German Left Party votes for austerity measures in Greece

Peter Schwarz

The Left Party fraction of the German parliament—along with the Greens and the representatives of the parties in the government—will vote Friday on the so-called “stability aid” for Greece. A test vote was held on Tuesday, in which 29 Left Party members of parliament voted “yes,” four voted “no,” and 13 abstained.

Previously, the Left Party had always voted against “aid programs” for Greece. They had based this decision on the fact that the austerity measures demanded in exchange for the bailout packages had worsened the social and economic crisis in Greece, and that the Troika overseeing the programs lacks any democratic legitimacy.

This is also true of the extension of the “aid program” by four months, which is the subject of Friday’s parliamentary vote. In the list of austerity measures it sent to Brussels, the new government of Alexis Tsipras committed itself to “carrying out numerous earlier demands, which the previous governments had continued to reject,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

As before, the loans will not be extended until the experts of the “institutions”—as the Troika of the EU Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank is now called—have confirmed that all the austerity measures demanded by the EU have been implemented.

Only one thing has changed: neither the conservative New Democracy (ND) nor the social democratic PASOK now rules Greece, but rather Syriza, the Greek affiliates of the Left Party.

By voting in favor of prolonging the credit program, the Left Party is not only legitimizing the Troika and supporting the attacks on the Greek working class. It also signals its readiness to take on the same task in Germany. The very fact that all parties in parliament agree on such an important question and that there is no—even nominal—opposition, is a clear signal that the established parties are responding to the growth of social tensions by uniting around a policy of attacks on the working class.

Leading representatives of the Left Party went out of their way to justify the capitulation of the Tsipras government, which broke all its campaign promises in less than four weeks.

The fraction president, Gregor Gysi, explicitly welcomed the Greek list of austerity measures, adopted in close coordination with euro group president, Jeroen Dijsselbloem and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

In a press release, Gysi said that the “reform program submitted by Greece” shows “the first way out of the logic of cuts and impoverishment of the previous austerity programs.” Gysi claimed “the most devastating social and humanitarian ramifications are being corrected,” though he knows very well that this is not true.

Gysi placed a lot of weight on the idea that only the politics of the new Greek government and its European partner parties can guarantee “that these countries will be in position to pay back their debts at all.”

Left Party member of the European parliament Fabio De Masi emphasized that Syriza’s capitulation will relieve the German treasury. “In the case of an uncontrolled exit by Greece, the money of the German taxpayers would be gone,” he wrote in a press release. He praised the Tsipras government as the “first government in Athens interested in sustainable state finances.”

The federal manager of the Left Party Matthias Höhn explained that Europe could “already thank the new Greek government.” He said he was sure that the debates and decisions of the past few weeks would change European politics.

The deputy chair of the Left Party fraction in parliament, Sahra Wagenknecht, wrote on the web site of the Left Party fraction, “Syriza has achieved great successes in the past few weeks.”

She admitted that the new government would first have to sacrifice “a few campaign promises” and could “not provide any money for the implementation of its program.” Nevertheless, “the struggle against the European policies of cuts and privatizations” were “not lost with the extension of the credit program, but have only just begun!”

Like De Masi, Wagenknecht argued in favor of Syriza’s policies by referring to “German tax money.” She claimed that a departure of Greece from the euro zone and the return to a weaker Greek national currency, the drachma, would have serious repercussions

“Then we can receive back all the €60 billion of tax payers’ money, which Germany invested there, in the form of drachmas—then the money is practically all gone. We would have senselessly pulverized all the tax money,” she told the television station Phoenix.

It would be naïve and dangerous to believe that the Left Party is merely trying to make the best of a bad situation and downplay the capitulation of its Greek sister party. In reality, the Left Party is just as determined as Syriza to defend the national and European institutions of capitalism, including the European Union and the euro.

It does not represent the interests of the working class, but wealthier layers of the middle class and sections of the former bureaucracy of the DDR who did not receive their perceived fair share of the spoils when Germany was reunified and who are now demanding access to the fleshpots and privileges of power.

