Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, developed in South Africa, can be a solution to Africa’s lack of energy (Courtesy of the International Atomic Energy Agency)

February 20, 2023

Dr Kelvin Kemm, a South African nuclear physicist, deleivers a cogent argument for nuclear energy in Africa, in his presentation below, “A Reliable Electricty Supply.,” (Provided by PD Lawton, creator of the blog: africanagenda.net)

 

Africa Needs Electrcity

There is no more urgent task for the nations of Africa than expanding the construction of energy plants to generate a massive increase in electricity for distribution by their national electrical grids.

W. Gyude Moore, who formerly served as Liberia’s Minister for Public Works, recently wrote:  

The International Energy Agency now estimates that Asia is set to use 50% of global electricity by 2025. China, with its 1.4 billion people, who account for a majority of that. Although Africa has a comparable population to China, its 54 countries will use just 3% of global electricity. That disparity is an eloquent and concise a treatise on Africa’s poverty as there can be…By 2030 the continent is set to host 84% of the world’s extreme poor. Without access to cheap and reliable electricity as well as expensive road [and railroad] systems, Africa’s terms of trade will not improve, and its poverty will remain entrenched.

The devastating impact on the absence of electricity for African nations was also dramatically highlighted by the well-known African philanthropist, Mo Ibrahim. In a February 9th interview on Straight Talk, he explained without exaggeration, the consequential stark reality of the deficit of electricity for African nations. He said:

600 million African people are without access to electricity. Without access to electricity, you don’t have access to life. You don’t have education. You don’t have health. You don’t have businesses. You have nothing!

Gyude Moore and Mo Ibrahim, understand, as every rational human being should; without electricity, economies and nations can’t function. I will go further: people are dying in African nations today due to the catastrophic deficit in electrical generation. There is no more vital issue to be addressed by African leaders and friends of Africa around the world, than reversing the dire shortage of electrical  power throughout African continent.

African Solutions For African Problems

 

Perhaps surprising to many Africans and Westerners alike, nuclear energy is another example of the potential of African nations to provide solutions for African problems.

Dr. Kemm points out that South Africa was a leader in pioneering the development of a Small Nuclear Reactor-SMR. South Africa designed the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor-PBMR mnany years ago, a SMR that  could have been utilized throughout Africa to deliver desperately needed energy, if the program had continued.

Quoting Dr. Kemm:

So, in 1993 a decision was made to start investigating the potential in developing a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) to be placed in South African areas in which there were no major supplies of water. South Africa has minimal spare inland water.

So South Africa became the first country in the world to start designing a commercial SMR. The project grew to a significant size, with a total workforce of some 2,000 people, and by 2008 the reactor was ready to be built. The pressure vessel was ordered, and it arrived in South Africa…

African countries and others around the world became interested in nuclear power as they realised the importance of solutions which really work for African conditions, or for the local conditions of diverse countries.  A few African leaders have made powerful public statements about their intention to take their countries down a nuclear path. That is totally reasonable, by using Small Modular Reactors which do not need large scale water cooling.

African countries can also easily form a collaborative ‘club’ to link to each other with daily operations, training, and regulatory oversight, amongst other functions. Such an approach will lower costs further and also induce a spirit of cooperation which will be beneficial to all.

Investors need to have the confidence in an advanced energy solution development coming from Africa. Some established mindsets need to change. The SMR from South Africa is an investment opportunity waiting for people with vision, and some courage, and who also have some self-confidence, and a belief in abundant and reliable green power for the future.

To elimiate hunger in Africa. To industrialize African economies. To lift hundreds of millions of Africans out of poverty. Africa must have nuclear energy as its power source.

Source: africanagenda.net/a-reliable-electricity-supply-six-months-and-half-a-dozen-years

Read my earlier posts below:

A Nuclear Energy Economic Platform Is The Future for Africa

Nuclear Energy Will Create Jobs and Raise Skill Levels in Africa

South Africa: A Leader on the Continent for Nuclear Energy

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

______________________________________________________

For the Sake of Humanity-Let Us Bring Into Existence a New Paradigm of Development in 2023

Lawrence Freeman with a grain seller at the Alamata market in Amhara, Ethiopia on December 17, 2022

December 31, 2023 My New Year Message

It is well past the time that civilization should establish a higher scientific-cultural existence based on reason and love of humankind. It is unacceptable for large sections of humanity to live in abject poverty, threatened by starvation. The physical universe and the planet upon which we live is organized on a creative principle that coheres with human willful creativity. If we apply the full potential of our creativity, there is no limit to growth of the human population, both qualitatively and quantitively. The foreign policy of every nation should be precisely the same: the material enrichment of its citizens and the nurturing of the creative process of every child born. Thus, all nations and all peoples have the same shared common interest, motivating all nations to work together for the prosperity and peace of their citizens and future generations.

 

Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute, presented the following summary comments on a new paradigm of security and development, which I share in large part. Reprinted with editing from EIR magazine.

The new paradigm which will be characteristic of the new epoch, and towards which the new global security and development architecture must be directed, therefore, must eliminate the concept of oligarchism for good, and proceed to organize the political order in such a way, that the true character of humanity as the creative species can be realized.

These ideas are meant to be food for thought and a dialogue among all people concerned to find a basis for a world order guaranteeing the durable existence of the human species.

First: The new International Security and Development Architecture must be a partnership of perfectly sovereign nation states, which is based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the UN Charter.

Second: The absolute priority must be to alleviate poverty in every nation on the planet, which is easily possible, if the existing technologies are being used for the benefit of the common good.

Third: The life expectancy of all people living must be prolonged to the fullest potential by creating modern health systems in every country on the planet. This is also the only way how the present and future potential pandemics can be overcome or be prevented.

Fourth: Since mankind is the only creative species known so far in the universe, and given the fact that human creativity is the only source of wealth through the potentially limitless discovery of new universal principles, one of the main aims of the new International Security and Development Architecture must be providing access to universal education for every child and adult person living. The true nature of man is to become a beautiful soul, as Friedrich Schiller discusses this, and the only person who can fulfill that condition is the genius.

Fifth: The international financial system must be reorganized, so that it can provide productive credits to accomplish these aims. A reference point can be the original Bretton Woods system, as Franklin D. Roosevelt intended it, but was never implemented due to his untimely death…The primary aim of such a new credit system must be to increase dramatically the living standard of especially the nations of the Global South and of the poor in the Global North.

Touring the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a grand infrastructure project that will generate energy for the Horn of Africa, December19, 2022

Sixth: The new economic order must be focused on creating the conditions for modern industries and agriculture, starting with the infrastructural development of all continents to eventually be connected by tunnels and bridges to become a World Land-Bridge.

Seventh: The new global security architecture must eliminate the concept of geopolitics by ending the division of the world into blocs. The security concerns of every sovereign nation must be taken into account. Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction must be immediately banned. Through international cooperation, the means must be developed to make nuclear weapons technologically obsolete, as it was originally intended by the proposal which became known as the SDI.

Eighth: In former times, one civilization at one corner of the world could go under, and the rest of the world would only find out years later, due to the length of distances and the time needed for travel. Now, for the first time, because of nuclear weapons, pandemics, the internet, and other global effects, mankind is sitting in one boat.

Ninth: In order to overcome the conflicts arising out of quarreling opinions, which is how empires have maintained control over the underlings, the economic, social and political order has to be brought into cohesion with the lawfulness of the physical universe. In European philosophy this was discussed as the being in character with natural law, in Indian philosophy as cosmology, and in other cultures appropriate notions can be found. Modern sciences like space science, biophysics or thermonuclear fusion science will increase the knowledge of mankind about this lawfulness continuously. A similar cohesion can be found in the great works of classical art in different cultures.

Tenth: The basic assumption for the new paradigm is, that man is fundamentally good and capable to infinitely perfect the creativity of his mind and the beauty of his soul, and being the most advanced geological force in the universe, which proves that the lawfulness of the mind and that of the physical universe are in correspondence and cohesion, and that all evil is the result of a lack of development, and therefore can be overcome.

A new world economic order is emerging, involving the vast majority of the countries of the Global South. The European nations and the U.S. must not fight this effort, but by joining hands with the developing countries, cooperate to shape the next epoch of the development of the human species to become a renaissance of the highest and most noble expressions of creativity!

Read my earlier post: The West Votes against Development at United Nations

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

_______________________________________________________

Exciting News for Africa! Djibouti Will Build Africa’s First Spaceport

Courtesy of qz.com/africa

The spaceport, expected to include seven satellite launch pads and three rocket testing pads, will be the first orbital spaceport on the continent.

Africa is entering a very exciting period in which it is asserting its scientific and engineering capabilities. Humankind’s exploration of space is the highest form of human discovery of the universe, and introduces into society new advanced technologies. With the completion of Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam in 2025, a scientific-engineering marvel, and the creation of Djibouti’s spaceport in five years, Africa is demonstrating its leadership for the 21st century, and creating the scientific foundation  for economic growth. This is true sceintific-econimic progress for the nations of Africa, whcih should make all poeple, of all nations happy. 

 Janary 23, 2023, Quartz Africa Weekly

Excerpts follow:

Africa could soon get a new spaceport after Djibouti signed a partnership deal with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology to build a facility to launch satellites and rockets in the northern Obock region.

According to the preliminary deal, the Djibouti government will “provide the necessary land (minimum 10 sq km and with a term of not less than 35 years) and all the necessary assistance to build and operate the Djiboutian Spaceport.”

The $1 billion spaceport project will also involve the construction of a port facility, a power grid and a highway to ensure the reliable transportation of aerospace materials.

The deal’s signing was presided over by the president of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, and the project is set to be completed in the next five years.

The spaceport is a massive milestone for Africa, making it the first orbital spaceport on African soil.

 

The Djibouti spaceport project

According to Victor Mwongera, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kenyatta University, the projection will avail a launch base that will serve all Africans.

“It will push eastern Africa off the sleeping state as far as active development of space-based innovations are concerned,” he explained.

Trial and small-scale launches have been executed in Africa in the past, including the Italian-operated Broglio Space Centre (San Marco) in Malindi, Kenya and Algeria’s Reggane.

Mwongera sees the expansion of Africa’s space industry—with a number of African countries already building and operating their own microsatellites—as a growing trend.

“It has taken time but we needed time as a continent to be ready for this age. Now that we are ready, you are seeing the number is increasing and it is bound to increase further,” he said.

Africa’s space industry is a billion dollar sector

According to the 2022 annual sector report of research firm Space in Africa, the value of the African space and satellite industry has risen to more than $19.6 billion.

The charge is fuelled by 14 countries that have launched 52 satellites into space.

South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Nigeria have the highest number of satellites in space as of 2022, each having launched more than five satellites.

Mwongera explained that east African countries are well positioned to harbor more spaceports, due to their proximity to the equator.

“At the equator… there is minimal energy required,” he said.

The original version of this article was published by bird-Africa no filter.

Read entire article: Africa Will Get A New $1 Billion Spaceport in Djibouti

Read my ealier posts below:

GERD: Utilizing the Blue Nile to Create Energy for Development in Ethiopia & The Horn of Africa

Science and Space Exploration Essential For Africa’s Economic Growth

Science and Technology Will Transform Africa: Ethiopia to Launch New Satellite in 2019

China & the US Can End Poverty by Exploring Space: Africa Gains

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

______________________________________________________________________

My Thoughts: Poverty & Ethnicity Kill Democracy in Africa

Lawrence Freeman in Addis Abebe-December 2021

December 2, 2022

An African friend of mine recently asked me to express my views on democracy in Africa to her organization. “Watch Democracy Grow.” Contrary to the incessant babbling by Western officials, NGOs and advocacy groups, you can read below a summary of my thoughts on what constitutes real democracy and how to create the conditions conducive for growing democracy in Africa.

I will focus my presentation on the relationship of elections to the deeper principles of fostering a true democracy. Many Westerners, European and American institutions and governments falsely assert that elections are the sign of a functioning democracy. This narrow understanding or interpretation of democracy is insufficient. It contributes to the poor conditions of life throughout most of Africa today, and actually undermines the creation of sustainable a Democratic Republic on the continent.

A Thinking Citizenry

A republic is not a democracy, and for good reason. A majority,  consisting of uninformed opinion, should not rule unfettered over a nation. That is why in a functioning Democratic Republic, we prefer the wisest people to govern. But how do we choose the most knowledgeable representatives? Yes, we do it physically at the polling booth in periodic and orderly elections. However, the act of voting itself does not guarantee viability of a nation, much less a thoughtful policy. The only guarantee that the voters are electing or even nominating the most intelligent guardians of their society is; an educated citizenry.

A true democracy requires all its citizens to think and discuss the most appropriate policies for their nation to adopt in order to secure a future for their children and grandchildren. In other words, the citizen should accept the responsibility for shaping the future of their nation, as if they were running for office themselves. Individuals seeking public office, who purport to have the qualifications to decide policy for their nation, are distilled from the population at large. Therefore, to ensure the selection of qualified leaders similarly requires an informed and thoughtful citizenry. A continuously advancing society, both materially and spiritually, existing within an educated science oriented culture, is the underlying platform for a viable Democratic Republic.

Like the individual seeking a leadership position in government, the citizen should have a vision for their nation that extends two generations into the future. Every citizen should believe that his or her participation is vital in shaping the policies that will determine the wellbeing of their progeny for generations to come. As eloquently articulated in the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution, elected government exists to “… promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…

The fundamental unalterable principle that is the foundation of economics, national and foreign policy, and democracy, is the knowledge that each human being is sacred. It is necessary to acknowledge what it means when one states, that human beings are in the image of the Creator. Every member of the human race is born with the potential for creative thought that is in harmony with the creative principle embedded in the design of our lawfully ordered universe.

Does a mother searching for food for her child have the leisure time to study the best policies for the future of her nation? UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran

Poverty Kills Democracy

Every human being is precious. Degradation or any preventable death, of a member of the human race is a violation of this natural law. Every human being has the right to live a dignified, meaningful, productive existence that affords a better-quality of life for future generations.

Thus, if we truly desire to increase the involvement of civil society in elections and in shaping the future of their nation, we must end poverty and hunger. There is no bigger threat to democracy than allowing substantial portions of a nation’s population to suffer in abject poverty and hunger, with death looming. The gross failure of groups advocating democracy and human rights, is their refusal to comprehend that development is a fundamental human right.

The dearth of electrical power in Africa is appalling and criminal. Producing less than 100,000 megawatts of electricity for a billion or more people in sub-Saharan Africa guarantees that Africans will not have the minimal standard of living necessary for democratic institutions to thrive. Over 600 million Africans have no access to grid electricity and 900 million Africans cook without electricity or gas. Without energy no nation can survive. Yet this shameful state of affairs has existed unaddressed for decades.

Some may object that I have brought extraneous concerns into the discussion of building democratic institutions. I can assure you that I have not. The ability to have access to energy, to feed one’s family, for parents to have a productive job, and for youth to look forward to a hopeful future, are absolutely germane. In fact, these concerns are at the heart of sustaining a democratic government.

If a majority of a nation’s people are hungry, not employed, living in substandard conditions, simply trying to survive, democracy is a mirage.

To reiterate: a true democracy requires a discussion and exchange of ideas among the citizens on what are the best policies for the future of their nation. All citizens and their elected representatives should have a vision for their nation. Society should select those candidates that have the qualifications to implement that vision. Do parents anxiously trying to find food to feed their children have the mental luxury to discuss with their friends and neighbors the most pressing issues facing their nation? Do citizens have the leisure time for such a discussion, and hours of relaxation to read and study the issues of the day? Does adequate housing exist with separate rooms for the children, and electricity to light rooms for long hours of study? Are there enough adequately supplied libraries for parents and children to learn history, philosophy, and science?

Without a prospering economy that offers a sufficient material quality of life, simply lining up at voting stations every four years is insufficient. The questions I have addressed above, are essential to sustaining

democratic institutions.

Africa lacks abundant and accessible electricity. Without electrical power there will be no development, poverty will persist, people will die, and democracy will fail to flourish. (Map courtesy of visualcapitalist.com)

No Democracy With Ethnicity

Ethnic nationalism does not permit democracy. I can assert this with authority, having examined, up close, for thirty years, African nations, whose societies are ethnically divided. Ethnicity is antithetical to a Democratic Republic. Human beings are not determined by their bloodline or their geographic location. The very existence of ethnicity is anti-human. It attempts to falsely differentiate people, rejecting the  universal quality of the human species; its unique potential for creativity. Every child born in any location on this planet has the same innate potential for creative thought. Only we human beings have been gifted with a creative imagination. It is this quality of the mind that uniquely characterizes a single universal human race.

A true Democratic Republic recognizes the contributions of all of its people equally and provides for the general welfare of all its citizens, regardless of ethnicity. Ethnic nationalism in Africa, which has existed for decades, in some cases for centuries, as a legacy of colonialism, tears apart the fabric of society and undermines the sovereignty of a nation. Ethnic nationalism contributes to weakening the central government, making it easy prey for foreign instigated destabilizations and attempts at regime change. The self-governance of a nation by its citizens, to create a better future for its people, cannot co-exist with ethnic nationalism. This type of ethnicity prevents democratic systems from taking root and flourishing.

Conclusion

To help build democratic institutions throughout Africa, we need to go beyond simply encouraging nations to have free and fair elections every four years. A viable Democratic Republic is much more than having its citizens show up at the polls every four-five years. Many advocates have not understood that democracy is not possible without development. Nations deprived of economic growth will not be able to provide its citizens with the basic material essentials of life, a prerequisite for a thoughtful deliberative process of governing. It should also be understood that an economically deprived population is desperate and can be easily manipulated against its own government, and its own interest. Economic destitution and the loss of hope for a better life, are the combustible fuel for violence and dictatorships. Conversely, a divided nation can be united when its leaders articulate a visionary program for economic growth that serves the interests of all its citizens,

It is high time we learn this indispensable lesson: democracy cannot succeed without development.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

____________________________________________________________________

A Nuclear Energy Economic Platform Is The Future for Africa

The only nuclear power plant on the African continent, is in Koeberg, South Africa

November 29, 2022

Nuclear Energy gives you the benefit of industrialization, and beneficiation within the [African] economy, translating to a higher and inclusive growth path and job creation.”

This is the edited transcript of the presentation of Gaopalelwe Santswere to Panel 2, “Physical Economy: Developing the Nӧosphere,” of the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 12, 2022 Conference, “The Physical Economy of the Noӧsphere: Reviving the Heritage of Vladimir Vernadsky.” Mr. Santswere is a nuclear physicist and senior scientist at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation. He is the President of the African Young Generation in Nuclear (AYGN). (EIR magazine. Nov 25, 2022)

Africa’s Need for Nuclear Power and Nuclear Medicine

 

Gaopalelwe Santswere (Courtesy of EIR magazine)

Gaopalelwe Santswere: Thank you very much for the opportunity to be part of the speakers today on a very important topic of the growing youth movement for nuclear power and nuclear medicine in Africa. We’ve seen that Africa has adopted what is called the Agenda 2063. One of the ancestors of Agenda 2063 is the need for integration, as one of the key foundations for assuring Africa achieve its goals for inclusive and sustainable growth and development. There we have seen that within the African Agenda 2063, there are about seven aspirations. Just to give you one of the most fundamental ones, which is Aspiration 2 of this Agenda 2063, placing import on the need for Africa to develop world-class infrastructure that criss-crosses Africa and which would improve connectivity through newer and bolder initiatives to link the continent by rail, road, sea, air, and develop regional and continental power pools, as well as ICT [Information and Communication Technology].

So there’s a need for us, if you look at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to assure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Now, if you take a look at Africa, we’ve got about 620 million Africans who are sitting without power. So out of 1.2 billion, you can see that almost half of Africans don’t have access to electricity. Therefore, Africa has not the opportunity to industrialize to have a future in the continent which would create sustainable jobs, to improve the conditions of the Africans in order to ensure that they can move forward.

There has been quite a robust debate within the continent as to what sort of technology should the continent adopt in order to ensure that we can move forward, and also develop the continent for the sustainability of most of the continent’s population, which are young people. So, when we look at the types of energy sources that we have, we know that there is some potential hydro in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which can potentially give us 40,000 MW of electricity. But we know what is the problem there: The geopolitical instability, regional instability that has caused the delay of this project seeing its life.

So we have seen, recently also, in the topic of hydro, Ethiopia has just launched or commissioned a hydropower plant that is supplying most of the East African countries there. But it also was not completed without political tension with Egypt and Sudan, because they’re saying that as it continues to fill up, it could potentially dry up some of the [downstream areas in Sudan and Egypt] and also affect the income.

Now we have seen the potential contention between the use of coal or hydrocarbons within the world: The world is saying that we need to move away from hydrocarbons and move to more clean energy that will sustain the world moving forward. But that being said, we’re seeing that world has not been achievable because of what we have seen in terms of the energy crisis in Europe and so forth.

So for Africa to develop, one of the energy sources that we foresee potentially could develop Africa is the use of nuclear power. We know that in Africa we’ve got two units at Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant in South Africa, that are continuously supporting South African electricity to almost 2,000 MW. But it’s the only two power reactors that are currently existing in the continent.

We have seen a number of countries expressing interest within the African continent, countries like Kenya, countries like Nigeria, countries like Ghana and so forth, who want to introduce nuclear power, due to the demand or energy poverty that their populations are subjected to. We have seen recently that Egypt has started construction on 4,800 MW of new nuclear power plants in the continent. This is very much welcome, because we have seen that now nuclear is starting to expand within the continent, and this will bring much relief in terms of the energy poverty that the continent has been experiencing for decades. We know that Africa is mostly referred to as “the darkest continent” because of lack of access to electricity.

So, one of the things that we need to do, in Africa in terms of energy, is to have a strategic plan that will ensure its society or citizens’ wellness within the continent; energy security which takes consideration of the environment; and competitiveness, including affordability and funding, in order to ensure that we have got economic growth and transformation, job creation, and equitable share in fulfillment of the African objective.

Now, when we look at a nuclear power plant, it is one of the most affordable [sources of] electricity. We can take cognizance that when you look at the power generation in South Africa in terms of the cost per kilowatt, nuclear is very, very low compared to other energy sources. Most of the developed countries in the world, they exist because the economy is based also on the development of nuclear power, so therefore, Africa must take some of the lessons from the world to ensure that they also can emphasize energy security, they also improve the lives of their citizens, by developing the nuclear power plan.

So, one fact is that we have over the years developed what we call the African Young Generation in Nuclear, which has enabled the young generations within the continent to emphasize why there is a need for us to go nuclear. We have emphasized that the bottom aspect of this is because Africa has to develop its own capacity and ensure that it addresses the socioeconomic issues of the continent through the promotion of nuclear power technology in Africa.

So, we need to do this. We have been doing it by degrees, to define, first, nuclear technology and educating the public about the benefits of nuclear for the public. We have facilitated the student government platforms and knowledge transfer platforms between the current generation of leading nuclear experts and the young generation about the nuclear profession.

What we are doing is, we have offered the platform to share, exchange ideas, and network on issues related to nuclear science and technology. Because what we have seen is that once we have addressed the energy issues, we have addressed a lot of things. And we strongly believe that nuclear has the capacity to address what Africa is lacking currently. And just to mention a few: We’ve seen that when you develop nuclear, you develop an economy in terms of energy security and by socioeconomic development. We align with national goals in terms of national development plans for energy transfer, and diversifying the African continent’s energy mix, which opens up an array of opportunities within the energy sector. It gives you the benefit of industrialization, and beneficiation within the [African] economy, translating to a higher and inclusive growth path and job creation. Of course, this will increase the pace of inclusive growth, which will face the biggest challenges on the continent.

Also bearing in mind, for sustainable economic growth we need to develop a technology that can develop and advance the economic wellbeing of the African continent.

So what we need also to recognize is that nuclear technology is not only power related. We can also apply it in different sectors like agriculture, nuclear medicine, and so forth. We know, just from the International Atomic Energy Agency this year there was a scientific forum focusing on the Rays of Hope initiative to ensure there can be access to cancer care. So we strongly believe that the nuclear technology can address that kind of issue.

We know that the continent has been losing quite a lot of money, where the patients are taken out of the continent to get care in the East or in Europe. So therefore, we strongly believe in the development of cancer treatment within the continent through radiotherapy, through access to nuclear medicine. Of course, we understand that cancer is one of the most killing diseases of the continent. So diagnosis and treatment of cancer will ensure that the development of Africa moves forward.

Just to give you an example: For a treatment for cancer, for example prostate cancer, we’ve seen South Africa developing the [radioactive isotope] Lutetium-177 production facility, which we have seen can treat prostate cancer much better.

So with that, I would like to say thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much, and we look forward to the discussion.

Read my earlier posts:

South African Activist Campaigns for Nuclear Energy For Africa: Essential for Industrialization

South Africa: A Leader on the Continent for Nuclear Energy

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

____________________________________________________________________

South Africa and China Articulate Principles for Global Development at United Nations

September 27, 2022

In her address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 21, Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation for South Africa, made an invaluable contribution. While many speakers at the assembly discussed important topics, she, along with Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, identified economic development as the crucial principle that the UNGA has to address. (See excerpts of their remarks below).

Unfortunately, the majority of leaders throughout the world have failed to understand the essentiality of promoting economic development as a strategic solution to war, and insecurity, and the only pathway to achieving lasting peace. Leaders of the West, especially from the U.S. , have failed to grasp this elementary concept elaborated by John Paul VI, when he wrote, development is the new name for peace. (1)

Unlike the last four generations of U.S. presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, did understand that the policy of promoting economic development is a strategic means of obtaining peace in the world. President Roosevelt organized for the creation of the United Nations (UN) as an integral component of his post war Grand Design, which most emphatically included the dismantling of the British empire. His proposed composition of nations to lead the UN, (U.S. Russia, China, and Great Britain) was an attempt to isolate the British and their imperialist policies. President Roosevelt discussed with his son, his vision for the UN, which was coherent with his intent of the Atlantic Charter and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. To wit: improving conditions of life in underdeveloped nations by fostering economic growth. He said to Elliott,

“These great powers will have to assume the task of bringing education, raising the standards of living, improving health conditions—of all the backward depressed areas of the world.”

Tragically for the world, President Roosevelt died before the inauguration of the UN, and the small minded, easily manipulated, Harry Truman, became U.S. President. In a brief time after assuming office, President Truman, embracing the diseased British geopolitical mindset, negated President Roosevelt’s vision to construct a better world with all nations participating in progress and prosperity. Civilization has paid dearly for the reversal of President Roosevelt’s paradigm.

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill discussing the Atlantics Charter at the Argentia conference.

Minister Pandor Echoes Roosevelt

In her presentation before the UNGA, Minister Pandor said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe shape our attitudes today; however, for South Africa, the real inflection point will be the world attending fully to the needs of the marginalized  and forgotten.

Our greatest global challenges are poverty, inequality, joblessness and feeling excluded…addressing poverty and underdevelopment will be the beginnings of the real inflection point in human history.

Global solidarity is also required to meet other pressing challenges such as energy and food insecurity, climate change and the devastation caused by conflicts, including the existential threat of nuclear weapons.

Instead of working collectively to address these challenges, we have grown further apart as geopolitical tensions and mistrust permeate our relations.

