There is Hope for Justice After All

Of all the horrors of colonialism, the Belgian's behavior in the Congo was among the worst, from its initial days as the private property of king Leopold to its post-colonial actions, when Belgian authorities orchestrated the coup against and the subsequent murder of the duly elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.

This happened 65 years ago, but finally, Étienne Davignon has been charged with murder and crimes against humanity.

Unfortunately, the 93 year old former diplomat is the only person still alive who can be charged.

A former Belgian diplomat, 93, should stand trial over alleged complicity in the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of what was then the newly independent Congolese state, a Brussels court has ruled.

Étienne Davignon, the only person still alive among 10 Belgians the Lumumba family accuses of involvement in the killing, is charged with participation in war crimes.

The decision, which follows a surprise referral by the Brussels prosecutor last June, can be appealed against. Davignon, a former vice-president of the European Commission, has denied the charges.

In a statement the Lumumba family welcomed what they called a significant step: “For our family, this is not the end of a long

………

If the trial goes ahead, Davignon will be the first Belgian official to face justice over the assassination of Lumumba 65 years ago. In its decision, the court went beyond the prosecutor’s decision, extending the scope of the trial to cover Lumumba’s associates, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, who were murdered alongside him. 

Davignon is accused of participating in war crimes on three counts, according to information provided by the court of first nstance in Brussels:

• The illegal transfer of Lumumba and his associates from Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to Katanga.
• The “humiliating and degrading treatment” of the men.
• Depriving them of a fair trial.

Maybe one day we'll see this in the United States.

Not Sure What the Reason is for This

But Israel has becomes the first nation to formally recognize Somaliland, a region of what is generally considered to be Somalia which declared independence in 1991.

My guess is that the Israelis want to use the inevitable exchange of diplomatic personnel to derive some sort of military or intelligence advantage in Yemen, but I'm not sure what the Somalilanders get out of this.

Needless to say, the response of other African countries has been to preserve the (dysfunctional) colonial boundaries that they were left.  This has been one of the bedrock principles of every multinational project in Africa.

When there have been separations, South Sudan and Eritrea come to mind, they have been drawn on old colonial lines.

The interesting thing here is that Somaliland was colonized by the British, and the rest Somolia by Italy, and the union was largely created by British rat-fuckery on the way out.  (See India-Pakistan, Israel, Sri Lanka, Uganda, etc.  (In the latter two, they literally imported people from other parts of the empire to create ethnic tension)

I'm not quite sure how this is different from South Sudan and Eritrea, but the rest of Africa apparently sees this as an existential threat, which is what is worrying.

There is a lot that nations do in the face of a perceived existential threat. (Think of Biafra)

Israel has become the first country to recognise Somaliland as a sovereign state, a breakthrough in its quest for international recognition since it declared independence from Somalia 34 years ago.

The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced on Friday that Israel and Somaliland had signed an agreement establishing full diplomatic relations, which would include the opening of embassies and the appointment of ambassadors.

The recognition is a historic moment for Somaliland, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 but until now had failed to be recognised by any UN member states. Somaliland controls the north-west tip of Somalia, where it operates a de facto state, and is bordered by Djibouti to the north-west and Ethiopia to the west and south.

 ………

The AU said it “firmly rejects” Israel’s move, warning: “Any attempt to undermine the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Somalia ... risks setting a dangerous precedent with far-reaching implications for peace and stability across the continent.”

I don't thing that this is faux outrage.

………

Israeli analysts have said recognition of the breakaway state could be in Israel’s strategic interest, given Somaliland’s proximity to Yemen, where Israel has conducted extensive airstrikes against the Houthi rebels over the past two years.

A report in November by the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli thinktank, said: “Somaliland’s territory could serve as a forward base for multiple missions: intelligence monitoring of the Houthis and their armament efforts; logistical support for Yemen’s legitimate government in its war against them; and a platform for direct operations against the Houthis.”

As I noted, I understand why the Israelis wanted this, but I'm not sure what Somaliland gets out of this, except, perhaps, the first recognition, which is likely the hardest to get.

Huh, I Had This Idea a While Back

Source of picture here.The idea, and I do not think that it is particularly original or merits a patent is floating solar panels above reservoirs and hydroelectric lakes to minimize evaporation losses.

It's a neat idea, though I would use translucent photovoltaic cells to only allow light light in the 400-700 nm range to pass through.

If you block all light, you end up with dead lakes because there is no photosynthesis, though it's unlikely that one would be able to cover the whole surface, as fluctuations in depth would damage some of the panels.

Still, this does two good things, increases water supplies and reduces carbon footprint:

Sun-baked Morocco, grappling with its worst drought in decades, has launched a pilot project aimed at slowing water evaporation while simultaneously generating green energy using floating solar panels.

At a major reservoir near the northern city of Tangier, thousands of so-called “floatovoltaic” panels protect the water’s surface from the blazing sun and absorb its light to generate electricity.

………

Water ministry official Yassine Wahbi said the Tangier reservoir loses around 3,000 cubic metres (106,000 cubic feet) a day to evaporation, but that figure more than doubles in the hot summer months.

The floating photovoltaic panels can help cut evaporation by about 30 per cent, he said. 

It's a win-win, unless, of course, you are Dick Cheney.

The Fruits of Colonialism

We know that the junta that took over in Niger tossed out the French, and the French company mining uranium.

Now, Russia is proposing that it build a nuclear power plant in Niger.

Given that, despite sitting on top of one of the largest Uranium deposits in the world, the desperately poor country is dependent on coal powered plants and imported power, this no doubt seems like a welcome development.

I'd be surprised if they ever break ground, I think that there are some severe development and infrastructure issues to be addressed first, but it is a masterful bit of in your face diplomacy by both Niamey and Moscow.

Russia has dangled the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in uranium-rich Niger - a vast, arid state on the edge of the Sahara desert that has to import most of its electricity.

It may be deemed impractical and may never happen, but the concept is yet another move by Moscow to seek a geopolitical advantage over Western nations.

Niger has historically exported the metal for further refining in France, but that is changing as the military-led country cuts off ties with the former colonial power.

The uranium-mining operation operated by French nuclear group Orano was nationalised in June, which cleared the way for Russia to put itself forward as a new partner.

It is talking about power generation and medical applications, with a focus on training local expertise under a co-operation agreement signed between Russian-state corporation Rosatom and the Nigerien authorities.

This is a direct consequence of France's neo-colonial arrangements with its former colonies, which are best described as looting.

There is a lot of hate for France in the Sahel, and it is completely justified. 

