Red Shield
Global Domination
Those countries will get their chance to break apart and form more organic nations. Gonna be a some major tribal consolidation in Africa's future.
Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About
- Thread starter TommyHilltrigga
- Start date
Those countries will get their chance to break apart and form more organic nations. Gonna be a some major tribal consolidation in Africa's future.
The Singularity
Pro
True..people here are not quite aware that these are the last years for many African countries. There is a great storm brewing.
Frangala
All Star
What countries are you talking about in terms of storm brewing? The only countries I know of are South Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon (more so language Francophone/Anglophone split), Burundi, Rwanda (maybe). Southern Africna countries are pretty advanced when it comes to that tribalism stuff.
Red Shield
Global Domination
Won't happen until the usa has ceased and europe descends into flames. But that storm is on the horizon..
Oh I'm already knowing.
First time I got up on Mali music a few years back and heard this I was like
Hell, I don't go a week without Oumou Sangare playing in the rotation.
Just noticing a similarity between music and cultures of the Sahel I started looking into other places like Mauritania, Niger, etc and seen some strong links as well. But yeah, Mali, especially the Wassoulou region, seems to be THE root.
BTW, I love what yall brothas and sistas got going on over here. This is by far the BEST place I have seen Africa and its diaspora being discussed online or in person. I didn't even see this level of discourse when I was in college taking Black studies classes.
To give some background, I went through a period starting about 10 yrs ago digging deep on African American culture. I never dug the idea that we didn't have a culture or no connection to Africa even when I was a kid, it never made sense. The more I dug, the more I found out and it completely changed how I see things. It started with food for me (don't get me started on how many times I've had to defend Soul food to "woke" people), then went to music, customs, names, etc. that all speak to a connection to Africa.
For the longest I felt out on an island in regards to how I felt about African American culture and the lens in which it should be viewed and defined through till I came up on this site. I swear yall are a breath of fresh air lol.
The Odum of Ala Igbo
Hail Biafra!
The Odum of Ala Igbo
Hail Biafra!
Oh I'm already knowing.
First time I got up on Mali music a few years back and heard this I was like
Hell, I don't go a week without Oumou Sangare playing in the rotation.
Just noticing a similarity between music and cultures of the Sahel I started looking into other places like Mauritania, Niger, etc and seen some strong links as well. But yeah, Mali, especially the Wassoulou region, seems to be THE root.
BTW, I love what yall brothas and sistas got going on over here. This is by far the BEST place I have seen Africa and its diaspora being discussed online or in person. I didn't even see this level of discourse when I was in college taking Black studies classes.
To give some background, I went through a period starting about 10 yrs ago digging deep on African American culture. I never dug the idea that we didn't have a culture or no connection to Africa even when I was a kid, it never made sense. The more I dug, the more I found out and it completely changed how I see things. It started with food for me (don't get me started on how many times I've had to defend Soul food to "woke" people), then went to music, customs, names, etc. that all speak to a connection to Africa.
For the longest I felt out on an island in regards to how I felt about African American culture and the lens in which it should be viewed and defined through till I came up on this site. I swear yall are a breath of fresh air lol.
What I love about Sahelian music is that it dispels Western notions about African music being mostly rhythmic and based on drums.
Here with your video we hear melismatic singing, melody, string-instruments etc.
Libya's oil production at risk after key oil terminals are seized by armed group
March 4, 2017 | 10:04
Libya’s oil out put is at risk after an armed faction stormed into two major oil ports on Friday.
The Benghazi Defense Brigades, a militia not allied to the UN-backed unity government, took control of the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf terminals that were re-opened in September.
They have been under the control of the eastern -based Libyan National Army (LNA), led by military commander Khalifa Haftar. His spokesperson confirmed the take over.
“The enemy has used armoured trucks to breach the first line of defence this morning at 8AM. Defence forces moved towards Al-Sedra Port but retreated and the enemy continued attacking. The Central Operation Room decided to retreat as to not inflict any damage on the oil port especially the large factories in Ras Lanuf and the families in the residential areas,” said Ahmed Al Masmary.
The ports are Libya’s largest with a potential combined production capacity of 600,000 barrels per day.
Reports indicate that at least nine men loyal to the LNA were killed and eight others wounded in the ambush.
The Benghazi Defense Brigades are composed partly of fighters who were ousted from Benghazi by Haftar’s troops.
Libya's oil production at risk after key oil terminals are seized by armed group
March 4, 2017 | 10:04
Libya’s oil out put is at risk after an armed faction stormed into two major oil ports on Friday.