We should, however, move forward in solidarity, united in efforts to address our common global challenges to ensure sustainable peace and development.” (Emphasis added).

To read full transcript on Minister Pandor’s presentation at the UNGA: Click here.

Eliminate Poverty

In his address before the UNGA on September 24, Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, echoed the theme of peace through development, highlighting the importance of eliminating poverty. He told the assembly,

“We must pursue development and eliminate poverty.

Development holds the key to resolving difficult issues and delivering a happy life to our people. We should place development at the center of the international agenda, build international consensus on promoting development, and uphold all countries’ legitimate right to development. We should foster new drivers for global development, forge a global development partnership, and see that everyone in every country benefits more from the fruits of development in a more equitable way.

China has been a contributor to global development…China is a pacesetter in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has met the poverty reduction goal ten years ahead of the envisioned timeframe and accounts for 70 percent of the gains in global poverty reduction. It has provided development aid to more than 160 countries in need, and extended more debt-service payments owed by developing countries than any other G20 member state.” (Emphasis added).

To read the full transcript of Minister Wang Yi: Click here

(1) Encyclical , Populorium progressio, March 26, 1967.

Read my earlier posts:

British Colonial Legacy Still Plaguing African Nations Today

Roosevelt: Last Great American Statesman With A Grand Vision for Africa

For the Development of Africa: Know and Apply Franklin Roosevelt’s Credit Policy

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

_______________________________________________________________________

Celebrate July 4th Time to Adopt Hamilton’s Industrialization Polices for Africa

July 3, 2022

Alexander Hamilton, one of the most outstanding of our Founding Fathers, designed the scientific economic principles that built the United States into an industrialized power. He succeeded, with the support of President George Washington, in creating a manufacturing sector for the agrarian based 13 colonies. Hamilton was opposed by Thomas Jefferson, who led a campaign to prevent the industrial development of the young republic. We must succeed today against those who are intent in keeping African nations underdeveloped, economically held back by inefficient agricultural sectors.

My colleague, Nancy Spannaus, creator of the website: americansystemnow.com, discusses the contributions of Alexander Hamilton in her article below. Hamilton’s economic principles should be studied and applied by African nations today to ensure a prosperous future for their expanding population.

Without the industrialization of African nations with robust manufacturing and agricultural sectors, poverty, hunger, and insecurity, will not be eliminated.

Read: Hamilton-fathered-our-economic-independence

 

Hamilton Fathered Our Economic Independence

By Nancy Spannaus July 2, 2022—The Declaration of Independence, whose approval we celebrate this weekend, was a watershed moment in our history as a nation, and in world history as well. But to the most prescient of the Founding Fathers, it was clear that winning the war for independence would … Continue readingHamilton Fathered Our Economic Independence

For the Development of Africa: Know and Apply Franklin Roosevelt’s Credit Policy

 

Please watch my one hour and twenty minute presentation in the video above, and read the transcript.

June 10, 2022

om the Great Depression. He intended to generate economic growth throughout the world with the creation of Bretton Woods. He had a Grand Design to end British and French colonialism following the end of World War II, and free the developing sector to become sovereign nations determining their own economic future.

My presentation provides the concepts for African nations to create economic growth. Using the principles of Alexander Hamilton and President Roosevelt, we can establish an Africa Infrastructure Development Bank that can finance the infrastructure necessary to end hunger and poverty across the continent.

I am available to present additional lectures on this subject. Also, as a physical economist and a consultant with decades of experience, I can provide unique insights on Africa development and U.S. policy towards Africa.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A US President Committed to the Development of Humankind

Watch my earlier presentation on Alexander Hamilton: Alexander Hamilton’s Credit System Is Necessary for Africa’s Development

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the 0blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.

________________________________________________________________

Nuclear Energy Challenges Western Colonial Mind-Set: Cheikh Anta Diop & John Kennedy Would Concur

Cheikh Anta Diop, IFAN laboratory, Dakar, 1976. Photo by Jake Scott,

 

The article below by my colleague, Nancy Spannaus, creator of the website americansystemnow.com provides a useful up-date on momentum for expanding the world’s production of nuclear energy. This is of vital importance for the future of the African continent, and its growing population. Almost one third of African nations are involved  in some stage of acquiring nuclear energy. A growing number of African leaders are pushing back against the Western dictates, that Africa nations must forgo the use of their own natural energy resources in order to “save the planet” from climate change. These demands are dripping with a racist-colonial mentality that demands Africans cannot use their natural hydrocarbon resources to generate electricity for their people. On a continent with over 600 million without access to electricity and over 450 million Africans living in poverty; this is criminal and immoral.

Nuclear energy must become an increasing portion of energy consumption for African nations. It provides abundant long term energy, it is ideal for desalination, and produces important medical isotopes. On a continent starved for energy, nuclear fission and ultimately fusion, are essential. As importantly, African nations that embrace nuclear energy will lift their economic mode of production to a more advanced energy infrastructure platform. This will prepare these economies to operate an even higher level of technology in the future; fusion power. The application of nuclear technologies, along with space exploration, will force an upshift in the skill level of the labor force, requiring more scientists, engineers, and training centers.

This concept was understood by the great Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop more than six decades ago. He optimistically wrote in his renowned book, Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State:

“If we wish to see the African Nation everyone is talking about these days adapt itself to the needs of a modern technical world, we have from its very beginnings to provide those technical institutions that guarantee the life of a modern nation . We should forthwith create the following institutions:  

A) an institute of nuclear chemistry and physics;

B) an electronic institute;

C) an aeronautics and astronautics institute;

D) an institute of applied chemistry for industry and agriculture;

E) an institute of tropical agronomy and biochemistry

F) an institute of health, specialized in the study tropical diseases.”

Diop strongly believed it was important for African nations to be engaged in the development of thermonuclear (fusion) energy, which is orders of magnitude more powerful than fission. He wrote, “…Africa should be following: first, to bank on the triumph of thermonuclear energy and immediately create a pilot fusion center in an appropriate African country open to all African researchers willing to follow this line of pursuit…”

President John Kennedy also reflected the same technological optimism of Diop. He supported the right of African nations to developing their economies by utilizing their natural resources and having access to technology. Speaking in 1960, Kennedy said:

“Call it nationalism, call it anti-colonialism, Africa is going through  a revolution…Africans want a higher standard of living. Seventy-five percent of the population now lives by subsistence agriculture. They  want an opportunity to manage and benefit directly from their resources in, on, and under the land…The African peoples believe that the science, technology, and education available in the modern world can overcome their struggle for existence, that their poverty, squalor, and disease can be conquered.” (Emphasis added)

Should we do less than emulate the thinking of Kennedy and Diop, today?

 

Hopeful Signs on Nuclear Power’s Future

Read below my earlier posts on nuclear energy for Africa:

Nuclear Power A Necessity for Africa’s Economic Growth

Mozambique is Obligated to Exploit Its Resources For the Development of Its Economy

Nigerian VP: Osinbajo “Climate Justice Must Include Ending Energy Poverty” Especially for Sub-Saharan Africa

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.

___________________________________________________________

Africans Should Understand: Physical Economy Creates Wealth and Elevates the Human Mind

 

Africans Should Understand: Physical Economy Creates Wealth and Elevates the Human Mind
Lawrence Freeman giving a presentation on applying the economic principles of Alexander Hamilton and the American System to the development of African nations.

Below, you can read a transcript or watch my video presentation on the essential concepts necessary to understand physical economy, whose principles should be applied to all African nations to end poverty and hunger. Courtesy of PD Lawton, creator of the website: africanagenda.net

 

Africa Can Create Real Wealth Through the Development of the Physical Economy: Presentation by Lawrence Freeman

This presentation by physical economist and Africa analyst, Lawrence Freeman, was part of an international conference entitled `Solutions for African Economic Development` hosted by Christophe Ndayiragije and PD Lawton. You can find more from Lawrence Freeman at his website: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. You can watch the video at the end of the transcript.

Now people don`t understand that the purpose of an economy for society is the development of human beings. There is no contradiction between the development of human beings and the development of the physical Universe. Human beings are governed by a creative mental process and the Universe is governed by a creative process. And therefore the Universe is there to be intervened upon by the human mind for the advanced propagation of the human race, itself.

I call myself a physical economist because I am trying to change the conception that people have of an economy in their minds. One of the biggest problems we face in the world , in the West, as well as in Africa, is that people have a very poor, if totally erroneous conception of what wealth is.

People think wealth is money, making money on Wall Street, derivatives, stock trading, day trading, and this really is not wealth at all, from my standpoint. A financial system is not wealth. A financial system is necessary, although I would term it more appropriately, a credit system. But the system iteslf which is necessary to facilitate aspects of the physical economy, is not the economy.

What is the economy?
Well, most people say it is to do with free trade, buying low, selling dear, all beginning with Adam Smith. In fact the original conception that Smith has comes from Bernard Mandeville, who wrote a poem about bees. And basically his theory was that the interaction of all these bees , which are equated to human beings, desiring pleasure and avoiding pain, by all their individual pain and pleasure reactions, they serve the greater good. And this supposedly is the Invisible Hand. Of course the Invisible Hand is always there to steal your money. But idea is that the Invisible Hand is somehow the interaction of various human beings in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, is how an economy operates. And of course there is no truth in that whatsoever.

An economy is actually the self organization, determined by human beings to organize their society in such a way that it continues to perpetuate itself. And it will perpetuate itself if it is a successful economy. The criteria is that you will produce an increase in the standard of living for your population and you will increase the number of people. So you have two criteria which are connected, the increase in total wealth and the increase in total population, and this is what a productive economy should be able to do. And we are talking about tangible wealth, physical wealth in terms of what has just been presented [previous presentation by Knox Msebenzi], in energy, railroads, agriculture and physical, tangible products that society needs.

Now the production of wealth is done by a productive labour force, that is within the entire workforce of an economy, there is a section of that workforce that actually performs what we would call productive labour. There are many other occupations which are necessary, complimentary and essential like education, scientific development, classical education development. But the actual labour force is involved in acting on the physical Universe, to transform the physical Universe in to producing the existence for Humankind.

And that, therefore, what we are primary concerned with in physical economy is how do we make improvements to raise the productivity of the productive labour force. This is our main concern that we are involved in, is acting on the physical Universe to produce more wealth from one production cycle to the next production cycle.

Now how do you produce more wealth from one period to another?
And this brings in the essential questions of science and technology. Each economic mode of production, for each production cycle, is governed in a sense by the level of education and scientific knowledge and technology available for that production cycle. If we change the dynamics of that production cycle then we can change the outcome.

How do we change the dynamics?
It is through science and technology. The human mind, is the only force we know in the Universe that can actually discover new physical principles embedded in the Universe. And as we discover those physical principles, the results are seen to us in new technologies. We bring in a new technology into a current mode of production, current economic system, and we find that we can produce more wealth with the same or less effort. For example what the previous speaker brought out.

If the African continent, the nations, would begin to proliferate nuclear energy in their economies, which is something Cheik anta Diop discussed 60 years ago! But if the African nations were to do that, we would not only see an increase in energy production, but we would see an increase in the entire physical economy. And we would see an increase in the level of education, skill labour, science centres, because you would be mastering a new technology, that is not new to the world but is not being applied in Africa. This would be an upgrade or an upshift of the entire economy.

Now how does this work?
The human mind makes a discovery in the physical Universe which is then transformed by other humans into a technology. How does that technology then change the economy? For example: machine tools. Machine tools produce all other machines. If you change the technology of machine tool design, you change all other forms of production in your economy because you would be producing those new machines based on a new design of machine tools which are the essence of an industrialized economy. How many machine tool plants do we have in Africa today? Just like how many nuclear energy plants, we know we have one in South Africa.

The other area where we change the economy, improve the economy is through infrastructure. Again as you bring in a new technology, again such as fission or lets say, more advanced, such as fusion, that new technology embedded in your infrastructure platform changes the total ptoductivity of every member of your society.

Every farmer becomes more productive when he is surrounded by density of energy, by a density of clean water for society, by a density of railroads. So the density of infrastructure and the technological level of the platform of infrastructure are fundamental ways you actually change the economy. You bring in something new that has been discovered by man for the economy.

Now people don`t understand that the purpose of an economy for society is the development of human beings. There is no contradiction between the development of human beings and the development of the physical Universe. Human beings are governed by a creative mental process and the Universe is governed by a creative process. And therefore the Universe is there to be intervened upon by the human mind for the advanced propogation of the human race, itself.

And therefore in changing and improving the physical economy we are not only increasing the physical output of goods but we are actually increasing the power of each individual member of that society. Even if the majority members of society do not partake in the productive process, they participate in an economy of a rising standard of living and of an improved technology and scientific capability.

Now this also begs another question that is involved in physical economy; which is your scientific, cultural educational level. Is a society producing the scientific level that is necessary for new discoveries? Is the educational level of the population sufficient for the members of the population to assimilate that new technology, that new scientific level, and are they able to transmit that?

So by looking at the physical economy from the standpoint of the mind of man, you see that the entire society should be organized to promote this quality of development, of the human being, which leads, and is completely connected to the quality of development of human life itself.
Now many people think Africa is overpopulated, I had this problem with many of my friends who are somewhat ignorant on the issue, over the last 30 years I have been travelling to Africa. Africa is not over populated, there are not too many people. There is not enough people. There`s entire parts of Africa that are completely underdeveloped. There`s entire parts of Africa where agriculture is completely underdeveloped. So it is not a question of population. It is a question of development.

And what we need to do is we need to have African leaders begin implementing, as was discussed earlier with the question of Ghana and other nations, have to begin understanding the coherence of one concept of a physical economy in a society and promoting those policies that will actually raise the level, qualitatively and quantitatively. Now this also has a very serious implications for education. This has very serious implications for security. Because we are approaching the security question. in many cases, all wrong.
So therefore, what I think about and what I suggest what other leaders think about is what inputs do we make in the long-term which then reflect in to what we have to do in the short term that actually change, improve, advance the physical economy as part of the entire development of society.

Source: Africa Rising Soon TV

 

Africa Can Create Real Wealth Through the Development of the Physical Economy: Presentation by Lawrence Freeman

______________________________________________________

African Nations Must Have High-Speed Rail Network to Survive and Develop

READ: Rail Group to EU: Start Global Gateway with Africa’s Integrated High Speed Railway

We call on the European Union Commission to adopt the African Continental Integrated High Speed Railway as a flagship take off for the Global Gateway Strategy. The continental railway domiciled with the New Partnership for African Development Agency is one of the critical projects endorsed by African Heads of state towards realisation of Agenda 2063.

January 10, 2022

I fully endorse the call by the African Railway Roundtable for the Europe Union to support the African Integrated High-Speed Rail Network. Whether Europe’s Global Gateway Strategy will actually fund this critically important infrastructure project is not clear.

The massive infrastructure deficit existing in all African nations is the greatest impediment to the elimination of poverty. Next to energy, rail transportation is the most vital category of infrastructure necessary for African nations to survive and develop in the 21st century. That U.S. and Europe have not understood this concept of physical economy for the last 50 years demonstrates a major failure in Western policy. That so called human right groups and NGOs have not made this–energy and rail infrastructure–their highest priority in their advocacy is another sign of the ignorance of what is required for African nations to provide for the welfare of their people.

Let Europe and the U.S. join China’s Belt and Road Initiative in bringing vitally required infrastructure to Africa.

Read my earlier posts:

Africa Continental Free Trade Area Must Have An Integrated High Speed Rail Network

The Africa Integrated High-Speed Rail Network is Feasible and Will Create A Prosperous Future for All African Nations

Link to Europe World Global Gateway

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.

_________________________________________________________

 

Realize the Vision of Diop and Nkrumah: Industrialize and Energize the African Continent

Realize the Vision of Diop and Nkrumah: Industrialize and Energize the African Continent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFPuEc3CTvo

October 8, 2021

Watch my hour long presentation from October 3. I discussed that the future of our planet in this century will be dependent on the African continent with its projected population of 2.4 billion and 1 billion youth by the year 2050. Either we set in motion NOW policies to develop African nations and realize the potential of 1 billion young creative minds, or we fail to do so, which will lead to more misery, and instability. The whole world will suffer from insecurity on the the African continent.

Past African giants like Cheikh Anta Diop and President Kwame Nkrumah understood what was required to develop the nations of Africa: infrastructure, energy, industry, and science. Africa suffers from an deliberate policy of imposed economic under-development, which must be overcome, not only for the sake of Africa, but for the very future of our planet.

The United States has adopted an anti-development, geo-political ideology that opposes development in Africa. For example, why hasn’t the Biden administration praised Ethiopia for the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that will generate 6,200 megawatts of electricity for the Horn of Africa? I am sure that Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy would have supported Ethiopia’s drive for development, if they were alive today.

All this and more, including quotes from Diop and Nkrumah, is presented by myself in this video, which I believe will stimulate further discussion on the future of Africa.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

______________________________________________________

Energy poverty sustains poverty because electricity is the foundation of all economic development

___________________________________________________

September 23, 2021

Energy poverty sustains poverty because electricity is the foundation of all economic development

Nuclear Energy Can Eliminate Poverty in Africa by PD Lawton , 19 September 2021 image: transmission lines. Dailyenergyinsider Energy poverty sustains poverty because electricity is the foundation of all economic development Africa suffers from an acute energy deficit. Electricity consumption correlates directly with a nation`s standard of living. Electricity is the foundation of all economic …

 Nuclear Energy Can Eliminate Poverty in AfricaAfrican Agenda – A new perspective on Africa

Nuclear Energy Can Eliminate Poverty in Africa

Nuclear Energy Can Eliminate Poverty in Africa by PD Lawton , 19 September 2021 image: transmission lines. Dailyenergyinsider Energy poverty sustains poverty because electricity is the foundation of all economic development Africa suffers from an acute energy deficit. Electricity consumption correlates directly with a nation`s standard of living. Electricity is the foundation of all economic … Continue readingNuclear Energy Can Eliminate Poverty in Africa

 

 

Nuclear Energy: Employment Creation, Science and Technology

The nuclear industry acts as a science driver for an economy unlike the renewables industry. Nuclear promotes research and development at the high end of science. The need for high level skills is an opportunity for Africa to uplift the labour market.
Koeberg is Africa`s first and at present, only nuclear power station, situated in Cape Town, South Africa. It provides in excess of 1500 highly skilled permanent employment opportunities, and that is consistant for up to 80 years.
Nuclear is a high density form of energy which makes it the most progressive source of energy production unlike wind and solar which are low density.

A volume equivalent to a couple of soft drink cans of uranium will supply 1 person`s energy needs for the duration of their life!

If Koeberg ran on coal, it would take 6 train-loads of coal every day to keep it at 2000MW capacity. In fact it takes 1 truck-load of uranium per year!

Compared to hydro and renewables, nuclear has a very small land footprint.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.

http://africanagenda.net/africas-future-depends-on-adopting-nuclear-power-generation/embed/#?secret=UCyCWSgbX9

_________________________________________

Africa`s Future Depends on Adopting Nuclear Power Generation

August 28, 2021

Africa`s Future Depends on Adopting Nuclear Power Generation

Dr Kelvin Kemm, world renowned South African nuclear physicist, explains in detail how nuclear energy is derived from uranium, how this process is 100% safe and the most reliable 24/7 , cheapest and greenest source of energy that we have. Africa is vast and hydro-power, wind and solar will not stand up to the climatic … Continue readingAfrica`s Future Depends on Adopting Nuclear Power Generation

 

This post is reprinted from AfricanAgenda.net, August 28, 2021

Dr Kelvin Kemm, world renowned South African nuclear physicist, explains in detail how nuclear energy is derived from uranium, how this process is 100% safe and the most reliable 24/7 , cheapest and greenest source of energy that we have. Africa is vast and hydro-power, wind and solar will not stand up to the climatic conditions or the sheer vastness of distances that the continent presents. The latest nuclear technology, Small Modular Reactors, which are a South African invention, can provide an energy solution to the continent`s needs. Dr Kemm explains why nuclear has a negative image and a great deal more in this highly informative interview with Ethiopian media, Talk to OBN.

The most fundamental right of a nation is the right to develop its economy for the betterment of its people. Without electricity this is impossible and its citizens will be confined to death and sobering. We must have an all out effort by the leaders of Africa to produce electricity to power the industrial development of their nations.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

________________________________________

End Hunger and Poverty in Africa by Freeing the Continent From ‘Oligarchical’ Interference

August 26, 2021

Watch Lawrence Freeman’s video interview above by Geopolitics and Empire.

Africa has been victimized by outside powers from the beginning of slavery in the 1400s, through colonization, and over the last six decades from neo-colonialization, through control of international finance. African nations have been prevented from becoming economically sovereign intentionally by a political-financial elite, referred to as an oligarchy.  A deliberate policy of under development is obvious from examining the egregious paucity of infrastructure across the African continent. African nations are not overpopulated, but rather; underdeveloped. The lack of electricity is literally killing Africans. There  are no objectives reason for the level of poverty and hunger in Africa. We can eradicate hunger and poverty through investment in restructure, manufacturing, and agriculture.

Let us encourage all people and leaders of good will to make the eradication of poverty and hunger in Africa a great project of humankind, to be accomplished within the next 20 years. Let us not allow the West to use their calls for “democracy and human rights” as cover for intervention against sovereign nations. The failed policy of Afghanistan should put to an end to the numerous interventions by the West under the mantra of “responsibility to protect-R2P” still be advocated by Tony Blair today.

Development is a “human right.” Ethiopia’s commitment to lift its people out of poverty should be supported; not attacked or threatened as the United States has done.  

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

___________________________________________

Lawrence Freeman Discusses Key Principles For Developing Africa

Watch the 8 minute video above, where I outlined succinctly the essential policies necessary for the development of Africa. I participated in a July Fourth celebration webinar sponsored by “Watch Democracy Grow.”

In the longer video below I discuss a range of topics regarding Africa’s development. After visiting Nigeria (Kaduna and Abuja) for two weeks and Ethiopia for one week, I became more convinced than ever, that peace and stability will come only when the basic necessities of life, such as food, water, electricity, land, and railroads are provided by industrialized African nations.

Lawrence Freeman: Stories from Africa – East to West

LAWRENCE FREEMAN, POLITICAL-ECONOMIC ANALYST FOR AFRICA…
He is a highly respected researcher, writer, and speaker on a variety of topics concerning Africa, who has visited African nations 30 times.. An outspoken critic of neo colonialism and the ICC. Insisting that Africa no longer be forced to live in a dark age, he has consistently brought African governments a roadmap for transformative infrastructure projects. As the author of dozens of articles and reports on Africa. Freeman served as a member of AFRICOM’s Advisory Committee under U.S. General Kip Ward. Most recently, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Lake Chad Basin Scientific Committee and is currently working on a project to replenish the shrinking Lake Chad. Presently, he is teaching courses on the history of Africa, utilizing his decades of experience and knowledge. In this video he takes us through a journey in Africa where he has just returned from visiting both Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

______________________________________________

Nuclearize Africa: It Is Necessary To End Poverty and Hunger

In the article below; Energy for Africa: The Power to Industrialize and Reach Zero Poverty, author PD Lawton, creator of the website, africanagenda.net, discusses the progress by African nations in acquiring nuclear energy. As the article makes clear, “nuclear technology will enable countries to realize more than 9 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.” Nuclear energy will supply the power for the industrialization of African nations.

Let us be blunt: African nations will not achieve true stability, peace, and democracy until poverty and hunger are eliminated! From decades of examining  the physical economies of Africa, I can say with complete authority, as long as large sections of the population of African nations are desperately attempting to simply survive and find ways to feed their families everyday, there will not peace, security, and democracy. Abundant and and inexpensive energy, with 100% access by the population and industry is the bedrock of any successful economy. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) needs minimally, 1,000 gigawatts of additional energy. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts. SSA presently has a mere 100,000-130,000 megawatts-100 to130 gigawatts. All forms of energy generation must be employed to power African economies. However, even clean hydro-electric is limited by the flow of water, as we have witnessed recently in energy shortages in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Nuclear energy is the most efficient form of power society currently operates. The technology is well known and safe. Delaying the construction of nuclear powers across the African continent will only contribute to more misery and death for Africans. Thus, nuclear energy should become an increasingly larger portion of new energy for African nations, beginning today! 

Read:

ENERGY for Africa : The Power to Industrialize and Reach Zero Poverty

Read: Nuclear Energy Can Bridge the Skills Gap in Africa

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

______________________________________________________________________________________

Africa Continental Free Trade Area Must Have An Integrated High Speed Rail Network

Map of main corridors of a proposed African Integrated High Speed Rail Network

May 18, 2021

Watch the video below, an comprehensive discussion with Rowland Ataguba, Managing Director of Bethlehem Rail Infrastructure on the African Integrated High Speed Railway Network (AIHSRN). He is a driving force to have AIHSRN up and running in Africa by 2033. For Africa to realize the potential of the newly inaugurated, Africa Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA, there must be an integrated rail network connecting the major capitals, cities, ports, and regions of Africa. Such an integrated network of freight and passenger transportation is necessary to reverse the dismal amount of trade among African nations, estimated at 15%. With the population of the African continent projected to have almost 2.5 billion people by 2050, the AIHSRN proposal is essential and cannot wait until 2063 as planned by the African Union (AU).

The African Integrated High Speed Railway Network will deliver  connectivity across the huge continent via 6 main East-West and 3 North-South corridors, using standard gauge tracks with electric locomotives running at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour. These rail lines will become corridors of economic expansion for manufacturing and agriculture.

As the history of the development of great nations, such as the United States, Russia, and China demonstrate; railroads build nations,  traverse continents, link oceans, and create a spine for manufacturing centers. Properly understood, infrastructure is much more than a simple collection of projects. Economic progress is determined by the relative level of the scientific-technological design embodied in the integrated infrastructure platform which undergirds the manufacturing and agricultural sectors of an economy. An individual infrastructure project, such as a railroad, may not yield an immediate profit itself. However, as physical economists like myself know, viable infrastructure projects contribute to increasing the productivity of the labor force, thus enabling the economy as a whole to generate a profit. Massive investments in infrastructure, such as AIHSRN, are essential to industrialize Arica, which is necessary to eliminate hunger and poverty across the continent.

Mr. Ataguba proposes that the entire network be completed in the next 12-13 years. The only way that AIHSRN can be FAST TRACKED is through centralizing the project. He says that too much valuable time has been lost in connecting the railway network, which is indispensable for improving the standard of living of the average African. He emphasizes  that this rail network needs to affect the economy today, not tomorrow! Mr. Ataguba understands that for African nations to develop, this quality of infrastructure is urgently required.

AIHSRN will revolutionize African economies in providing standardized, fast, efficient, and safe transport at a far cheaper cost than road.

Once completed, freight and passenger transport across Africa will be transformed. For the first time in history, it will be possible to travel and send freight on a modern railway from: Dakar in Senegal to Djibouti or Pointe Noire; Congo Brazzaville to Dar Es Salaam; Tanzania to Walvis Bay; Namibia to Maputo Mozambique. Traversing the continent from east to west. Likewise, it will be possible to travel the entire length of the African land mass from Cape Town, South Africa along the Indian Ocean to Alexandria in Egypt or from Cape Town to Tripoli in Libya along the Atlantic coast.

For those passionately concerned about securing a prosperous future for Africa; watch this video.

