Bono and Nigerian President Obasanjo at Davos Summit 2006
Grandiose Parlor says Bono wants Africa to be given a preferential treatment, and western economies to remove the subsidy on agricultural produce.
China in Africa: The CNOOC Nigerian Oil Deal
See Bill's blog entry on China in Africa: The CNOOC Nigerian Oil Deal and his readers' comments on the question of whether China's renewed interest and financial investments in Africa are good for the people of the continent or not.
Note, the State Council of China formed CNOOC in 1982 to conduct exploration and production in China's offshore areas, both independently and as the exclusive Chinese partner for foreign entities.
My thoughts are human rights activists got it wrong when they pressured Western companies to withdraw from Sudan as it left the market wide open for unscrupulous Asian companies. Western companies not doing business with Sudan means Sudanese oil is sold elsewhere. Perhaps if Western companies were located in the Sudan, they might have had leverage with the UN Security Council when it came to helping Darfur. We could have pressured them to send specialist lawyers to help settle land disputes; provide training for security forces to protect locals and aid workers; and arrange gainful employment for locals to help build schools, roads and handpumps for drinking water to help quell violent clashes over livestock and watering holes.
The Darfur genocide is now in its fourth year and as things stand now, 7,000 African Union soldiers are in Darfur at a cost GBP 10 million a month. God knows the financial cost of humanitarian aid and 11,000 aid workers or how many miles of roads and water pipes could have been built instead if it weren't for a handful of obstinate men in Khartoum. So far the cost in terms of human life alone is estimated as 400,000 and rising - half the number of the Rwandan genocide.
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