In several state governments in Germany, the Left Party and its predecessor, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), have already demonstrated what they are capable of doing. The PDS and Left Party, which led the Berlin senate together with the SPD between 2002 and 2011, played a pioneering role in cutting jobs and wages in the public sector and cutting spending in education and social programs.

With its defense and justification of the capitulation of Syriza, the Left Party is demonstrating its readiness to carry out a similar task at the federal level.

Talks remain suspended as US oil workers continue strike

Jerry White

US oil workers are locked in a bitter battle with some of the largest corporations in the world, but the United Steelworkers union continues to undermine their nearly four-week strike by limiting the job action to only 6,500 of the 30,000 industry workers who are members of the USW.

No new negotiations have been scheduled since talks broke down last week, and the oil giants have refused to budge on workers’ demands for improved wages, safety provisions and working conditions. The lead industry bargainer is insisting that the companies have “sole and exclusive rights” to determine staffing, including the replacement of union workers with part-time and temporary contractors.

Pickets at BP 's refinery in Whiting, Indiana

The corporations’ criminal disregard for the safety of workers and surrounding communities was highlighted once again Wednesday morning when a crude distillation unit malfunctioned at the BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana, leaking inflammable vapors and triggering evacuation sirens around 7:30 am, according to striking workers. This followed a gas flare-up Monday morning at the refinery, which is being operated by management and contractors and is located just 17 miles from Chicago.

In the face of the intransigence of the oil companies, the USW and the AFL-CIO continue to isolate the strike.

On the picket lines, there is mounting criticism of the USW’s selective strike policy, and support for a national strike. At the Tesoro Carson refinery, outside of Los Angeles, a worker with 35 years in the industry told the World Socialist Web Site: “They should bring the hammer down. I’m talking about the United Steelworkers. They should be pulling everybody and everything out to win this strike.”

He added, “We don’t get told anything by the union. I don’t know what the union’s strategy or anything is. We’re just out here on the picket lines. But I’ve read everything you guys have written, and I think you’re right.”

In an effort to mollify opposition, the USW last weekend called out 1,500 additional workers at three refineries and a chemical plant owned by Motiva Enterprises—a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Refinery Inc.—in Port Arthur, Texas and in Convent and Norco, Louisiana. The USW continues to block action at the biggest US energy giants—ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips—even though workers at these companies want to join the strike.

On Tuesday, Gerard hinted that the strike might expand further, telling Reuters it “depends on what happens in the next round of negotiations and that those negotiations resume fairly quickly.”

Gerard acknowledged the dangerous conditions oil workers face, telling Reuters that fires or explosions have occurred every eight days on average since an April 2010 blast at Tesoro’s refinery in Anacortes, Washington that claimed the lives of seven workers. “From 2010 to now, there have been 27 people who have been killed” in accidents at refineries, Gerard said.

The USW president spoke to Reuters by phone from Atlanta, where the AFL-CIO Executive Council was convening its annual winter meeting. Predictably, the union officials took no action to mobilize wider sections of the working class in defense of the oil workers. This recalled similar inaction in 1981, when the AFL-CIO Executive Council refused to oppose Reagan’s firing of 13,000 PATCO air traffic controllers, paving the way for a decade of union-busting, mass layoffs and wage-cutting.

Instead, the union officials said they would hold several “Raising Wages” summits between now and the end of 2015 to drum up support for the Democratic Party in the first four presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. USW President Gerard is himself a political confidant of President Obama.

Indicative of the paltry raises the union bureaucrats have in mind, the AFL-CIO praised the decision of Walmart to increase pay from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour.

The unions have been complicit in the decades-long assault on working class living standards by big business and the Democratic and Republican parties. Loyal to American capitalism and allied with the Democratic Party, the unions isolated and betrayed strikes and collaborated in downsizing and wage-cutting in the name of boosting the “competitiveness” (i.e., profits) of corporate America. This was accelerated after the financial crash of 2008, when Obama utilized the services of the United Auto Workers union to halve the wages of all new-hires and eliminate the eight-hour day at GM and Chrysler as part of the forced bankruptcy of the two Detroit auto makers.