 

Please view my earlier post from January 2021. The Africa Integrated High-Speed Rail Network is Feasible and Will Create A Prosperous Future for All African Nations

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

____________________________________________________________________________________

‘Green Energy’ Means More Economic Misery for Africa

March 19, 2021

Gyude Moore, former Liberian Minister of Public Works, has published an superbly perceptive article on what the “green-decarbonization” of energy means for Africa: Economic growth in Africa will not be achieved by a ban on fossil fuels. (See excerpts below)

Many years ago, I reached the same conclusions as Mr. Moore; without abundant affordable energy, Africa will not develop, it will not eliminate poverty.  African nations need energy, lots of energy, at least 1,000 gigawatts more energy to advance their agricultural sector and industrialize their economies.  Shutting down existing fossil fueled energy or limiting future energy production to “green energy” will not only retard economic growth; it will increase poverty and kill Africans. If I may be granted a poetic license, I would say, a green energy policy for Africa will lead to a black death.

Let me interpolate my perspective on so called green energy, which  goes beyond Mr. Moore’s excellent analysis.  I find no convincing evidence that human activity is causing climate change. Rather, it is geological and astronomical cycles pertaining to our Sun and our solar system that is the primary cause of changes in our climate. Just ask yourself, how many ice ages and warming periods has our planet experienced over the last one million years before anthropomorphic activity emerged?

Unfortunately, our culture has adopted a false belief system about the nature of human beings that was revived in the 1960s under the slogan of “limits to growth.” This belief structure advocates the necessity of limiting the number of human beings and reducing human activity, guided by a false conviction that the planet is running out of resources.

This is a warmed over version of the population reduction theory espoused by the wicked Parson Thomas Malthus (1766-1834). Even though the Malthusian dogma proclaims that human population growth will exceed the resources of the planet, has been proven wrong, again, and again, Malthusianism never seems to die.

There are two principal  fallacies of this view. First, there are no fixed resources. As humankind discovers new scientific principles of the physical universe, new resources of energy are discovered, such as coal, gas, oil, nuclear, and of course electricity itself.  Second, the physical universe, which is a growing organism, is well-ordered to respond to the creative mental powers of the human mind. In scientific terms, both the universe, and the human creative mind, intrinsically cooperate in anti-entropic growth, i.e., continual expanding development. As the great philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz wrote, there is a pre-established harmony of causality between the mind and physical substance. When we humans exercise our creative potential, we are in harmony with universe, not antithetical  to its environment.   

Sadly, for civilization, western culture, has adopted a prejudicial view of the human race itself, viewing it as an inherently evil monster wantonly destroying the environment. The folly of the “New Green Deal” as it is called, will hurt the United States, Europe, and the entirety of the advanced sector. However, for African nations  and other developing nations, it will have deadly effects sooner.

 

Nuclear energy for Africa: Fulfilling Eisenhower’s dream
Nuclear energy for Africa: Fulfilling Eisenhower’s dream.  Atoms for Peace. (Courtesy of cfact.org)

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is needed to come into operation post-haste for Africa to progress. The GERD has the capacity to generate over 6,000 megawatts of electricity, which could be added to the East African grid in the coming two to three years . There are other hydro-electric dams being constructed in Africa. There should be no holding back on constructing as many new power plants of all types, as quickly as possible to expand African’s access to electricity. Over 600 million Africans have no access to their nation’s electrical grid. Plus, for African nations to build their manufacturing sectors, industrial consumption of electricity will have to dramatically increase. Nuclear energy, presently fission, and in the future fusion, is the most efficient source of power for Africa. Almost one third of the continent’s nations are presently involved in various stages of acquiring nuclear energy plants. African nations should give the highest priority to securing production of nuclear energy.

(See link below for presentation of nuclear solution)

Excerpts from Gyude Moore:

“Africa has many of the poorest people in the world. For most African countries, the priority is economic growth — first in agriculture, where much of the population still works, and then in industry and services. Worries of an increased carbon footprint generated from economic growth are second to worries that growth may not happen at all

“But people in poverty don’t just need to power a single lightbulb at home; they need abundant, affordable energy at work too. Energy is essential to creating productive agriculture systems, as well as to the expansion of economic opportunity in cities, factories, and modern industries. African countries need energy to grow, and to eliminate poverty — and they can’t do it with small-scale green power projects alone.

“Africa’s first priority is to grow more food. Composting and recycling can only go so far — farmers need synthetic fertilizer to raise yields, and natural gas is the most efficient energy source for fertilizer production… 

“Poor farmers in Africa need much better access to irrigation… Large scale, energy-intensive water control projects that rely on fossil fuels must be in the mix — just as they are in wealthy countries.

Domestic food supply chains provide the vast majority of food across Sub-Saharan Africa, but they’re hampered by poor roads and the unreliable fuel supplies. Construction of much-needed roads requires energy and the transportation sector as a whole remains almost entirely dependent on oil and gas.

“Beyond agriculture, a continuous supply of power from the grid is critical for expanding factory production. Countries like Ethiopia, which have ambitions to become manufacturing powerhouses, are increasingly looking to China for the construction and operation of large-scale power projects that will provide reliable electricity. Off-grid technologies are useful for extending basic energy services but cannot power the industrial activity needed to create millions of jobs and drive economic diversification. There is no world in which Africa can meet its energy needs with carbon-neutral power plants and off-grid solutions

“The continent’s needs are too great to be met solely with current energy technologies…” (all emphasis is added)

Read: Economic growth in Africa will not be achieved by a ban on fossil fuels.

Biden’s Climate Plan Has a Nuclear Solution

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

___________________________________________________________________________

A Hamiltonian Development Policy for Africa Is A Necessity

In 1791, America’s first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, put forth his grand plan for industrializing the United States. In his “Report on the Subject of Manufacturers,” Hamilton rejected the then common assumption that America could prosper with an agricultural base, instead arguing that the new Republic should concentrate on developing industry. (courtesy of enterpriseai.news)

January 18, 2021

In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King (1929 to1968), a champion for the poor. 

On Sunday, January 10, 2021, the Rising Tides Foundation (risingtidefoundation.net) hosted a class by me entitled: A Hamiltonian Solution for Africa. The first video below is my two hour presentation. The second video is an hour of questions and answers. For those of you who have the time and the desire to learn, I believe you will find these videos beneficial.

Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury Secretary under President George Washington, prepared four economic reports establishing the American System of Political Economy in opposition to the Adam Smith-British free trade system. Hamilton understood that the U.S. would not become a sovereign economically independent nation without a robust manufacturing sector. This is true of African nations today, which have the lowest dollar amount of manufacture added value in the world. African nations are subjected to unfavorable terms of trade and weak currencies, because they are compelled to export their natural resources and import capital goods. Hamilton would not allow this to happen to the young U.S. following its independence from Great Britain.

My personal mission is to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by educating my African friends on the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.

 “The intrinsic wealth of a nation is to be measured, not by the abundance of the precious metals, contained in it, but by the quantity of the production of its labor and industry.” Alexander Hamilton, Report on a National Bank, (December 13, 1790)

 

 

 Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

____________________________________________________________________________________

The Africa Integrated High-Speed Rail Network is Feasible and Will Create A Prosperous Future for All African Nations

January 16, 2021

Please watch the 30 minute video below, which is a provocative interview with Roland Ataguba, Managing Director of Bethlehem Rail Infrastructure Limited. He discusses in detail the feasibility of An Integrated Railway  Network

Please watch the 8 minute video below on the The African Integrated High-Speed Railway Network (AIHSRN), “An Agenda 2063 Flagship Project” proposed by the African Union.

 

 

This article: http://africanagenda.net/african-new-paradigm/, by PD Lawton, creator of the website: AfricanAgenda.net, reviews major rail and related infrastructure projects that African nations are planning and presently constructing.

 Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Adviser to Ethiopian PM Abiy, Kenyan Pres Kenyatta, and US Cong Davis, All Understand: Infrastructure Essential for Economic Growth

Dr Arkebe Oqubay speaking during virtual TIPS 2020 Forum meeting
August 4, 2020

All three articles in this post highlight the essential role of infrastructure in building real economic growth in African nations as well as the United States. We are living in a perilous period of economic breakdown and loss of hundreds of thousands of lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of impoverished people around the world are threatened with hunger, and tens of millions more are being forced into poverty and extreme poverty as a result of this dual crisis. Massive development of infrastructure, including nuclear energy, should be financed through public sector credit and a National Infrastructure Bank as part of a  “New Economic Architecture,” which is urgently required. The economic principles to finance infrastructure and an expanding agro-manufacturing sector was brilliantly put forth by President George Washington’s Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton*. The levels of infrastructure required cannot be done by relying on the so called free-market, but must be accomplished by government intervention. When people are dying and suffering, you do not depend on the “markets.” Nations have the obligation to provide for the general welfare of their citizens.

Without infrastructure and manufacturing, AfCFTA will fall short – senior African policymaker

“An Ethiopian senior minister and special adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has cautioned that, without major infrastructure investment and the development of manufacturing capacity, African countries will not be in a position to take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which is poised to liberalize trading conditions across 55 countries.”
 
Dr Arkebe Oqubay has been at the center of Ethiopian industrial policy making for over 25 years. He is the founding Chancellor of the Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU), and in 2015 he authored Made in Africa: Industrial Policy in Ethiopia
 
 

Kenya on Course for $5 Billion Nuclear Plant to Power Industry

  • Plans to expand nuclear-power capacity fourfold by 2035
  • Kenya expects peak demand to top 22,000 megawatts by 2031

The government looks to expand its nuclear-power capacity fourfold from a planned initial 1,000 megawatts by 2035, the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency said in a report on the National Environment Management Authority’s website. The document is set for public scrutiny before the environmental watchdog can approve it, and pave the way for the project to continue.

President Uhuru Kenyatta wants to ramp up installed generation capacity from 2,712 megawatts as of April to boost manufacturing in East Africa’s largest economy. Kenya expects peak demand to top 22,000 megawatts by 2031, partly due to industrial expansion, a component in Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda. The other three are improving farming, health care and housing.

The nuclear agency is assessing technologies “to identify the ideal reactor for the country,” it said in the report.

A site in Tana River County, near the Kenyan coast was preferred after studies across three regions, according to the report. The plant will be developed with a concessionaire under a build, operate and transfer model.

 

US Congress introduces  H.R. 6422, the bill for a $4 trillion dollar National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) based on Hamiltonian principles

*Alexander Hamilton’s Credit System Is Necessary for Africa’s Development

*Nations Must Study Alexander Hamilton’s Principles of Political Economy

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in the economic development policy of Africa for 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

 __________________________________________________________________________________________

Science and Space Exploration Essential For Africa’s Economic Growth

May 28, 2020

I present below a new paper by the China Africa Research Institute (CARI) and remarks by Marie Korsaga, an astrophysicist from Burkina Faso. The common theme binding these two presentations is the importance of space technology and science education for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Not discussed by the two authors is the essential understanding that scientific discovery is the true source of economic wealth, contrary to the foolish views that Africa’s wealth is measured by the quantities of mineral resources found underground. The mind with its innate ability to hypothesize, to discover new physical principles, if imperfectly, is the underlying wellspring of progress for humankind. African nations expanding their involvement in space exploration are making an invaluable contribution to their future. Africa’s education of its large and growing youth population in science should be a source of hope, antithetical to Thomas Malthus’ evil over-population claptrap  I will be posting an article on this in the near future. 

Click to access PB+45+-+Klinger+-+China+Africa+Space+Satellites.pdf

 

Marie Korsaga is the first female astrophysicist in West Africa.

Dr. MARIE KORSAGA* I am an astrophysicist and originally from Burkina Faso. My research focuses on the distribution of dark matter, and visible matter in galaxies. In simple terms, it must be said that visible matter, that is to say, ordinary matter made up of protons, neutrons, electrons, everything that is observable with our devices, represents only about 5% of the universe — the rest is invisible matter, distribute as follows: 26% dark matter and 68% dark energy.

Dark matter, with its gravitational force is used to explain the fact that galaxies remain close to each other, while dark energy causes the universe to expand faster over time. So we cannot speak of understanding the universe if we only know about 5% of its constituents. So, to understand our universe, that is to say, to be able to account for its formation and evolution, it is essential to understand what dark matter and dark energy are.

Dark matter, as its name suggests, is something that you cannot see with even the most sophisticated telescopes. So far, no dark matter particles have ever been detected, nevertheless, we feel its presence thanks to its impact on gravity. The purpose of my research is to study how dark matter is distributed inside galaxies in order to better understand the formation and evolution of our universe, and therefore, the origin of life on Earth.

Beyond my research, I am interested in the development side of astronomy in Africa. For this, I work at the Office of Astronomy for Development on a project which consists in using astronomy as a factor of development almost everywhere in the world, but especially in the developing countries, by supporting projects related to education, educational tourism and so on.

Speaking of education, it is important to remember that according to the African Union, Africa has the youngest population in the world, with more than 40% of its young people under the age of 15, which will produce a demographic explosion in the next 10 years. This population growth has disadvantages, but also advantages. The downside is that if measures are not taken, such as access to quality education for boys and girls, especially in science, these young people, instead of becoming a source of development for the continent, risk, rather to be a source of socio-economic political instability and conflict, which will further plunge the continent into misery.

However, the advantage of this population growth is that through a well-developed education system, this demographic growth, if accompanied by strong measures both on the side of public policies and the private sector, will be a great source of sustainable development, at the economic and political level of the continent. For this, it is very important to make significant investments in the field of education, with a focus on innovation, science and technology.

It should be noted that today, African graduates mainly graduate from the literary and human sciences fields. STEM students — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — represent only 25% of the workforce on average, according to the World Bank. In addition, women are underrepresented in these areas. Take my case: I am the first woman to obtain a doctorate in astrophysics in Burkina, and even in West Africa. It may sound flattering, but it reveals a rather disturbing diagnosis, despite being a light of hope. Indeed, even if the region has a dozen doctorates in the field, there are almost no women among them.

Unfortunately, this shows that we are still a long way from achieving gender parity in science, and there is still much to do. This requires a change in mentalities and the accessibility of science to women, especially among the underprivileged. It is not unknown that a career in astrophysics requires a course in physics, which is not obvious for women in our societies where the majority of people think that the scientific fields are dedicated to men, and that women must go to the literary streams. This has the effect of discouraging women from opting for long studies, especially in the scientific fields, and even if they opt for them, they tend to give up at the first obstacles, due to the lack of encouragement.

Today, I can say that I have broken this barrier, at my level, and I would like to take advantage of the privilege to inspire and encourage as many young girls as I can, to opt for it.

It is true that today there are efforts being made by several governments to break these stereotypes with, for example, the NEF, the Next Einstein Forum in Rwanda, which is a platform for popularizing science, and which offers opportunities for students through scholarships of the network of women in science, called OWSD, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, which gives opportunities to girls and women in STEM fields.

However, there is still a lot to do, because the representation of women in science is far from being reached. Beyond research, I intend to contribute to the training of young people in science in Burkina Faso, and in Africa in general, by giving courses at universities, and also supervising masters and PhD students. I also plan to take action to popularize science education in general, and astrophysics in particular in countries where access to science is limited. This will serve to motivate young girls and boys, especially young girls, to take up scientific studies. There are also other future actions that I plan to undertake, in collaboration with other researchers, namely the establishment of scientific schools in Africa, particularly dedicated to women; the organization of workshops to enable female scientists to speak about their inspiring work, and cultivate self-confidence. The creation of an astronomy club for children, etc.

In addition to being fascinating as a science, astronomy can also be used as a development tool through, for example, education and tourism. The International Astronomical Union understands this and is making a lot of effort to address this development component in developing countries, and working to achieve a Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.

The typical example, in Sub-Saharan Africa is the case of South Africa, where the installation of telescopes in localities has not only facilitated the popularization of science and the creation of jobs for young people, but also has boosted the economy, and the development of infrastructure in these localities.

The current context in which we, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, reminds us of how important science must occupy our lives and our education system. This importance must convince the African authorities that it is more than necessary to devote a large part of national budgets to the support and the promotion of studies and of scientific research, because investment in human capital remains a secure means for the growth of a country. Above all, we must understand that to get our continent out of underdevelopment, we will have to review our way of executing these programs, focusing on education, training in science, technology, and innovation, especially space science, could not only increase our human potential, which is a source of sustainable development, but also enable the management of our natural resources and thus impact the economy in the continent.

Africa has an immense amount of natural resources, essential to the development of industry. It is necessary to arrive at a point where these resources are exploited, first for its development, by women and men trained on the continent and with compatible techniques.

Thank you for offering me the opportunity to share my thoughts on the necessity of education in science in Africa.

*Unedited remarks delivered to an international online conference organized by the Schiller Institute, April 25-26, 2020

Read: West Africa’s First Female Astrophysicist

____________________________________________________________________________________________
Coronavirus testing supplies being unloaded at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in March.
Credit…Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

 Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed: Debt Cancellation for the World to Survive

May 1, 2020

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has made an audacious salient call for debt cancellation for low income countries. It was published in the Opinion section of the April 30, New York Times, Why the Global Debt of Poor Nations Must Be Canceled, (printed in full below). PM Abiy is correct, debt cancellation is absolutely necessary to save lives and for developing nations to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. To compel a nation like Ethiopia to spend almost half of its revenue on debt service, while its people are suffering from a perfect storm of Desert Locust swarms, food insufficiency, and a weak healthcare infrastructure, is immoral if not criminal. PM Abiy wrote:

“At the very least, the suspension of debt payments should last not just until the end of 2020 but rather until well after the pandemic is truly over. It should involve not just debt suspension but debt cancellation…

“These steps need to be taken with a sense of urgency. The resources freed up will save lives and livelihoods in the short term, bring back hope and dynamism to low-income economies in the medium term and enable them to continue as the engines of sustainable global prosperity in the long term.

“In 2019, 64 countries, nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, spent more on servicing external debt than on health. Ethiopia spends twice as much on paying off external debt as on health. We spend 47 percent of our merchandise export revenue on debt servicing…

“The dilemma Ethiopia faces is stark: Do we continue to pay toward debt or redirect resources to save lives and livelihoods?”

PM Abiy’s analysis of the urgent need for the cancellation of debt service is relevant to the exacerbating effect of COVID-19 in Africa’s rising food insecurity.

image
Smoked fish produced in Ghana is sold all over the country and in neighboring Togo – as long as transport routes and borders can remain open for the movement of food to markets. Credit Jane Hahn/Oxfam America

COVID-19 Worsens Food Crisis

In the month from March 30 to April 30, COVID-19 cases in Africa rose from 4,760 to 37,296-800% increase, and the total of deaths from 146 to 1,619-1,100% increase.  Experts are legitimately concerned, that millions more may die from hunger and poverty as a result of the needed efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Closing borders, stay at home orders, loss of income, interruption of supply chains, and disruption of traditional animal migration cycles inauspiciously contribute to amplifying food insecurity.

“If the pandemic worsens, as many as 50 million more people could face a food crisis in the [Sahel} region,” according to Coumba Sow, Food and Agricultural Organization Resilience Coordinator for West Africa in her interview: FAO: COVID19: 50 Million in Sahel Could Face Food Crisis. Coumba Sow reports that across West Africa, 11 million people need immediate food assistance and that this number could rise to 17 million in the period from June to August. She says that it is “crucial to anticipate COVID-19’s impacts on agriculture, food security and the lives of vulnerable women and children. Ensuring that food systems and food supply chains are maintained is one of the most important action to take at national and regional levels.”

The World Food Programme (WFP) projects that the number of people facing acute food insecurity could rise from 135 million to 265 million in 2020 as a result of COVID-19.  According to the WFP, five of the countries that had the worst food crisis in 2019 were located in Africa; Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Arif Husain, economist for the WFP said: “COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are hanging by a thread. It is a hammer blow for millions more who can only eat it they earn a wage. Lockdowns and global economic recession have already decimated their nest eggs. It only takes one more shock—like COVID-19 to push them over the edge.”

Mauritanian herders (Courtesy of UN-FAO)

A New Financial Architecture Required

While debt cancellation is essential, international and federal mechanisms are required to issue i.e. create new lines of credit to build up nation-wide advanced healthcare infrastructure, which all African nations lack. This endeavor should be part of a much larger undertaking to place African nations on a path to become developed industrialized economies.  I discuss the importance of emerging nations  to generate physical economic wealth in my earlier article: World Needs New Economic Platform to Fight COVID-19. Trillions of dollars of new credit must become accessible for African nations to address the dearth of infrastructure in energy, roads, railroads, and healthcare, that is literally killing Africans, every day. Successful transformation of African nations requires an urgent focus on nurturing combined manufacturing-agricultural processing industries. Speaking at a Johns Hopkins webinar on April 22, Gyude Moore, former Liberian Minster of Public Works (2014-2018) emphasized that creating manufacturing jobs is essential to transitioning to a more developed economy.

What has been glaringly brought to the surface by the combined COVID-19 pandemic and the malnourishment of Africa’s population is; that the global economic-political system of the last five decades has failed. A new financial architecture is compulsory to save lives and put civilization on the trajectory of progress. This new financial architecture should encompass the following essential missions in Africa:

  • Cancellation of debt
  • New credit generation for physical economic growth
  • Massive investment in hard infrastructure
  • Urgent mobilization to establish modern health infrastructure
  • Significant upgrading of manufacturing and agricultural sectors

It is unacceptable in the twenty-first century for every nation not to be equipped with advanced modern healthcare infrastructure.  One of the most egregious defects of globalization is that nations have become dependent on imported food from thousands of miles away because it is somehow construed to be cheaper than producing food at home.

Nations exist to foster the continuation of a human culture moored to the conception that human life is sacred. There is no equivalency between servicing debt and safeguarding human life.  Money really has no intrinsic value. Banks are mere servicing bureaus of an economy.  Governments legitimately create credit to generate future physical wealth to benefit their citizens. When borrowing or lending arrangements fail to benefit society then they should be restructured or cancelled. Such financial reorganizations have been achieved many times throughout history.

PM Abiy has brought to the attention of the world, a profound underlying principle that should govern all national and international policy: the promotion of human life is supreme, monetary instruments are not.

 
Delaying the repayments to the Group of 20 is not enough.

By rime Minister of Ethiopia. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2019

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — On April 15, Group of 20 countries offered temporary relief to some of the world’s lowest-income countries by suspending debt repayments until the end of the year. It is a step in the right direction and provides an opportunity to redirect financial resources toward dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

But if the world is to survive the punishing fallout of the pandemic and ensure that the economies of countries like mine bounce back, this initiative needs to be even more ambitious.

At the very least, the suspension of debt payments should last not just until the end of 2020 but rather until well after the pandemic is truly over. It should involve not just debt suspension but debt cancellation. Global creditors need to waive both official bilateral and commercial debt for low-income countries.

These steps need to be taken with a sense of urgency. The resources freed up will save lives and livelihoods in the short term, bring back hope and dynamism to low-income economies in the medium term and enable them to continue as the engines of sustainable global prosperity in the long term.

In 2019, 64 countries, nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, spent more on servicing external debt than on health. Ethiopia spends twice as much on paying off external debt as on health. We spend 47 percent of our merchandise export revenue on debt servicing. The International Monetary Fund described Ethiopia as being at high risk of external debt distress.

The dilemma Ethiopia faces is stark: Do we continue to pay toward debt or redirect resources to save lives and livelihoods? Lives lost during the pandemic cannot be recovered; imperiled livelihoods cost more and take longer to recover.

Immediate and forceful action on debt will prevent a humanitarian disaster today and shore up our economy for tomorrow. We need to immediately divert resources from servicing debt toward responding adequately to the pandemic. We need to impede a temporary health crisis from turning into a chronic financial meltdown that could last for years, even decades.

Ethiopia must spend an extra $3 billion by the end of 2020 to address the consequences of the pandemic, while our balance of payments is set to deteriorate. Increasing health care spending is essential, irrespective of debt levels, but we have less money on hand, and much of it is due to creditors.

A moratorium on bilateral and commercial debt payments for the rest of this year will save Ethiopia $1.7 billion. Extending the moratorium till the end of 2022 would save an additional $3.5 billion.

Low income countries can use the financial resources freed up by cancellation or further deferment of debt repayments to invest in our battle against the pandemic, from providing necessary medical care to our citizens to ameliorating our financial difficulties.

In October, the I.M.F. reported that the five fastest-growing economies in the world were in sub-Saharan Africa, which includes Ethiopia. In early April, the World Bank reported that sub-Saharan Africa would face its first region wide recession in over 25 years and the region’s economy could shrink by as much as 5.1 percent.

This is not a result of bad policies, mismanagement or any other ill typically associated with developing economies. The recession will be the product of the coronavirus outbreak.

Preventing or at least minimizing the recession is critical to maintaining years of hard-won economic gains across the continent. The current moratorium in bilateral debt collection until the end of the year will help, but it won’t be enough, given the gravity of the challenge we face.

The moratorium must be extended until the coronavirus health emergency is over or canceled altogether. The creditors need to do this unconditionally.

Official bilateral creditors are no longer the principal source of external debt financing for many developing countries. Private-sector creditors, including investment banks and sovereign funds, are. They should play their part in the effort to rescue African economies from permanent paralysis with a sense of solidarity and shared responsibility. It would help avoid widespread sovereign defaults and chaos in the market.

And it would be morally indefensible if resources freed up from a moratorium in bilateral debt collections were to be used to pay private creditors instead of saving lives.

Most of our countries managed to borrow funds on the back of solid economic performance and highly promising and evidence-based development programs and trajectories. Nobody foresaw this promise being derailed by a once-in-a-century event such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Under these circumstances, there is no room for traditional arguments such as moral hazard. Low-income countries are seeking relief not because we squandered the money but because we need the resources to save lives and livelihoods.

It is in everybody’s enlightened self-interest that the borrowers be allowed breathing space to get back to relative health. The benefits of rehabilitation of the economies of the hardest-hit countries will be shared by all of us, just as the consequences of neglect will harm all of us.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in the economic development policy of Africa for 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

______________________________________________________________________________________

New Economic Order Required to Combat COVID-19 in Africa

COVID-19 will spread in Africa (courtesy theconversation.com)

New Economic Order Required to Combat COVID-19 in Africa

Lawrence Freeman

March 30, 2020

As of March 30, 2020, the Africa CDC reports the total number of COVID-19 cases-4,760, deaths-146, and recoveries-355. The totals for individual nations vary from higher levels:  Algeria 511 cases and 31 deaths; Egypt 609 and 40; Morocco 479 and 26, South Africa 1280 and 1; Nigeria 111 and 1 (cases and deaths respectively); to dozens of nations reporting 10 or less cases and 0 deaths. Africa CDC COVID-19

While these figures for Africa are significantly lower than nations in Europe, Asia, and North America, in some cases orders of magnitude lower, there is reason for great concern for the spread of the Coronavirus throughout the African continent. Many African nations are unable to adequately test their citizens, and one should assume the number of cases is vastly unreported. Also, there unique features of African society that present an impediment to isolation of those infected with COVID-19, and social distancing. African society are centered around crowded mass markets, and culturally Africans are prone to show their friendliness towards others by holding hands.

