The Nigerian community in Italy
today (17/05/2014) in the city of
Latina had a peaceful march to
say “NO” to the “Boko Haram”
sect and to ask
for the safe return of the school girls
kidnapped by this group
last month "….BRING BACK OUR GIRLS…."
The march started
by 10am and ended at noon.
Many members of the Nigerian community were present. The African DIASPORA was
also represented by many
people especially Cameroonians and Ugandans. The local authorities and members of the Police
force, Carabinieri and other security/law enforcement agents were also there to keep order/ peace and also show their solidarity.
Many Italians were also in attendancetoshow theirsolidarity to
thisinitiative.
A senator
of the Italian republic by name Ivana SIMEONI
Many Nigerians,
other Africans and Italians made speeches
of encouragement and support for the Nigerian government and the parents of the people in
the hands of this terrorist group.
The
speaker of the community and the organizers of this
event; Dott Lanre Tytler thanked members of the community, the mayor of Latina, the local authorities and the Italian public in general for their
support and enjoined them to encourage the EU in every way in their effort
to help Nigeria come out of
this problem, which might become a global issue if ignored.
Representatives and concerned citizens of the Nigerian Community in the Latina Province(Italy) and beyond are calling on all people of good will to a peaceful procession in favour of the Nigerian students kidnapped by members of the ‘Boko Haram’
·DATE: 17TH MAY 2014 (Saturday)
·TIME: 10.00 PROMPT TO 12.00 (NOON)
·VENUE & RUOTE : Piazza del popolo- via costa-via- Umberto - via 22 maggio -corso della Repubblica - (return to ) piazza del popolo.
The State Police and the municipal in Latina (Italy) in a letter dated 13/05/2014 authorizes this manifestation.
Associations/groups and individuals are cordially invited to participate and to be peaceful and law abiding .
I rappresentati della comunità nigeriana a Latina e in Italia invitano tutta la gente dalla buona volontà per un corteo pacifico a favore delle studentesse nigeriane rapite dal ‘BOKO HARAM’
DATA. Sabato,17 maggio 2014
ORARIO: 10.00 AL 12.00 ( MEZZOGIORNO)
LUOGO & PERCORSO::Piazza del popolo- via costa- via Umberto - via 22 maggio -corso della Repubblica - (ritorno a ) piazza del popolo.
La Questura di Latina e il Comune di Latina hanno autorizzato questo corteo nella lettera firmata e datata 13/05/2014.
Associazioni/gruppi ed individui sono cordialmente invitati a partecipare pacificamente efare tutto nei limiti della legge.
Lazarus, Jesus..the Jews and inheritance ......
In this Lazarus.issue, I suppose someone didn't tell us that a.cross
section of the Jews were.unhappy with Jesus not just because of the
miracle and his associations but because he brought back to life a man
they had already planned how to share/inherite his only vineyard, olive
trees and two sisters. In simple and modern parlance:Jesus was a" game spoiler" .
.",,,,,,,,,,27 “You have heard that it was said, `You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ......... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After this passage in the church last Sunday;sincerely I became uncomfortable in the church...I wonder how many young men that went to the communion wit sins (adultery) on them. You cant change what has been said they say?
French President François Hollande[Traduction française ICI]
We try to keep a positive vibe going here at This Is Africa, but every so often you come across something that just paints your mood black. Some of you may already be aware of this, but if like us you're hearing about this for the first time your jaw will drop. And it'll probably raise the same BIG questions in your mind that it did in ours. (Incidentally, once you read this you'll no longer wonder why French presidents' and ministers are sometimes greeted by protests when they visit former French colonies in Africa, even if the protests are about other issues. Though what other issues could be more important than this one we have no idea.)
Just before France conceded to African demands for independence in the 1960s, it carefully organised its former colonies (CFA countries) in a system of "compulsory solidarity" which consisted of obliging the 14 African states to put 65% of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury, plus another 20% for financial liabilities. This means these 14 African countries only ever have access to 15% of their own money! If they need more they have to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates! And this has been the case since the 1960s. Professor Nicolas Agbohou, Associate Professor at the Institute of Cheikh Anta Diop, University of Gabon
Believe it or not it gets worse.
France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in the land of the Francophone countries. So even if the African countries can get better prices elsewhere, they can't sell to anybody until France says it doesn't need the resources.
In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered first; only after that can these countries look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the CFA countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.
Presidents of CFA countries that have tried to leave the CFA zone have had political and financial pressure put on them by successive French presidents.
CFA Zone
Thus, these African states are French taxpayers - taxed at a staggering rate - yet the citizens of these countries aren't French and don't have access to the public goods and services their money helps pay for.