If ever brought to fruition this would be the first nuclear power project in West Africa. 

Interesting Tech

A South African has initiated a program to make rhinoceros horns radioactive in an attempt to thwart poachers.

This is extremely low levels or radiation, but it's enough that it can be detected in a shipping container using already in place equipment designed to prevent nuclear weapon proliferation. 

A South African university has launched an anti-poaching campaign to inject the horns of rhinoceroses with radioactive isotopes that it says are harmless for the animals but can be detected by customs agents.

Under the collaborative project involving the University of the Witwatersrand, nuclear energy officials and conservationists, five rhinos were injected in what the university hopes will be the start of a mass injection of the declining rhino population, which they are calling the Rhisotope Project.

Last year, about 20 rhinos at a sanctuary were injected with isotopes in trials that paved the way for Thursday’s launch. The radioactive isotopes even at low levels can be recognised by radiation detectors at airports and borders, leading to the arrest of poachers and traffickers.

Researchers at Witwatersrand’s Radiation and Health Physics Unit said tests conducted in the pilot study confirmed that the radioactive material was not harmful to the rhinos.

 Kewl.

This Couldn't Happen Soon Enough

It looks like he DeBeers diamond cartel is on its last legs.

Between the increased output of gem quality manufactured diamonds, and the increasing demands by African nations to control their own diamond output, and get the money derived from the diamond trade, it looks like its death grip on the diamond market may be coming to an end.

To the degree that their neocolonial economic reign of terror ends, everyone, except of course for DeBeers, will be the better for it:

For over a hundred years, DeBeers has dominated and controlled the global diamond trade.

But today, Chinese factories are mass-producing lab-grown diamonds, which are chemically identical to natural stones, and prices are collapsing worldwide for both man-made and natural diamonds.

DeBeers sources most of their rough diamonds from mines in Botswana, and the new government there is determined to move DeBeers' value chains to Botswana itself, thereby retaining billions of dollars in industry revenues in-country.

Anglo-American is DeBeers' parent company, and they are trying to divest their holdings. But even after writing off $4.5 billion in book value in two years, no buyers can be found.  

The diamond industry has been a racket for over a century, with monopolists, primarily DeBeers, creating artificial scarcities to drive up the price.

For me, I'm not that concerned much about diamonds as gems, but I am interested the potential lab-grown diamonds as a heat sink material.  (Diamonds are the world's most thermally conductive substance as well as being an electrical insulator, which makes their engineering applications very interesting)

The real issue here is that DeBeers stole the wealth of (largely) African nations and kept it for themselves for many decases, and not this looks to end. 

Good Riddance

France has withdrawn from its last military base in West Africa, Camp Geille, in Senegal.

Good to see this bit of colonial occupation ending. 

Now lets see a withdrawal from the CFA Franc, which has member nations having to keep half of their foreign currency reserves in France. 

More Arrogant Than Elon

Yes, I know that concept boggles (buggers?) the mind, but Emanuel Macron just just criticized African leaders for being insufficiently grateful for the presence of French troops in their countries, and the associated looting and stolen national reserves that went along with this over the past 60 years.

Charles de Gaulle is watching from above, and saying, "Mon Dieu!  This one is more arrogant than Charles de Gaulle!"  (de Gaulle actually talked about himself that way)

Macron claimed that Sahel nations, struggling with civil unrest and extremism, owe their sovereignty to the presence of French forces.

He also dismissed assertions that French troops were expelled from the Sahel region, which encompasses several nations south of the Sahara Desert.

………

“We had a security relationship. It was in two folds: One was our commitment against terrorism since 2013. I think someone forgot to say thank you. It does not matter, it will come with time,”

“Ingratitude, I am well placed to know, is a disease not transmissible to man. I say it for all African leaders who did not have the courage vis-à-vis their public opinions to carry it, none of them would be today with a sovereign country if the French army had not deployed in this region.” Macron said

I'd say that Macron is a complete tool, but a tool has a use.

Donning My Tinfoil Hat

So, it appears that after Niger kicked the French military out of their country, there has been a huge upsurge in terrorism from Islamic extremists.

I'm thinking that there are entities in France and the US that might be supporting the aforementioned Islamists because they want to put the country back under Paris' thumb.

No evidence here, just my inner paranoid whispering in my ear:

Attacks that killed dozens of civilians and soldiers in Niger this month have put a spotlight on the military’s failure to restore security in the West African nation, nearly 18 months after staging a coup.

When the military seized power in July 2023, the generals claimed they were better suited to restore order to a country racked by the world’s deadliest jihadist insurgency. But Niger has since spiraled into further violence, with frequent attacks on military forces, the recent destruction of a village and the killing of more than 20 passengers on a bus.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on military forces. All three attacks took place in western Niger, where affiliates of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda are active.

Militants affiliated with these groups have killed nearly twice as many civilians since the coup, compared with the 18 months that preceded it, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, or A.C.L.E.D., a nonprofit that tracks global conflict.

If this is the case, it would not be unprecedented, as western intelligence has been supporting Jihadis as a way to achieve regime change in Syria.

It Was Inevitable

The government of Niger has revoked the operating license of the French government owned nuclear fuel company Orano at the Imouraren mine, likely because it has not done anything to develop its concession, and hence deliver any royalties, for nearly a decade:

Orano said it has been excluded from the Imouraren mine in northern Niger which sits on an estimated 200,000 tonnes of the metal, used for nuclear power and weapons.

Mining was meant to have started at Imouraren in 2015 but development was frozen after the collapse in world uranium prices in the wake of the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster.

The Niger government did not immediately comment on the company's statement. But it had vowed to review mining concessions in the country and the mining ministry had warned that it would take away Orano's licence if development work had not started by June 19.

A week before the deadline, Orano told AFP that "preparatory work" had recently started at Imouraren.

Yeah, like 3 porta-potties, I guess.

………

The junta vowed to review foreign mining concessions in the country after it took power in July last year.

The military rulers have also turned against France, ordering out French troops based in the country and increasing criticism of the former colonial power. Niger has increasingly turned to Russia and Iran for support.

Chinese, Australian, US, British, Italian, Canadian, Russian and Indian firms have secured uranium mining licenses in recent years. In 2022 there were 31 prospecting permits and 11 mining licences.

The Azelik mining company, majority held by Chinese interests, is increasingly taking over uranium mining in the north of the country that have been suspended for the past decade because of poor profitability.

Considering the terms of the concessions that prior regimes in Niger gave to French interests, the term larceny comes to mind, I am surprised that they could not make the numbers work.