Factoring in a weak healthcare system, poor nutrition, inadequate housing, lack of electricity and clean water, and already prevalent existing diseases (HIV AIDS, Malaria, TB) in the population, COVID-19 could propagate very rapidly, overwhelming an insufficient number of beds, hospitals and doctors. For Africans, the consequences of the proliferation of COVID-19 could be catastrophic, resulting in higher levels of mortality and morbidity than we have presently experienced.

Debt Restructuring Necessary for Africa’s Health

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time in many years, African leaders are demanding a restructuring of the onerous debt, whose payment has diverted nations’ revenues away from investing in vital categories of infrastructure, including healthcare. Payment of debt, mere loans, cannot be, to quote from William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, “the pound of flesh” used to kill people. Tragically, since African nations liberated themselves from European colonialism, debt has been used as a weapon to repress the development of emerging nations.

On March 24, the office of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed, released an incisive three point proposal to the G20 nations outlining necessary actions to be taken to safeguard African nations during this pandemic. He began by dramatically stating the truth, “COVID-19 poses an existential threat to the economies of African countries. Our economies, fragile and vulnerable even in the best of times will face serious shocks.” He than discussed a crucial underlying constraint imposed on African nations, “the heavy debt burden, the servicing of which alone costs many of them [nations] significantly more than their annual health budgets.”

Prime Minister Abiy requested from the G20:

  • $150 billion “Africa Global COVID-19 Emergency Financing Package”
  • “Global Africa Health Emergency Package”
  • “Debt resolution and Restructuring Package.”

Elaborating on debt restructuring, Prime Minister Abiy wrote, “Ethiopia proposes all interest payments to government loans should be written off. We suggest the remaining debt be converted into long term low interest loans with 10 years grace period before payments. All debt payments will be limited to 10% of the value of exports.”

The theme of restructuring Africa’s debt to deal with the present crisis, was also discussed in a virtual conference of African finance ministers on March 19, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).  To battle COVID-19, the ministers said, “Africa needs an immediate emergency economic stimulus to the tune of $100 billion” The UNCEA reports that they are asking that $44 billion, almost fifty percent of the funds requested, would come from halting payments of debt service, and in the most fragile nations to the loan principal as well.  African Finance Ministers Discuss Debt

In an insightful column, published in the March 25th edition of the Financial Times, Prime Minister Abiy again raises the necessity of debt alleviation: “Building on what has been announced by international financial institutions, the G20 must launch a global fund to prevent the collapse of health systems in Africa. The institutions need to establish a facility to provide budgetary support to African countries. The issue of resolving Africa’s debt burden also needs to be put back on the table as a matter of urgency.” (emphasis added)  PM Abiy “If Covid-19 is not beaten in Africa it will return to haunt us all”

 

Crowded Nigerian Market (courtesy buzznigeria.com)

Emergency Actions Taken

Nigeria—March 18, with 8 confirmed cases, imposed a travel ban on 13 high-risk COVID-19 infested countries; mandated a ban open worship and other public gatherings; mandated compulsory laboratory tests on all staff and members of the national assembly; mandated that public institutions should be equipped with temperature gauge.  All airports in Nigeria are closed to international commercial flights until 23 April.

Rwanda—March 21, with 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19, suspended all arriving and departing commercial flights for 30 days; shutdown of schools, universities, and places of worship for two weeks; the office of the Prime Minister released a list of nine preventive measures.

Ethiopia—March 23, with 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases, enforced a 14 day mandatory quarantine for all travelers entering the country; closed all schools, and banned all gatherings and sports events for 15 days. March 25, Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde ordered that more than 4,000 prisoners be pardoned.

Senegal–March 23, declared a state of emergency.

Ivory Coast–March 23, declared a state of emergency, imposed a curfew from 9:00 pm to 5:00 am, and shut the country’s borders

South Africa—March 26, with over 900 confirmed cases, began a three-week nationwide lockdown; the lockdown is considered one of the strictest, banning alcohol sales, dog-walking, and jogging in public.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, China has sent to the African Union, 2,000 test kits to be dispersed across the continent, and is expected to send another 10,000, along with medical supplies. China has also launched a new Health Silk Road. On Sunday, March 22, African Union received 1.1 million test kits, 6 million masks, 60,000 medical protective suits and face shields, donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.

Lessons We Must Learn

We can and should learn the following lessons from this contagious and lethal virus. Decisions made by nations for securing their future can now be informed from the very painful consequences of the global spread of COVID-19. If society, had learned the principles of the science of physical economy, instead of being seduced by the “smell of money,” we might very well have been able to avoid the worst of the tragic effects of COVID-19, which continue to plague our planet.  An unprepared and underfunded national economy gives society little chance to deal with any serious crisis, much less a pandemic.

*Globalization has always been a trojan horse, an Achilles heel for the security of any nation. The idea that a nation should gamble its security on the premise of buying necessary commodities from anywhere in the world at the cheapest price was always insane.  Witness today’s disruption of multi-thousand mile long supply chains as proof.

For example, properly understood, feeding one’s population is a matter of national security. African nations have undermined their security and sovereignty by failing to be food self-sufficient. Procuring food from other continents or at great distances across Africa is not only foolish, but totally unnecessary given the fecundity of African soil.  By conservative estimates, African nations spend $35 billion on imported food. A colossal and senseless waste of foreign exchange, which contributes to a nation’s poverty.  And a poor-hungry population is fertile ground for orchestrated destabilizations. Nations are ordered by institutions like the World Trade Organization to buy their food at the cheapest price regardless of domestic consequences.

The alternative to globalization is obvious; each nation has the sovereign obligation to foster productive agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The current pandemic of the coronavirus has brought to the fore the perilous effects of nations dependent upon importing lifesaving products from other nations.

Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit has always been a killer for Africa; literally!  Many of my friends and critics alike have objected to my insistence that the most critical prerequisite for Africa’s development is infrastructure. The most essential human right, is the right to live, and to live as a dignified human being. That is impossible with pathetically low, in some cases, non-existent levels of infrastructure.

Hospital in South Africa (courtesy borgenproject.com)

*Healthcare infrastructure is a necessity to sustain longevity of life—the essence of a human right. It embodies all components of infrastructure, manufacturing, and agricultural industries.

Examine what is necessary to maintain a hospital. Abundant electricity for lights and machines, access to clean water, roads and rail lines to transport patients, advanced medical equipment, a manufacturing sector to produce all the products consumed by hospital staff, food production to feed patients and staff, colleges, medical schools to train nurses and physicians, clothing for patients and staff, protective gear, and the list goes on. Now ask oneself, how many hospitals are there per 100,000 population in Africa?  How many basic hospital beds exist? How advanced intensive care units? If you look at the chart in the link below, which admittedly is several years old, you can see the huge discrepancy in hospital beds per 1,000 people in Africa compared other parts of the world. Hospital Bed per 1,000 in Africa

In the years 2012-2013, the US had 2.9 beds per 1,000 people, Italy 3.9 and Spain 3. All these nations are now experiencing a shortage of beds and all are considered hot spots in this COVID-19 pandemic. Shockingly, in that same time frame, over 25 African nations were recorded to have 1 bed or less per 1,000.

In 1975 the U.S. had 1.5 million hospital beds, and today has 925,000-over half a million fewer. Today the US has an average of 2.5 beds per 1,000 people, and California, Oregon, and Washington have 2 beds or less per 1,000. By contrast, before the outbreak of COVID-19, Wuhan, China had 4.3 beds per 1000, and they have added 10,000 hospital beds since the outbreak began by building several new hospitals.

Think for a moment would kind of investment in infrastructure, production, and labor that would be required for African nations to even reach the insufficient US level of hospitals and beds. How many hundreds of thousands of megawatts of electricity would have to be generated to supply these new hospitals? How many million gallons of water would be required? Africa has never built up a minimum healthcare infrastructure and is woefully unprepared should the pandemic surge on the continent in the weeks and months ahead.

As we are witnessing today, the West is suffering greatly from the deliberate slashing its own healthcare infrastructure over recent decades. This has been accomplished through austerity, shortsightedness, and an indecent obeisance to a desire to make fast-money by gambling on Wall Street.

*State government intervention has risen to the fore during this scourge of COVID-19, despite decades maligning the role of the state. It is now clear that contrary to the false claims that the state has no role in the world of neo-liberalism, laissez-faire, and unregulated free-trade, government supervision and government credit-debt to sustain people and the economy have proofed invaluable and lifesaving. Putting aside the multi-trillion dollar bailout to the global gambling casino known as the financial system, governments have issued emergency funds necessary to maintain society. Much more government intervention will be required to save lives in the weeks and months ahead.

Globalization (courtesy thegeopolitics.com)

 A New Just Economic Order       

Prime Minister Abiy’s column in the Financial Times beseeches the need for a coordinated global response to COVID-19:

 “There is a major flaw in the strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Advanced economies are unveiling unprecedented economic stimulus packages. African countries, by contrast, lack the wherewithal to make similarly meaningful interventions. Yet if the virus is not defeated in Africa, it will only bounce back to the rest of the world. 

That is why the current strategy of uncoordinated country-specific measures, while understandable, is myopic, unsustainable and potentially counter-productive. A virus that ignores borders cannot be tackled successfully like this.

We can defeat this invisible and vicious adversary — but only with global leadership. Without that, Africa may suffer the worst, yet it will not be the last. We are all in this together, and we must work together to the end.”

His comments implore the urgent necessity for an entirely different global approach to be taken by nations. We must absorb the horrible reality of today’s deadly crisis to motivate our passions to create a better future for civilization.

For humanity to survive, we can no longer tolerate living in a world governed a geo-political doctrine that views other countries crudely as either friend or foe, with winners on top and losers underneath.  We can no longer live in a system that values mere money above human life. Look at Sudan, whose people are suffering, while Western institutions led by the International Monetary Fund use Sudan’s $53 billion in (unpayable) debt as weapon to dictate their “reforms.”

Months before COVID-19, the United Nations asked for $135 million to fight the unprecedented Desert Locust threatening the food supply in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. The fund is still $100 million short of that goal. The UN has called the locust swarm in East Africa “extremely alarming.” Tthe current pandemic is affecting the ability for African nations to obtain the minimal equipment and pesticides required.

We must bring into creation a new model for governing. A new paradigm that values human life above all else. One that acknowledges the universal moral resemblance of all human beings.

The call for a New Just World Economic Order was first articulated in the 1970s and has been echoed for decades by world leaders. All foreign, domestic, economic policy should be formulated upon the recognizable principle that all people share a common aim and destiny. We, the human race, are unified by our endowed unique quality; the power of reason-creative imagination.  To resolve the multiple crises facing humanity, including a meltdown of the global financial system, it is urgent that an international conference be convened to establish a new template for economic and political relations among sovereign nations. The foremost underlying principle for such deliberations is acknowledging that the aspiration of all nations should be the elevation of human creative life. For all peoples.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in the economic development policy of Africa for 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

_____________________________________________________________________________

End Threat of Locust Plague: Transform the Desert

End Locust Plagues: Transform the Desert

February 20, 2020

Lawrence Freeman

Today the food supply of East Africa is threatened by a locust swarm that is ravaging crops in several nations. The Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is an extremely destructive pest that is found from West Africa, east across the African continent to the Middle East, India, and Asia.

A Desert Locust upsurge can grow into a swarm, and under the right conditions develop into a plague, affecting two or more regions with concentrated locust infestations. When locust swarms grow and migrate, they endanger the food supply of dozens of nations that comprise a large portion of the earth’s surface. The 1986-1989 plague is reported to have affected over 40 nations destroying crops in the Sahel, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and southwestern Asia.

In 2016, the World Metrological Organization (WMO), and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO), released a report, Weather and Desert Locusts, documenting that the invasion area of the Desert Locusts extends to 30 million square kilometers, over 11.5 million square miles-almost the size of the entire African continent.

The international community must initiate a full scale military style operation to support African nations with resources and personnel, if we are to prevent thousands of more Africans from starvation. Africa, Arabia, India, Pakistan cannot afford a new plague; we have the power to act now to prevent such a catastrophe.

Now is also the opportune time for civilization to confront the more difficult task of “eliminating” desert conditions that spawn the locust. Many initiatives and water infrastructure projects exist to begin the greening of the Sahel.

East Africa’s Food Supply at Risk

A swarm of these deadly locusts can reach several billion, covering an area of 200 by 120 kilometers. Each locust consumes its weight daily in food-2grams, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of tons of food meant to feed the population. According to the United Nations’ (FAO), “each square kilometer of swarm can include 40 to 80 million locusts and eat as much food as 35,000 people.”

The swarms are active in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, and have spread to Uganda, and South Sudan. It is estimated that 11 million people are already considered food insecure in this region of Africa. According to the U.N., this new invasion of locust swarms could cause food insecurity to an additional 20 million Africans. The UN reports that the swarms are the largest that Somalia, and Ethiopia have experienced in a quarter of a century. Kenya has not faced this severe of an incursion in 70 years. Somalia has declared a national emergency, in response to the Desert Locust invasion, as has Pakistan. Already, 71,000 acres of farmland in Ethiopia and Somalia have been destroyed.

Keith Cressman, senior forecaster for the FAO, reported that the swarms have moved across the border into Tanzania and Uganda. He said: “Action taken in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya – as well as Pakistan – will now determine what happens next. If the current upsurge crosses more borders and infests more regions, devastating more crops, it could be declared a ‘plague’.”

The Uganda government has responded appropriately to the threat to their food supply by deploying the military to assist in spraying of pesticides.

Desert Locust invade Ethiopia (Courtesy TESFANEWS)

Emergency Action Required

The U.N. has asked for $76 million in immediate aid. So far just under $20 million is in hand, including $10 million released from the U.N. emergency relief fund and $3.8 million from FAO. The United States originally agreed to contribute $800,000, and the European Union 1 million Euros. However, even with a pledge of $8 million to fight the locust incursion, announced by Secretary of State, Mike Pampeo during his recent visit to Ethiopia, the total is barely more than a third of the funds requested. The international community is being dangerously shortsighted, if not morally criminal, by allowing the locust swarms to exacerbate existing food shortages.

Dominique Burgeon, the FAO’s emergency and resilience director warned that without aerial spraying the current surge can turn into a plague, “and when you have a plague, it takes years to control.”  Mark Lowcock, the UN’s top humanitarian official, told ambassadors at a UN briefing last week: “We are running out of time. We do have a chance to nip this problem in the bud, but that’s not what we are doing at the moment.”

It is imperative the aerial and ground spraying be expanded immediately, and all necessary resources be provided. African nations lack the adequate number of planes necessary, most having less than a handful that can be deployed to combat the swarm. According to The New Humanitarian, the five planes that Kenya deployed to break up the swarms initially faced a shortage of the insecticide, fenitrothion. They report that the Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Somalia, Maud Ali Hassan said, “We are lacking all resources, including the expertise to prevent a humanitarian disaster.”

In addition to the full complement of aerial and ground spraying that must include a sufficient number of planes, insecticide, and four wheel drive vehicles to reach remote areas, which the locust infected nations lack, Cressman raises the possible deployment of drone technology.

Ultra Low Volume spraying with insecticides produces a mist with droplets that has proved effective in killing this deadly pest.

In his article, Preventing the spread of desert locust swarms, Cressman writes: “The operational use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – also known as drones – could potentially overcome these limitations in many affected nations. In the field, UAVs could be used to automatically collect high-resolution imagery of green, vegetated areas potentially affected by locusts”

Civilian satellite imaging is being employed. However, advanced imagery is needed to locate more precisely infested and breeding areas. This requires that African nations have access to imagery from military satellites, which would also necessitate that their technicians be properly trained to interpret the data.

The application of electron magnetic pulses and other electromagnetic devices to emit tuned frequencies specifically aimed at killing the locusts should also be utilized in this war against these lethal pests.

An all-out war against the spread of locusts, using all available technologies is required to save the food supply of African nations already suffering from nutrition deficiency. The cost cannot be a factor for inaction. Whether it is $80 million, $100 million or several hundred million dollars: this is a small price to pay to prevent another plague. Compare this relatively minor cost to the obscene amounts of money-billions of dollars-being spent on the US Presidential primaries. The Desert Locust assault on humanity can be arrested, if we act now, with full force!

Transform the Desert

Desert Locusts “are always present somewhere in the deserts between Mauritania and India…ready to mate when conditions are favorable. Eggs are usually laid in areas of bare sandy soil and require previous rainfall,” according to the report, Weather and Desert Locusts.

Since the sands, dry heat, and winds of African deserts create propitious conditions for the breeding and migration of desert locust, why not eliminate-i.e. transform the desert?

Contrary to popular beliefs, the Sahel and Sahara Deserts are not the natural-pristine state of North Africa. The desert was created millions of years ago when the African Plate migrated north, cut off the Tethys Sea and crashed into what is now known as Europe. The Sahara Desert was originally under water. The Sahara also alters itself, from three million square miles of arid sand into a tropical climate with lush vegetation, and waters filled with whales, and hippopotami. This occurs every 20-25,000 years in accordance with the cycle of rotation of our planet’s axis, known as the earth’s wobble. Given that the most recent drying up of the Sahara occurred approximately 5,500  years ago, the rains are not expected to return for another 15-20,000 years. However, we cannot afford to sit by idly for thousands of years suffering the harsh conditions of the desert.

Humankind was fashioned to intervene on our universe, to improve its condition, to enhance the biosphere in which we exist. The concept of the physical universe, that includes the lawful intervention of human creativity, was conceived as the “Noosphere” by the great Ukrainian geologist and scientist of the twentieth century, Vladimir Vernadsky.

The Sahara Desert has been an impediment for Africa’s development throughout hundreds of thousands of years. More recently, this uninhibited desolate expanse of land has become home to numerous violent extremist organizations that have challenged the sovereignty of Mali, and Nigeria’s Borno State.  Military only responses have so far failed to dislodge the terrorists from his region.

Think Big, Bold and in the Future

The physical universe is organized to respond to “noetic” intervention, i.e. humankind’s powers of reason. We should not be sitting on the sidelines watching disasters occur, but rather preventing so called natural catastrophes.

With sufficient density of infrastructure, functioning farms, towns, and cities, can replace mountains of desert sand. Deserts have been conquered in other parts of the world. An East-West railroad across sub-Saharan Africa from the Indian to Atlantic Ocean, which should have been built decades ago, would have already modified the Sahel and Sahara. It would be accompanied by a new platform of energy, trade, and industry that would revolutionize the economies of East and West Africa. A rail link across the Sahara, connecting this newly built East-West railroad to the nations of the Maghreb, and ultimately to Europe, would join the economies of the sub-continent to those of the Eurasian land mass. Sand would be supplanted by concrete and steel.

The desert can be converted into arable land by introducing moisture to this arid territory. Once there is continual penetration of water into the sand, vegetation and growth will occur, eventually altering transpiration cycles. This will cause a change in the volume, and patterns of rainfall.  Tree transpiration is the process by which water is carried through the tree from the roots to small pores on the underside of leaves and released into the atmosphere by evaporation. Trees consuming carbon dioxide and releasing moisture and oxygen, are the “best friends” of human beings and the environment.

Transaqua, a transnational infrastructure project to replenish the shrinking Sahelian Lake Chad to its previous area of 25,000 square kilometers, has been endorsed by the Nigerian government, and is awaiting a feasibility study.  Expanding Lake Chad with an annual flow of billions of cubic meters of water would affect climatic conditions across the Lake Chad Basin, and increase transpiration.

It is also necessary to aggressively move forward with the Pan African Great Green Wall Project (PAGGW), which  focuses on greening a strip of land of 15 km. wide and about 8,000 km. long that  will affect 20 nations including Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. PAGGW was adopted by the African Union in 2007 and ratified by member countries in 2010.

Another transnational infrastructure project that complements the Great Green Wall is the Trans Africa Pipeline (TAP). It is the first permanent solution to end devastating drought and increasing desertification across the Sahel region of northern Africa.

TAP is an 8,000 km. long freshwater pipeline that will provide clean, potable drinking water to 28-30 million people in 11 countries of the African Sahel. TAP will construct large-scale desalination plants on the west and east coasts of Africa. Regional tank farms and pumping stations for water storage and distribution would cross the Sahel for the management of the water source, which in turn can create upwards of 280,000 jobs across the Sahel.

The Trans Africa Water Pipeline has an agreement with the Pan African Great Green Wall Initiative, and both together can address 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals, but all member states and relevant stakeholders are needed to bring both projects to fruition.

We cannot impotently watch a pest, a mere insect, damage our human environment, when we have the means to defeat it.

________________________________________________________________________

In the Next Decade, Nuclear Power for Africa Is A Necessity, Not An Option

Image credit: IAEA

12/28/2019

In the next decade, beginning on January 1, 2020, African nations must pursue nuclear energy. This is necessary to provide energy to the continent, which is suffering from a huge deficit in electricity, but nuclear technology has many additional benefits to African economies.  This includes creating large amounts of potable water. With nuclear power plants along the Mediterranean and Red Sea, the equivalent of a “second Nile River” from desalination through nuclear powered desalination would transform the nations of the Nile Basin. Constructing Small Modular Nuclear Reactors-SMRs (see below) in every African nation would be a important first step towards ending poverty and industrializing the continent.  Let me bluntly state: without abundant, low cost energy, Africa will not develop, and its people will suffer. Energizing Africa is not an option, it is a life and death necessity!

{Sustainable Times} published a valuable article on December 23, 2019: Can Nuclear Unlock Africa’s Development?

Excerpts:

“Combining renewables with nuclear power, however, makes the task of powering Africa’s growing economies more viable – not to mention the other useful and often overlooked aspects that nuclear can contribute to development. Although South Africa is the only country on the continent currently operating a nuclear power plant, the technology is being increasingly considered by African leaders. For example, works are set to begin on a new 4.8GW plant in El Dabaa Egypt next year, which is being developed by Russia’s Rosatom.

“Other countries including Ethiopia, Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana also have memorandums of understanding with Rosatom that pave the way for nuclear development. South Korea are also looking to invest in the continent’s energy industry, while Chinese nuclear firms have entered into agreements with Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Energy is a key driver for development. In Ghana, for example, nuclear is seen as the obvious way to provide reliable energy for bauxite refineries which would increase jobs and export capacity.

Technology beyond electricity

“But nuclear technology provides more than just energy: many advanced nuclear designs produce high-temperature process heat for uses in desalination plants, chemical production and even district heating systems. These subsidiary features would allow nuclear technology to benefit society beyond the generation of electricity – and potentially accelerating its deployment.

“Nuclear technologies are already being used in agriculture, for example, where isotopes and radiation techniques are harnessed to combat pests and diseases or to increase livestock and crop production. For instance, farmers in Benin have increased their maize yields by 50 percent, while simultaneously reducing the amount of fertiliser used by 70 percent, thanks to the deployment of nuclear-derived nitrogen-fixation methods – the same techniques that are allowing Maasai farmers in Kenya to double vegetable crop yields with half the irrigation of traditional methods.

“By contrast, nuclear desalination could use the excess heat from new reactor designs like Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) to produce thermal and electrical energy without emitting greenhouse gases, which then transforms seawater into freshwater. While capital costs for nuclear plants are initially high, fuel costs are low and stable: a doubling in the price of uranium would result in only a five percent increase in the total cost of energy generation. In contrast, an equivalent increase in oil would cause freshwater production costs to surge by 70 percent.”

 Read: Can Nuclear Unlock Africa’s Development?

____________________________________________________________

Progress for Small Modular Reactors

 
December 13, 2019—There’s some real good news for the U.S. economy today.  NuScale, an Oregon company that is developing a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), has passed the next stage of review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Progress for Small Nuclear Reactors

Cross-section of NuScale small modular reactor (world nuclear news)

As this blog has reported before, the mass development of nuclear power is a critical component to bringing the productivity of the U.S. economy out of the doldrums, and thus bringing us into a new era of prosperity.  High-speed rail, modernized water systems, the space program, and many other components of an economic recovery program depend upon generating huge amounts of electricity that are way beyond our current capacity.  Nuclear represents a leap in productivity that will allow us to get there, as well as a step on the way to the development of thermonuclear fusion.

NuScale’s design for an SMR has now gone through four phases of review. It still has to go through stages 5 and 6. According to the company’s press release, the Oregon-based company is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as other companies. It has received support from Congress.

As I outlined in a post approximately one year ago, the promise of SMRs lies not only in their safety design, but in the fact that the United States still has the industrial capacity to produce them assembly-line fashion. Over the past 40 years, the heavy industrial capability for producing a standard-sized nuclear reactor (measured in hundreds of megawatts or over 1000) has been dismantled. But a small reactor of 12 to 50 megawatts could be produced in assembly-line fashion, and provide a flexible means of providing power outside major urban areas, including hard-to-reach regions.

The United States is not the only country working on SMRs, and some in the industry are seeking to motivate investment in NuScale on the basis of “beating the competition.”  Such peaceful competition has a huge positive payoff for the human race, and can only be encouraged. Thus NuScale’s progress with the NRC is most welcome news.

The NuScale press release can be read in full here.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Nuclear Energy Will Create Jobs and Raise Skill Levels in Africa

Left-Claver Gatet, Rwanda Minister of Infrastructure. Right-Alexy Likacheve, Director General of Rosatrom. Speaking at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi.

October 27, 2019

The article below from {World Nuclear News}, reports on important agreements with Russia to build nuclear power plants in Africa. Beyond providing energy, nuclear plants will provide jobs and new shill levels for the tens of million of young Africans entering the work force.  Along with China, Russia is assisting African nations in building vitally needed infrastructure, which they need to become industrialized, with productive manufacturing and agriculture sectors. This is very good news for the African continent.

Read: Nuclear Energy Can Bridge the Skills Gap in Africa

Excerpts below:

Speaking at the round table session titled The Contribution of Nuclear Technologies in the Development of Africa,  Alexey Likhachov  said:.

“We are talking about solutions related to raising the level of education, energy security, applying nuclear solutions to medicine, agriculture, as well as other scientific research and development. Every dollar invested in our projects in any country, brings two dollars in localisation to that country. This significantly increases the country’s GDP.”

Rosatom said a job is created for every 0.5 MWe of electricity produced at a nuclear power plant, meaning that a 1000 MWe plant provides employment for more than 2000 people. Human capital development is both “a condition and a consequence” of nuclear power plant construction projects, it added.

Through joint educational programmes, the Russian state nuclear corporation is attracting applicants from African countries to its partner universities in Russia, it said, and Rosatom has already awarded up to 50 scholarships to students from Rwanda and Zambia. They are among hundreds of other African students from countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, it added.

Development

Claver Gatete, Rwanda’s minister of infrastructure, said: “In order to grow our industries from 17% GDP to 30% GDP, and to achieve our ambition of becoming a high-income country by 2050, we want to take advantage of nuclear to enhance our socio-economic development.” Rwanda sees a clear link, he said, between nuclear technologies and the country’s vision of development.

Citing data from the World Economic Forum, Rosatom noted that 15 to 20 million young people are to enter Africa’s workforce in the next two decades, meaning that 15% of the world’s working-age population will be in Africa, with 60% under-25.”

________________________________________________________

Glazyev Warns Africans About IMF Looting Policies

The Russian economist Sergei Glazyev, who was for years an economic adviser to President Putin and is today minister in charge of integration with the Eurasian Economic Union, spoke to the gathered leaders at the Russia-Africa forum
in Sochi, and warned them about the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to Moscow Times, Glazyev reported that IMF policies had led to about $1 trillion in capital flight from Russia, and another $1 trillion or so from the other 14 post-Soviet countries over the last 30 years.