CFA zones are solicited to provide private funding to French politicians during elections in France.
The above is a summary of an article we came across in the February issue of the New African (and from an interview given by Professor Mamadou Koulibaly, Speaker of the Ivorian National Assembly, Professor of Economics, and author of the book The Servitude of the Colonial Pact), and we hope they won't mind us sharing it with you influx, so here goes:
THE COLONIAL PACT
It is the Colonial Pact that set up the common currency for the Francophone countries, the CFA Franc, which demands that each of the 14 C.F.A member countries must deposit 65% (plus another 20% for financial liabilities, making the dizzying total of 85%) of their foreign exchange reserves in an “Operations Account” at the French Treasury in Paris.
The African nations therefore have only access to 15% of their own money for national development in any given year. If they are in need of extra money, as they always are, they have to borrow from their own 65% in the French Treasury at commercial rates. And that is not all: there is a cap on the credit extended to each member country equivalent to 20% of their public revenue in the preceding year. So if the countries need to borrow more than 20%, too bad; they cannot do it. Amazingly, the final say on the C.F.A arrangements belongs to the French Treasury, which invests the African countries’ money in its own name on the Paris Bourse (the stock exchange).
It is also the Colonial Pact that demands that France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in the land of the Francophone countries. So even if the African countries could get better prices elsewhere, they cannot sell to anybody until France says it does not want to buy those natural resources.
It is, again, the Colonial Pact that demands that in the award of government contracts in the African countries, French companies should be considered first; only after that can Africans look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if Africans can obtain better value for money elsewhere, French companies come first, and most often get the contracts. Currently, there is the awkward case in Abidjan where, before the elections, former president Gbagbo’s government wanted to build a third major bridge to link the central business district (called Plateau) to the rest of the city, from which it is separated by a lagoon. By Colonial Pact tradition, the contract must go to a French company, which incidentally has quoted an astronomical price – to be paid in euros or US dollars.
Not happy, Gbagbo’s government sought a second quote from the Chinese, who offered to build the bridge at half the price quoted by the French company, and – wait for this – payment would be in cocoa beans, of which Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer. But, unsurprisingly, the French said “non, you can’t do that”.
Overall the Colonial Pact gives the French a dominant and privileged position over Francophone Africa, but in Côte d'Ivoire, the jewel of the former French possessions in Africa, the French are overly dominant. Outside parliament, almost all the major utilities - water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and major banks - are run by French companies or French interests. The same story is found in commerce, construction, and agriculture.
In short, the Colonial Pact has created a legal mechanism under which France obtains a special place in the political and economic life of its former colonies.
THE BIG QUESTIONS
In what meaningful way can any of the 14 CFA countries be said to be independent?
If this isn't illegal and an international crime, then what is?
What is it going to take for this state of indentured servitude to end?
How much have the CFA countries lost as a result of this 50-year (and counting) "agreement"? (Remember, they've had to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates)
Do French people know they're living off the wealth of African countries and have been doing so for over half a century? And if they know, do they give a damn?
When will France start paying back money they've sucked from these countries, not only directly from the interest on cash reserves and loans these countries have had to take out, but also on lost earnings from the natural resources the countries sold to France below market rates as well as the lost earnings resulting from awarding contracts to French companies when other contractors could have done things for less?
Does any such "agreement" exist between Britain and its former colonies, or did they really let go when they let go?
http://www.thisisafrica.me/opinion/detail/1603/how-france-lives-off-africa-with-the-colonial-pact#.Uv1Nq3-WB9F.facebook
IT is exactly 60 years today November 18, 2009 when armed British colonial policemen opened fire on defenceless coal miners in the Iva Valley mine in Enugu. In those moments of collective colonial insanity, the colonialists within minutes murdered 21 Nigerian workers and injured 51.
The workers crime was that they dared to go on a strike which the colonial authorities interpreted as a political strike designed to pressurise them to quite the country and let Nigeria join other nations free from colonial misrule and exploitation.
Although the Yar’Adua government, like successive ones since independence will not mark this day, even with one word of appreciation for the struggles of many ordinary people who gave us independence, it is necessary that the Nigerian youth know that contrary to popular myth, our country did not attain independence on a platter of gold. Like other countries under colonial rule, our forebears fought for independence with many losing their livelihood, liberty and lives.
It is true that many of the official “nationalists†wore long traditional clothes about, making ineffectual speeches in parliament and attending constitutional conferences in London where they had the privilege of taking tea with the colonial masters, but the true nationalists were the patriots who looked the colonialists in the face and demanded freedom. They are heroes like Bello Ijumu, Aminu Kano, Mokwugo Okoye, Nduka Eze, Anthony Enahoro and Micheal Imoudu who put their lives on the line for freedom.