There have been a string of coups in the Sahel over the past few years, and anger over the continued French economic and political dominance over their former colonies has been a driving force behind the military overthrow of these government.

To the Juntas now ruling these countries, hating on the French is both good policy and good politics.

Stupid Arrogance

Following the coup in Niger, US officials visited the generals and threatened them if they got too close to Russia or China, and the regime told the US military to get the f%$# out of the country.

Seriously, the US foreign policy Blob is amazingly incompetent:

On March 17 Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) suspended its military agreement with the United States after a visit by senior U.S. officials to the capital, Niamey. A CNSP spokesman said the decision was made after the U.S. delegation warned the military regime against partnering with Russia and Iran. Niger, which hosts around 1,000 U.S. troops and a drone base, has been an important partner in Washington’s counterterrorism operations in the region. But relations have deteriorated considerably since July 2023, when Niger’s presidential guard removed democratically elected Mohamed Bozoum and installed General Abdourahamane Tchiani.

Russian influence looms large in Western discourse on the Sahel, and now informs U.S. policy and decision-making in places like Niger. This is a mistake. Outsized focus on Russia misunderstands the scale and scope of Moscow’s presence. More importantly, it ignores longstanding patterns of governance and denies the role of Africans in emerging pro-sovereignty movements and political blocs.Neither the U.S. nor Russia are in a position to force Africans to choose sides, efforts to do so will only result in rebuke.

African governments seek to balance outside powers while retaining the ability to work with each. Historically, local elites leverage these often unequal relations with powerful states to enhance their own domestic position. In francophone Africa, the cozy relationship between French officials, companies, and African autocrats came to be known as Françafrique. Niger had become somewhat of an exception among its peers, however, when it pursued close military ties with the United States.

Recent years have seen a wave of anti-French sentiment hit the Sahel. Military regimes seeking political legitimacy have helped foment anti-French sentiment, but they do not control it. The backing of Paris is politically poisonous; kicking the French military out of Niger was necessary to the CNSP’s survival.

………

It appears that the U.S. delegation’s visit to Niamey in March — led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and AFRICOM Commander General Michael Langley — did significant damage. Sahel expert Alex Thurston noted the reportedly uniliteral announcement of the U.S. delegation’s visit, and the relatively low rank of visiting officials, may have played a part.

The subject of the talks — Niger’s turn towards Russia and Iran — appears to have been equally insulting. Ironically, the U.S. delegation’s attempt to counter Russian influence in Niger has further pushed the CNSP to seek ties with Russia.

U.S. focus on Russia misses the reality that Africans, not Russians or Americans, are driving major political shifts in the Sahel. The formation of the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), for example, was a project initiated by Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger first and foremost to counteract the military threat from a regional bloc, ECOWAS. That Russia welcomed the development does not mean Moscow inspired it.

This is what happens when you have self-absorbed narcissists running negotiations. 

If you are unwilling understand the needs and concerns the people with whom you negotiate, you will be unable to succeed.

Shorter Version, the French Are Bastards

Emmanuel Macron's recent statements regarding the deployment of regular French military forces to the Ukraine have a context, and this context is a neocolonialist plan for to continue looting their former colonies in Africa.

Specifically, the CFA Franc currency allowed the existing colonial economics to continue, where this allowed France to extract raw materials and import them at below market cost, and allowed them to sell finished goods at above market prices.

This was compounded by the installation of puppet governments post colonial independence, sabotage and destruction of infrastructure of uncooperative governments, and configuring corporate deals which would mean that all the profits (beyond what bribes went to corrupt leaders) ended up in France.

This looting has been central, arguably essential, to France's post colonial economic success, and the economic failures of these former colonies.

As a result of this, the coups in in the former French possessions in the Sahel have been aggressively anti-French, and have eagerly accepted Russian offers of security assistance.

Needless to say, the French, particularly Emmanuel Macron, who has waxed rhapsodic over Frances one-sided economic hegemony in Africa, consider this to be a severe threat to France and the French economy.

This conflict is what is driven Macron's bellicose pronouncements.

The video below is rather long, 48 minutes, but explains this context in exquisite detail, and is well worth the watch.

US Military Kicked out of Niger

Considering the fact that they had already kicked out French troops, and the US was making noises about an an alleged uranium deal between Niger and Iran, which is about as good an indication of an impending regime change operation as one can find, it is not a surprise that the Nigeran junta decided to act:

Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for Niger’s ruling junta, took to the national television network on Saturday to denounce the United States and end the long-standing counterterrorism partnership between the two countries.

“The government of Niger, taking into account the aspirations and interests of its people, revokes, with immediate effect, the agreement concerning the status of United States military personnel and civilian Defense Department employees,” he said, declaring that the security pact, in effect since 2012, violated Niger’s constitution.

The announcement came in the wake of spiking terrorist violence in the West African Sahel and on the heels of a visit to Niger by a high-level U.S. delegation that included top officials from the State and Defense Departments, as well as Gen. Michael Langley, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM.

“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships truly capable of helping them fight against terrorism,” Abdramane said. “The government of Niger forcefully denounces the condescending attitude accompanied by the threat of retaliation from the head of the American delegation.”

I would also note that the US involvement in anti-terrorism activities in Africa was accompanied by a 103,000% increase in terrorism in Africa in the past 20 years, (Not a typo or a decimal point error) which strongly implies (Note: Correlation is not causation) that the US involvement in the region has had a less than salutary effect on regional peace and stability. 

I do not think that Niger is particularly concerned by the (eventual) exit of US troops as a result, having realized that the mission's primary goal is likely US influence, and that counter terror aid is largely incidental.

………

The U.S. has roughly 1,000 military personnel and civilian contractors deployed to Niger, most of them clustered near the town of Agadez, on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, at Air Base 201. Known locally as “Base Americaine,” the outpost serves as the linchpin of the U.S. military’s archipelago of bases in North and West Africa and a key part of America’s wide-ranging surveillance and security efforts in the region. Since the 2010s, the U.S. has sunk roughly a quarter billion dollars into the outpost. This is in addition to more than $500 million in military assistance provided to Niger since 2012.

After a group of military officers deposed Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum last summer, the U.S. spent months avoiding the term “coup” before finally, as mandated by law, suspending approximately $200 million in aid. The U.S. did not, however, withdraw its forces from Niger and continued drone operations.

In the wake of Niger’s March 16 decree ending their status of forces agreement with the United States, both the State Department and Pentagon have done little more than acknowledge it. “[W]e’re seeking further clarification for … what that statement means,” said Defense Department Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh on Monday.