Glazyev said the IMF has adopted a similar approach in Africa as the former Soviet Union. “Of course, Africa has been exploited for much longer. We have been living in this financial and economic environment for only 30 years.” Moscow Times added that “Glazyev also advised African countries to keep full control over their natural resources and infrastructure, in line with his advocacy in Moscow for greater economic self-sufficiency.”

___________________________________________________

Alexander Hamilton’s Credit System Is Necessary for Africa’s Development

October 4, 2019

Below is a half hour video presentation on the importance of Alexander Hamilton’s credit policy for the development of Africa. The forum was organized by Watch Democracy Grow, an organization promoting democracy and development in Africa, and was filmed Afrique Today.

As I discuss in the video and article below, African nations need long-term and low interest lines of credit to finance trillions of dollars necessary for infrastructure projects across the continent.  Government backed authorities or the government itself can issued public credit in the amounts required. To provide credit for the newly united colonies, Hamilton designed the National Bank of the United States in 1791 at the request of President George Washington. It was a corner stone of the successful American System of Political Economy. Similar institutions are appropriate for African nations to finance vitally needed infrastructure today.  Applying the Hamiltonian model, the Belt and Road Initiative, promoted by China, is helping Africa build and finance infrastructure that is essential for African nations to industrialize and expand their agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Read my article from March of this year: Nations Must Study Alexander Hamilton’s Principles of Political Economy

___________________________________________________________

UN Sec-Gen Guterres: “The Winds of Hope Are Growing in Africa”

 August 30, 2019

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama, Japan, on 28 August 2019

Let us remember what Pope Paul VI wrote in his 1967 encyclical; “On the Development of Peoples”: the new name for peace is development.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ support for development of Africa at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development-  (TICAD) conference is salient. Japan’s motivation to invest in Africa’s infrastructure is not to counter China. And China is not attempting to build a new colonial empire in Africa. These false characterizations are expressions from the old geo-political financial system that is losing its control over global policy. Witness the the utter failure of the G-7 Summit of so the called advanced sector nations. The Western banking system is about to collapse again as a result of the central banks pumping in into the financial system $17 trillion of “quantitative easing” over the last ten years.  The US should stop attacking China’s new paradigm of development typified by its Belt and Road Initiative-(BRI), and President Trump should end his stupid, counter productive tariffs. The world needs leadership to lift the planet onto a new scientifically driven economic platform that will not only end poverty and hunger in the developing sector, but also raise the standard of living of all nations. 

In this spirit, one concrete initiative that should be taken up at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly-(UNGA )is; funding for recharging the shrinking Lake Chad. The Transaqua inter-basin water transfer project has the support of the nations of the Lake Chad Basin and UN Sec Gen Guterres. This project, which has been called, “A Kwame Nkrumah Pan- African Infrastructure Project,” would transform the Lake Chad Basin. With the head of the Nigerian Mission to UN, Ambassador Tijjan Muhamed-Bande, presiding over this year’s UNGA, and Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari  an ardent supporter of recharging the lake, we are at a propitious moment for the UN take bold action for the Lake Chad Basin.   

Excerpts: 

“African nations have made ‘significant progress’ in developmental efforts in the last few years, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, kicking off the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), taking place in Yokohama.

“I see Africa as a dynamic continent of opportunity where winds of hope are blowing ever stronger,” Mr. Guterres expressed

“Africa needs peace for its development” the Secretary-General said in closing.

“I look forward to productive discussions over the next days that will culminate in a common understanding of the priorities for common and coherent action to promote peace and sustainable development across Africa.

ReadFor Africa the Winds of Hope are Growint Stronger

ReadUnited Nations Conference: The Lake Chad Basin Should not be ‘Managed’; it Should be ‘Transformed.’

________________________________________________________________________

Africa Update: African Union Discusses DRC’s Grand Inga. African Bankers Reject ‘Noise’ On Chinese Debt

August 3, 2019

African Union Meeting Revives Grand Inga Dam Project in Congo

The six-phase Grand Inga Dam Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) has shown signs of coming back to life when the project was discussed at the African Union Extraordinary Summit meeting held Niamey, Niger July 4-7,

{Construction Review Online} reported July 31. On Congo River, two other dams, Inga-I and Inga-II had long been completed, generating about 1800 MW peak power. Inga-III, whose construction had fallen through for a number of reasons, is projected to create nearly 5,000 MW of power. Grand Inga is a considerably ambitious project. With 52 turbines, it would dam the entire river and flood 22,000 hectares of the Bundi valley, which is home to as many as 30,000 people. Five additional hydropower stations would considerably increase the generating potential of the falls. Once these additional hydropower stations were brought online at the dam site, the  whole project would dwarf any other hydropower facility worldwide. The Inga project is estimated to produce 40,000 MW. This is enough to provide power to nearly half of the continent, reported {Construction Review Online}.

D.R. Congo, in Central Africa, where the total electrical power installation is close to 15,000 MW.  Central Africa constitutes of ten countries: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo (Congo Brazzaville), D.R. Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Rwanda. Most of Central Africa’s power is generated from hydro.

African Bankers Reject “Noise” on Chinese Debt–We Have To Borrow for Development!

John Rawangombwa, chairman of the African Association of Central Banks, whose annual meeting in Kigali, Rwanda ended Aug. 1, told Xinhua that “the noise around the Chinese debt to African countries”–this was the subject of a presentation at the gathering–was “unfounded.” Chinese debt, as a percentage of total African debt, is not a problem, he said.

Rawangombwa pointed out that borrowing is good, and borrowing outside the country is acceptable, although internal borrowing would be preferable to reduce foreign exchange risk.

The reality, however, he stated, is that Africa faces a financing gap; so, nations must improve their debt management capacity, and borrow for the right purposes, an build up their capital markets.

He emphasized that countries must ensure that they invest in the right projects, that generate foreign exchange in order to be able to repay their debt. He also said that the fact that Africa’s debt has increased is not unique to Africa. Rather, it is a global phenomenon, that requires global management, Xinhua reported

__________________________________________________________

Africa Moving Forward With Infrastructure: Nigeria and Ethiopia

July 28, 2019

President Buhari has maintained his commitment to recharging Lake Chad, which he discussed with me after he was elected to his first term as president in Mach 2015. The International Conference to ‘Save Lake Chad’ held in Abuja, (February 26-28, 2018) adopted the Transaqua inter-basin water transfer project as the preferred solution to reversing the shrinking Lake Chad and transforming the economy of the Lake Chad Basin.  President Buhari has received support form the current Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, for the recharging of Lake Chad. I am certain there will be further discussion at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in September regarding Lake Chad, and restoring economic vitality to the Lake Chad Basin. 

For more on Transaqua read:

Transaqua Water Project to Save Lake Chad: Roosevelt and Nkrumah Would Concur

The Time Has Come For Transaqua

Chinese-built Ethiopia-Djibouti railway wins acclaim for driving Ethiopia’s import-export needs

I had the privilege to attend the inauguration of the Addis-Djibouti electrified railroad and travel on its maiden trip on October 6, 2016. 

Xinhua-July 24, 2019

“The Chinese-built Ethiopia-Djibouti standard gauge railway on Tuesday received acclaim for driving Ethiopia’s import-export endeavors as it leveraged the growing transportation needs of the country.

“The railway, which connects landlocked Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa with ports in Djibouti, mainly garnered the praise for its contribution in the transportation of the much-needed imported agricultural inputs to the East African country.

“According to figures from the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway Company, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, over the past few months period, had transported about 70,000 tons of fertilizer from the Djibouti port to Ethiopia as the main harvesting season approaches.

“”We do this under the agreement with the Ethiopian Agriculture Works Corporation, and as fertilizer is considered to be an important commodity which has to be transported very quickly,” Ethiopia’s state-run news agency quoted Aminu Juhar, EDR Planning Manager, as saying on Tuesday.

“The 756-km railway, which officially commenced its commercial operations for both passenger and freight services between the two countries in January last year, has been instrumental in leveraging transportation needs of Ethiopia from its neighboring Red Sea nation of Djibouti.

“Juhar, who noted the railway’s “significant role in delivering fertilizers needed by farmers on time,” stressed that the much-needed fertilizer have been transported in 26 rounds with the capacity of transporting 2,590 tons of fertilizer in a single trip.

Continue reading

__________________________________________________

Africa Enters New Era of Trade and Development with AfCFTA

July 9, 2019

(Courtesy Africa Feeds)
12th Extra-Ordinary African Union Summit in Niamey, Niger, July 7, 2019. (Courtesy Africa Feeds)

China Global Television Network, or CGTN  published my article on the African Union’s creation of the Africa Continental Freed Trade Area-AfCFTA

Read below.

Six decades after African nations began liberating their people from the yoke of European colonialists, the African Union has launched the “operational phase” of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), taking a giant step toward uniting the 54 African nations and fostering economic progress.

The landmark move was made at the 12th Extraordinary African Union Summit in Niamey, the capital of Niger, on July 7. Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, referred to it as a “historic moment.”

Many prominent African leaders view this new free trade agreement as a “game changer” with the potential to catapult the continent into a foremost position in global trade and development, especially with Africa’s population projected to double in the next 30 years to 2.4 billion.

 Continue ReadingAfrica Enters New Era of Trade and Development-with-AfCFTA

For more on the AfCFTA watch this video interview with Amb. Chihombori-Quao:

AU Amb Chihombori-Quao: “The African Sleeping Giant is Rising”-The Significance of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area

____________________________________________________________

AU Demands: African Integrated High Speed Railway Network

July 4, 2019

The article below written by a friend of mine is a useful over view of the African Union’s plan to build High Speed Rail-lines in Africa.  High-Speed Rail together with the production of abundant supplies of energy are indispensable for the continent’s development and the industrialization of African economies. The link to the entire article that is worth reading follows the excerpts.

“The vital plan for an African Integrated High-Speed Railway Network (AIHSRN), approved by the African Union (AU) in 2014, appears to be going forward energetically. But in fact, Africa is getting only half a loaf at best. Standard gauge rails are being built, but to “save money,” they are not being built to standards permitting the high speeds that the African Union had specified. These “higher”-speed lines are not “high-speed” by any accepted standard. Or, worse, existing lines of the old colonial gauge are being rehabilitated—again because “there is not enough money.”

“Yet having “enough money” is not the problem it seems to be: The principle of Hamiltonian credit—credit extended by government, on the strength of nothing but the skills of the population, and earmarked for projects sure to produce leaps in productivity—has been known in theory and practice for 200 years, even if suppressed by the business schools.” Read my post from earlier this year on Alexander Hamilton: Nations Must Study Alexander Hamilton’s Principles of Political Economy

“AIHSRN is not a master plan for all rail transport in Africa. It is, rather, a plan for rapid rail transport across long distances. And Africa has long distances. To go from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope by road or rail is more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles)—the equivalent of going from New York to San Francisco and back again.

“Yet with the AIHSRN, an express train could depart from Cairo at 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning, travel at an average of only 220 km/h (137 mph), make only five half-hour stops—at Khartoum, Nairobi, Dodoma (Tanzania), Harare, and Johannesburg—and arrive in Cape Town in time for an early breakfast on Wednesday. The east-west trip from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Dakar, Senegal—“only” 8,100 km—will be quicker. The implications of such speed for the African economy—and for African integration in all respects—are enormous.

“The continental plan is for six west-east routes from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean/Red Sea, and four routes that run from north to south—a 6×4 grid (see map).

“Because of their high speeds, the trains must run on dedicated, standard gauge lines that will not usually accept traffic from other, slower lines of the sometimes denser, surrounding rail network.

“The plan includes the construction of railway manufacturing industries, parts suppliers, maintenance facilities, and the building up of railway training academies.

“The AIHSRN is part of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a fifty-year plan for the economic, social and cultural development of the entire continent, born in 2013”

Read full article: Africa Integrated High Speed Railway Network

___________________________________________________________________

AU Amb Chihombori-Quao: “The African Sleeping Giant is Rising”-The Significance of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area

On June 2, 2019, I interviewed African Union Ambassador to the United States, Arikana Chihombori-Quao at her home, on the significance of the new agreement on an Africa Continental Free Trade Area-AfCFTA, initiated on May 30. The AfCFTA is intended to reduce tariffs and barriers between African nations to promote trade, and spur economic development throughout the continent.

 

In the interview above, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, provides a provocative and optimistic analysis of what the newly enacted agreement for an Africa Continental Free Trade Area-AfCFTA will mean for continent over the coming years and decades.

Amb Chihombori emphasizes huge potential for the AfCFTA to double, triple and even quadruple intra-African trade, which today is a mere 16%-18% of total continental trade. According to the UN Commission on Africa, AfCFTA could increase intra-trade by 15% to 25%, that equals $50-$70 billion in the next 20 years.  The concept of AfCFTA is to enable each African with the opportunity to potentially access the continent’s multi-trillion dollar market and 1.2 billion buyers and sellers. Landry Signe of the US based Brookings Institute estimates that by 2030 AfCFTA could boost consumer and business spending to $6.7 trillion.

Historically, Amb Chihombori views the AfCFTA as a continuation of the struggle by African nations to liberate themselves from intended under-development imposed on Africa by the infamous Berlin Conference (1884-1885). She stresses that 56 years (and five days) after the founding of the Organization of Africa Unity-OAU (May 25, 1963), Africa will now be functioning as one trading bloc of nations, which is intended to equalize the international playing field. As the implementation of AfCFTA proceeds, Amb Chihombori believes that Africa will acquire the stature of a “heavy-weight” in global trade and commerce. She is also hoping that by the end of this year Africa will ratify the “Free Movement Protocol” that would allow Africans to live, travel, and work anywhere on the continent, thus complementing the AfCFTA

Amb Chihombori accentuates in this interview, that infrastructure is a level one priority for Africa in the AfCFTA. “Investment in infrastructure is an absolutely essential step for us to take as we move into the implementation of AfCFTA,” she says. The denial of basic infrastructure, power, access to water, education and healthcare, by the colonial powers following the Berlin Conference, kept African nations from  developing; by design. “Leaders in Africa are now discussing the building highways and high-speed rail from Cape Town to Cairo and Djibouti to Dakar.”

Challenging those who advocate reducing Africa’s population and falsely claiming that Africa’s growing population is a major contributor to Africa’s economic problems, Amb Chihombori asserts that: “Our youth is the biggest advantage we have over the rest of the world…Youth is our biggest asset.”

Amb Chihombori wants to make the US the number one trading partner with Africa, telling Americans; “that the African sleeping giant is rising-it is a new game.”

***The AfCFTA had already come under attack, even before its birth, by the International Monetary Fund-IMF. According to the People’s News Africa, the IMF warned African nations they could lose revenue, if the AfCFTA is enacted.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame quickly responded: “It is important that Africa gives the necessary considerations to the views and opinions by external entities and ‘development partners,’ it is more important at the same time that Africa becomes aware of what we want for ourselves, pursue what is good for the continent, and defend what is necessary for our collective development.”

______________________________________________________________________

Nigeria to Expand Manufacturing: UN Praises China Belt & Road

APRIL 11, 2019

Nigeria plans special economic zones to double manufacturing by 2025

(courtesy thisdaylive.com)

 

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy but it lacks a strong manufacturing base, which contributes less than 10 percent to its total gross domestic product (GDP). The country has maintained a strong currency to ensure it can keep imports pouring in, with a growing proportion coming from China.

“Project MINE’s (Made in Nigeria for Export) strategic objectives are to increase (the) manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP to 20 percent … and generate over $30 billion annually by 2025,” the ministry of industry, trade and investment said in a statement.

The government has set up Nigeria SEZ Investment Company, which will finance industrial parks in special economic zones in the commercial capital of Lagos, southeastern state of Abia and northern state of Katsina.

The government is currently raising capital of $250 million for Nigeria SEZ Investment Company. It plans to double its equity to $500 million over four years, the ministry said.

The West African country’s manufacturing and agricultural sectors have been neglected since the 1970s oil boom, when Nigeria began making easy money from crude oil sales.

Nigeria, where the vast majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day, recently emerged from a recession but growth is fragile and the government is trying to diversify its revenue away from its reliance on oil.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is due to start a second four-year term next month, has pledged to revive the economy and is focused on building roads and expanding the railway network to lower production costs…

__________________________________________________

UN Africa Official Vera Songwe Calls BRI ‘Probably One of the Biggest Growth and Development Initiatives in the World’

In an interview with the Xinhua that appeared on April 10, Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), hailed the role that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would play in addressing Africa’s problems in infrastructure and job creation. She told Xinhua that the BRI will positively affect hundreds of millions of people in different countries, while it helps Africa develop infrastructure connectivity of varied types and creates job opportunities that are pressing issues on the continent.

“This (BRI) is probably one of the biggest growth and development initiatives that we have in the world,” the UN official said, adding that the BRI is essential to the continent. She believes that the initiative, in which many African countries “infrastructure today is one of the necessary requirements for Africa’s growth,” Xinhua reported.

____________________________________________________________________

African Union Affirms High Speed Rail For Africa Moving Forward

FILE - A train conductor walks inside a carriage as passengers ride inside a Nairobi Commuter Rail Service train from the Mutindwa station in Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 12, 2018.
FILE – A train conductor walks inside a carriage as passengers ride inside a Nairobi Commuter Rail Service train from the Mutindwa station in Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 12, 2018“Plans are on track for a high-speed rail network connecting the continent’s borders by 2063, the African Union’s Development Agency says. The ambitious multi-billion-dollar project aims to ease the movement of goods and people across African borders, but the AU warns that corruption could derail that goal.Road, rail, and air traffic connections are so poor between some African countries that it is better to transit through Europe than to travel directly between neighbors.Intra-African trade is less than 15% of total trade, says Adama Deen, the head of infrastructure at the AU’s Development Agency.”You cannot have integration without connectivity, whether it is road or rail connectivity, especially when we are talking about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, where you need a single market and connectivity to move goods, persons within the market,” Deen said

READ: African Union High Speed Rail Network On Track

 

__________________________________________________________

The Urgent Need For a New Paradigm For Africa

March 13, 2019

Re-posted from africanagenda.net

Below are excerpts from a useful presentation that provides an overview on crucial areas of development in Africa. It echoes many  of the ideas I have written about over the years, and has helpful maps on energy, water, and rail transportation. The presentation concludes with a discussion on the Transaqua water project, which I have advocated for over 20 years with a modest level of success.

 

“In contrast, is the really exciting development of relations between China and the nations of Africa. Every three years, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation meets, alternating between China and the capital of an African nation. At the last meeting, which was held in 2018, the meeting was in Beijing, and in 2021 it will be held in Senegal. What China has been doing with its cooperation with Africa, has been making available large amounts of credit for the kinds of projects that just make sense: rail lines, power systems, water systems, transportation, road networks, industrial parks—these kinds of significant investments.

“This is not charity; this is not a case of somebody saying “We’re going to step up to the plate and donate to those poor Africans who can’t help themselves.” That’s not the case. The United States is a bigger donor to Africa than is China. But I think if you speak to many African nations in terms of which nation is doing more at present to provide a long-term future, it’s not aid that lasts for a year; it’s taking the lid off and saying, “We’re going to develop a full economy here, not perpetually slightly alleviate poverty; that’s not a future…

“Compare that with National Security Study Memorandum 200, authored under Henry Kissinger in 1974, which stated, for about two dozen countries in the world, that the growth of their populations represented a threat to U.S. strategic interests. Because it would be more difficult, essentially, to get materials from countries that were developing and prosperous than countries that are disarrayed and poor.

“Compare this to when the British ran their official empire. Consider India, for example. Some people say that at least Britain helped develop India, building railroads, and so forth. No, Britain ruined India. India was one of the world’s leading manufacturers of cloth, for example, and had a major ship-building industry, which was destroyed by the British. Empire destroys the economic potential of its colonies, and that is the reason that development has been deliberately held back in the world

Read: The Urgent Need for a New Paradigm in Africa

__________________________________________________________________________

Africa Needs Real Economic Growth, Not IMF Accountants

February 4, 2019

A recent forum sponsored by Brookings Institute in Washington DC entitled: “Top priorities for Africa in 2019” produced a healthy discussion that alluded to important fundamental conceptions of economics. Although the deeper principles of what should be called economic science were not elucidated, issues raised in the dialogue serve as a useful starting point for further elaboration of that subject.

The event was organized to present FORESIGHT AFRICA, a new publication by the Africa Growth Initiative. Representative from the International Monetary Fund-(IMF), and Mo Ibrahim Foundation, joined Ambassador Linda-Thomas Greenfield, and Brahima Coulibaly, director of the African Growth Initiative, for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of Africa to a packed audience.  

Members of the audience challenged the prevailing assumptions of the International Monetary Fund. One participant raised the inadequacy of the IMF’s rigid macro-analytic approach, when what is needed, she said, is a fine-tuned micro-economic intervention to deal with the scope of the challenges facing African nations. Another suggested the need for a state-funded public sector job program to put the millions of unemployed youth to work—a proposal which the IMF representative categorically rejected. The IMF’s hostility to state sector involvement belies the several hundred-year historical record of the modern economy, which is replete with successful and indispensable interventions by the state to foster economic growth.

Measuring Real Economic Growth      

While the Brookings report, FORESIGHT AFRICA, provides some relevant statistics, its analysis rests on erroneous axioms of what comprises economic growth

The commonly accepted notion that African nations today are experiencing “jobless economic growth” reveals the fundamental antagonism between the analysis of the IMF and its co-thinkers, and proponents of real i.e. physical-economic growth. Jobless growth is a moronic oxymoron.  Real*economic growth augments the productive power of society to increase its surplus of tangible wealth in order to sustain an expanding population at a higher standard of living. The IMF pretends to measure growth by adding up monetary values such as the price of extracted resources and real estate, stock market gains, etc.  The aggregation of prices is not a measure of the economy’s growth.  The only true calculation for economic growth is the result: an improvement in the living conditions of the population.

Africa’s Bright Economic Future Is Its Youth

Creating Real Economic Growth          

An excellent example of this defective thinking is highlighted in the article from the Brookings report entitled “How Industries without smokestacks can address Africa’s youth unemployment crisis.”  Author John Page reports that Africa has not only failed to industrialize, but shockingly, its share of global manufacturing today is smaller than it was in 1980! He forecast that Africa’s working age population (15-64 years of age) will grow by 450 million between 2015 and 2035, and that “20 percent of new employment for wages will be in the service sector, and only 4 to 5 percent will be in a wage paying job in industry.” His conclusions for the future of youth employment in Africa are ill-founded and deadly when he states that since: “industry has declined as a share of output and employment…over the past four decades…Africa may not be able to rely on industry to lead structural change…”

Page then proceeds to dangerously postulate the equivalence of employment in manufacturing with tourists and service jobs. He writes: “The same forces that limit Africa’s opportunities in industry, however, are also creating a growing number of tradeable services—such as tourism and remote office services…”

“Growth in tourism is outpacing manufacturing in many African countries… It has the potential to create some of the millions of formal sector jobs Africa needs each year to employ youth entering the labor force…”

This is not an academic question for the people of Africa. We should all be level-headed about the implications of this prognostication: without industrialization Africans will die. African are dying every day due to lack of infrastructure, a diminutive manufacturing sector, and an inefficient food-producing industry. The industrialization of Africa with a massive expansion of its manufacturing base is not an option, but a life-or-death necessity!

Nor is this conjecture on my part. From the standpoint of economic science of physical economy there is no equivalence. Manufacturing, by transforming nature and producing needed goods, contributes real value to society; tourism and services do not. A variety of services are required for a functioning society, but this sector should not perform role of a primary employer for new entrants into the labor force. Tourism serves no vital task except to promote the natural beauty of a county.  No new wealth is created by tourism; it is essentially collecting other people’s earned income.

Service-related jobs, whether useful or not, will never lead to real economic growth for one elementary reason. They do not contribute to the creation of new wealth. A properly organized economy would only have a relatively small percentage of its employed labor in the service sector. To do otherwise, as some African nations unfortunately are, is not sustainable, and will lead to calamity. To equate non-goods producing employment with manufacturing jobs is a grave fundamental error that should be rejected by serious economists and leaders.

Africa’s Youth Bulge Is Not A Curse

FORESIGHT AFRICA estimates that today 60% of Africa’s 1.25 billion people are under 25 years of age. That amounts to 750 million youth, a majority of which are unemployed or mis-employed in the pathological informal economy. It is projected that in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the youth population will expand by 522 million, and comprise one-third of the world’s youth by 2050. Thus, making  Africa the continent with the youngest population, and potentially the largest workforce on the planet.

While these figures are striking, they do not justify enforced population reduction measures, as extremists advocate. Human life is intrinsically sacred because it is endowed with the divine spark of creativity. Contrary to popular misguided opinion, human creativity is the underlying source of all wealth; not money or even natural resources.  Paleoanthropology shows us that millions of years ago before the emergence of homo sapiens-sapiens (wise-wise man), proto-humans, homo hablis, (handy man) designed tools first in the mind’s eye before shaping rocks into useful implements that were used to transform the environment for the benefit of mankind. Africa is not facing a crisis of too many people, but rather the urgency to formulate the best policies today that will incorporate millions of youth as productive members of the labor force.

What African nations most desperately need, and which will have the greatest impact of their economies, is infrastructure, infrastructure, and more infrastructure.  It is not hyperbole to state that the lack of infrastructure is responsible for millions of deaths on the continent. The dearth of on-grid energy, arguably the most crucial component of an industrialized-manufacturing society, is preventing African nations from attaining the levels of economic growth required to sustain their populations.

For example. If we desire, as we should, that Africans enjoy the same relative living standard as Western nations, then each of the 2.5 billion Africans in the year 2050 should have access to at least one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of power every day. That would require, starting immediately, erecting enough power plants to generate 2,400 gigawatts of electricity. Itemize the bill of materials to build that many thermal, hydro, and nuclear power plants.

Now contemplate the number of workers that would be employed in this endeavor. Extend the same mode of thinking to constructing hundreds of thousands of kilometers of high-speed rail lines to connect the major cities, ports, and manufacturing centers across this vast continent. Add to that the number of new roads, hospitals, schools, libraries, and water ways that need to be built to provide an adequate standard of living. How many tens of millions or more youths will Africa need to employ in just the construction of primary infrastructure projects? Imagine how many additional jobs will be created in the spin-off industries.

Nuclear Energy is Critical to Meet Africa’s Energy Needs (ESI Africa)

Africa’s Future Begins Today

Trillions of dollars of long-term low interest credit must be made available to fund these projects. Only state-issued public credit will suffice for this scope of investment. The private sector, investments funds, or any other fund that is motivated by seeking high yield and quick financial returns on their investment will never, ever, underwrite the credit necessary. The overriding concern of the nation state is not making quick monetary profits, but the welfare of its citizens living and their posterity.  The IMF thus far shown itself to be mentally, emotionally, and ideologically incapable of comprehending the true economic needs of Africa, or how to fund them. Those who are blinded by their erroneous view of evaluating an economy by its monetary worth, will forever be incompetent, and are not qualified to give advice, much less diktats to developing nations.

