Obama, in Ghana, Blames Africans for Their Problems

July 11 (EIRNS)—In his address to the Ghana Parliament today, at the Accra International Conference Center, U.S. President Barack Obama shattered any illusions that Africans may have had that U.S. policy toward Africa would abandon the policies advocated by the British imperial system.

Making no mention of the collapse of the world monetary system, and the ramifications of that collapse on Africa, Obama advocated policies for each of the four areas that he focussed on, which are exact replicas of policies of the London-based financial cartel.

Taking the approach of George Soros's Open Society, Obama charged that African countries were failing because of corruption, and a lack of democracy and good governance. The Soros approach serves to focus the anger and demoralization of the populations in African countries, resulting from the collapse of their economies, on their leaders and local institutions, instead of the collapse of the global monetary system and British imperial policies. Obama stated that the United States would pay greater attention to corruption in human rights reports on African countries.

Obama said that if there is good governance in Africa, then the possibility of prosperity will be broadened by public-private investments. He said that Africa would be able to leapfrog over the "dirtier"—i.e., industrial—phase of development, by opting for the wind, solar, and biofuel. He promised that the United States would do more to promote trade and investment in this area.

These "clean energies" are incompetent and can never provide the power required for a vibrant economy.

On the health issue, Obama promised investment to continue George W. Bush's policy on HIV/AIDS, and a public health commitment to promote "wellness," advocating "e-health" initiatives.

Obama also said that war criminals would be held accountable by the United States. He did not refer to Sudanese President Hassan Omar al-Bashir by name, but this is being taken as a reference to him. Africans are wondering if "good governance" means that you are not allowed to defend yourself against a foreign-backed rebellion.

His comments on Zimbabwe were proof that his knowledge of Africa is superficial, and that he was reading from a prepared script. He stated that the "West" was not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwe economy. He apparently doesn't know that:

1) The British agreement to grant independence to Zimbabwe included the demand that the new government would have to assume the debts acquired by the Ian Smith outlaw regime;

2) The British government agreed to settle the issue of land distribution, but reneged on this agreement with the blunt announcement by U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short to that effect, shortly after Tony Blair became Prime Minister;

3) When the Zimbabwe government subsequently began implementing land reform on its own, the British government withdrew all budgetary aid to Zimbabwe, getting other industrial countries to do the same. The Zimbabwe government was hitherto dependent on aid for about 50% of its budget. The economy collapsed as a result of the retraction of this aid. The collapse was blamed on the Zimbabwe government.

Africans are wondering if Obama's idea of good governance means, being subservient, forgoing industrial development, and doing as you are told.

British Imperialists Strive To Reduce Kenya to a Failed State

July 10 (EIRNS)—A Nairobi daily, The Standard, claimed yesterday that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan "deftly handed over Kenya ... to ICC [International Criminal Court] Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo." (Moreno Ocampo is controlled by the British Foreign Office's Lord Mark Malloch-Brown.) Annan had sent Moreno Ocampo a secret list of ten high-level Kenyans accused of responsibility for the violence that followed the December 2007 elections. It was the threat of this handover that led last month to the spectacle of two Kenyan cabinet ministers and the attorney general making a pilgrimage to The Hague to negotiate with Moreno Ocampo over the conditions under which the ICC would prosecute. The ICC, which has no official international status and of which the United States is not a member, has never prosecuted anybody who is not from Africa.

There is an ongoing project to label Kenya as a "failed state": The East African July 6 carried an article entitled, "Kenya: Going the Somalia Way? Apparently Yes." The article was based on the fact that the U.S. think tank Fund for Peace has ranked Kenya as 14 in the failed-state category. This is worse than Nigeria, Ethiopia, and North Korea. Corruption is the pretext for calling Kenya a failed state. By this criterion, every nation in the world is a failed state. Annan makes no demands for developing an industrial base in the economy which would create more wealth in the country, but says only that a more equitable distribution of resources is necessary.

The ICC imposition on Kenyan sovereignty threatens to lead to new violence and chaos by stirring up ethnic divisions. Since Somalia is being prevented from having a functioning government, Sudan will have difficulty preventing regional catastrophe if Kenya—where a third of the population suffers from severe food insecurity—were pushed into chaos.

After the 2007 violence, Annan was sent in by the British as chief mediator between the ruling Party of National Unity and the opposing Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to form the current coalition government. A Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence (CIPEV) was also established, with a most peculiar composition: a Kenyan judge, Philip Waki, as chairman; a New Zealand police investigator; and an emissary from George Soros's Open Society Institute in Washington, Pascal Kambale, a national of D.R. Congo, trained at Harvard Law School. This Commission wrote a report and compiled the secret list of ten figures whom they consider responsible for the violence. The Commission called on the government to form a local tribunal to try the suspects, and said that if the government failed to do so within a limited time, it would forward the list to the ICC. In October 2008, it handed the list to Annan "for safe-keeping."

The coalition government has since been negotiating postponements with Moreno Ocampo directly. The cabinet has proposed a special court of foreign and local judges; the prosecutor and investigator will be non-Kenyans. But Parliament is opposing this attack on the nation. Isaac Ruto, a Kenyan MP, said today that Parliament regards Kenya as sovereign, and would not pass laws on the basis of agreements that subordinate the country to foreigners.

Annan shocked Kenya by sending the secret list to Moreno Ocampo, claiming there had been enough delay. Today the ICC announced it had already set up a team of 14 professionals to investigate the suspects. Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako has promised Moreno Ocampo that he will send him police files soon, according to an ICC spokeswoman. Moreno Ocampo was interviewed on KTN, a Kenyan TV network, earlier this week. All of this is taking place despite the timetable that the ICC agreed to, for the government to demonstrate its commitment by Sept. 30 to try the suspects itself.