I'm not the sharpest tack in the balloon, but I believe that they are saying, to paraphrase Dr. Seuss, "Get the f%$# out now."

It will be interesting to see if Niger withdraws from the status of forces agreement, which would make US military personnel subject to local courts,

Singh went on to say that the U.S. delegation had “expressed concern over Niger’s potential relationships with Russia and Iran.” Earlier this month, Langley, the AFRICOM chief, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia was attempting to “take over” the Sahel. “During the past three years, national defense forces turned their guns against their own elected governments in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Niger,” he said, complaining that due to U.S. aid limitations following coups, these governments “turn to partners who lack restrictions in dealing with coup governments … particularly Russia.”

Yeah, there are already counter-coup plans underway.

………

“This security cooperation did not live up to the expectations of Nigeriens – all the massacres committed by the jihadists were carried out while the Americans were here,” said a Nigerien security analyst who has worked with U.S. officials and spoke on the condition of anonymity due to his ties with the Nigerien military. He said that the U.S. needed to negotiate a new agreement with more favorable terms for Niger that was free of the trappings of “paternalism and neocolonialism.”

Yeah, the US does not do agreements free of the , "Trappings of paternalism and neocoloniasm."

It ain't our bag.

It's probably why Russia and China are eating our lunch in Africa.

Chaos is Job Won

Since the United States has established a command for Africa and begun engaging in anti-terrorism operations on that continent, actual incidents of terrorism have increased by over 100,000%.

We are all aware of the old saw that, "Correlation is not causation," but it appears to me that someone in the US state security apparatus has indeed been very bad in their job:

Deaths from terrorism in Africa have skyrocketed more than 100,000 percent during the U.S. war on terror according to a new study by Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. These findings contradict claims by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) that it is thwarting terrorist threats on the continent and promoting security and stability.

Throughout all of Africa, the State Department counted a total of just nine terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003, resulting in a combined 23 casualties. At that time, the U.S. was just beginning a decades-long effort to provide billions of dollars in security assistance, train many thousands of African military personnel, set up dozens of outposts, dispatch its own commandos on a wide range of missions, create proxy forces, launch drone strikes, and even engage in ground combat with militants in Africa.

Most Americans, including members of Congress, are unaware of the extent of these operations — or how little they have done to protect African lives.

Last year, fatalities from militant Islamist violence in Africa rose by 20 percent — from 19,412 in 2022 to 23,322 — reaching “a record level of lethal violence,” according to the Africa Center. This represents almost a doubling in deaths since 2021 and a 101,300 percent jump since 2002-2003.

This is not much of a surprise. The goal of these operations is to generate combat ribbons for officers looking for career advancement, and to increase the influence of the US in general, and the Pentagon in particular in Africa. (Also lots of military contractors and consultants are making big bucks)

Speaking of Pentagon influence in Africa:

………

At least 15 officers who benefited from U.S. security assistance have been involved in 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel during the war on terror. The list includes officers from Burkina Faso (2014, 2015, and twice in 2022); Chad (2021); Gambia (2014); Guinea (2021); Mali (2012, 2020, and 2021); Mauritania (2008); and Niger (2023). At least five leaders of the Nigerien junta, for example, received American assistance, according to a U.S. official. They, in turn, appointed five U.S.-trained members of the Nigerien security forces to serve as that country’s governors.

Such military coups have undermined American aims of providing stability and security to Africans, yet the United States has been hesitant to cut ties with these rogue regimes. Despite the Nigerien coup, for example, the United States continues to garrison troops at, and conduct missions from, its large drone base there.

If this sounds familiar, one should look at what used to be called the School of the Americas, whose focus appeared to be on training military officers to overthrow their democratically elected governments.

We are just lighting money on fire here.

This Might Be a Bigger Story in the Region than Gaza

It's a quiet story, but it is an important one, and one that breaks over 60 years of precedent.

In exchange for port access, Ethiopia has become the first UN member state to recognize Somaliland. (The Republic of China [Taiwan] recognizes them, but they are not a UN member state.)

It has done so in exchange for port access that it lost following the independence of Eritrea in 1993.

This is a very big deal, because this is a significant break with a 70 year consensus in Africa that the colonial boundaries are to be maintained.  (Eritrea was not a part of Ethiopia until after WWII, and annexed as a sort of a gift from the US and UK)

Obviously, there was the creation of South Sudan in 2011, but this is different for two reasons:

• The separation of Sudan and South Sudan was largely an artifact of intervention of forces from outside Africa, which was largely the result of the genocidal excesses of the Khartoum regime.
• This is the second time that we have seen the secession of a region of a country from its colonial borders, and as such, it not constitutes a precedent.

Given the ethnic tensions throughout Africa as a result of the artificial and arbitrary borders inflicted by the colonial powers. it seems to me that we may start seeing a lot more in the way of aggressive secessionist movements in Africa, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Many centuries ago, chroniclers conjured what was in antiquity called Ethiopia as a realm at the heart of global trade. The treasures of Rome and India all flowed through its ports along the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Merchants and pilgrims made their way to the Middle East and Mediterranean world via its caravan routes and docks. A 6th-century Byzantine historian described a kingdom with a vast fleet of wooden boats. The ancient Greeks even named the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles away from the Ethiopian highlands, the Ethiopian Sea.

But modern-day Ethiopia is famously landlocked. Apart from a few decades in the 20th century when Ethiopia had annexed neighboring Eritrea, Africa’s second-most populous nation has never had a coastline. It maintains a meager, mostly riverine navy and pays tiny Djibouti some $1.5 billion a year for the privilege of accessing its ports and coastal infrastructure.

That’s why Abiy Ahmed, the ambitious Ethiopian prime minister, has long harbored visions of reaching the sea. He has groused against his country’s “geographic prison” and summoned the legacy of seafaring medieval empires as one the contemporary Ethiopian state must redeem. Ethiopia’s profound economic woes and constant internecine conflicts have not dented Abiy’s desires for maritime access — indeed, they may fuel them.

And last week, in what was a geopolitical bombshell in the Horn of Africa, Abiy appeared to achieve his goal. Alongside Muse Bihi Abdi, president of the self-declared breakaway Republic of Somaliland, Abiy announced that the two parties had reached a memorandum of understanding that would see Somaliland lease to Ethiopia some 12 miles of its coastline by the port of Berbera. In return, the autonomous entity that exists within the internationally recognized territory of Somalia may win something altogether more valuable: diplomatic recognition from Addis Ababa.