Credit issuance by the nation state is not a new or novel concept. The success of United States’ economy, which was maintained with ups and downs until its decline over the last five decades, emanated from the accomplishment of President George Washington’s Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton.  It was Hamilton’s understanding of credit and the central role of manufacturing that created the basis for U.S. economic growth from thirteen indebted colonies.  Over the last 230 years, those leaders, in the U.S. or abroad, who were wise enough to comprehend and apply Hamilton’s understanding of national banking and credit, have been successful in stimulating economic growth for their nations.

Africa’s future does not begin in 2050; it begins now. It is incumbent on Africans, with the assistance of their friends and allies, to prioritize crucial transformative infrastructure and related projects that must be built and funded. This cannot wait. This is a war to eradicate poverty, hunger, and disease, and secure a productive life for billions of Africans living and yet to be born. Thus, this campaign should be conducted with a military-like commitment to achieve objectives and goals each month and each year. Hence, we are not waiting for the future; we are creating the future in the present.

*real and true are interchangeable terms signifying a physical (non-monetary) improvement in the economy.

Lawrence Freeman has been involved in Africa for over 25 years as a writer, analyst, and consultant. He teaches courses on African History in Maryland. In 2014 he was appointed Vice chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Africa’s East-West Railroad is 50 years Over Due

An East-West railroad, along with Trans-African highways, and  electrical power, is essential for African nations to become  sovereign independent nations. It is coherent with the African Union’s “Agenda 2063.” Sudan is geographically situated to become the nexus of the East-West and North South rail lines. Africa’s collaboration in recent years with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Russia, and other nations to build vitally necessary infrastructure is the only way to eliminate poverty, hunger, and disease. It will also lead to finally putting African nations on the path to building robust agricultural and manufacturing sectors. This policy stands in stark contrast to President Trump’s “non-Africa Strategy,” which will do nothing to help Africa, nor improve US Security.  

Russia Wants To Help Build an African Cross-Continental Rail Line

Dec. 16, 2018

The Russia-Sudan Inter-governmental Commission announced in a report that Russia wants to participate in the construction of a cross-continental rail line, which will connect East and West Africa. TASS reported that the commission document states: “The Sudanese side expressed interest in participation of the Russian companies in constructing of the Trans-African railway from Dakar-Port Sudan-Cape Town. The Russian side confirmed readiness to work out the opportunity for participation but asked for [the] provision of all the financial and legal characteristics of this project.”

TASS explained that “the Trans-African railway line is part of the African Union’s plans to connect the port of Dakar in West Africa to the port of Djibouti in East Africa. It will run through 10 different countries (many of them landlocked) and is expected to boost trade on the continent. The route will be the expansion of the existing Trans-African Highway 5 (TAH5). The first phase of the project will be an estimated $2.2 billion upgrade to 1,228 kilometers of existing rail between Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and Bamako, the capital of neighboring Mali.

The project has already attracted Chinese investment in African infrastructure through Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).”

 
 
 
 

 

Africa Needs Tractors, Nigeria (and Africa) Need Energy Too

{For Africa to provide jobs and feed its growing population, it needs energy and tractors to build a robust agricultural-manufacturing sector. Africa’s population is expected to double to 2.4 billion by 2050. If African nations massively invest NOW in infrastructure and industrialize their economies, the African continent can become the center of the world economy in two generations.}

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tractors Needed in Africa to Boost Agricultural Output

Oct. 8, 2018– The {Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung}-(FAZ) has discovered that agricultural output in African countries would be much higher if the farmers there had tractors to work their land, instead of using wooden ploughs and oxen to pull them. The output would be five to ten times higher, experts told {FAZ}. Swiss globalization critic Jean Ziegler said already in 2013 that the entire African continent had only 85,000 tractors in 2011, while Germany alone had almost 2 million tractors.

One problem faced by African farmers is that, with their miserable income, they cannot afford to buy tractors and other agricultural machinery on the world markets; not even the simple tractor models produced by Brazil’s AGCO, which have no fancy equipment and no GPS and cost only $10,000. Another problem is that tractors need diesel fuel, which is not available in such volumes in most parts of Africa because the transportation and storage infrastructure isn’t there.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Xi Jinping lends support to Nigeria’s long delayed $6 billion Mambilla dam”

View image on Twitter

Plans to build a 3GW hydropower complex on the Donga River in eastern Nigeria, which have been under discussion since 1972, were given a boost last week when President Xi Jinping of China announced his support for the project.

The Chinese leader was speaking in response to a request for help from President Buhari of Nigeria, who has made the construction of the scheme, on the Mambilla plateau in Taraba State, a key priority of his government.

Buhari said in a tweet: “I told President Xi that the Mambilla Hydropower Plant is Nigeria’s equivalent of China’s Three Gorges Dam, and that our hope is to fund the project with concessionary loans from China.

Continue reading

__________________________________________________________________________________

 Congo to Start $13.9 Billion Hydropower Project This Year

The Inga 1 dam and Inga Falls on the Congo river.  Photographer: Marc Jourdier/AFP via Getty Images

The Democratic Republic of Congo plans to start work this year on the frequently delayed Inga 3 hydropower project, after receiving a joint bid from two previously competing consortia of investors.

One group led by China Three Gorges Corp. and another including Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA of Spain submitted a joint bid on June 6 for the project that will produce 11,000 megawatts and is predicted to cost $13.9 billion, Bruno Kapandji, director of the Agency for the Development and Promotion of the Grand Inga Project, said at a conference Wednesday in Lubumbashi in southeast Congo.

“Our aim is to start Inga this year,” Kapandji said. “The two consortia have given us a document in which they committed to creating a single consortium. We are in the process of preparing, discussing and negotiating the exclusive collaboration contract which will allow the single candidate to go to the market to find the financing.”

Africa’s biggest copper producer and the world’s largest source of cobalt has been considering building Inga 3 for more than a decade to address a power shortage that has curbed mining-industry growth. A treaty signed in 2013 provided for the plant to export 2,500 megawatts of power to South Africa. The plant would form part of a larger Grand Inga hydropower complex spanning part of the Congo River and produce as much as 50,000 megawatts when complete, according to the World Bank.

Seven Years

Construction on Inga 3 will take as long as seven years, Kapandji said.

Congo’s government last year asked the competing consortia to work together and submit a joint offer to build and manage Inga 3. Once a concessionaire company has been established, the developers “will commit themselves to mobilizing the funds to complete the project and operate it,” Kapandji said.

The next phase of Grand Inga was initially supposed to produce 4,800 megawatts.

“The project has changed because the demand has changed,” said Kapandji. The mining industry’s energy deficit has increased from about 500 megawatts to 1,300 megawatts in the intervening years since the project was conceived, he said.

read article

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

“China’s Role in Nigerian Railway Development and Implications for Security and Development”

This report by the United States Institute of Peace provides a useful overview of current and future rail projects for Nigeria. Hard infrastructure in rail, energy, and water management provide an essential platform for real economic growth. China understands this principle as demonstrated in the expansion of the New Silk Road across the globe. It is a credit to President Buhari that has taken leadership in collaborating with China to build a modern rail system in Nigeria that will connect the entire nation.

April 18, 2018

 
“The Economic Benefits of Railway Investment”
 
    “Railway development has been featured in China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative across Eurasia and East Africa. In Eurasia, as in Africa, Beijing emphasizes the contribution of the BRI to peace by promoting the development and prosperity that come from economic connectivity. Railways are an integral part of this formula. The intrinsic advantages of railways over road networks lie in their economies of scale: railways need less  frequent maintenance and have higher speed and efficiency over long-distance routes, making them a highly advantageous low-cost option for freight traffic and offering huge potential for trade promotion.
 
     “Railway development also has positive spillover effects for complementary industries in upstream manufacturing supply chains, such as steel and construction materials, and generates demand for retail and services, all of which promote employment. A central trunk corridor would open up agricultural and mining industries in the middle-belt and plateau states. Likewise, the development of the western Lagos-Kano corridor would benefit northern  cattle and leather industries, which are currently disadvantaged against cheap imports given the costs of transport.”  (excerpted from USIP report)                              ‘

Read entire report

 
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Turkish floating power plant will supply 150 megawatts of power to Sudan’s national energy grid

Turkish floating plant starts power supply to Sudan

 
By Huseyin Erdogan

ANKARA

Turkey’s floating power plant, the Karadeniz powership Rauf Bey, started electricity production in Sudan, a member of the Istanbul-based Karadeniz Energy Group, Karpowership, announced Tuesday.

The powership, which has 180 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, will supply 150 MW of power to Sudan’s national energy grid.

The plant is important for the stability of the country’s national grid as it caters for the country’s increased energy demand.

The company announced on April 27 that it signed an electricity production and sales agreement with Sudan’s electricity company, STPGC.

Karpowership is the sole owner, operator and builder of the first powership fleet in the world. Since 2010, 15 powerships have been completed with total installed capacity exceeding 2,800 MW.

An additional 5,000 MW of powerships are either under construction or in the pipeline.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

African nations desperately need energy to develop their economies, build industries, and to expand their agriculture and manufacturing sectors. With hundreds of additional gigawatts of power, the continent can be transformed; hunger and poverty can be eradicated . Energy is an essential category of infrastructure that every nations needs to achieve higher levels of economic growth. Africa should have nuclear energy, and floating nuclear power plants can contribute to supplying power to the continent. I have been advocating this idea for decades, and now its time has come!

New Era of Floating Nuclear Plants Begins

 
May 22, 2018—With great ceremony, the Russian city of Murmansk welcomed the floating nuclear plant Akademik Lomonosov on May 19. The plant had traveled from St. Petersburg where it was built. It will receive its supply of nuclear fuel in Murmansk, and then proceed to the Arctic circle town of Pevek, where it will begin to supply power to the population of approximately 50,000 people in the area next year.

New Era of Floating Nuclear Plants Begins

Russia’s floating nuclear plant, the Akademik Lomonosov

Constructed by the state nuclear power firm, Rosatom, the 144×30 meter, 21,000-ton barge holds two 35-MW nuclear reactors similar to those used to power Russian icebreaker ships. The barge can produce enough electricity to power a town of 200,000 residents, far more than the 5,000 who live in Pevek, Russia’s northernmost town.

Small, portable nuclear reactors have long been employed by the U.S. Navy, and presumably other militaries as well, but previous attempts to produce them for civilian purposes have met with sabotage. The United States actually did have such a plant in operation in Panama in the late 1960s, but it is being dismantled, and plans for production for use off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States were ditched in the 1970s. This, despite the nuclear Navy’s sterling safety record, and the obvious advantages of such plants for isolated areas suffering from a lack of electric power.

Among the obvious places crying out for such a deployment is Puerto Rico, which has now suffered the second-longest electricity blackout in history. (The longest was in the Philippines in 2013.) At least 20,000 homes in Puerto Rico still lack electricity as a result of Hurricane Maria (which hit last September), and a new hurricane season is about to begin. Indeed, the “repaired” system is so fragile that most of the Island was plunged into darkness about a month ago, as a result of a contractor accident.

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry actually mooted the possibility of using small modular nuclear reactors to reach remote places in Puerto Rico last fall. But despite a verbal commitment to nuclear energy, the Trump Administration’s embrace of deregulation has so far been unable to halt the whittling away of the mainland nuclear fleet, much less been able to initiate the nuclear renaissance which is needed to move the U.S. economy into the next level of productivity.

The American System of Economics rests firmly on a commitment to constant increases in scientific progress and productivity, of which nuclear fission and fusion are prime examples

___________________________________________________________________________

Nigeria Getting Back On Track With Rail Revolution

May 18, 2018-ThisDayLive
Israel Ibeleme

Just days before President Buhari met with President Trump at the White House, history was made in Washington, DC, with the signing of a landmark infrastructure agreement between the Nigerian Government and a consortium of multinational firms led by the American digital industrial giant, General Electric (GE). The implementation of that agreement, worth US$45 million in the first phase, will ensure that within the next 12 months, passenger travel by rail from Lagos to Kano will be faster and safer, while for the first time in over a decade, contracted
and scheduled freight rail services can once again be offered.

This milestone project is the outcome of President Buhari’s single-minded determination to develop, upgrade and modernise Nigeria’s transport infrastructure, as well as the relentless push by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to fully deliver on the President’s vision.

Since Mr. Amaechi took office in November 2015, as Minister of Transportation, there has been a renaissance in Nigeria’s rail industry, in line with the President’s oft-stated vision. This planned revamp of the Narrow-Gauge Rail Network by the international consortium comprising General Electric, Transnet of South Africa, Sino Hydro of China and APM Terminals (part of the Danish Maersk Group) – after two years of meticulous planning, negotiating and contracting, President Buhari in one of the coaches when he commissioned the Abuja-Kaduna train services offers strong proof of the seriousness with which the Buhari Administration is taking its railway
modernisation ambitions.

Nigeria’s Narrow-Gauge Rail System was conceived in the 1890s and built between 1898 and 1926, with a total length of 3,500 kilometres. It consists of two primary lines – Lagos to Nguru and Port Harcourt to Maiduguri– with spur lines to Eleme, Baro, Kaura Namoda and other places.

The Buhari administration, as part of its infrastructure development vision, has now finally taken the long overdue bold steps to modernise the rail network. On August 18, 2017, the Federal Executive Council, following a competitive procurement process, approved the concession of the Narrow-Gauge Rail System to the GE-led Consortium. The Government is advised by a multidisciplinary consortium led by the Africa Finance Corporation.

The initiation of that concession agreement is what has now finally taken effect following the signing in Washington DC yesterday, ahead of President Buhari’s bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday…

The benefits of this intervention are immense: increased economic productivity, job creation, private sector investment, human capacity development and much-needed world class expertise. Worldwide, rail infrastructure has been proven to reduce costs and wastage of goods; increase economic trade between farmers/miners and industry and between traders and consumers; and grow business competitiveness and increase operational efficiency.

continue reading

Nigeria Signs Rail Project with China

May 16, 2018–Nigeria has awarded a $6.68 billion contract to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. (CCECC) for work on a major segment of a railway linking the country’s commercial hub Lagos, in the southwest, and Kano in the north, Xinhua reported May 15.

“The signing of the segment contract agreement today [May 15] concludes all outstanding segments of he Lagos-Kano rail line,” Xinhua quoted Nigeria’s Transport Ministry as saying. The work is expected to take two or three years. CCECC, a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corp., has been involved in other parts of the Lagos-Kano rail project, which started in 2006 and was broken into segments for implementation.

In 2016, Nigeria awarded work on a segment between the northern states of Kano and Kaduna with a contract sum of $1.685 billion. The railway line already receives funding from China Exim Bank which in April approved a $1.231 billion loan for network modernization programs. Nigeria is also negotiating with Russia, on projects within the ambitious national rail development program which requires investments totaling $46 billion.

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation lands $6.68bn Nigeria rail project

May 16, 2018-Global Construction

By Tom Wadlow

continue reading

Construction of new highway read: Lagos Ota-Abeokuta Expressway

 

 
___________________________________________________

Kenya`s New Mega Infrastructure, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway

April 30, 2018

Kenya`s New Mega Infrastructure, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway by PD Lawton, Amazing and wonderful things are happening all across Africa as this continent begins a giant leap into a modernized incredible future! China is investing in African infrastructure at an astonishing rate bringing the African nations into the New Paradigm and `Win-Win` spirit of China`s Belt and Road Initiative. By issuing credit for the construction of mega infrastructure , China is assisting African nations to invest in the future, investments based on the development of Africa`s physical economy! We are so fortunate to be alive in these times and to be able to witness the continent`s transformation with mega development projects which will free the human creativity of Africa`s people and provide them with an economic renaissance.

The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway is the largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever undertaken in Kenya.It is 480km of super modern construction that traverses mountain ranges, wetlands and national parks. The project has found innovative solutions to a multitude of social, environmental and geographic problems in its journey from the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa directly into the interior of East Africa and  Kenya`s thriving capital Nairobi, home to over 4 million people. Mombasa is the largest sea port in East Africa and its key trade gateway.

Continue reading: Kenya`s New Mega Infrastructure, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway

____________________________________________________________________

East-West Railroad Would Transform the African Continent

This is an interesting and useful article. I have stressed for decades the urgent need to construct both an East-West and a South-North Railroad. A high-speed transport grid that Africa should have completed decades ago, is essential for the well-being and economic growth of Africa. Such a transportation network, integrated with several hundreds megawatts of electrical power, would create an infrastructure platform that would be transformative; producing the conditions for African nations to finally eliminate hunger and disease. These projects are possible now with the expansion China’s New Silk Road, initiated by President Xi Jinping, which has changed the strategic geometry of the world. For example. At the February Abuja conference to ‘Save Lake Chad’ at which I participated, the Head of States endorsed the mega Transaqua project; an inter-basin water transfer proposal to recharge Lake Chad. The Transaqua concept had been in circulation for over thirty years, but with no progress until ChinaPower become involved.  As I advised the participants at this conference: now is the time for Africans to think big!   

 

“Can China Realize Africa’s Dream of an East-West Transport Link?”

The Jamestown Foundation-Publication: China Brief Volume: 18 Issue: 6

African development hinges on a maddening paradox: its greatest asset—the sheer size and diversity of its landscape—is also the greatest barrier to its development. Landlocked countries are cut off from ports, and the difficulty of moving goods from country to country weighs down intra-continental trade (only 15% of African trade is within Africa. (African Development Bank, 2017) African consumers bear the brunt of these difficulties. [1]. Costs are driven up by a host of factors: tariffs, border delays, corruption. But the biggest challenge is that no streamlined transport route exists between West and East Africa – only a decaying and underdeveloped road and rail system which pushes up costs and drags down efficiency.

Several ambitious schemes have been proposed to link Africa’s east and west coasts, some of which are closer to full realization than others. Most notable in this respect is a plan to expand the existing Trans-African Highway 5 (TAH5) into a true cross-continental road and rail link, the early stages of which China has helped bring to fruition where Western consortiums failed. Likewise, Chinese investment in African infrastructure through Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may help create expanded sub-regional linkages, particularly in East Africa, that could help facilitate the emergence of an eventual, true East-West link in the long term. However, in the short-to-mid-term, the obstacles to a truly robust set of East-West transport links are formidable, and it is unlikely that China’s involvement will be a panacea.

Read entire article: Can China Realize Africa’s Dream of an East-West Transport Link?

 ___________________________________________________________________________

Ethiopia continues on its road to develop its economy with advances in its industrial sector. (April 2018) Review these two articles below:

Chinese Factory in Ethiopia ignites American dreams  

Ethiopia export revenue hits $42 million from industrial parks

______________________________________________________________

“Africa2017: Why African countries should emulate China’s development model”

This is a useful article on Helen Hai’s views on Africa. I would add that the agricultural potential of Africa has never been realized, and this is Africa’s  most valuable natural resource. Manufacturing and food processing plants should be an important focus for Africa’s development,

Source: www.ventures-africa.com

Development Organization Goodwill Ambassador and CEO Made in Africa Initiative, Helen Hai African countries could undergo a fruitful economic transformation within the next 30 years, if they are able to follow in the same footsteps as Asia. “Africa should follow China’s development model and aim to become a light manufacturing hub,” said Hai.

Hai argued during a China-Africa panel at the Africa 2017 Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt that China’s success was premised on its ability to have a clear strategy and to  execute it regardless of obstacles in the way. “African countries must be clear about what they want from China,” she said. Local conditions may also present significant opportunities for Africa in the next few years, she added, as rising labour costs are likely to see 85 million jobs exported from China. “If Africa can capture those jobs it can enjoy the same economic transformation that China had.”

The idea behind the Made in Africa initiative is to advise African governments on industrialisation and investment promotion. The initiative is also geared towards supporting  African countries through the process of implementing the right strategies to attain set goals.

Considering sustainable development can never be achieved if Africa’s population of 1.3 billion is left behind, there is a pressing need for its leaders to look into ways of uplifting people out of poverty through job creation. Africa has a lot more jobs for economic transformation because of its natural resources while Asia doesn’t necessarily have the same powers. However the results have been different in the two continents. What went wrong?

In Hai’s opinion, the first thing is identifying these development powers earlier. “In 1978, my generation witnessed 680 million people lifted out of the international poverty line and according to world bank, the number of people living at the international poverty line in the world since 1960 didn’t decline.” This simply means that China made one of the most significant contributions in history over the past 70 years in terms of poverty reduction. “If you ask me, as a beneficial of that, it had nothing to do with aid in China. The key success of China was 2 things- job creation and industrialization”

“China was able to capture the golden opportunity during industrialization relocation in the 80’s. That’s exactly what happened in Japan, Asia and the four tigers in the 60s. That’s how we actually moved ourselves to jumpstart our economic transformation from a low-income economy,” she added.

According to Hai, there were about 200 developing economies globally between 1950 and 2008, but only two economies moved from lower-income status to higher income status. Out of those 200 economies only 13 of them moved from middle-income status to high-income status. “Out of those 13, 8 of them are in Europe the other four and the Asian plus tigers including Japan. It was a common consensus in the 50s and 60s,” she said.

Although Africa was left behind in the 60s and 80s because they didn’t understand this module, after 30 years, this reshaping of the global value chain is happening again and Africa will do well to get it better this time.

Can Africa really make this work?

“Yes, Africa can make it happen, you know as a private entrepreneur, I came to Ethiopia back in 2011, being the general manager of a Chinese shoe factory to set up the first of its kind on Ethiopia. Which I immediately doubled the export revenue in Ethiopia’s shoe sector after 6 months. By the end of year one I recruited 2000 local workers, by year two I recruited 4000 local workers, in 2011 Ethiopia ranked 125 according to World Bank Doing Business Report,” said Hai.

“I’m working with AID Africa on more industrialization strategies considering a movement has already started in Africa. I have also been working closely with the Ethiopian government. According to a recent report, Ethiopia is poised to generate 60000 local jobs and $1billion in export revenue.”

“Africa has a population of 1.2 billion, most of them are young people, we can talk about a lot of fancy things, but the first thing in my opinion is how to create jobs, how to create million of jobs, significant jobs. In seizing this opportunity there is a potential of 85 million jobs. And as we all know, according to statistics manufacturing jobs has a strong multiplying effect, and a manufacturing job can impact a whole economy.”

“The GDP per Capita in China in 1978 was $154 which is less than 1/3 of the south Sahara African countries. China was poorer that a lot of African countries at the time. But in 2015 the GDP per capita in China is 7500 and according to a forecast, by 2025, China could become a high-income country. This means by 2025, considering the reshaping, all the labour intensive jobs will have to relocate out of China. But where will those jobs go? (all 85 million of them)”

“If African countries can first understand this opportunity and be able to capture a significant portion of these jobs, in my opinion they can have the same opportunity for economic transformation in the next 30 years, following the exact same footsteps of what Asia did.” “Ethiopia has made it already, soon one by one; the 54 African countries will be able to attain this kind of economic transformation. In Asia It started with Japan and then China followed, “she added.

A lot of China-Africa discussions featured throughout the Africa 2017 summit. One of the key takeaways is the fact that African leaders and other stakeholders are now posed with the responsibility of outlining ways to get the most out of Chinese investment and the One Belt One Road initiative.

original article

____________________________________________________________________________

Africa Advancing With Science, Technology, and Infrastructure

China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Long-Term Impact on African Countries

Dr. Alexander Demissie of Ethiopia, an expert in China-Africa relations, spoke in Germany, November 26, 2017.

Below are excerpts from an excellent presentation by Dr. Demissie on the increasingly productive relationship between China and Africa to develop the continent’s infrastructure, which Europe and the Unites States have refused to do.

‘My third point: the BRI is primarily an infrastructural undertaking. We don’t yet have political institutionalization. We have infrastructural ideas. We have corridors, but we don’t yet have political institutions. So, if we talk about the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), or the Silk Road Bank, these are just connected
to infrastructure; they are not political ideas.

“Interestingly, this idea fits perfectly into the current African need—infrastructure development. Africa wants infrastructure, going back here to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 strategic framework that has also, coincidentally, been coming up. Together with the BRI, Africa wants a good infrastructure connection, a good internal interconnectivity. So, the idea of the BRI coming from China is perfectly fitting into the idea—actually happening or being discussed—within the African continent.

“China has also been very clear since Johannesburg in 2015 that they want to cooperate more with Africa more on infrastructural projects that create regional connectivity. That is where the BRI comes in. That’s why I mentioned earlier that the BRI is primarily an infrastructure topic.

Continue reading

Putin and El-Sisi Sign Economic Deals in Cairo; Russia To Build Nuclear Power Four-Plant Complex for Egypt

December 11, 2017–Russia and Egypt have signed an agreement to construct Egypt’s first nuclear plant, which will be followed by construction of three more. Costing $21 billion, the porject is scheduled to be finished by 2028-2029.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met today in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. They discussed economic matters, energy, and politics, as well as the possibility of resuming air travel between Russia and Egypt, which was suspended in November 2015 after the crash of a Russian passenger jet over Sinai in what is believed to have been an act of terrorism.

President Putin stated, “I am pleased to note that our economic links are developing at a fairly high pace, and we really have a lot of good projects ahead.”

President al-Sisi responded, “Since the 1950s and ’60s, Russia has always supported Egypt and still supports our country: both with metallurgical plants and the construction of the Aswan Dam, and today we will sign a contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant.”

The preliminary agreement between the countries was signed in 2015; a loan from Russia will cover 85 percent of the construction costs. Russia’s Rosatom will service the complex’s four reactors for 60 years, its chairman Aleksey Likhachyov said today, RT reported. Representatives of Russia’s Rosatom nuclear corporation and Russian universities have recently visited Egyptian universities to prepare engineering students to work at the Daba nuclear power plant in the future. The Russian delegation gave a number of presentations at the Russian Center for Culture and Science in Cairo.

One day after Eyptian President El-Sisi and Russian President Putin witnessed the signing of a deal for the construction of four Russian reactors in the Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant project, it is reported that the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA) has already begun a study at the El Nagila site, which takes about three years, to see if it is suitable for the construction of four nuclear plants, according to sources at the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity. The study will be carried out parallel with the construction at the Dabaa site, where the first reactor is scheduled to come on-line in 2026. When that plant is complete, it will become only the second country in Africa, following South Africa, to have a nuclear power plant.

The {Daily News Egypt} reports that Egypt has signed protocols and MOUs with 10 countries for cooperation in nuclear energy, to help with training and the utilization of expertise in reactor management, and security, safety, and the possibility to provide formal advisory services to the EAEA

Africa’s Ports Revolution: Railway Ports of the East

This an informative article written on February 23. 2017, reporting on the exciting potential for the developments of Africa’s East coast ports with railroad connections to the interior of the continent. 

The population of Africa is presently 1.2 billion and growing at a rate of 2.5% a year, more than twice that of any other continent. In two years’ time, it will gain the population of the UK; in 12 years of compounded growth it will gain the population of China.

All these extra people may add dynamism to economies, but only if the increase in labour supply can be matched by an equivalent increase in economic activity; otherwise,  rising population density may destabilise social and political systems – an effect already seen in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This challenge has led to a different pattern of development for ports on Africa’s east coast, compared to the west coast. In the west, the centres served by these ports are close by, sometimes right outside the port gate. In east Africa, by contrast, they are between 500km and 1,000km away, and most of the infrastructure needed to reach them has not yet been built. In the case of the Doraleh container terminal at Djibouti, the goal is the Ethiopian highlands and the valley of the White Nile at Khartoum, a cluster roughly equivalent to the population of Japan. In East Africa, a similar-sized population is grouped in the Great Lakes states, South Sudan and the DRC. All of these centres, with the marginal exception of the DRC, are landlocked.

