My investigation in the Guardian: Australian miners are making a killing overseas. With little regulation or oversight, billions of dollars are being made in some of the most remote places on Earth. The necessity of partnering with autocratic regimes has proved no impediment to investment. Human rights have been breached. Victims are largely invisible. None…
Showing all posts tagged Africa
Iran nuclear deal masks US and China arms race
My piece for American website Mondoweiss: The global arms race has never been more lucrative. America and China are engaged in unprecedented levels of spending around the world to influence and shape global affairs. The effects are devastating on civilians but Washington and Beijing insists they’re “stabilizing” nations. It’s one of the deadliest myths of…
Land grabbing becomes global phenomenon
My investigation in Australian publication New Matilda: International aid often comes with big strings attached. Antony Loewenstein is in South Sudan researching his explosive new book. Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is one of the most culturally diverse places on the planet. Industrial-size sugar plantations and a soon to open dam are strangling indigenous communities over more…
What Somali pirates explain about imperialism
My following book review appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Imperialism still casts a dark shadow over modern Africa. Former colonial powers France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Germany largely spend their aid dollars in nations they used to rule. Oxfam France’s Christian Reboul told The Guardian this makes sense for Paris “because the former…
Making money from Ebola misery
My weekly Guardian column: The horror of ebola in West Africa has taken thousands of lives and spread fear around the world. This fact, coupled with ignorance and misinformation, has created the perfect storm. The risk is real, but you wouldn’t know the full picture from watching last weekend’s American 60 Minutes. Lara Logan’s report…
How an Orthodox Israeli Jewish billionaire loves to exploit Africa
This is a remarkable story, sad, tragic and outrageous, and proves that money doesn’t bring morality (via Bloomberg): Dan Gertler’s bearded face lights up as he looks out the helicopter window. Below, an installation twice the size of Monaco rises from a clearing in the central African forest, where it transforms ore mined from the…
The good mercenary life in Africa
Who said being a private security thug wasn’t profitable in the age of capitalism on crack (via South African paper The New Age)?: Thirty-five Special Forces-trained South Africans were responsible for this week’s audacious operation that spirited Muammar Gaddafi’s wife and three children from Libya to safety in Algeria. The “battle hardened Iraq veterans”, who…
Don’t worry about those blacks, really
Robert Mugabe is undoubtedly destroying Zimbabwe, but why does the West have such selective outrage when it comes to Africa? (Hint: oil.)
Chasing “our” friends
Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch in Brussels, on US-backed Chadian dictator Hissène Habré who fell from power in 1990 and is the subject of a new documentary, The Dictator Hunter: Hissène Habré was a local warlord in Chad, which is a Central African country just south of Libya. And at the…