They are people like Osita Agwuna who on October 27, 1948 on behalf of the organised youths made public, â€A Call For Revolution†to cast off colonial rule, and Raji Abdallah who when charged with treasonable felony in 1948, told the court “I hate the crown of Britain with all my heart because to me and my countrymen, it is a symbol of oppression, a symbol of persecution, and in short, a material manifestation of iniquityâ€.
No exploiter concedes power by persuasion or repenting of his sins; pressure and power must be applied because as Franz Fanon explained, colonialism is a one-armed bandit. The coal miners who fell that day in Iva Valley had watered the tree of liberty with their blood.
Labour leader and nationalist, Nduka Eze said of the chain reaction of this massacre: “The radicals and the moderates, the revolutionaries and the stooges, the bourgeoisie and the workers, sank their differences, remembered the word-‘Nigeria’ and rose in revolt against evil and inhumanityâ€.
The political scientist, Richard L Sklar wrote on the significance of their sacrifice : “ Historians may conclude that the slaying of the coal miners by police at Enugu first proved the subjective reality of a Nigerian nation. No previous event ever evoked a manifestation of national consciousness comparable to the indignation generated by this tragedyâ€.
The coal mine managers were British racists who had a sense of superiority over Nigerians. There were cases of physical abuse. In one case, a Briton T. Yates on September 2, 1945 slapped a worker, Okwudili Ojiyi who had the courage to bring up an assault case and Mr Yates was prosecuted and fined.
On November 1, 1949 matters between the workers and management reached a head when the latter rejected demands for the payment of rostering, the upgrading of the mine hewers to artisans and the payment of housing and travelling allowances. The workers then began a “go slow†strike.
The management’s reaction was to sack over 50 of them. Fearing that the strike was part of the growing nationalist agitations for self- rule, the management also decided to move out explosives from the mines on November 18, 1949.
Those of the Obwetti mines were easily removed, but that of Iva Valley was not because the workers refused to assist the management to do so.
The Fitzgerald Commission which the colonialists were forced to set up to investigate the massacre, found that “the reason why the miners objected to the removal of the explosives was because they feared that once the explosives were removed, nothing stood in the way of the management closing the mine and thus effecting a lock – outâ€.
Senior Superintendent of Police, F.S.Philip came to the mine to assist in the removal. He had two other officers and75 armed policemen. At a point there was a struggle between three of the policemen and the workers, and Philip without any hesitation ordered his men to shoot.
There were mass protests in places like Port Harcourt, Aba and Onitsha and 18 prominent Nigerians set up the National Emergency Committee (NEC) to coordinate a national response to this crime against humanity. It was chaired by Dr Akinola Maja with Mbonu Ojike as secretary.
The colonial government issued a statement that the workers were armed, had tried to disarm the policemen and had attempted to seize the explosives. The Commission found all these to be lies. The Commission which partly blamed the union and said Superintendent Philip committed an error of judgement, found that: “ Not one policeman was injured, not one missile was thrown at them (and that) if the crowd was bent on using force against the police nothing could have saved these policemen from grave injury, whereas in fact they were not injured at all”. Such are the bloody legacy of British colonial rule and repression and the peoples struggle for emancipation.
Today, on this 60th commemoration, may the courage, patriotism and selflessness of the martyred Iva Valley miners and those of the true nationalists continue to inspire us in these neo-colonial times.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/11/iva-valley-massacre-sixty-years-of-struggle/#sthash.KCplqC7E.dpuf
Il massaggio Shiatsu che si effettua tramite la pressione delle dita, dei palmi delle mani e dei piedi e dei gomiti su tutto il corpo, agisce sui punti energetici considerati dall'agopuntura. Stimola la circolazione sanguigna ed il flusso linfatico, agisce sul sistema nervoso allentando la tensione muscolare più profonda, rimuove le tossine dei tessuti, risveglia il sistema ormonale e sollecita la capacità di autoguarigione del corpo.
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The Nigerian community in Italy
today (17/05/2014) in the city of
Latina had a peaceful march to
say “NO” to the “Boko Haram”
sect and to ask
for the safe return of the school girls
kidnapped by this group
last month "….BRING BACK OUR GIRLS…."+(Copia).jpg)
+(Copia).jpg)
A senator
of the Italian republic by name Ivana SIMEONI+(Copia).jpg)
The
speaker of the community and the organizers of this
event; Dott Lanre Tytler thanked members of the community, the mayor of Latina, the local authorities and the Italian public in general for their
support and enjoined them to encourage the EU in every way in their effort
to help Nigeria come out of
this problem, which might become a global issue if ignored.+(Copia).jpg)
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CFA Zone
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