Their ability to attract investment and benefit from globalisation depends, among other things, on having efficient rail, road and pipeline links to the Indian Ocean “transit  states” of Kenya, Tanzania and Djibouti.

Continue reading

 ____________________________________________________________________

The Need for Europe to Cooperate with China in the Industrialization of Africa

Below are excerpts from a speech by Mr. Mehreteab Mulugeta Haile, Consul General of EthiopiaFrankfurt. This is an edited transcript of his address to the International Schiller Institute conference on “Fulfilling the Dream of  Mankind,” Nov. 25-26, 2017, in Germany. Subtitles have been added. He reports on the progress that Ethiopia has made to develop its nation, with its emphasis on infrastructure. 

“Ethiopia is one of the largest Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of about 100 million people. After suffering economic stagnation for decades, its economy began to grow in the mid-1990s after a new administration led by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took the helm of government.

“For the last 15 years, Ethiopia has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of about 11% per annum. To continue with this rapid economic growth, the Ethiopian Government rolled out in 2010, an ambitious five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP). This plan aims to attain a lower-middle-income status by 2025. Currently the country is implementing the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), which is built on Sectoral Policies, Strategies  & Program and Lessons drawn from the first GTP and the post-2015 “sustainable development goals” (SDGs). It has also taken into account global and regional economic situations having direct or indirect bearing on the Ethiopian economy.

“Expanding the manufacturing sector will focus on identifying new investment areas such as biotechnology, petrochemicals, electricity and electronics, information and communication technologies (hardware and software production industries).

“In the infrastructure sector, the overall strategic direction is to ensure the creation of infrastructure that supports rapid economic growth and structural transformation. This direction will create mass employment opportunities, an institution having strong implementation capacity, ensure public participation and benefit, construct decentralized infrastructure development systems, solve financial constraints, ensure fairness and profitability, and ensure integrated planning of infrastructure development.

“Within infrastructure overall, rural roads are given high focus to help reduce poverty by facilitating easy access of agricultural products, at low transportation cost, to the market, improving access to basic socioeconomic services, and strengthening rural-urban linkages.

“If we take my country, Ethiopia, as an example of Chinese cooperation and involvement in Africa, we find that what has been said above is false. According to the Ethiopian Investment Commission, Chinese companies, with close to 379 projects that were either operational or under implementation in the 2012-2017 period, are on top of Ethiopia’s investment landscape, both in number and financial capital. Among these companies, 279 were operational with projects that are worth over 13.16 billion Ethiopian birr (over 572 million U.S. dollars) during the reported period, while the remaining 100 are under implementation.

“In terms of employment creation, Chinese companies have created more than 28,300 jobs in various sectors in Ethiopia during the reported period, of which over 19,000 were created in Ethiopia’s manufacturing, as it is the leading sector in attracting companies from China. China brings not only investment, knowhow, and transfer of technology, but also skills and entrepreneurship.”

Continue reading

______________________________________________________________

China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Long-Term Impact on African Countries

November 26, 2017

This is an edited transcript of the presentation by Dr. Alexander Demissie of Ethiopia to the Nov. 25-26, 2017 Schiller Institute Conference, “Fulfilling the Dream of Mankind.”

“My third point: the BRI is primarily an infrastructural undertaking. We don’t yet have political institutionalization.  We have infrastructural ideas. We have corridors, but we don’t yet have political institutions. So, if we talk about the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), or the Silk Road Bank, these are just connected to infrastructure; they are not political ideas.

“Interestingly, this idea fits perfectly into the current African need—infrastructure development. Africa wants infrastructure, going back here to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 strategic framework that has also, coincidentally, been coming up. Together with the BRI, Africa wants a good infrastructure connection, a good internal China is perfectly fitting into the idea—actually happening or being discussed—within the African continent.”

Continue reading

______________________________________________________________________________

 

The Sudan Tribute [sic Tribune] recently reported that its eponymous country signed a deal with China to explore the viability of constructing a railway from Port Sudan to N’Djamena, with an eye on completing a long-awaited connectivity project that had hitherto been held up due to various degrees of regional instability. According to the publication, the original plan was to link up the Chadian and even nearby Central African Republic capitals with the Red Sea in order to provide these resource-rich landlocked states with an outlet to the global marketplace, which is increasingly becoming Asia-centric ergo the Eastern vector of this initiative. In terms of the bigger picture, however, the successful completion of the Port Sudan-N’Djamena Railway would constitute a crucial component of China’s unstated intentions to construct what the author had previously referred to as the “Sahelian-Saharan Silk Road”, the relevant portion of which (the Chad-Sudan Corridor) is a slight improvisation of Trans-African Highway 6.

Per the hyperlinked analysis above, the following custom map illustrates the full cross-continental vision that China has in mind:

 

Red: CCS (Cameroon-Chad-Sudan) Silk Road
Gold: Trans-African Highway 5
Lavender: Ethiopia-Nigeria Silk Road (the most direct route through resource-rich territory)
Pink: West African Rail Loop
Blue: Lagos-Calabar Silk Road
Green: Lagos-Kano Silk Road
Yellow: Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Silk Road

Each of the aforementioned tracks are described in a bit more detail in the cited article about the Sahelian-Saharan Silk Road and the author’s extensive Hybrid War study on Nigeria, but the two pertinent points to focus on in this piece are the CCS Silk Road (outlined in red on the map) and its larger purpose in possibly connecting Africa’s two largest countries and future Great Powers of Nigeria and Ethiopia. One of China’s grand strategic objectives in the emerging Multipolar World Order is to lay the infrastructural groundwork for facilitating the robust full-spectrum integration between these two giants, understanding that their Beijing-built bicoastal connectivity would bestow the People’s Republic with significant influence in the continent by streamlining an unprecedented corridor between them, thereby giving China the potential to more directly shape Africa’s overall development across the 21st century.

It goes without saying that Sudan is poised to play an indispensable role in making this happen by virtue of its advantageous geography in allowing China to circumnavigate the “Failed State Belt” of South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and increasingly, maybe even Cameroon, as well by charting an overland Silk Road connectivity corridor between Ethiopia and Nigeria via Sudan and Chad. Moreover, the potential linkage of the planned Ethiopia-Sudan railwayto the prospective Port Sudan-N’Djamena railroad would enable Sudan to provide China with alternative access to these two landlocked states. Regional military leader and energy exporter Chad is already in physical touch with the outside world through Cameroon, just as the world’s fastest-growing economy and rising African hegemon Ethiopia utilizes the newly built Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway for this purpose, but the shrewd and far-sighted Chinese always feel more comfortable if they’re not dependent on a single route, hence the strategic importance of supplementary access to Chad and Ethiopia through Port Sudan.

While Sudan’s financial standing was left reeling ever since the American-backed separation of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011, Khartoum might fortuitously find itself wheeling and dealing along the New Silk Road if it’s successful in providing China with alternative market access to Chad and Ethiopia in the future, and especially if it can do the same with Nigeria in saving China the time in having to sail all the way around the Cape of Good Hope in order to trade with it. For as easy as all of this may sound, however, the premier challenge that China will have to confront is to ensure the security of this traditionally unstable transit space, specifically in the context of maintaining peace in the former hotspot of Darfur and dealing with the plethora of destabilization scenarios emanating from the Lake Chad region (Boko Haram, Nigeria’s possible fragmentation, etc.).

In view of this herculean task, China could be lent a helping hand by its Pakistani and Turkish partners who each have a self-interested desire to this end, with Islamabad slated to patrol CPEC’s Sea Lines Of Communication (SLOC) with East Africa while Ankara is already a heavy hitter in Africa because of its recent embassy and airline expansion in the continent. Moreover, both of these countries are leaders of the international Muslim community (“Ummah”) in their own way and accordingly have soft power advantages over China in the majority-Muslim states of sub-Saharan Africa through which Beijing’s grand Silk Road projects will traverse. Seeing as how Pakistan and Turkey are also on very close relations with China, the scenario arises whereby these Great Powers enter into a trilateral working group with one another for effectively promoting their African policies through joint investments, socio-cultural initiatives, and the collective strengthening of Nigeria, Chad, and Sudan’s military capacities in countering their respective Hybrid War threats.

This is especially relevant when considering that all three transit states aren’t exactly on positive footing with the US. Washington initially refused to provide anti-terrorist assistance to Abuja when it first requested such against Boko Haram in 2014, and the Trump Administration has inexplicably placed N’Djamena on its travel ban list. As for Khartoum, it’s been under US sanctions for over two decades now, even though the State Department partially lifted some of them last month as part of its “carrots-and-sticks diplomacy” towards the country. Therefore, the case can convincingly be argued that these three African countries would be receptive to Chinese, Pakistani, and Turkish military assistance because their prospective Eurasian security partners are perceived of as being much more reliable and trusted than the Americans or French who always attach some sort of strings to their support. The only expectation that those three extra-regional states would have is that their counterparts’ collective stability would be enduring enough to facilitate win-win trade for everyone.

There’s a certain logic to the comprehensive strategy behind this Hexagonal Afro-Eurasian Partnership between Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Turkey, Pakistan, and China. Nigeria, as the West African anchor state, could help expeditiously funnel the region’s overland trade to the Red Sea via the landlocked Chadian transit state and the maritime Sudanese one, thus making Khartoum the continental “gatekeeper” of West African-Chinese trade. Turkey’s hefty investments and newfound presence in Africa could help to “lubricate” this corridor by making it more efficient, with President Erdogan trumpeting his country’s version of a moderate “Muslim Democracy” at home in order to score significant soft power points with these three majority-Muslim African states and their elites. Pakistan would assist in this vision by providing security between Port Sudan and what might by that point be its twinned sister port of Gwadar in essentially enabling the flow of West Africa trade to China by means of CPEC.

Altogether, maritime threats are kept to a minimum because of the shortened SLOC between Sudan and Pakistan (as opposed to Nigeria and China) while the mainland ones are manageable due to the military-security dimensions of the proposed Hexagonal Afro-Eurasian Partnership, but it nevertheless shouldn’t be forgotten that Sudan and Pakistan are the crucial mainland-maritime interfaces for this transcontinental and pan-hemispheric Silk Road strategy which is expected to form the basis of China’s “South-South” integration in the emerging Multipolar World Order.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Nigerian Water Min. Adamu, Announces 21 dams, irrigation projects by 2019

Grace Obike, The Nation, Abuja, November 11, 2017

Apart from the Gurara hydropower plant, Kashimbila hydropower plant, Gurara II, Lokoja and Dasin hausa, which has either been completed, about to be completed or in talks with potential investors. The Federal Government is poised to complete seven other ongoing water supply projects and twenty one dams and irrigation projects between 2018 and 2019.

FG is also in advanced discussions with potential investors for the Gurara II, Lokoja and Dasin hausa hydropower projects, which when completed will produce a combined 1,250MW electricity to the national grid. Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu made this disclosure in Abuja, while presenting the two years score card of his ministry. He added that at his resumption of office, his ministry agreed to prioritize the 116 uncompleted or abandoned major projects he had met and deploy resources towards completing and commissioning all high and medium priority projects from 2016 to 2019.

His words.” We have concluded a Technical Audit and prioritized. the hitherto uncompleted or abandoned 116 major projects that I met in the Ministry. We are deploying most of our resources towards completing and commissioning all the high and medium priority projects from 2016 – 2019. It is in this regard that we have completed and commissioned Central Ogbia Regional Water Supply Project in Bayelsa State. It is also my pleasure to inform this gathering that the following projects have also been completed and are ready for commissioning: “Northern Ishan Regional Water Supply Project, Edo State.

We have concluded a Technical Audit and prioritized. the hitherto uncompleted or abandoned 116 major projects that I met in the Ministry. We are deploying most of our resources towards completing and commissioning all the high and medium priority projects from 2016 – 2019. It is in this regard that we have completed and commissioned Central Ogbia Regional Water Supply Project in Bayelsa State. It is also my pleasure to inform this gathering that the following projects have also been completed and are ready for commissioning: “Northern Ishan Regional Water Supply Project, Edo State rehabilitation of Ojirami Dam Water Supply Project, Edo State. Kashimbiia Dam, Taraba State. Ogwashi-Uku Dam, Delta State. “Two (2) other projects: Shagari and Barikin Ladi Irrigation Projects will be completed in early 2018.

Our plan is to complete 7 other ongoing Water Supply Projects and 21 Dam and Irrigation Projects between 2018 and 2019, including the following: Water Supply Projects, Inyishi Water Supply Project, Ekeremor Water Supply Project, Sabke/Dutsi/Mashi Water Supply Projects, Zobe Water Supply Project, Mangu Water Supply Project. “Dam & Irritation Projects. Middle Ogun Irrigation Project, Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Project, Gari Irrigation Project, Kontagora Auna Dam Project, Bagwai Irrigation Project,Tada Shonga Irrigation Project, Adani Rice Irrigation Project, Ekuku Dam Project, Lower Anambra Irrigation Project, Ile-Ife Dam Project, Zauro Polder Irrigation Project and Otukpo Multipurpose Dam Project. ” Our Roadmap identified Dams with Hydro Power potential for Development and we have been in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing (FMWPH) to that effect. “We are currently making progress for the concessioning of the 30MW Gurara Hydropower plant which is planned to come into full operation by mid 2018. We are also progressing on our collaboration with FMWPH to concession the 40MW Kashimbila Hydropower Plant recently completed. In addition, we are in advanced discussions with potential investors for other hydropower projects including Gurara II (350MW), Lokoja (750MW) and Basin Hausa (150MW).

“With 1,800m3/Capita/year of available renewable water resources, Nigeria is not a water poor country.

“The Ministry has also championed the signing of an MOU between the Lake Chad Basin Commission and a Chinese company, who are presently undertaking further feasibility study on the proposed Interbasin Water Transfer Project from the Congo River into the Lake Chad. Furthermore, in an effort to arrive at the best solution in saving the Lake Chad, an International Conference on the Lake is now scheduled to hold in Abuja from 26th -28tln February, 2018 in collaboration with LCBC and UNESCO. “In addition, the Ministry has completed the engineering design and is set to commence in 2018 the Hawal InterBasin Transfer from River Hawal to River Ngadda. Phase 1 of the project is to augment water supply to Alau Dam so as to provide more sustainable source of water supply to Maiduguri and environs. Phase 2 of the project aims to resuscitate the 60,000Ha South Chad Irrigation Scheme, which became moribund following continuous drying up of Lake Chad over the years.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Trans-Saharan Railway Progressing: Great News for Africa

This rail project is vital not only for Sudan, but for the African continent. Sudan is located strategically to be the nexus for the East-West and North-South rail roads that when completed would transform the entire African landmass. Imagine the revolution in economic development when the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are connected across the girth of Africa, and also linked to the Mediterranean Sea and oceans surrounding South Africa. Port Sudan and Kenya’s port of Mombassa are part of China’s Maritime Silk Road. Ethiopia and Kenya have completed new rail lines with the assistance of China as part of the Spirit of the New Silk Road. Most people cannot even dream of how life for over one billion Africans would be changed by an industrialized and connected Africa, Yet, not only is it possible, but we can make it happen.

“China signs agreement to begin planning 3,400km trans-Saharan railway”

8 November 2017 |

By Global Construction Review Staff

Two Chinese companies will start planning a railway across the Sahara Desert linking Sudan’s Red Sea coast to landlocked Chad after an agreement was signed yesterday with the Sudanese government.

China Railway Design Corporation (CRDC) and China Friendship Development International Engineering Design & Consultation Company (FDDC) inked the deal with the Sudanese Railways Authority.

They now have 12 months to complete a feasibility study on the construction of the 3,400 kilometre-long railway from Port Sudan to the Chadian capital of N’Djamena.

Makawi Mohamed Awad, Sudan’s minister of transport, said that his ministry’s strategic aim was to link Port Sudan with all its landlocked neighbors. The Chad line, from its capital, N’Djamena, would join Sudan’s network at Nyala across the border.

The Chad line would join Sudan’s network at Nyala, state capital of South Darfur

Plans for a Sahara railway go back some years.

In 2014, Sudan reached a political agreement with Chad to link their capitals with Port Sudan with a later extension to the Atlantic Ocean ports of Cameroon. Although both countries pledged to stop supporting each other’s rebel movements, continual instability delayed implementation.

Further back in March 2012, Chad reached agreement with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to build its portion of the line to the Sudanese border, after which it would join the Sudanese system at Nyala. The estimated $5.6bn cost of the line was thought likely be met by the Import Export Bank of China.

The lines are to be built to standard gauge and will be allow trains to run at 120 km/h.

CRDC carries out preparatory work for railway construction. It has been a major player in the development of China’s domestic high-speed system, surveying some 7,500km of it.

FDDC is a state-owned developer that carries out turnkey infrastructure projects outside the domestic market.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Federal Government of Nigeria to complete 21 other dams, irrigation projects by 2019

Grace Obike, The Nation, Abuja, November 11, 2017

Apart from the Gurara hydropower plant, Kashimbila hydropower plant, Gurara II, Lokoja and Dasin hausa, which has either been completed, about to be completed or in talks with potential investors. The Federal Government is poised to complete seven other ongoing water supply projects and twenty one dams and irrigation projects between 2018 and 2019.

FG is also in advanced discussions with potential investors for the Gurara II, Lokoja and Dasin hausa hydropower projects, which when completed will produce a combined 1,250MW electricity to the national grid. Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu made this disclosure in Abuja, while presenting the two years score card of his ministry. He added that at his resumption of office, his ministry agreed to prioritize the 116 uncompleted or abandoned major projects he had met and deploy resources towards completing and commissioning all high and medium priority projects from 2016 to 2019.

His words.” We have concluded a Technical Audit and prioritized. the hitherto uncompleted or abandoned 116 major projects that I met in the Ministry. We are deploying most of our resources towards completing and commissioning all the high and medium priority projects from 2016 – 2019. It is in this regard that we have completed and commissioned Central Ogbia Regional Water Supply Project in Bayelsa State. It is also my pleasure to inform this gathering that the following projects have also been completed and are ready for commissioning: “Northern Ishan Regional Water Supply Project, Edo State.

We have concluded a Technical Audit and prioritized. the hitherto uncompleted or abandoned 116 major projects that I met in the Ministry. We are deploying most of our resources towards completing and commissioning all the high and medium priority projects from 2016 – 2019. It is in this regard that we have completed and commissioned Central Ogbia Regional Water Supply Project in Bayelsa State. It is also my pleasure to inform this gathering that the following projects have also been completed and are ready for commissioning: “Northern Ishan Regional Water Supply Project, Edo State rehabilitation of Ojirami Dam Water Supply Project, Edo State. Kashimbiia Dam, Taraba State. Ogwashi-Uku Dam, Delta State. “Two (2) other projects: Shagari and Barikin Ladi Irrigation Projects will be completed in early 2018.

Our plan is to complete 7 other ongoing Water Supply Projects and 21 Dam and Irrigation Projects between 2018 and 2019, including the following: Water Supply Projects, Inyishi Water Supply Project, Ekeremor Water Supply Project, Sabke/Dutsi/Mashi Water Supply Projects, Zobe Water Supply Project, Mangu Water Supply Project. “Dam & Irritation Projects. Middle Ogun Irrigation Project, Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Project, Gari Irrigation Project, Kontagora Auna Dam Project, Bagwai Irrigation Project,Tada Shonga Irrigation Project, Adani Rice Irrigation Project, Ekuku Dam Project, Lower Anambra Irrigation Project, Ile-Ife Dam Project, Zauro Polder Irrigation Project and Otukpo Multipurpose Dam Project. ” Our Roadmap identified Dams with Hydro Power potential for Development and we have been in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing (FMWPH) to that effect. “We are currently making progress for the concessioning of the 30MW Gurara Hydropower plant which is planned to come into full operation by mid 2018. We are also progressing on our collaboration with FMWPH to concession the 40MW Kashimbila Hydropower Plant recently completed. In addition, we are in advanced discussions with potential investors for other hydropower projects including Gurara II (350MW), Lokoja (750MW) and Basin Hausa (150MW).

“With 1,800m3/Capita/year of available renewable water resources, Nigeria is not a water poor country.

“The Ministry has also championed the signing of an MOU between the Lake Chad Basin Commission and a Chinese company, who are presently undertaking further feasibility study on the proposed Interbasin Water Transfer Project from the Congo River into the Lake Chad. Furthermore, in an effort to arrive at the best solution in saving the Lake Chad, an International Conference on the Lake is now scheduled to hold in Abuja from 26th -28tln February, 2018 in collaboration with LCBC and UNESCO. “In addition, the Ministry has completed the engineering design and is set to commence in 2018 the Hawal InterBasin Transfer from River Hawal to River Ngadda. Phase 1 of the project is to augment water supply to Alau Dam so as to provide more sustainable source of water supply to Maiduguri and environs. Phase 2 of the project aims to resuscitate the 60,000Ha South Chad Irrigation Scheme, which became moribund following continuous drying up of Lake Chad over the years.”

________________________________________________________________________________

Africa On The Move for Energy: Nuclear and Hydro

July 24, 2017

“Nuclear Is the Future of Africa”

Russia’s Rosatom nuclear industry organization has signed an MOU with the African Young Generation in Nuclear, a non-profit organization, which was initiated earlier this year in Kenya. Its mission is education, with the goal to bring youth across the continent into the nuclear industry.

The MOU with Rosatom was signed during the three-day POWER-GEN & DistibuTECH Africa 2017 conference. Africa’s population is a predominantly young one, said Viktor Polikarpov from Rostaom, at the signing. “This is why we attach great importance to working with the young people who will implement and take further the nuclear programs we have laid the groundwork for,” he said. “Nuclear is the future of Africa.”

Gaopalelwe Santswere, President of the African Young Generation in Nuclear, explained that the organization has a membership of over 350 professionals working in the nuclear power sector across Africa. “Africa is the new nuclear frontier,” he said, “and we are working to equip the continent’s young professionals with the skills they will need in this new environment.” Santswere said that his organization aims to formalize similar agreements with other industry organizations.

Public education and youth recruitment to nuclear are key elements in defeating the aggressive mobilization by the financial mafia and their political shock troops out to try to destroy the only power-producing nuclear program on the continent, in South Africa, and prevent other African nations from going nuclear.

Power-Starved African Nations Move Ahead with Hydropower Projects

After years of planning, Nigeria has begun construction of the 3,050 MW Mambilla hydropower project located on the Donga River in eastern Nigeria, forming its border with Cameroon. The Donga arises from the Mambilla Plateau in eastern Nigeria and flows northwest to merge with the Benue River in Nigeria. Two Chinese firms, Gezhouba Construction Group Corp. (CGGC), and the Sinohydro Corp. will be handling the engineering, procurement and construction contract.

Nigeria’s Minister of Power Babatunde Fashola said earlier this week that the government expects the plant to be complete in 2024. Mambilla is one of four hydropower projects Fashola called on the country to expedite last year. The others are the 700-MW Zungeru, 250-MW Gurara, and 35-MW Dadin Kowa — all of which Nigeria wants to see inaugurated within the next decade, Hydroworld reported.

Also, the Hydoworld reported that in late-June Ivory Coast has commissioned the 275 MW Soubre hydroelectric power station. The station, located at Naoua Falls on the Sassandra River near the city of Soubre, in southwestern Ivory Coast, will cost about $570 million. It was developed by Power Construction Corp. of China (Power China). China’s Sinohydro Corp. Ltd. constructed the project, which was 85% financed by Export-Import Bank of China and 15% by Ivory Coast, {Global Times} reported.

Power China said work on the project began in February 2013 and the project’s 4.5 km long Soubre Dam is the largest of its kind in the West African country. The project is expected to annually generate about 1,190 GWh and provide 90% of the country’s electricity, Hydroworld wrote.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Ethiopia’s Economic Growth Model Become A Template for Africa Despite the World Bank’s Objection?

By Lawrence Freeman

June 4, 2016

Contrary to the obsessive fixation by the West concerning human rights violations by the government of Ethiopia, the most fundamental human right is: the right to live.  Similar to China that has lifted 500 million of its citizens out of poverty over the last three decades, Ethiopia has reduced the number of people living in poverty by one third over the last decade, from 38.7% of the population in 2004 to 26% in 2014.  In neither country was it accomplished by accident, but rather by intention through government directed policies, which recognized the critical role of the state in fostering economic growth, especially in supporting infrastructure projects in vital categories of water, energy, roads, and rail development. In the case of Ethiopia, this is the result of the of the intellectual leadership of now deceased Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who developed the concept of the “Developmental State” to secure his nation’s economic future as opposed to relying on the so called freedom of the market place. Ethiopia, the second most populated nation in sub-Saharan Africa approaching 100 million people, is on a unique path of growth as a result of successful state interventionist polices.

While it cannot be denied that poverty exist, Zenawi and his legacy have changed more than the direction of Ethiopia, they have changed the actually the dynamic of the economy that even Ethiopia’s detractors have begrudgingly been compelled to acknowledge.

Eradicating Poverty Is the Goal

After settling an internal policy debate, Ethiopia’s leadership beginning in 2001 determined that the long-term vision for this large undeveloped nation was not tomanage poverty, but to eradicate it. This vision of the future, thinking generations ahead,has governed the nation’s policies in the present. It has also guided the thinking for theselection of the nation’s economic goals outlined in Ethiopia’s first Growth andTransformation Plan-(GTP I), 2010/11–2014/15, and draft of The Second Growth andTransformation Plan-(GTP II), 2015/16–2019/20.

The government’s understanding of the primary importance of infrastructure in realizing its intentions is succinctly articulated in GTP I: “Expansion andmaintenance of infrastructure such as road, power, and water supply need to be seenfrom the standpoint of enhancing and sustaining pro-poor growth by the way of job
creation, initiating domestic industrial development, thereby contributing to povertyeradication of the country.”

This central theme of Ethiopian policy is repeated in GTP II: “The economic growth registered so far has been broad-based and pro-poor. Growth has continued to generate employment, improving income and reducing poverty. Yet despite progress made, employment generation and poverty eradication still remain as our number one development agenda… The overall strategic directions of the infrastructure sector are to ensure infrastructure that supports rapid economic growth and structural transformation, creating mass employment opportunity…”

Continue reading

_____________________________________________________________

Ethiopia’s Top Priority: Eliminate Poverty And Backwardness

Lawrence Freeman and Donielle DeToy

December 8, 2014

Ethiopia, the most populous landlocked country in the world, with over 93 million people, lacking abundant precious metals and other high priced resources, has made the development of its people, its most valuable resource, the primary focus of its policies. Bereket Simon, a valued adviser to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, emphasized in discussions with EIR the importance of the government’s role in improving its economy; reversing low productivity, and advancing the livelihoods of its citizens, by strengthening employment in the formal economy over the backward informal sector.

The Ethiopian Popular Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling coalition, has rejected the neo-liberal policies which dictate that only unbridled free trade and the forces of the “market” can determine the future of a nation. Instead, the EPRDF insists that the government has the responsibility and obligation to advance society by infusing it with new technologies, building necessary infrastructure, enhancing the skill levels of its workforce, and improving access to information and financing.

