UN Starves One Million Somalis on 10 Cents A Day

by Thomas C. Mountain

"Million dollars a day for the War on the Somali People, 10 cents a day to feed the victims of that war.”
The UN announced its budget for feeding the over one million Somali refugees under its care for the next year and have allocated less than 10 cents a day to do so.
Anthony Lake, once nominated to head the CIA, now UNICEF supremo, held a press conference in April, 2012, to declare a budget of $35 million for the next year to feed the Somali refugees in its care, over one million and growing by the day. And all the while the UN is funding the 20,000 man strong African Union army “pacifying” Mogadishu to the tune of over $350 million, $30 million a month and counting.
The UN created these refugees in the first place, sending in the Ethiopian army in 2006 to bring fire and sword to newly peaceful Somalia, followed by the UN-dispatched relief forces, now over 15,000 from Uganda, ever since 2008.
Half a million Somali refugees created by the Ethiopian army, another half a million created by the UN/AU “pacification” of Mogadishu and now, following the worst drought and famine in 60 years, less than 10 cents a day to feed the lot. Talk about cold blooded. Upon hearing this shouldn’t one automatically think mass murder by starvation, genocide even?Just as the US Army used to do to American Indians, drive them from their land into “refugee camps” and then starve them to death? Just as the USA did to the Filipino people when it colonized the Philippines in the early 20th Century? The same again in Vietnam in the 1960’s?
Shouldn’t one automatically think mass murder by starvation, genocide even?”
The War on Terror in Somalia is none other than the War on the Somali people and the UN is the instrument used to commit Pax Americana’s crimes. A million dollars a day for the War on the Somali People, 10 cents a day to feed the victims of that war.
I can still remember when the government here in Eritrea kicked out all the UN “peacekeepers” and how good it felt to see them go. Here’s to the day all of Somalia sees the end to the UN, the AU, Ethiopia, the USA or any foreign military presence, both overt and covert. Until that day blood will only continue to be spilt and children starve and war, the war on the Somali people, will continue.
Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent western journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain@ yahoo. com.

Big Oil’s $140 Billion A Year and Counting

The Looting of Nigeria

by THOMAS MOUNTAIN

As western oil companies loot some $140 Billion a year of Nigeria’s black gold two thirds of the country’s 100 million people live on less than $2 a day.
Nigeria’s “official” oil production figures show about 3 million barrels a day being pumped from their oil fields into the holds of western tankers though for decades now informed observers have estimated up to one third of all Nigerian oil is actually “stolen”, secretly loaded onto oil tankers after bribes are paid to corrupt government officials.
If 4 million barrels of oil are being shipped out of Nigeria daily at $100 a barrel, times 30 days a month times 12 months you arrive at almost $150 Billion a year in potential oil revenues for Nigeria.
The problems is not just theft but the fact that the western oil companies are literally looting Nigeria’s oil, paying as little as a 9% royalty.
Do the math, 9% of $150 Billion minus the one third oil that is stolen and the Nigerian government only receives about $10 billion a year of this amount.
Simply put, at $100 a barrel the western oil companies get $91 and Nigeria only gets $9. Or more shockingly, Big Oil makes $140 billion a year vs. Nigeria’s $10 Billion. The Big Oil robber barons famously promote themselves as “investors” in Nigeria though when looking at the loot they are making from what should be Africa’s richest country it is doubtful that they have invested $140 billion in Nigeria in total over the last decades (Big Oil is notorious for sticking the host countries with a major share of infrastructure expenses, deducted from their royalty checks).
In other words Big Oil has made its investment back almost exponentially. And all the while Nigerians are hungry, sick and increasingly fed up.
What have the people of Nigeria gotten from all this wealth being looted from their country?
Malnutrition and disease are rampant across the country. Many if not most of Nigeria’s children have never seen the inside of a school room. Many if not most of Nigeria’s people simply cannot afford even primary medical care. Malaria, water borne diseases, TB, HIV/AIDS, the list of sicknesses killing Nigerians in the thousands every day is criminal.
Nigeria’s environment has been a victim with a large swath of the coast laying under a toxic blanket of oil, mainly as a result of the criminal failure of Big Oil to do even basic maintenance on its pipelines.
Yet Nigeria has the largest, best equipped army in west Africa, the better to enforce Pax Americana. As I write Nigerian troops are pouring into Guinea Bissau, there to restore “democracy” something they have done many times in the past.
Nigeria should be wealthy, its people the envy of Africa if not the entire developing world. Instead its cities are filled with homeless children begging for their daily bread.
Nigeria imports almost all of its fuel needs, selling its oil for $9 a barrel and buying back the gasoline, diesel and kerosene made from its oil for hundred$ a barrel.
Nigeria is in constant need of IMF bailouts and pays the price for such predatory loans. Earlier this year after Queen of the IMF Christine Lagarde paid a visit Nigerian President “Badluck” Jonathan was forced to kneel down and kiss her feet, promising to more than double the price desperate Nigerians are forced to pay for their fuel.
The kleptocrats that rule Nigeria under the banner of “democracy”, for they stole the elections fair and square, cannot even provide electricity to their people, with most Nigerians receiving only a few hours a day of electric supply if any at all.
Nigeria’s other infrastructure, what little there is, decays by the day with even its once functional railroads now barely operational.
Yet this is all applauded by the west, with Nigeria’s President a permanent member of the so called G-20 council of world leaders.
One of the leading candidates for the title of “Queen of African Kleptocracy”, the Nigerian Finance Minister complained bitterly after she was rejected by Pax Americana to head the USA majority owned World Bank. Talk about the fox wanting to rule the chicken coop?
All this looting and theft has left a once proud and self sufficient people on the brink of a major explosion with government repression barely containing a cauldron of ethnic/religious violence that continues to erupt in murder and mayhem. Muslims killing Christians, Christians killing Muslims, and the army killing ethnic rebels taking up arms over the looting and destruction of their homelands by the western oil companies.
These days the western media have begun carrying alarming reports of a dramatic decline in Nigerian oil production, down according to some reports by as much as 25% in the last few months. As bad as matters are already for Nigeria’s suffering millions what is to come may be far worse, for without even the small morsels that their western masters allow to fall from their oil burdened tables the Nigerian economy is headed for a collapse, being almost completely dependent on their oil exports.
What is going to happen if Nigeria’s oil fields begin to run dry? Only time will tell, though thanks to the looting of Nigeria one might be forgiven for holding little hope for what should be one of the jewels of Africa.
Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent western journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain@yahoo. com.