………

But, apart from solidarity ties with the self-ruling island of Taiwan, Somaliland has not been recognized by any U.N. member state — and certainly any major regional power in Africa. The autonomous region’s officials expect this deal, should it come to fruition, may trigger a meaningful shift.

“Their hope is that where Ethiopia goes, the rest of Africa will follow: the African Union is based in Addis Ababa,” explained the Economist. “Abiy also enjoys strong relations with the United Arab Emirates. Some foreign diplomats suspect the UAE, which is also close to Somalia’s government, may have played a part in brokering the deal.”

………

Somalia, though, is outraged. The country’s ambassador in Addis Ababa was recalled. Protests and rallies against the developments have been held in Mogadishu. On Saturday, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the country’s president, signed a bill that symbolically nullified the agreement between Ethiopia and Somaliland, since the latter exists within Somalia’s internationally-recognized borders. “This law is an illustration of our commitment to safeguard our unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity as per international law,” he said.

Somalia is not really a functioning state, which is why Somaliland has been able to maintain its de facto independence for decades, but this still marks a huge sea change in African national boundaries, and I would expect to see some significant secessionist moves by provinces and regions in other African nations in the next few years.

Cutting Out the Middleman

Egypt is buying 480,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia.

What is interesting here is not the purchase, given the bumper crop in Russia, and the impediments to Ukrainian grain exports, this was forseeable.

What IS interesting though is that Egypt has done so with a direct payment, eschewing the traditional commodities traders.

It is a smart move by Cairo.

Egypt's state grains buyer bought about a half a million metric tons of Russian wheat in a private deal, four traders told Reuters, succeeding in negotiating lower prices than those offered in the more traditional tenders.

One of the world's biggest importers of wheat, Egypt last year started shifting towards direct purchases instead of tenders after the war in Ukraine disrupted its buying.

The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) bought about 480,000 metric tons of Russian wheat from trading firm Solaris on Friday, at a price of about $270 a ton on a cost and freight basis (C&F), the traders said.

………

Last year Egypt's supply minister said purchasing directly from suppliers enabled it to negotiate better prices at times of uncertainty.

Governments purchasing directly from suppliers will result in better prices most of the time, because you don't have a trader extracting a rent.

The Sh%$ is Getting Real

Algeria has just closed its airspace to French military aircraft in response to threats of France intervening militarily in Niger.

The Algerians have a long and fraught history with French colonial rule, and there is no love lost between them as a result.

Additionally, French policies in the Sahel have basically been an extension of its colonial rule.

It is no surprise that Algeria has been aggressively opposing a potential French military intervention in Niger:

Algeria has reportedly refused to grant access to its airspace to French military aircraft for potential operations into Central Africa, at a time when Paris is considering supporting a military intervention against its former colony of Niger. Military options to restore a French-aligned government in Niamey began to be discussed shortly after its was deposed in July. Algeria, which gained independence from French colonial rule after a long liberation war in 1962, has consistently opposed Western military operations against other African states, and previously closed its airspace to French military aircraft flying to and from its southern neighbour Mali. As by far the largest country in Africa, and located directly between France and both Mali and Niger, an inability to use Algerian airspace will seriously complicate possible operations. In Mali’s case, Algiers also reportedly helped pay for the deployment of Russian military contractors to support the Malian Armed Forces, allowing them to more easily expel French and other European forces from 2021.

………

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune voiced concerns regarding a possible attack on Niger, stating: “a military intervention could ignite the whole Sahel region and Algeria will not use force with its neighbours.” Following the overthrows of French-aligned governments in Mali and Burkina Faso in popular military coups, Niger was long seen as vulnerable to possible similar unrest particularly as anti-French sentiments continued to rise. Incidents such as the French massacre of ‘Down with France’ protestors in December 2021 only further increased tensions. French, American and other Western forces in Niger have notably refused to leave since the change in government in the final week of July, although it has been widely speculated that should the new administration remain in power Western military bases will face growing pressure to close. This would potentially pave the way to closer security ties between Niger and Russia through the latter’s military contractor groups. Algeria itself remains a leading Russian security partner, and has invested very heavily in modernising its armed forces and in particular its aerial warfare capabilities since the unexpected NATO assault on Libya in 2011, leading it to be considered the most capable military power in Africa or the Arab world by a significant margin.

The French air force is heavily dependent on tanking for their foreign deployments, so this would make military action in Niger much more difficult.

That's basic geography.

This Business Will Get out of Control. It Will Get out of Control and We'll Be Lucky to Live through It

Niger has closed its airspace in preparation for a threatened military intervention from ECOWAS nations to reverse a coup.

On the other side, Mali and Burkina Faso have offered to help Niger defend themselves from any potential military actions.

It appears that the coup is popular in Niger, at least in the capital of Niamey, where there have been large scale demonstrations in support of the coup, or least against the French presence in the country. 

This has the potential to get very ugly very quickly:

Niger closed its airspace on Sunday until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention from a regional bloc after coup leaders rejected a deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president.

“In the face of the threat of intervention that is becoming more apparent … Nigerien airspace is closed effective from today,” a junta representative said in a statement on national television on Sunday evening.

He said there had been a pre-deployment of forces in two central African countries in preparation for an intervention, but did not give details.

“Niger’s armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory,” the representative said.

Defence chiefs of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) have agreed a possible military action plan, including when and where to strike, if Bazoum was not released and reinstated by the Sunday deadline.

………

Earlier, thousands of junta supporters flocked to a stadium in Niamey, the capital, cheering the decision not to stand down by Sunday following the power grab on 26 July that toppled democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

The coup, the seventh in west and central Africa in three years, has rocked the Sahel region, one of the poorest in the world. Given its uranium and oil riches and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants, Niger holds great importance for the US, Europe, China and Russia.

Niger last week revoked military cooperation agreements with France, which has between 1,000 and 1,500 troops in the country.

………

Any military intervention could be complicated by a promise from juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to Niger’s defence if needed, saying any military intervention against the new military rulers in Niger would be regarded as a “declaration of war”. France announced on Sunday that it was suspending development aid and budgetary assistance to Burkina Faso.

I'm not sure how much of this is the result of the various insurgencies in the region, how much is the result of military dissatisfaction with the deposed President, and how much is the result of France's continued semi-colonial involvement in many nations in Africa.

What I am sure of is that if there is a military intervention, and it isn't a cakewalk, the endgame will be chaotic and dangerous.