The union heads, like the Obama administration, are aware of the growing anger and combativeness of workers, who, after the longest period of wage stagnation since the Great Depression and amidst soaring corporate profits and stock prices, are determined to recoup years of lost income. Since 2009, management compensation has grown 50 percent faster than union workers’ income, Bloomberg News reported recently. In the auto industry, real wages have declined 24 percent since 2003, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO said roughly 5 million union members work under labor contracts that are set to expire in 2015.

But far from mobilizing these workers—dockworkers, auto-workers, teachers, Verizon workers and others—the unions intend to isolate and strangle each section of workers individually. Last week, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) caved in to the Obama administration’s demands and aborted a potential strike by 20,000 West Coast dockworkers that would have immeasurably strengthened the oil workers.

The unions want to prevent a broader movement of the working class that would take on a more openly political character and lead to a confrontation between workers and the Obama administration. This would further expose the falsity of the claim promoted by the unions that Obama and the Democrats are “friends of labor.”

While the Democrats are no less beholden to the corporate-financial elite than the Republicans, they generally favor utilizing the services of the unions to suppress the opposition of the working class. The Republicans are more inclined to dispense with the unions altogether.

The only way forward for oil workers is to break the grip of the USW and the AFL-CIO through the organization of rank-and-file strike committees. The first task of these committees would be to extend the strike throughout the oil industry and rally support from the widest sections of the working class in the US and internationally. Such a mobilization could become the starting point for the development of political movement against both big business parties and the profit system they defend.

On the picket lines at the Tesoro Carson refinery, Marc Cavarlez, who has eight years in the industry, summed up many of the issues that are of concern to the strikers. “The cost of living goes up at least six percent every year,” he said. “The union asked for two percent, and the company slapped us with a counteroffer of one percent. Both are inadequate.

Striking workers at Tesoro’s Carson refinery in southern California

“During shutdowns and turnarounds, when we repair all the equipment to get the refinery up for production, operators and maintenance people are required to work 19 days in a row, 12-hour shifts, with two days off, either at the end of those 19 days or in between. According to the union contract, we are required to put in 14 days in a row and 12-hour shifts. Then we get two days off. Well, you can imagine, we have families. And we want to see them!

“One of the most important things we’re striking about is ‘successorship.’ Three years ago, Tesoro bought this refinery from BP. When that happened, the new owners had to abide by the existing contract. They couldn’t just rip up all the rules and guidelines. The companies don’t want that. But these are our protections. If Tesoro decides to sell to a sister company, we know our wages and benefits will be cut.

“A couple of weeks ago, I was watching Bloomberg News. They were interviewing the CEO of Shell Oil. He makes $8 million a year! I know the rest of the CEOs make around that much. If they’d cut their pay by one-quarter, that would go a long way for us.

“Some people say we make too much money. Yes, we make between $80,000 and $100,000 a year, but we work sometimes 14 or 15 hours a day and are exposed to highly flammable and explosive stuff. If we don’t fight for this now, then every company will pay people dirt wages.”

Child poverty at devastating levels in US cities and states

Patrick Martin

Reports issued over the past week suggest that child poverty in America is more widespread than at any time in the last 50 years. For all the claims of economic “recovery” in the United States, the reality for the new generation of the working class is one of ever-deeper social deprivation.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation publishes the annual Kids Count report on child poverty, which was the source of state-by-state reports issued last week. These reports use the new Supplemental Poverty Measure, developed by the Census Bureau, which includes the impact of government benefit programs like food stamps and unemployment compensation, as well as state social programs, and accounts for variations in the cost of living as well.

The result is a picture of the United States with a markedly different regional distribution of child poverty than usually presented. The state with the highest child poverty rate is California, the most populous, at a staggering 27 percent, followed by neighboring Arizona and Nevada, each at 22 percent.

The child poverty rate of California is much higher than figures previously reported, because the cost of living in the state is higher. Moreover, many of the poorest immigrant families are not enrolled in federal social programs because they are undocumented or face language barriers. The same conditions apply in Arizona and Nevada.

