THE NEW COLD WAR
PART II
“There has never been 'friendship' between Africa and the West. In fact there is no longer 'friendship' even amongst African nations.’’
THE comments that I received over the contents of this column last week have made it necessary for me to revisit the same subject. The many questions that were asked seemed to indicate that the power of western propaganda has a more perYasiYe inÀuence than any facts that may be presented by those who are able to see through the western deception.
Although the term The Cold War, was first used to refer to the tensions between the eastern communist countries and the western capitalist countries after World War II, one can reasonably argue that the undeclared war between the world powers has always existed from the time that European nations started colonising other races and creating new countries around the globe.
,f we turn bacN the clocN to the Scramble for Africa in 188 , the German Chancellor Otto von %ismarcN convened the 188 ±85 %erlin Conference to discuss the African problem. What problem was it" ,t was a fight for African resources; our minerals, our wood, our wildlife and our labour. In essence, there was a Cold War for Africa. , implore everyone to Google
³The Scramble for Africa´ and study it critically.
1ow fast forward the clocN to 2018 and checN Africa’s position in the New
Cold
War, we are exactly in the same situation as we were when
Africa was partitioned in 189 . The Scramble for Africa has continued only the competitors have changed, it is China against the western countries.
From the time of the Scramble for Africa in 189 to date, European nations and America have been exploiting Africa for their own benefit. They traded Africans line animals line ordinary merchandise. Human beings were branded line cattle and sold at auctions. America and Europe prospered out of slave labour. %lacN people worned line cattle without any pay. And when slavery was abolished, the slave traders were paid reparations. Yes the slave traders were compensated to stop buying and selling Afri- cans!
The European nations ruled Africa for many decades and yet, they left this continent without infrastructure. The 'emocratic Republic of Congo is one outstanding example of (uropean exploitation and injustice. The Belgians toon away massive resources from the country, Nilled 15 million Congolese and left the Congo completely undeveloped. To date, that country with its vast mineral and other natural resources remains without any infrastructure and yet many (uropeans have made their wealth from dealing in Congolese resources.
'uring World War ,,, Africans fought on the side of the %ritish (mpire and at the end of the war, they were sent bacn to their countries on paltry pensions. In the meantime, their European counterparts were given handsome pensions or deployed in well-paying jobs in the colonial territories and some were even given free land in Africa as compensation for their service in the war.
The British ruled our country for over fifty years and at the time they gave us independence in 19 , they only left 100 graduates. And yet, all the children of the British settlers had graduated out of university. The estimated number of such children is over 1, 000 plus.
Getting into the modern times, from the time that the ,ron Curtain came down to end the Cold War if we did a checN list of what the western countries have done in Africa, what would be their greatest achievement? Is it the destruction of Libya"
All that Europe and America continue to do is to exploit and steal from Africa. They are using very subtle means to dominate Africa and counter Chinese inÀuence in the world. They dominate our airwaves. They control the social media and use it to defend their corruption which they define as investment.
Academician Alexander 1Nosi recently summed up the European and African relationship in his article entitled Western Witchcraft ± 'iscussing Zambia, Africa, Our Education System and Modern Colonialism. He wrote as follows
³There has never been friendship between Africa and the West. ,n fact there is no longer friendship even amongst African nations. All relations are tied to benefits. Aid" There is no free money, every coin we receive has hidden political and economic motives. That we are independent is an illusion, it has never happened. We are witnessing the worst form of colonialism because it is mental, economic and a clever extension of the political colonialism of the past decades.
³Where a 1m comes into Africa in the form of aid, 1bn goes away in the form of poorly taxed foreign investments or proMects executed by foreign companies. We are labelled corrupt but they allow our people to hide ill-gotten wealth in foreign accounts and they use it to develop their nations while pumping small bits of the same money bacN in Africa funding governance proMects aimed at fighting corruption" Such are the double standards we are faced with.´
This is the real problem that Africa and particularly Zambia has. We see more corruption in everything our government does. The western media and their agents will create and feed falsehoods into the social media and it goes around Zambia liNe the Gospel Truth.
Recently, an argument went around social media against the government’s intentions to concession the Ta]ara Railway Line to a Chinese company. The WhatsApp posting that did the rounds treated the issue more liNe a scandal involving some uncouth characters among our political MacNals and yet, Ta]ara has been a drain on public resources and it reTuires more than mere funding but a complete overhaul of the way it is managed.
The same people who created this posting want us to forget that some western company was given the concession for Zambia Railways and that this company sold railway slippers and railings as scrap metal and vandalised the modern worNshop that was built under the UNIP government. Western thieves are angels.
Meanwhile, there is a huge financial scandal involving the theft of pension funds by multinational companies operating in Zambia. All of them British companies. The western media and the social media are conveniently quiet about it.
Contrast Chinese aid and investment with the western hypocrisy! The Chinese have been all weather friends to Zambia and Africa. They built the Ta]ara Railway Line when all western nations said it was an impossible dream because of the escarpment that divides Central and (ast Africa.
The Chinese built the Kafue HooN %ridge when it was bombed by the Portuguese to frustrate the freedom struggle for Angola. They built Tuta Road from SerenMe to Mansa and the three Nilometre long MuNuNu %ridge across the Luapula River to enable Zambians travel safely by avoiding the volatile pedicle road through the 'RC.
,t is horrendous that Zambians cannot see through the deception of the west. The Chinese offer tangible help. What we need to do is to change our own attitude and laws. The Zambians who are selling land, whether small plots or large pieces of land must consider Moint investments. After all the land is a capital contribution.
Our laws should also be amended to compel all suppliers to the government to have a maMority shareholding by Zambians. , Nnow there is a 20 per cent reserved for road contracts to be given to Zambians but , thinN that must go across all supplies to government. This is what operates in neighboring Botswana.
It’s all in our minds. A white man will come and tell us he can produce diesel from grass and we will pay him a very handsome fee because he is white.
No our mentality must change. The motives and obMectives of the western countries have remained the same from 189 . They Must change the terminology and tactics. ,Its us who must waNe up and be winners out of the 1ew Cold War.
Yours Truly Troubleshooter ecchipalo@yahoo.co.uk / pentvision@gmail.com / ecchipalo@icloud.com