I Have Had It with These Motherf%$#ing Snakes on This Motherf%$#ing Plane!

So, on an otherwise ordinary private plane flight, a pilot was confronted by a very pissed-off cobra mid-flight.

Needless to say, the pilot had exactly the same thought that I did:

A South African pilot is being hailed as a hero this week after he unexpectedly came face-to-face with a venomous snake 11,000 feet in the air.

The pilot, Rudolf Erasmus, 30, laughed about the incident in an interview on Friday, but he and his four passengers, all colleagues, were not hurling any “Snakes on a Plane” jokes on Monday, when he noticed a Cape Cobra, one of South Africa’s most dangerous snakes, slithering around the cockpit.

The group was on the second leg of its journey from the Western Cape to Mbombela, in the eastern region of the country, when Mr. Erasmus, a pilot for an engineer consulting company, felt something unusual. “I felt this cold sensation that was underneath my shirt, underneath where the hip area is,” he said.

He initially thought his water bottle was leaking. As he turned to the left, he saw the head of the snake under his feet. He estimated it to be between four and five feet long.

“I had a moment of stunned silence, like a moment of disbelief,” he said. “It’s as if my brain didn’t register what was going on.”

………

Cape Cobras typically live in the Cape provinces of South Africa, but are also found in southern Botswana and Namibia, according to the African Snakebite Institute. A bite from this snake, which comes in a range of colors and can grow to more than seven feet in length, can cause progressive weakness, issues with the respiratory system and even death. Most snakebite deaths in the southern portion of Africa come from Cape Cobras and Black Mambas, the institute said.

On the plane, Mr. Erasmus was considering what to do next. He was scared that the snake would slip through to the back of the cabin and cause panic among the passengers. Knowing that, he spoke over headsets to say that there was an uninvited guest onboard.

“No one was panicking or getting hysterical about the snake,” he said. “And there was a moment of silence in the cabin. You could hear a needle drop.”

It didn’t take long for Mr. Erasmus to make arrangements to land at the nearest airport. “That was definitely the longest 10, 15 minutes of my life,” he said.

………

“As I was standing on the wing, I moved the seat forward a little bit, and I saw this snake curled up in a nice little bundle underneath my seat,” he said.

 In case you are wondering, the only reason to watch the Snakes on a Plane is to hear Samuel L. Jackson say the quote in the title.

For Profit Education, Huh?

Shannon May and Jay Kimmelman decided to set up a for-profit operation to run schools in Africa.

Their business model appeared to be:

• Underpay teachers by about 60%.
• Inflexible curriculum.
• Poor vetting of teachers and lax management.
• Break local laws. (They call it,"Disruption.")
• Vociferous pursuit of critics, including what appears to be an attempt to inspire mob violence against them/
  

If this sounds a lot like charter schools in the United States, you would be right.

It appears to be collapsing into a morass of corruption and greed:

In the early days of the era of Silicon Valley disruption, two Harvard University graduates dreamed up a bold experiment in education.

Shannon May, who studied education development in rural China, and her husband, Jay Kimmelman, an education software developer, spied an untapped opportunity for some of the moving-fast-and-breaking-things going on all around them.

They call it disruption.  People with functioning senses of right and wrong call crimes.

………

Over the next decade, Bridge grew into a chain of schools providing a homogeneous curriculum developed by researchers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to hundreds of thousands of students in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, and India. Today, it is the largest for-profit primary education chain in the world.

As the company mushroomed, it found ready investors. “It was not social impact investors,” May said in a 2016 MIT video case study, “it was straight commercial capital who saw, like, wow, there are a couple billion people who don’t have anyone selling them what they want.”

But the social impact investment crew was behind Bridge, as well. The company is financed today by some of the highest-profile do-good donors in the game — or rather, the for-profit arms of their networks, including Chan Zuckerberg Education, LLC, linked to Mark Zuckerberg; Pearson Education; Gates Frontier LLC, tied to Bill Gates; Imaginable Futures, linked to eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar, a major funder of The Intercept; and Pershing Square Foundation, tied to billionaire hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman. The United Kingdom’s development bank, the European Investment Bank, and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank funded it too.

To become profitable, May and Kimmelman had to scale up quickly while keeping costs down. “Bridge International Academies was founded from day one on the premise of this massive market opportunity, knowing that to achieve success, we would need to achieve a scale never before seen in education, and at a speed that makes most people dizzy,” an early version of the company’s website boasted. To do well with small margins, thousands of classrooms would be needed, because each classroom could bring in a profit of just tens of dollars a month. “The urgency is because the only way you can have a price of $5 a month is if you have hundreds of thousands of customers. We need 500,000 pupils to break even,” May said in 2013.

Their idea of how to accomplish such scale was straightforward: The largest cost when it comes to education is teacher salaries. But if curricula can be centrally produced and distributed on tablets that teachers read to the class, word for word, then teacher pay can plummet.

What they are saying here is that Africans are stupid, and they are worthless as teachers, so they can hire parrots instead of teachers.

That, May believed, would not hurt the quality of education children received. While the school reform movement in the United States at the time was fighting against what it called “the soft bigotry of low expectations” — easier curricula for minority students that reflected racist assumptions about their learning capacity — May argued that in Africa, high expectations are bigoted. “‘Don’t you have to have brilliant teachers in every room in order to have a well-educated child?’ ’Cause honestly, that’s how a wealthy person would think of it,” May explained. “You can’t have a brilliant-teacher hypothesis and expect to change the education for hundreds of millions of children.”

So, you are saying that second best is OK, because Africans are not real people who deserve the full rights and consideration as human beings.

Your business model is basically the Dredd Scott v. Sandford.

It was also appropriate to pay those teachers less, she argued. “You have to be able to upscale the teachers that would be available within the same community as your child. How are you going to get tens of thousands, eventually hundreds of thousands, of teachers to be working with hundreds of millions of impoverished children? They need to be from the same community. They need to face similar challenges. But also economically, they need to be part of the same economy.” Hiring teachers who are “part of the same economy” meant paying them just a few dollars a day.

………

In 2022, Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer conducted a study in Kenya to assess the efficacy of standardized learning at Bridge schools. The resulting report, which Bridge heavily promotes, found that public school teachers in Kenya were paid between $235 to $392 per month plus generous benefits, while Bridge teachers worked longer hours but earned around $80 per month with considerably fewer benefits than their public school counterparts.

“By not requiring post-secondary credentials, which typically represent a smaller share of the labor force in lower-middle income countries, Bridge has been able to draw from a larger pool of secondary school graduates,” the study read.