The other major centers of child poverty in the United States are the long-impoverished states of the rural Deep South, and the more recently devastated states of the industrial Midwest, where conditions of life for the working class have deteriorated the most rapidly over the past ten years.

It is a remarkable fact, documented in a separate report issued February 23 by the Catholic charity Bread for the World, that African-American child poverty rates are actually worse in the Midwest states of Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana than in the traditionally poorest parts of the Deep South, including Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

Several of the Midwest states have replaced Mississippi at the bottom of one or another social index. Iowa has the worst poverty rate for African-American children. Indiana has the highest rate of teens attempting or seriously considering suicide.

The most remarkable transformation is in Michigan, once the center of American industry with the highest working-class standard of living of any state. Michigan is the only major US state whose overall poverty rate is actually worse now than in 1960.

This half-century of decline is a devastating indictment of the failure of the American trade unions, which have collaborated in the systematic impoverishment of the working class in what was once their undisputed stronghold.

The United Auto Workers, in particular, did nothing as dozens of plants were shut down and cities like Detroit, Pontiac, Flint and Saginaw were laid waste by the auto bosses. Meanwhile, the UAW became a billion-dollar business, its executives controlling tens of billions in pension and benefit funds, while the rank-and-file workers lost their jobs, their homes and their livelihoods.

In Detroit, once the industrial capital of the world’s richest country, the child poverty rate was 59 percent in 2012, up from 44.3 percent in 2006.

The social catastrophe facing the population in Detroit also exposes the role of the Democratic Party and the organizations around it that have for decades promoted identity politics—according to which race, and not class, is the fundamental social category in America. The city, like many throughout the region, has been run by a layer of black politicians who have overseen the shocking decay in the social position of African-American workers and youth. (See, "Half a million children in poverty in Michigan".)

Cleveland, also devastated by steel and auto plant closings, was the only other major US city with a child poverty rate of over 50 percent.

The Detroit figure undoubtedly understates the social catastrophe in the Motor City, since it comes from a study concluded before the state-imposed emergency manager put the city into bankruptcy in the summer of 2013, leading to drastic cuts in wages, benefits and pensions for city workers and retirees.

Wayne County, which includes Detroit, had the highest child poverty rate of any of Michigan’s 82 counties. Southeast Michigan, which includes the entire Detroit metropolitan area, endured an overall rise in child poverty rates from 18.9 percent in 2006 to 27 percent in 2012.

The state-by-state reports issued by Kids Count were accompanied by a press release by the Casey Foundation noting that the child poverty rate in the United States would nearly double, from 18 percent to 33 percent, without social programs like food stamps, school meals, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

This was issued as a warning of the effect of widely expected budget cuts in these critical programs. It coincided with the first hearing before the House Agriculture Committee on plans to attack the federal food stamp program by imposing work requirements and other restrictions to limit eligibility.

The food stamp program has already suffered through two rounds of budget cuts agreed on in bipartisan deals between the Obama White House and congressional Republicans, which cut $1 billion and $5 billion respectively from the program. Now that Republicans control both houses of Congress, they will press for even more sweeping cuts in a program that helps feed 47 million low-income people, many of them children.

Pentagon provocation on Russia’s border

Bill Van Auken

US armored vehicles flying American flags were paraded Tuesday through the Estonian city of Narva, just a few hundred yards from the Russian border.

The provocative action, coming on the heels of the first anniversary of the US-orchestrated coup in Kiev, underscores the transformation of the entire region into a zone of military confrontation, with potentially catastrophic implications for the peoples of not only Eastern Europe, but the entire planet.

Spearheaded by the fascistic Right Sector militia, the coup that toppled the government of President Viktor Yanukovych on February 22 of last year was carried out with the direct support and intimate involvement of the US government. Washington’s execrable representative on the scene, the State Department’s Victoria Nuland, went so far as to name those to be allowed into a post-coup regime.

The installation of this right-wing nationalist, anti-Russian regime in Kiev provoked mass popular opposition in the largely Russian-speaking eastern Donbass region. The Kiev government, with Washington’s support, sought to drown the rebellion in blood.