The Benghazi Defense Brigades, a militia not allied to the UN-backed unity government, took control of the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf terminals that were re-opened in September.
They have been under the control of the eastern -based Libyan National Army (LNA), led by military commander Khalifa Haftar. His spokesperson confirmed the take over.
“The enemy has used armoured trucks to breach the first line of defence this morning at 8AM. Defence forces moved towards Al-Sedra Port but retreated and the enemy continued attacking. The Central Operation Room decided to retreat as to not inflict any damage on the oil port especially the large factories in Ras Lanuf and the families in the residential areas,” said Ahmed Al Masmary.
The ports are Libya’s largest with a potential combined production capacity of 600,000 barrels per day.
Reports indicate that at least nine men loyal to the LNA were killed and eight others wounded in the ambush.
The Benghazi Defense Brigades are composed partly of fighters who were ousted from Benghazi by Haftar’s troops.
Libya's oil production at risk after key oil terminals are seized by armed group
The Singularity
Pro
South Africa is a racially divided, violently xenophobic country. The rest of Southern African is peaceful because (Botswana, Namibia, Zimbambwe etc) are populated by christian Bantus with insignificant pockets of Khoisan people in the desert areas so obviously its easier to propagate a false sense of nationality. I am talking about countries with mixed religious and incompatible historical and cultural differences, especially countries near the racial-cultural transition zones of the Sahel and East Africa. There are like 15 significant secession groups in Kenya alone, the main ones are Mombasa Republican Council-Swahili movement, Nyanza sio Kenya, ofcourse the Somali/Shifta movement etc. Researchers and journalists in Kenya knows these groups will be successful within 30 years, it is inevitable.
Frangala
All Star
Party of businessThe Rwandan Patriotic Front’s business empire
Crystal Ventures has investments in everything from furniture to finance
From the print edition | Business
Mar 2nd 2017 | KIGALI
RWANDA has a reputation for enterprise. Its government has largely stamped out small-scale corruption and trimmed regulations, making the country the second-best place in Africa to do business, according to the World Bank’s widely-followed ranking. But the dominant political party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), does more than help business: it runs its very own conglomerate.
Crystal Ventures, the RPF’s holding company, has investments in everything from furniture to finance. It owns the country’s biggest milk processor, its finest coffee shops and some of its priciest real estate. Its contractors are building Kigali’s roads. There are several firms offering security services in Rwanda but the guards from ISCO, part of Crystal Ventures, are the only ones who tote guns. The company is reckoned to have some $500m of assets.
Its expansion is aided by the fact that its chief rival is Horizon, a similar group that is accountable to the ministry of defence, with interests in construction and logistics. Critics argue that Crystal Ventures and Horizon both get cushy government deals which mask the failures of their enterprises, several of which are said to be loss-making. Firms like ISCO and Inyange Industries, a dairy-products and drinks firm, dominate the Rwandan market. “They monopolise but they don’t deliver on development,” says David Himbara, a former presidential adviser who lives in exile.
To critics, the firm is the business wing of an authoritarian elite. It funded half of the party’s election campaign in 2010. It sold a subsidiary in 2002 after UN experts accused it of trading in conflict minerals in the Congolese war. The business purpose for two private jets that are allegedly leased by Crystal Ventures to the president, Paul Kagame (pictured), is unclear.
Rwanda is not the only place in Africa where political parties run businesses. In Ethiopia the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, said to be the richest party in Africa, invests in shoes, pharmaceuticals and much else. In Zimbabwe, party-owned firms have visibly floundered owing to unchecked corruption and mismanagement.
Some people argue, however, that political parties can direct capital towards long-term projects, nurturing a private sector in places where local capitalists are scarce and foreign ones are cautious. The RPF came to power at the end of Rwanda’s genocide in 1994, a rebel army led by returning exiles. Jean-Paul Kimonyo, an adviser to Mr Kagame, the former rebel leader, says that the exiles “could not come back to Rwanda without developing the country—they would have been killed.” The party used its funds to rebuild the country and increase its legitimacy. Crystal Ventures, which was originally called Tri-Star Investments, was founded in 1995.
Telecommunications was an early success. In 1998 Tri-Star partnered with MTN, a South African multinational, to establish a mobile-phone network at a time when few saw viable prospects in Rwanda. The company later listed its 20% holding in MTN-Rwanda. Crystal Ventures acts as an “icebreaker” for the private sector, says Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, a Kigali-based researcher. If the government sat here waiting for foreign investors to come and do things for them, he adds, “the investors would probably never come.” Crystal Ventures does compete for government contracts, and it and Horizon do not always win. One rival says that Chinese contractors worry him more than either firm.