Continue reading

________________________________________________________________________________

The Nile Basin: Egypt’s Role in Africa’s Development

Hussein Askary and Dean Andromidas, Part III

October 10, 2014

In almost all academic papers and reports by international organizations, including the UN, water is treated as a closed system, with a finite amount of water and limited potential for development. The linear measurements of the water and land resources exclude creative, noetic human intervention, in the form of technology to transform these resources and multiply their effect. On the contrary, humans, whose growth in numbers and needs is not linear but geometrical, are considered a burden on the natural resources that are growing arithmetically, to cite the British Empire’s genocide theorist Thomas Malthus. This is reflected, often subconsciously, in many “scientific” papers presented in conferences concerning water issues in the world, to which this author has been a witness.

Continue reading

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Peace Through Development Could Have Prevented Collapse of South Sudan

Lawrence Freeman

February 14, 2014

Given the level of violent conflict that has engulfed South Sudan, when fighting broke out on the evening of Dec. 15, 2013, bringing the world’s newest nation to the brink of civil war, why is a presentation of Dr. Lual A. Deng’s idea of “peace through development” for South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan, timely and necessary?
His unique proposal of creating a new geometry of peaceful relations between the two Sudans, emanating from a zone of economic development among the ten states along their common border, is exactly the kind “out-of-the box,”non-practical thinking required…

Dr. Deng was a devout follower of the late Dr. John Garang de Mabior, known affectionately as Dr. John, or Uncle John, the founder of Sudan’s People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), who was the intellectual and political guiding force that led to the creation of South Sudan on July 9, 2011.

Dr. Deng, who has been criticized by members of his own party, the SPLM, for speaking out, publicly and in his book, against decisions made by the government of South Sudan, has survived as a maverick within his party. His relationship with Dr. Garang, which goes back to their first meeting in March 1974 in the city of Wau, now the capital of the state of Western Bahr el Ghazal, lasted more than 30 years, until Garang’s mysterious and  untimely death.

Continue reading

 ________________________________________________________________________

Ethiopian Dam: Development Not Hunger for East Africa

Mulugeta Zewdie Michael

November 25, 2013

I thank the organizers who created an opportunity for me to present here, in the framework of big projects that could change the status of the world economy, to give as an example, the “Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam” project. Before that, I just want to give you some background, of why we came to the conclusion of constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River.

Ethiopia’s long-term potential for exploitable energy is estimated at about 60,000 MW, with hydro-power
providing 45,000 MW; geothermal, 10,000 MW; and wind and other energy sources, some 5,000 MW. However, of the 45,000 MW hydropower potential, Ethiopia has so far used only 2,000 MW. Now, you can imagine the potential that could have, to bring us out of poverty in Ethiopia.

It is public knowledge, what Ethiopia looked like some 20 years ago, and what it looks like now. We speak about a new Ethiopia, now, on the basis of the economic policy we have followed. We have accomplished, for example, that Ethiopia has registered, for the last eight years, consecutively, an average of 11% economic growth. And we believe that such projects, again, will bring us into a bright future, where we can save also the next generation

Continue reading

_______________________________________________________________________

Impoverished Mali Can Become A Bread Basket of the Sahel

Lawrence Freeman

July 12, 2013

There is a genuine desire by the Malian people to have their Presidential election on July 28, their first since the March 2012 coup d’état destabilized their country, and since the war against the jihadist invasion in the north. If this month’s vote is successfully completed, the underlying issues that led to the crisis in Mali will still have to be addressed. A long-term strategic vision for the country, and for the entire Sahel, is desperately needed, to lift up this impoverished region, which is suffering from an extreme lack of development in basic infrastructure, especially in the critical areas of energy and transportation.

In a week-long visit to Mali (June 14-20), this author discovered what could be described as the country’s hidden” treasure: the Niger Inland Delta, which stretches 400 kilometers from the city of Djénné, north to the famous city of Timbuktu. West of the Delta one finds the Faguibine Lake system of five lake basins, another mense untapped resource of water. From satellite photographs, the Delta appears as a gleaming giant emerald lying in the midst of the vast brown deserts of North Africa.

With the increased utilization of the great potential of the Delta and Faguibine, as an integral part of regional
development approach, pivoted on massive expansion of infrastructure in water, energy, and transportation, the
desert can be transformed into a lush garden, capable of creating the conditions for food self-sufficiency in Mali, as well as producing significant amounts of food to aid in eliminating hunger and the loss of life for millions of
Africans suffering from a lack of nutrition.

Continue reading

__________________________________________________________________________________

Africa Needs Transformative Infrastructure Projects  to Stop Genocide of Its People

Africa’s Great Deficit: Challenges of Infrastructure Decay, Development

With the creation of the Organization of Africa Unity by thirty-two African signatories on May 25, 1963, there was a sense of optimism in Africa and the world, which corresponded with election two and half  years earlier of the pro-African President, John F Kennedy, an adherent of President Franklin Roosevelt. A mere six months later President Kennedy was assassinated, which began a long wave of pessimism, and decline, especially in the US, from which we have never recovered.

As the OAU transitioned into the African Union in the early years of this century, its focus shifted away from liberation wars against colonialism to an emphasis on “Africa’s development and integration.” The vision of the AU is for: “An integrated prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.” (AU website) The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) adopted by both the OAU and AU, emerged from the struggle of 1970s and 1980s and: “Faced  with the onset of an economic crisis-huge foreign debts and declines in social development-and the  failure of the international financial institutions’ free market polices, African countries  tried to reverse these trends by calling for a new international economic order (NIEO) through which they could craft self-reliant, culturally relevant and state-influenced development strategies.” (http://www.nepad.org)

Unfortunately this vision has not been realized, and African nations today are still controlled from the outside by the tentacles of those same those financial institutions that reside in the City of London.

Speaking truthfully, I can tell you that African nations will never develop their full potential, achieve true economic sovereignty, and end the continued suffering of their citizens, until the power of these financier-predators is broken, and a new radical transformation in long term strategic economic thinking for Africa and the world is brought into being. The development of African nations have been deliberately suppressed initially during the colonial period, and following the “Winds of Change,” by neo-colonial practices that have accomplished the same desired result: the looting of the continent’s abundant resources under the ground, accompanied by the killing of tens of millions of “natives” above the ground. That is how Lord Cecil Rhodes described British Imperial policy over a century ago, and sadly these polices have not changed today, only their form.

The two chief mechanisms used to achieve these desired ends have been: 1) the intentional refusal to build regional and trans-continental infrastructure projects in vital categories of power, water, and rail transportation; and 2) the manipulation, creation, and nurturing of “ethnic-religious’ differences. The intended consequence has been fragile or weakened states throughout all regions of the continent. Suffering from the lack of the basic necessities of life, desperate people, predictably turn on each other; fighting and killing their brothers and sisters over food, land, and water, simply to stay alive. We witness these conditions today in Sudan and South Sudan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Mali.

Conflicts, wars, famine, and the rise of insurgency, will continue until their root causes are extirpated, and replaced by a new economic system committed to growth and progress.

What Is Wealth?

It has become the latest popular fad, rampant in western capitals, to fraudulently claim that six of the fastest growing countries in the world are in Africa. I say bunk!  Look at what are they measuring and the fallacy is obvious.  The problem is popular opinion; the belief that money has intrinsic wealth, and therefore everything can be measured in money related values.

Take Nigeria for example, which is reported to have one of highest rates of growth over the first decade of this century according to statistics from the International Monetary Fund. What is the IMF measuring? Not the real growth of economy. Instead it is simply adding up monetary statistical price-values of various sectors, such as; oil, banking-finance, housing, the stock exchange, and who can forget, cell phones. Lyndon LaRouche, the founder of Executive Intelligence Review has insisted on the fundamental distinction between financial-money values and real physical wealth. When we measure the progress of an economy over time, we look at values of physical production per capita and per land area. For example, what is the real economy of Nigeria?

We should examine: food consumption per capita and food production per square kilometer of land; electrical power per capita, per square kilometer, and total megawatt output; total kilometers of rail lines relative to the total land area. The same type of measurements can be done with production levels of steel, turbines, tractors, etc. Next we measure the rate of change of these categories of physical production from one production cycle to the next, with special attention to the levels of capital intensity and energy flux density-(the power of your energy source) employed in the production process.

Once we look at physical wealth per capita per land area, we see why Nigeria is in its current condition: over 100 million people trying to live on 1-2 dollars a day; a measly 4000 megawatts of power for almost 170 million people; imports of basic food such as wheat, rice, fish and sugar, growing at 11% annually. And, it was just in March of this year, that Nigeria finally has an operational rail line between two key cities-Lagos and Kano-even if at only at 20-30 miles per our.

So what is actually growing; financialvalues, not the real physical economy. It should be obvious why financial-monetary statistics are not only wrong, but are worse than useless in forecasting the future of any economy. This was highlighted by the IMF’s 2010 report of Tunisia’s economy, praising it as a great model, months before it was overthrown by a population demanding jobs and food.

Credit Verses Money

Mr. LaRouche has advocated for decades to replace the post 1971 floating-rate exchange money system we have today with a Hamiltonian credit system, named after the revolutionary proposals by President George Washington’s first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, who created the First National Bank of the US in 1791

There is a fundamental difference in principle between money and credit; they are two different and distinct species, so to speak. While most people have become obsessed with the amount of money they can possess in their greedy little hand in the present moment, the principle of credit takes one into the realm of the future. Credit as opposed to money is extended for the creation of new-augmented wealth above what already is consumed in the present.

To understand the most elementary notion of credit, look at the production of food by the farmer. When the farmer is provided with adequate infrastructure and credit, he works to grow more food, whose value is above and beyond the costs that went into producing that crop. The creation of credit for the purchase of  land, fertilizer, seed, and capital equipment are essential features of Hamilton’s American System of economics, which will successfully increase food production when not sabotaged financial interest of the City of London.

It is immoral and without any justification to allow millions of people on this planet, especially in Africa with its fertile soil, to suffer from starvation and food insecurity, when mankind knows how to grow food. Nations’ agriculture sectors have been destroyed over the last two decades or more by the evils of globalization in the name of free-trade. African courtiers approached self sufficiency in feeding their people from their own land and labor through the 1960s and 1970s, even into the early 1980s. The combination of globalization which demands buying food at the cheapest prices and the World Trade Organization’s liberal mantra, not to interfere with the so called free-markets has caused people to die and suffer needlessly. It has been proven again and again, that when governments provide adequate amounts of credit and subsides to their farmers, not only does food production increase dramatically, but the whole economy progresses.

We have seen famines and severe food shortages throughout the Horn of Africa that have resulted in the deaths of millions. This is a form of population reduction, caused by the deliberate refusal to develop the agricultural potential of countries. It has been known for decades that Sudan could and still can, be the bread basket for Africa, with studies showing that it has the potential to feed the entire continent-1 billion people. Now South Sudan has 58 million acres of quality arable land, yet a large portion of its 9 million people require food aid to survive, and it is forced to import 95% of its food. Why was there a complete fixation by the west to indict President Omar al-Bashir, and not the same commitment to develop this great untapped agricultural potential, decades ago? Isn’t it a crime against humanity; to let people die from starvation when we could have provided them with food?

Leadership Is Living In The Future

Intervention by the state to improve the output of its agricultural sector is not only a matter of national security, but is an obligation of the state to provide for a better future for its citizens.

As I discussed earlier, growth of an economy takes place in an entirely different domain, from one that is based on foolishly on simply adding up monetary aggregates. It is not money that improves an economy, but investments in all forms of hard and soft infrastructure that lead to an increase the productive powers of labor of that society to provide it current population and its posterity.

A nation dedicated to providing for its citizens and their posterity need leaders who live in the future. As opposed to Adam Smith’s so called indivisible hand, nations develop and progress by the willful intention to create a better, and more prosperous future, than exists in the present. That intention to create additional-new physical wealth over the next 10-20 year production cycle, to accommodate an expanding population and a rising per capita standard of living, is what must govern the decisions of the present. Mastering such a time-reversal concept is necessary for competent economic planning. Only when our mind lives in the imagination of the future can we truly understand how to organize our activities in the present

For long term, durable economic growth, we must also create a culture that will give birth to a continuous flow of discoveries of new scientific principles, which generate the technological advances required to continually transform the economy to the next higher level. Mr. LaRouche has revolutionized economic forecasting by identifying that the power to make these discoveries lies uniquely in the creativity of mankind. Each new child born is endowed by the Creator with the power of creative mentation, thus a source of potential new wealth for all of humanity.

       The truest definition of economic value, is that unit of action, generated from the creative mind of man, which transforms the productive powers of labor to cause an increase in the physical wealth of society measured in output per capita and per square kilometer.

The West Is Dying

When the long simmering fictitious-bubble financial system of the Trans-Atlantic nations exploded in 2007-2008, it was no longer possible to have any illusions, that the west, under the current bankrupt monetarist financial system would invest in Africa at the levels necessary to transform the continent.

The Euro Zone nations, stripped of their sovereignty are undergoing an accelerated contraction of their economies under the diktats of the Troika; the IMF, the European Central Bank, and the EU Commission. As a result of implementing these austerity measures European nations have experienced such a dramatic increase in the death rate; they have been characterized as being “Africanized.”

law8

[Graph of youth unemployment in Europe]

If you can see the graph it shows that from 2008-2012 youth unemployment in six European countries doubled. In Greece it increased from 22.1% in 2008 to 55.3% at the close of 2012. In Spain, youth unemployment increased from 24.6% to 53.2% in the same time period, and rose again in the first quarter of 2013. This is the result of implementing the Troika orders on behalf of trying to keep a bankrupt banking system alive, when it is already dead. These figures make abundantly clear, that the Europeans are experiencing youth unemployment at levels approaching what we have previously only witnessed in African nations, but are actually far worse, because they are happening in so called advanced sector urbanized nations.

What Must Be Done

Therefore, it is urgent that we have the immediate re-implementation of Glass Steagall as first passed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. My organization has spearheaded a drive over several years for re-implementation of Glass Steagall. I am happy to report to you that on May 23, Senator Harkin from Iowa introduced S. 985 in the Senate, and that Marcy Kaptur from Ohio at the beginning of the year sponsored HR 129 with bi-partisan support in the House. This law separates the universal-gambling casino banks from the legitimate savings and commercial banks that serve the interest of sovereign nations. Once this law goes into effect, it will end all “bail-outs” and “bail-ins” that have cost taxpayers and depositors trillions of dollars to keep alive “the too big to fail banks” in the US and Europe.  Other countries will follow the US example, resulting in the bankrupting-wiping out of over one quadrillion dollars of debt, derivates-gambling debts, and other worthless securities, allowing nations the freedom to return to traditional-normal banking practices. The immediate passage of Glass Steagall is not just a good idea, but the only option available to stop the downward spiral of the world economy into complete destruction.

The second step accompanying a Glass Steagall law is the creation of Hamiltonian credit banks by every nation, to provide the credit for investment in agriculture, manufacturing, and other categories of production most especially in infrastructure.

The third feature of this program for progress is investment in transformative infrastructure projects.

To quote NEPAD: “There can be no meaningful development without trade and there can be no trade without adequate and meaningful infrastructure.”

However, I can say with confidence that the private sector will never

fund the quantity and quality of infrastructure projects Africa requires. It must and can only be done by public credit earmarked for productive purposes, not for paying off debts, or for speculation. I would recommend that African nations move as quickly as possible towards allocating 50% of their budgets on infrastructure

Let me conclude by presenting an idea of what the future can be. These are not pie in the sky fantasies or white elephants. These are a few great-regional and trans-continental transformative projects beyond what has been discussed by the AU and NEPAD that are exemplary of the great possibilities of development that lie ahead for mankind, if we chose to accept the challenge.

MAIN LINES OF WORLDWIDE RAIL NETWORK-A GLOBAL LANDBRIDGE Proposed by Mrs. Helga Zepp LaRouche in the EIR Special Report: “The Eurasian Land-Bridge; The New ‘Silk Road’-locomotive for worldwide economic development.” (January 1997)

MAIN LINES OF WORLDWIDE RAIL NETWORK-A GLOBAL LANDBRIDGE
Proposed by Mrs. Helga Zepp LaRouche in the EIR Special Report: “The Eurasian Land-Bridge; The New ‘Silk Road’-locomotive for worldwide economic development.” (January 1997)

 law4 

NAWAPA-North American Water and Power Alliance

Originally proposed in 1964 and revised by Lyndon LaRouche’s political action committee-“NAWAPAXXI” (2012 larouchepac.com)  

132 million acre feet of water from the northwest Pacific basin, will transform Canada, the US and Mexico, creating up to 12 million jobs, gigawatts of additional power, rail transportation across the US into Alaska, water management that will double irrigation in the US and Mexico, effecting a dramatic increase in food production and a total advance in the productivity of North America.

law3

TRANSAQUA

“The Congo-Chad Water Transfer: The Main Features of a Feasibility Study” (EIR Oct 8, 2010 pages 30-34)

This project; Transaqua: An Idea for the Sahel” was first proposed 1991-1992 by an Italian engineering firm, Bonifica, so it has been known for over two decades. The concept is simple; mankind intervenes to assist Mother Nature by transferring water from a wet region-the Congo Basin to a dry region-the Chad Basin, to improve human life and biosphere. The Congo River has 1.9 trillion cubic meters of water flowing out into the Atlantic annually. We can curtail about 5% of this discharge, 1 billion cubic meters, and build a navigable canal send it north to join the Obangui River, across Central Africa Republic, into River Chari, to refurbish Lake Chad. The CAR  would become an integrated river port, Lake Chad would expand instead of disappearing, effecting the lives of 50 million people, from Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Niger, reversing the encroachment of the desert, over-all creating new possibilities for economic growth for the Sahel.

law5

 CANAL FROM EASTERN CONGO TO QATTARA DEPRESSION

EIR feature: “Program for an Economic Miracle in Southern Europe, The Mediterranean Region, And Africa.” (“Afro-Mediterranean Revolutionary Project” EIR June 8, 2012, pages 39-43)

This project proposed by Aiman Rsheed, in 2011. An irrigation canal 40 meters wide and 3,800 kilometers long flowing from the highlands of eastern Congo, with the Congo River flowing north through the CAR, Sudan, and South Sudan through Egypt to fill the Qattara Depression . This will transform the desert, increase agricultural and energy production.

law6 

AFRICAN PASS TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

EIR feature (June 8, 2012, pages 39-43)

 

This rail project begins with a seaport Sidi Barrani in north-western Egypt, to be connected to Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, DRC, the CAR, Sudan and South Sudan by high speed rails and highways, in the second phase extends to Somalia and Ethiopia, and in the third phase to Asia through a tunnel underneath the Suez Canal. The fourth phase includes a high speed rail across North Africa connecting to Europe through the planned Gibraltar tunnel.

law7

EAST-WEST RAIL ROAD-Dakar to Port Sudan

“Sudan Inaugurates Continental Railway.” (EIR, January 22, 2012, pages 9-14)

The Organization of the Islamic Conference is preparing to fund the Dakar-Port Sudan Railway Line of approximately 14,000 kilometers. The main line would link Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Senegal as the main east-west line, followed by additional branches to Djibouti, Libya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, revolutionizing transport, production, and trade across the girth of Africa.

Final Concluding Comment

Africa is reported to have the fastest growing youth population, ages 15-24, in the world, making up 20% of the total population of the continent or 200 million, and 60% of the unemployed. Construction of these infrastructure projects will not only be the most efficient way to provide employment for Africa’s “youth bulge,”  but it will necessitate the education and training of tens of millions of youth as laborers, engineers and scientists.  This course of action will provide a bright future for all Africans, and benefit the entire world. .

There is no solution to continent’s curse of insurgency, war, and weak states without economic progress measured in physical terms. The very task of completing these types of infrastructure projects, ones that encompass several countries working together provides these nations with a vision for the future. This common mission; economic development in the service of the common good of all people, constitutes a new dynamic of relations, that will serve as a unique platform to achieve true unity. The AU should dedicate itself to this mission above and beyond all else.

I am always reminded, if not guided by, what Pope Paul VI wrote in his encyclical, Populorum Progressio-on the development of peoples-that “Development is the New Name for Peace.” This was written in March 26, 1967, four years after the founding the OAU. The fulfillment of this mission is more imperative today than ever. So let’s get moving! We cannot have another anniversary, years from now, and still be discussing these projects for the future, but instead Africans should be enjoying the fruits of their labor.

______________________________________________________________________

South  Sudan Could Feed Its People and Export Food

Lawrence Freeman

December 30, 2012

For the new Republic of South Sudan, the government must begin now to finally realize its agriculture potential, providing food not only to its own people, but also to its neighbors in the Horn of Africa and in the Maghreb to the north. This will not only require investments in essential infrastructure way beyond what is presently envisioned; it must include, above all else, the Republic of the Sudan (in the North) and the Republic of South Sudan each accepting the other as its most important ally, linked by shared economic development. “We need the

North as much as they need us,” says the Hon. Betty Achan Ogwaro, Agricultural Minister of the Republic of South Sudan (see Interview). And she is right!

Continue reading

_________________________________________________________________________________

Interview With South Sudan’s Minister of  Agriculture: Infrastructure is the Key

Lawrence Freeman

December 15, 2012

Min.Betty Achan Ogwaro: Yes. Our population is approximately 9 million people; the land is big, but the population is not very big. Infrastructure is the key to development of agriculture. In infrastructure, transport is the major key. The transport includes roads, waterways; it includes rails, and also air. And then, electricity and dams-all these are within the infrastructure. And that is the number one, key priority of the government.

So thegovernment is trying to put all its money to develop some of this infrastructure. What they cannot do alone, they can negotiate with a neighboring country. With Uganda, they’ve already negotiated—Uganda is bringing the road up to the border of Sudan at Nimule, and now USAID is doing the Nimule-Juba road, which is paved. That is the longest paved road ever in South

Continue reading

______________________________________________________________________________

Interview: Kamal Ali Mohammed Sudan Irrigation Minister:   Build Infrastructure, Use Water Resources

May 20, 2011

Sudan as a whole has been self-sufficient in basic food requirements in the past, and its agricultural potential is enormous: Fully 40% of the land area is fertile and arable. Studies have shown that if Sudan’s full potential were reached, it could provide over 1 billion tons of food, enough to feed North Africa and the Horn. Yet in 2002, only 16% of that area was actually being cultivated. The seasonal lack of rainfall can create acute food shortages, especially in central Sudan.

.Sudan as a whole has been self-sufficient in basic food requirements in the past, and its agricultural potential is enormous: Fully 40% of the land area is fertile and arable. Studies have shown that if Sudan’s full potential were reached, it could provide over 1 billion tons of food, enough to feed North Africa and the Horn. Yet in 2002, only 16% of that area was actually being cultivated. The seasonal lack of rainfall can create acute food shortages, especially in central Sudan

continue reading

______________________________________________________________________________

Sudan Inaugurates Continental Railway

Hussein Askary

January 14, 2010

African nations, with the Republic of Sudan taking a leading role, have given life to the project of connecting and integrating West and East Africa through a modern railway network. The dreams of a Dakar-Djibouti railway and a Cairo-Cape Town line, were born more than a hundred years ago, but colonialism and imperial schemes to divide and conquer Africa have prevented them from being realized. Now, the time has come for their renaissance.

A conference of the transport ministers of member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was held in Khartoum, Sudan, Dec. 10-12, 2009, to discuss launching what is officially known now as the Dakar-Port Sudan Railway Line. The OIC is an assembly of 57 predominantly Muslim nations, extending  from Asia through the Middle East to Africa.

Continue reading

__________________________________________________________________________

Sudan’s ‘TVA’: A Development Model for All of Africa

Hussein Askary

April 17, 2009

In the past two months, since the illegal “arrest warrant” was issued by the ICC against Bashir, the President has inaugurated several infrastructure projects including the Merowe Dam and the Tuti Bridge in Khartoum. The latter connects, for the first time, Khartoum city to the island of Tuti that is located at the conjuncture of the Blue and White Nile rivers at the capital.

I have written about the economic potential of Sudan, and specifically, the Merowe Dam hydro-power and the water project in its vicinity and their impact on the agricultural potential of Sudan as the  “Breadbasket of Africa.” However, after visiting Sudan earlier this month, seeing the magnitude of these development projects, and talking with young Sudanese engineers at the Dam Implementation Unit (DIU), I realized that my view of the whole process has to be adjusted to match the reality.

Continue reading

____________________________________________________________________

New Merowe Dam Angers Sudan’s Enemies

Hussain Askary

March 13, 2009

One day before the illegal International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its arrest warrant against Sudan’s President Omar Hasan al-Bashir for alleged war crimes, al-Bashir led a national celebration on March 4 marking the accomplishment of one of the largest engineering projects in all Africa in decades, the Merowe Dam. President Bashir, surrounded by thousands of Sudanese citizens and farmers benefiting from the project, gave the start-up signal for the dam’s first two turbines (of ten). This comprehensive hydroelectric agro-industrial project was built with the help of China, and financed by Sudan, China, and some Arab countries. The turbines are provided by the French company Alstom, and the consulting services by the German firm Lahmeyer International.

Continue reading

____________________________________________________________________________

Infrastructure Takes Root in Niger Delta

Lawrence Freeman

August 18, 2006

Sir Henri Deterding, who created the Royal Dutch Shell oil ing’s Royal Dutch Shell oil company in the early 20th Century, and later supported Adolf Hitler’s drive to create a Third Reich Empire, would be happy to see how Royal Dutch Shell has destroyed Nigeria, and water, and prevented it from becoming an independent sovereign nation.

Royal Dutch Shell, which first discovered oil in Nigeria in 1956, has been in the forefront of implementing genocide in Nigeria. The genocidal policy for sub-Saharan Africa continues to this day to be: Remove the African “natives” above the ground, to steal the resources under the ground.

The week-long fact-finding tour by EIR of the Rivers and Bayelsa states, located in the oil- and gas-rich Niger Delta region, sensuously revealed the effects of this ongoing policy and, most significantly, the actions being taken by progressive state leaders to reverse decades of intentional devastation in the region.

Continue reading

_____________________________________________________________

Proposed great projects for Africa

Jacques Cheminade, former French Presidential candidate, delivered the following keynote speech to the conference of the Schiller Institute in Paris on July II, 1995.

We are at a moment in history when Africa is being subjected to violence, poverty, and death. Africa is truly a victim of triage, a racist triage which excludes and eliminates whoever is politically and economically weakest. Everybody knows it, most of them say it, and no one–or nearly no one–does anything that might be needed to take up the challenge.

First of all, the Schiller Institute wishes to open up a forum for debate, where each person might contribute whatever unites us and not what separates us, whatever unites us in order to wage war against death and indifference. This debate has no meaning unless it leads to action; in that sense, it is a search for the common good between francophone Africans and anglophone Africans, between Islam and Christianity, to the ancient light of the animism of the griots [African poet/musicians] and the oracles; as well as a search for the common good between Africans and non-Africans–or rather, among Africans in the larger sense, since, through our origins, we are all indebted to Africa.

We must give back to Africa the right of development and progress, which is the first of the human rights. To do this, the European countries must change their own policies. both vis-a-vis the South, that is, Africa. 

[What follows is a list of great projects for Africa.]

Continue reading

Nuclear Energy Can Eliminate Poverty in Africa