After ten months of fighting and the deaths of at least 5,000 people, this repressive campaign has proven a disaster for the Kiev regime and its American patrons. The Ukrainian military, dominated by fascistic militias, has virtually disintegrated after being forced into a headlong retreat. The country is on the brink of bankruptcy, with its currency, the hryvnia, in free-fall, having lost half its value since the beginning of this year.

The regime’s response consists of political repression, a largely unsuccessful attempt to forcibly draft youth into the army, and drastic austerity measures against the working class.

By any objective measure, last year’s US-orchestrated coup has yielded yet another foreign policy debacle. Far from seeking to quell the crisis it unleashed in the region, however, Washington has responded by moving to escalate and spread it.

This is because the central target of the US regime-change operation was not Yanukovych, but Russia. Its aim was to draw Ukraine tightly into the US sphere of influence and position NATO on Russia’s western border. Ultimately, the havoc unleashed in Kiev was directed at destabilizing the regime in Moscow and paving the way for the dismemberment of the Russian federation and transformation of its parts into semi-colonies of US imperialism.

In the wake of the rout of Ukrainian forces in the Donbass, the US is moving ahead with plans to arm the Kiev regime, bringing the US and Russia closer to military conflict. Thus, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was dispatched to Abu Dhabi this week for the annual International Defense Exhibition, where he claimed to have signed nearly 20 contracts for weapons. The United Arab Emirates, which served as the conduit for arming the US-backed Islamist “rebels” in Syria, is apparently providing the same service in relation to Ukraine.

One of Poroshenko’s top security advisors, Anton Gerashchenko, posted a giddy comment on Facebook, asserting that “unlike Europeans and Americans, the Arabs aren’t afraid of Putin’s threats that a third world war may start if weapons and military equipment are provided to Ukraine.”

Now we have the US armored column parading on the Estonian-Russian border. This is only one of the more inflammatory manifestations of an ongoing US military buildup in the three Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—that have all been brought into NATO.

Last September, speaking in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Obama vowed that the US commitment to defend these former Soviet republics was “unbreakable.” Obama added that Washington’s pledge to use American military power to protect the three tiny countries was “unwavering” and “eternal.” He boasted that in all three countries there would be more “American boots on the ground.”

This was reiterated Wednesday in testimony delivered to the House Armed Services Committee by Gen. Philip Breedlove, the head of the US European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commandeer. He told the congressional panel that his “top concern is a resurgent Russia.”

He enumerated a long list of US military exercises and deployments that constituted a “near-continuous air, land and sea presence” on Russia’s borders, while arguing that such a “rotational presence” was no substitute for the “fielding of credible and persistent deterrent capabilities” that would allow the US to “respond within hours…as crises emerge.”

This has begun, he said, with the establishment of a “NATO command and control presence” in the Baltic states. The US European Command, he added, had conducted 67 “significant military-to-military engagements” with the Baltic states and Poland between April and October of 2014 alone.

Gen. Strangelove…or rather, Breedlove…also stressed the role of the US “theater nuclear deterrent in support of NATO and enduring US security commitments” in the region. The US military, he said, “stands side-by-side with our NATO allies to provide safe, secure, reliable and effective nuclear forces to deter aggression,” adding that STRATCOM (successor to the Strategic Air Command—SAC) had been integrated into NATO’s “regional exercises.”

In other words, behind the backs of the American people and the population of the entire planet and with virtually no notice in the media, not to mention any public debate, Washington has turned three small Baltic states on Russia’s border into the trip wire for a nuclear Third World War.

It could not have picked more unstable allies—in reality, puppets—upon which to risk nuclear annihilation. All three Baltic states are headed by right-wing, ultranationalist and rabidly anti-Russian regimes. The Estonian independence celebration in which the US military participated was dominated by the slogan “Estonia for the Estonians,” a reactionary chauvinist demand for the expulsion of Russians, who comprise fully a quarter of the population. The town of Narva, where the US column joined the parade, is a stronghold of Russian speakers, making the demonstration an implicit threat against the local population.