That may be so. But the test is knowing when to let the private sector in, and there is little sign of that. Recent reports suggested that a majority stake in Inyange Industries had been sold to Brookside Dairy, an enterprise owned directly by the family of the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta. The reports are denied by Brookside Dairy’s managers. Crystal Ventures was also expected to list some of its other companies, but has not. In the long run, creating such an extraordinary overlap between political and commercial power is dangerous. Not only does it crowd out the private sector today. But suppose that a future party leader were less honest than Mr Kagame? Crystal Ventures would then be an efficient tool for looting the country.
http://www.economist.com/news/busin...c?zid=304&ah=e5690753dc78ce91909083042ad12e30
Crystal Ventures has investments in everything from furniture to finance
From the print edition | Business
Mar 2nd 2017 | KIGALI
RWANDA has a reputation for enterprise. Its government has largely stamped out small-scale corruption and trimmed regulations, making the country the second-best place in Africa to do business, according to the World Bank’s widely-followed ranking. But the dominant political party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), does more than help business: it runs its very own conglomerate.
Crystal Ventures, the RPF’s holding company, has investments in everything from furniture to finance. It owns the country’s biggest milk processor, its finest coffee shops and some of its priciest real estate. Its contractors are building Kigali’s roads. There are several firms offering security services in Rwanda but the guards from ISCO, part of Crystal Ventures, are the only ones who tote guns. The company is reckoned to have some $500m of assets.
Its expansion is aided by the fact that its chief rival is Horizon, a similar group that is accountable to the ministry of defence, with interests in construction and logistics. Critics argue that Crystal Ventures and Horizon both get cushy government deals which mask the failures of their enterprises, several of which are said to be loss-making. Firms like ISCO and Inyange Industries, a dairy-products and drinks firm, dominate the Rwandan market. “They monopolise but they don’t deliver on development,” says David Himbara, a former presidential adviser who lives in exile.
To critics, the firm is the business wing of an authoritarian elite. It funded half of the party’s election campaign in 2010. It sold a subsidiary in 2002 after UN experts accused it of trading in conflict minerals in the Congolese war. The business purpose for two private jets that are allegedly leased by Crystal Ventures to the president, Paul Kagame (pictured), is unclear.
Rwanda is not the only place in Africa where political parties run businesses. In Ethiopia the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, said to be the richest party in Africa, invests in shoes, pharmaceuticals and much else. In Zimbabwe, party-owned firms have visibly floundered owing to unchecked corruption and mismanagement.
Some people argue, however, that political parties can direct capital towards long-term projects, nurturing a private sector in places where local capitalists are scarce and foreign ones are cautious. The RPF came to power at the end of Rwanda’s genocide in 1994, a rebel army led by returning exiles. Jean-Paul Kimonyo, an adviser to Mr Kagame, the former rebel leader, says that the exiles “could not come back to Rwanda without developing the country—they would have been killed.” The party used its funds to rebuild the country and increase its legitimacy. Crystal Ventures, which was originally called Tri-Star Investments, was founded in 1995.
Telecommunications was an early success. In 1998 Tri-Star partnered with MTN, a South African multinational, to establish a mobile-phone network at a time when few saw viable prospects in Rwanda. The company later listed its 20% holding in MTN-Rwanda. Crystal Ventures acts as an “icebreaker” for the private sector, says Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, a Kigali-based researcher. If the government sat here waiting for foreign investors to come and do things for them, he adds, “the investors would probably never come.” Crystal Ventures does compete for government contracts, and it and Horizon do not always win. One rival says that Chinese contractors worry him more than either firm.
That may be so. But the test is knowing when to let the private sector in, and there is little sign of that. Recent reports suggested that a majority stake in Inyange Industries had been sold to Brookside Dairy, an enterprise owned directly by the family of the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta. The reports are denied by Brookside Dairy’s managers. Crystal Ventures was also expected to list some of its other companies, but has not. In the long run, creating such an extraordinary overlap between political and commercial power is dangerous. Not only does it crowd out the private sector today. But suppose that a future party leader were less honest than Mr Kagame? Crystal Ventures would then be an efficient tool for looting the country.
http://www.economist.com/news/busin...c?zid=304&ah=e5690753dc78ce91909083042ad12e30
The Singularity
Pro
Kagame and Uhuru Kenyatta are serious businessmen.
The Odum of Ala Igbo
Hail Biafra!