So, a high school diploma enough, and no training because it's all in the software.  I'd never trust that to my car mechanic, much less someone teaching my children.

………

Bridge also whacked away at the second highest education costs: facilities. According to Kremer’s study, while public schools in Kenya were required to have stone, brick, or concrete walls, Bridge designed standardized schoolhouses largely out of wooden framing and mesh wire, enclosed by iron sheeting — derisively dubbed “chicken coops for kids.” “Bridge’s founders recognize that the model deprioritizes physical infrastructure and they have argued that this frees up resources for expenditure on other inputs that can improve school quality,” the Kremer study noted. “Bridge schools are not made of ‘mesh wire’; they have windows with mesh wire,” a Bridge spokesperson said.

So, poorly trained teachers, poor facilities, disdain for the students and staff, and a desire for rapacious profit.

If that ain't a recipe for bad education, I don't know what is.

“Our biggest challenge is that we need to ensure we standardize everything,” Kimmelman was quoted as saying in “Bridge International Academies: School in a Box,” a 2010 Harvard Business School case study. “If we want to be able to operate like McDonald’s we need to make sure that we systematize every process, every tool, everything we do.” They later revised it for branding purposes to “academy in a box,” May said, “when we realized everyone here calls a private school that’s good an academy.”

McDonald's?  Seriously?  And people thought it was making the world a better place?

I am sure that it made the world a better place for May and Kimmelman, who doubtless were well paid by venture capitalist cash.

Investors were familiar with the model: The company would understandably lose money in the early years, but as long as growth was steady, profitability could ultimately be reached. And, with enough scale, it might eventually loosen regulatory obstacles in the same way that ride-hailing app companies become too big for a city or state to do anything but accept them and adapt.

So, conspiracy to commit crimes, and once you are big enough, you are hoping to roll regulators and politicians, because criminality is at the heart of disruptor philosophy.

………

“Technically, we’re breaking the law,” May said in a 2013 article in the education publication Tes — a quote that was reused in a mostly favorable 2017 New York Times profile of Bridge. “There would be more people and more organizations willing to try and push the envelope and get higher pupil outcomes if the regulatory and legal framework was less restrictive,” May went on. “You have to be extreme. You have to take real risks to work in those environments. Often there are [laws] preventing most companies from trying to figure out how to solve these problems.”

Bridge quickly became the darlings of the Davos world. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim lauded the firm publicly in a 2015 speech. Whitney Tilson, a New York-based Bridge investor and hedge-fund manager, called it “the Tesla of education companies” in 2017.

What a surprise, an abusive and exploitative business model that gets rave reviews from the denizens of Davos.

Also, I can't believe that I am saying this, but that is unfair to Tesla. 

Cory Doctorow calls this ensh$#tification, and normally a business has to be around for a while, but they baked this in from the start.

That year, Times columnist Nicholas Kristof lavished nearly 1,000 words of praise on Bridge schools in the West African nation of Liberia, chastising teachers unions and other opponents of outsourcing public education abroad to for-profit companies. “So, a plea to my fellow progressives,” he concluded. “Let’s worry less about ideology and more about how to help kids learn.”

Nicholas Kristof, the former New York Times writer who has an almost perfect record of not understanding charity and inequality.

If that ain't a red flag, I don't know what is.

………

Then, in March 2022, the World Bank’s financing arm — the International Finance Corporation — quietly divested from NewGlobe, the parent company of Bridge International. No announcement was made. No reason was given. Just a short disclosure in small print at the bottom of a portal that reads, “Update: IFC has exited its investment in NewGlobe Schools, Inc.”

So, they discovered something.  Something bad. 

Not a surprise when you hire the worst people and put them in the worst facilities, and assume that you can do this with litter or no oversight.

Among locals and within the global network of civil society organizations that work on development projects, rumors swirled that the dark side of Bridge’s success may have played a role — specifically, a series of abuse and neglect allegations in Kenya that had caught the eye of a Nairobi-based human rights group, the East African Centre for Human Rights, or EACHRights, as well as the internal watchdog at the World Bank, known as the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, or CAO.

………

During lunch break on a school day in the spring of 2016, David Nanzai, an eighth-grade teacher at Bridge Kwa Reuben, a school in the Mukuru informal settlements in Nairobi, found an anonymous handwritten note between the pages of a Kiswahili textbook sitting on his desk.

………

Eventually, they figured out who had written the note, and as they investigated further, they found at least 11 girls, aged 10 to 14, had been assaulted. They suspected three other girls may have been too frightened to come forward.

Reporting by The Intercept — including interviews with parents, former Bridge teachers and staff, nonprofit workers, community leaders, education activists, and police officers — corroborated the scope and many of the details of the sexual abuse. Many of the sources asked for confidentiality, expressing fear of reprisal from Bridge and concern about a culture of secrecy.

Of course they had a culture of secrecy.  That's Theranos, that's Silicon Valley in a nutshell.

Break laws and savagely enforce omerta.

………

Nanzai reported his findings to Josephine Ouko, his school’s academy manager, similar to a principal. Ouko, whom The Intercept was unable to reach for comment, called a staff meeting in her office with the alleged perpetrator in attendance. The other teachers confronted him, seething. Initially, he denied the allegations, according to four Bridge teachers present, but the teachers played audio recordings of Nanzai’s conversations with the students and shared their written testimonies.

………

After the meeting, the teachers expected Ouko, the academy manager, to notify Bridge and call the police. But Ouko told them to leave her office so she could speak to the teacher alone, the four teachers said. The next thing they knew, the man had disappeared into the maze of crowded dirt streets that make up the Mukuru informal settlements. He was gone.

………

Told that The Intercept had identified the alleged perpetrator by name, a Bridge spokesperson acknowledged the abuse had taken place and confirmed the former teacher’s identity. Asked why the company had previously dismissed our inquiry, the spokesperson said that the company thought we were referring to different allegations.

Different allegations?  Someone has been very remiss in their oversight.

And, in a letter from Bridge’s attorneys, the company added the threat of a lawsuit against The Intercept, citing the “potential for legal action” if the story was published. “The rare and isolated misconduct of a few bad apples should not tarnish the incredible work that these educators are doing in their communities every day,” read a letter from Andrew Philips, an attorney with Clare Locke LLP, positing that the problem was simply endemic in Kenya. It was, he wrote, “important to acknowledge the sad reality that sexual abuse of students by teachers has historically been a serious problem in Kenyan schools.”

First, the saying is that  "A few bad apples spoil the barrel."