In Estonia, as in the other two Baltic states, there are regular public rallies featuring swastikas and celebrating the Waffen SS, which carried out the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in these countries during World War II.

There has not been any Russian threat against these states since they established their independence from Moscow in the course of the Stalinist bureaucracy’s dissolution of the Soviet Union nearly a quarter of a century ago, and there is no such threat now.

The claim that the corrupt regime of capitalist oligarchs in Moscow is “resurgent” is a pretext for Washington to scrap the assurances it provided 25 years ago that NATO would not deploy its military on Russia’s borders, and to embark upon a policy of military provocation and aggression that threatens to ignite a war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

Without the intervention of the working class to put an end to the profit system, the root cause of war, Washington’s attempt to offset the economic decline of American capitalism through the use of military force confronts humanity with the prospect of nuclear annihilation.

Sierra Leone: Private Life Vs Public Life and the 2017/18 Elections

Sulay B. Conteh

So far it has been so personal that there seems to be no place for public life in the political life of Sierra Leoneans. Practically, political life is more or less a public life just as much as private life is largely a personal life. Whereas in a private life the individual decides spheres of affairs, the people decide the spheres of affairs in a public life. In successful public organizations, the subjects learn to respect and abide by the popular decisions of the people; irrespective of whether such decisions are fair or otherwise. Although such decisions are hardly fair in political life, the subjects nevertheless must always exercise control over personal feelings in the larger interest of the political body. Clearly, private life seems to have been mixed with public life in the political life of the SLPP Party and is devastatingly ripping the party apart since the new founding of Sierra Leone following the NPRC takeover.

While the decisions of the individual prevail over those of the people in private affairs, the reverse always holds true in public affairs. This implies that those in public life should not see the decisions of the people as contravening their personal principles, irrespective of the moral, socio-cultural or economic basis of such principles. In political public life, fair or even unfair decisions reached by cross-sections of responsible bodies are viewed as democratic and should be respected by all members of the party.

Time and again, however, personal life weighs in more than public life in the political life of the SLPP Party. The growing rise of individuals who feel far bigger than the SLPP Party is hurting the party. The custom of carrying personal principles into the conduct of the political affairs of the SLPP Party is not helping the situation in any way.

Personal conduct of some high-profile figures

The SLPP Party, founded in 1951, is the alma matter party of all political parties in Sierra Leone. It was over a protracted controversy of “election before independence and vice versa” that a vibrant but personally motivated group broke away to form the APC Party in 1960. This was where all the endless cracks in the party today started and the SLPP Party would govern only until 1967 before it was reduced into opposition role by its breakaway APC Party. Since then, APC has ruled pretty much of our post-independence period. While the Stevens’ APC regime was extremely brutal, it is pretty much true that the conduct of personal life in the political life of the SLPP Party stifled any comeback of the party until 1996 following the NPRC junta intervention 1992. The Sir Albert Margai and John Karefa-Smart controversies (laden with personal rather party principles) could have prevented any comeback of the SLPP Party during that spell. Karefa-Smart eventually ended up pulling out and never again went back to the SLPP Party.

The other instances where the conduct of personal life in political life widened the endless cracks in the SLPP Party were during the post-NPRC period that saw the Kabbah-Margai controversy, the Margai-Berewa controversy, the Bio-Boi controversy and on and on. It is clear that the Electoral College of the SLPP Party is out of date, and the party internal elections are no longer free and fair. Charles Margai, the strongest steward of the SLPP Party throughout the trying days of the pre-NPRC APC rule, knew of the shortcomings of the Electoral College, but decided to keep it in place in the hope that it would work in his favor. Dramatically but not unexpectedly, Kabbah turned the tides on Margai by exploiting the lapses in the Electoral College to win the 1996 Flagbearership over Margai. Stunned, Margai reacted on personal principles instead of keeping a cool head, accepting the outcome and working to fix the lapses in the Electoral College. The meddling of Margai’s personal life into his political life eventually led to his breakaway, setting up his own brand new political party and eventually partnering with the APC Party. Horrible to say the least!