And crony capitalists
Algeria's Clean Energy: Huge Potential, Huge Ambition
6 MARCH 2017
Photo: Magharebia Flickr | Wikipedia
The Algerian authorities hope that solar and wind power will enable the country to emerge from its dependence on fossil fuels.
Algeria is known for its oil and gas, but take a quick look at a world map, and you’ll see that its mountains and Mediterranean coastline mean huge wind energy potential. Add in its large surface area and desert topography, and the country enjoys huge solar energy potential as well.
In fact, Algeria’s wind resources are estimated very large due to the size of the country with an estimated capacity of 35 THW per year, also the Mediterranean North is characterized by a coastline of 1200 km coastline and a mountainous field with microclimates, what gives the giving the country a high potential of Wind development.
In addition, Algeria has the largest solar field in the world and the largest capacity of the entire Mediterranean basin, with a territory composed of 86% of the Saharan desert, 2000 hours of average annual sunshine. The energy generated by solar power would represent 5000 times the Algerian consumption of electricity.
The country has outlined an ambitious National Renewable Energy Program that seeks to install about 22,000 megawatts (MW) of clean energy by 2030. Nearly 10,000MW of that total would be exported.
This would save Algeria approximately 300 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, an amount equivalent to eight times the country’s consumption of natural gas in 2014.
GE highlighted during the Algerian Renewable Energy & Power Infrastructure Investment conference, which was held earlier this week, its support to the government ambitious plan and presented its technologies, financing capabilities, and digital industrial solutions that can help renewable energy power plants drive operational efficiencies and production improvements.
Speaking about GE’s role as Lead Sponsor of the conference, Touffik Fredj, President and CEO of GE North West Africa, said, “Algeria is fully committed to its energy transition and to integrate renewable energy solutions in its energy mix. At GE, we’re thrilled to see this shift happening and to reinforce our commitment to support the ambitious renewable energy plan developed by the Algerian Government".
GE executives also participated in several panel discussions during the conference,
GE has been a strong partner to Algeria for more than 40 years , helping support the country’s development strategy in the power sector, as well as in the fields of aviation, healthcare, oil and gas, transportation and water.
Algeria's Clean Energy: Huge Potential, Huge Ambition
6 MARCH 2017
Photo: Magharebia Flickr | Wikipedia
The Algerian authorities hope that solar and wind power will enable the country to emerge from its dependence on fossil fuels.
Algeria is known for its oil and gas, but take a quick look at a world map, and you’ll see that its mountains and Mediterranean coastline mean huge wind energy potential. Add in its large surface area and desert topography, and the country enjoys huge solar energy potential as well.
In fact, Algeria’s wind resources are estimated very large due to the size of the country with an estimated capacity of 35 THW per year, also the Mediterranean North is characterized by a coastline of 1200 km coastline and a mountainous field with microclimates, what gives the giving the country a high potential of Wind development.
In addition, Algeria has the largest solar field in the world and the largest capacity of the entire Mediterranean basin, with a territory composed of 86% of the Saharan desert, 2000 hours of average annual sunshine. The energy generated by solar power would represent 5000 times the Algerian consumption of electricity.
The country has outlined an ambitious National Renewable Energy Program that seeks to install about 22,000 megawatts (MW) of clean energy by 2030. Nearly 10,000MW of that total would be exported.
This would save Algeria approximately 300 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, an amount equivalent to eight times the country’s consumption of natural gas in 2014.
GE highlighted during the Algerian Renewable Energy & Power Infrastructure Investment conference, which was held earlier this week, its support to the government ambitious plan and presented its technologies, financing capabilities, and digital industrial solutions that can help renewable energy power plants drive operational efficiencies and production improvements.
Speaking about GE’s role as Lead Sponsor of the conference, Touffik Fredj, President and CEO of GE North West Africa, said, “Algeria is fully committed to its energy transition and to integrate renewable energy solutions in its energy mix. At GE, we’re thrilled to see this shift happening and to reinforce our commitment to support the ambitious renewable energy plan developed by the Algerian Government".
GE executives also participated in several panel discussions during the conference,
GE has been a strong partner to Algeria for more than 40 years , helping support the country’s development strategy in the power sector, as well as in the fields of aviation, healthcare, oil and gas, transportation and water.
Algeria's Clean Energy: Huge Potential, Huge Ambition
Frangala
All Star
Doesn't really take any business acumen for men in their positions to make money. It ain't like these men have to worry about competitors, market share, how to formulate strategies to decrease expenses in order to increase profitability etc...