Secondly, suggesting that you do not have to do proper oversight, because Kenya is, to quote Donald Trump, "A sh$#-hole country," is racist and dismissive.

The legal threat was a glimpse into the aggressive posture Bridge had become known for, a reputation that was forged in the global press amid its battle in Uganda with a Canadian graduate student named Curtis Riep.

………

On May 30, 2016, just weeks after the teachers and parents had reported the abusive teacher to the police in Nairobi, Curtis Riep sat down in a café in Kampala, Uganda. A Ph.D. candidate in educational policy studies at the University of Alberta, Riep was in the city compiling a report on Bridge schools for Education International, a global federation of teachers unions.

He had managed to schedule an interview with a Bridge national director and a regional manager. As the men began their conversation, Riep began recording, as he did for all such meetings, so that he could later transcribe the answers.

So Riep’s recorder was rolling when moments later, a plain-clothed police detective dressed in a suit — or, at least, a man identifying as one — and two self-proclaimed officers in militarized uniforms carrying assault-style weapons approached the table. Riep later transcribed the resulting exchange verbatim in his dissertation.

“I work with the police — the Uganda police,” the “detective” said to Riep after exchanging pleasantries with the executives. “I’m going to be taking you now.”

………

It would later emerge that Bridge officials in Uganda had accused Riep of gaining access to Bridge schools by impersonating a teacher.

“There’s a school where you went to,” the plain-clothed man claiming to be a police detective said, telling Riep he “must come with me now.”

………

None of the three men with guns would identify themselves, and Riep made one last bid to connect on a human level with the Bridge director. “Please, I don’t know if these are real police. I mean, I don’t want my life to be in jeopardy. So, if you feel like you really need to protect yourself and Bridge to this extent, I think it is a mistake. Let’s not make this more of an issue. You are the director of Bridge so obviously we can sort this out another way,” Riep pleaded. The director was silent.

“Can we get moving?” the detective asked.

“Sure, well it was nice to meet you and I think we will see each other again very soon,” Riep told the two Bridge executives, and then turned off his recorder.

He was escorted to an unmarked car, noting that the men bore a “striking resemblance” to the private security guards the Ugandan elite hire to protect their homes and businesses.

Inside the car was another man, who identified himself as an attorney for the government of Uganda, but whom Riep later told the press he learned was a lawyer working for Bridge. They passed the Kampala Central Police Station and kept driving for more than an hour and a half, arriving at a two-room, clapboard police station in Kyengera, home to a front office and a holding cell. Four media outlets waited outside, filming Riep’s arrival. Two Bridge officials held forth about the danger Riep represented to the community. Riep, in his dissertation, said that the station’s police were confused about why he was there, which raised further questions about who the men who had “arrested” Riep at the café were.

He was interrogated by the police for several hours and told that Bridge had taken out an advertisement in a major local paper a few days earlier, on May 24. The ad warned the public Riep was “wanted by the police,” underneath a photograph of his face.

Riep in his dissertation later described the ad as “a very risky proposition in a country with an upswing of violent mob justice happening in the streets of Kampala.”

They were trying to get him killed.

After being released on bond, Riep was required to return the next day for more questioning. Fortunately for him, he had consistently signed into logbooks at schools under his own name and affiliation, according to reporting by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Bridge could produce no staff witnesses or other evidence to sufficiently back up the claim that he had impersonated Bridge personnel. The police dropped the charges, he later wrote, but they warned him that Bridge may “come after you again.”

………

The High Court in Uganda soon moved to shutter 63 Bridge schools on the basis that they were “operating illegally because they have no provisional or other licenses.” Bridge fought the order in court but lost, though it has continued fighting and has not closed its schools.

The Uber model.  Remember Uber does not do background checks either, and has had some horrifying incidents of assault.

………

Bridge had been battling a growing coalition of opponents for years, establishing a reputation as a sharp-elbowed company that responded aggressively to any hint of criticism.

In 2014, a Kenyan court ordered Bridge schools closed in one county for not complying with the minimum safety and accountability standards for educational institutions. When the county education board moved to enforce the court’s decision two years later, Bridge responded by suing the board and its director on the grounds that they had not followed the required process.

………

The investigation of the Bridge investment has become the center of a controversy at the World Bank over investor responsibility when it comes to “negative externalities” — the euphemistic term for damage that results from investments — and the nature of the accountability process inside the IFC, the World Bank’s financing arm.

………

Seven years after David Nanzai discovered the note on his desk, the case remains unresolved and officially unsolved, and the victims uncompensated. The teachers we spoke to for this story have all left Bridge schools. But the IFC is working on a new framework to deal with such “negative externalities.”

Translation, a few rapes is OK, because investors make money.

………

The Intercept also asked the IFC, Chan Zuckerberg, and the Gates and Omidyar funds what, if any, responsibility investors had to remedy the situation. “Any instance of harm to a child is unacceptable,” said a Chan Zuckerberg spokesperson. “We would refer you to the letter from Bridge Kenya on the practices it has in place to safeguard students and immediately investigate reports of any safety issues.”

A spokesperson for Omidyar’s Imaginable Futures said the fund owns a 2.7 percent stake in the company. “We refer you to the statement provided to you by Bridge Kenya,” the spokesperson said.

………

The company commissioned an education consultancy, Tunza, to evaluate its practices and policies. The report, published in 2020, found that public schools faced far greater rates of abuse than Bridge schools, though the methodology betrays an extraordinary confidence in Bridge’s reporting systems. For public schools, the study relies on anonymous surveys of students. For Bridge schools, the report largely relies on actual cases that were reported to higher-ups and investigated. The report, funded by Bridge, gently suggests that Bridge ought to, at some point, also survey its student body to find out if its assumption about nearly universal reporting through official channels is accurate.

The consultants were hired to obfuscate, not find the truth.  McKinsey & Company writ small.

………

Despite its efforts to address these issues, there have been other troubling cases at Bridge Kenya, both before and after the 2016 incident at Mukuru Kwa Reuben.

Court records show that in 2017, several prepubescent female students were sexually harassed by a teacher at another Bridge school in Mukuru. The teacher was arrested, and the case is still being adjudicated in court.

Because the efforts are window dressing. 

This is how foreign investment works in the third world.

It is abusive and exploitative because that is what the investors want, and so that is what the developed nations, and the constellation of civil society organizations deliver, because that is who signs their paychecks.

Unless and until some of the senior executives get tried, convicted, and imprisoned in those countries, this will continue, because everything else is just a cost of business.