The same lapses in the Electoral College created the rift between Bio and Boi, eventually leading to Boi’s exit from SLPP and his absorption into APC. John Benjamin, another strong SLPP Party figure, inherited the fraudulent Electoral College as Chairman of the party but deliberately refused to fix it on the same illusion that it will someday play in his favor. Now most recently, Bio capped it all by exploiting the lapses to install a pro-APC figure (Kapen) into the seat of Chairman of the SLPP Party. Or may it rather be said that the ruling APC Party exploited the lapses in SLPP Electoral College to implant mole into the seat of Chairman of the SLPP Party? Whichever is the case, SLPP today solidly plays into the hands of APC and APC is making the best use of that.

Where there is absolutely no yardstick for measuring the competency of people running for public offices, personal agendas mar the election process and such agendas can be very economic in a largely illiterate and impoverished nation like Sierra Leone. This is exactly what the ruling APC Party exploits in the fraudulent SLPP Electoral College today, making impossible any regrouping efforts by the so-called opposition SLPP Party to win national elections.

These lapses in the basic setup of the SLPP Party have heated substantial bad blood among prominent SLPP Party members, be it in the current Bio, Boi, Benjamin, etc., etc. usurp, the  more recent past Kabbah, Margai, etc., etc. usurp or the distant past Margai, Karefa-Smart, etc., etc. usurp. All of these sagas which have marred and still continue to mar the viability of the SLPP Party are the telltales of extraordinary circumstances where the principles of private life prevail over the principles of public life.

By definition, a political party is always a public entity. Unlike all other public entities, a political is, in principle and practice, always opened to all, irrespective of past records. This makes a political party a very unique public entity, where there is no basis to project the principles of private life into the principles of public life. More too often have high-profile SLPP figures quit the party on the basis of personal principles, without any consideration of the impacts of such actions on their own public life. It all likely that Charles Margai is in the footsteps of John Karefa-Smart and mare could follow suit of the principle of our private lives are not separated from the principles of our public life in the political life of the SLPP Party.

So before all is lost, we urge all key stakeholders of the SLPP Party to drop these personal egos and ambitions and come together for the common good of the SLPP Party in particular and for Sierra Leone at large. This principle of “me or nobody else” is hurting the party and costing the country an untold suffering, and nobody stands to benefit from it but the leftwing parties. For far too long have we been disloyal to our alma mater SLPP Party.

The State of East African Community

 H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta 

The people of East Africa are united. In their hearts and in their minds, our people are already integrated. It is our obligation as leaders to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that this unity and integration culminates in prosperity, stability and happiness throughout our region.

Our Community has continued to perform encouragingly. As a result, several critical milestones have been achieved in the integration process.  We continue to rise and meet the expectations envisaged in establishing our Community.

For instance, intra-EAC trade grew from 3.5 billion in 2009 to about 5.8 Dollars in 2013.  This points strongly to the possibility and opportunity for higher volumes of trade across our borders.  I commend our region’s business community for embracing the vast opportunities which come with integration, and encourage them to make greater use of them. This will create more wealth and deliver more jobs for our young population.

The impressive growth and promise of intra-Community trade has been accompanied and underpinned by greater regional connectivity through enabling infrastructure development.  Over the last 2 years, projects and programmes designed to promote intensive integration have been completed. Encouragingly, work has commenced on several cross-border roads.  The Voi-Taveta-Arusha road and numerous sections of the Northern and Central Corridors are notable examples.Feasibility studies are currently being conducted on a number of other roads.  These road projects are necessary to grow cross-border movement and trade.

Similarly, Partner States have made significant investments in the modernisation and expansion of the railway network throughout our Community.  Whilst such projects are inevitably capital-intensive, the region shares the awareness of their immense long-term benefits. Our unwavering commitment to this investment is therefore borne of a strong, visionary consensus.

To further facilitate movement and trade across our borders, we undertook to establish One-Stop Border Posts at our major boundary points.  There has been tremendous progress in putting these up, and a number are complete, awaiting official opening.  They include Lunga Lunga and Taveta on the Tanzania/Kenya border as well as Rusumo on the Uganda/Rwanda border.  Upon commencement of full operations, we expect these facilities to support efficient transactions in our Community by reducing clearance times by up to 40%.

We have acknowledged that the high cost of roaming calls across the region is an unnecessary impediment to trade and communication in our Community. It is unacceptable that in many instances, calling outside our continent is much cheaper than communicating within our region.  In the spirit of East African integration, therefore, innovative interventions leading to substantial reduction of calling charges are overdue. The implementation of a One-Area Network by Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya is an excellent beginning. 

Already, calls within this Network have reduced to about 12 US cents per minute, while there are no charges for incoming calls.  This tremendous benefit will be shared within the entire East African Community when the region adopts harmonized calling rates in July this year.

Without doubt, we have made progress in eliminating Non-Tariff Barriers to intra-Community trade. I am grateful for the cooperation and goodwill shown by Member States in demolishing these obstacles to integration.Even so, about 24 Non-Tariff Barriers still remain unresolved. This denies us the opportunity to unlock the immense promise of integration, and starves businesses of innumerable opportunities.  To grow intra-Community trade, we need to implement decisive solutions without delay. Intra-EAC Non Tariff Barriers ultimately translate to impediments to our region’s competitiveness as a global investment destination denying us uncountable golden opportunities. Non-Tariff Barriers must go. I am glad to note that our Council of Ministers has introduced a legal framework aimed at moving this agenda forward.

Our energy sector is a key factor of our region’s competitiveness. In particular, power supply is critical to the cost of production. Conscious of this imperative, we have undertaken substantial developments aimed at establishing sufficient, reliable and affordable power supply. Each Partner State has intensified investment in power generation and supply across our Community.In coming days, it will be vital for us to channel more investment into both power generation and cross-border inter-connection.  

To support these projects, a regulatory framework must be developed. This framework must promote higher investment in Oil &Gas to quickly unlock benefits of our resources for all our people. A people-centred Community integration process is the cornerstone of our Treaty. It is important to keep the people of East Africa aware of all the programmes connected with regional integration. 

I am encouraged to observe the various sensitisation efforts made by Partner States across our Community. The Community must enhance these activities and ensure that they go far in promoting accountability and public engagement.

Democracy is the other foundation stone of our Community’s integration process. It is an essential value of our Treaty.  I believe that there is no longer doubt that democracy has found a home in our Community, and is here to stay. Burundi and Tanzania will be holding their elections this year. We wish the two Partner States success in the elections.May they emerge from these elections stronger, more united and totally peaceful.Peace and stability are vital for our region and Community.  We deem peace to be essential to integration. Political stability is the foundation of all prosperity and aspiration.

It is our obligation as regional leaders to maintain our keen interest in initiatives and efforts to restore peace and stability in those countries of our region which have been troubled by conflict. Our investment in the restoration of peace and stability in Somalia and Sudan is inspired by this knowledge. I commend EAC Partner States for constantly and faithfully supporting our neighbour, Somalia. Our call remain, however, that the international community has a significant role to play, and must do their part in this cause.

As regards South Sudan, there has been notable progress in resolving the conflict which has haunted the young Republic.  This has been achieved under the aegis of IGAD. Whilst neighbouring States have continued to support peace-building in South Sudan, the two parties must remember that they hold the key to stabilising the country.  The parties therefore have an obligation to resolve any differences that may have caused the conflict in order to allow the people of South Sudan grow their homeland.

The progress made so far strongly points to the possibility of a lasting settlement and a return to the agenda of South Sudanese progress and self-determination.We appreciate the support our Community has received from various development partners. In the same vein, we must bear in mind that development and integration in East Africa is primarily and essentially our mandate.  The Community must therefore remain a priority investment for all of us.

I assure my brother, President Kikwete of my support, and trust that he will take the integration agenda even further in the coming 12 months.

Kenya: Why Banks Reject Mortgage Requests

Konstantinos Kioleoglou

Still Wondering why Kenyan Bankers Usually say NO to your Mortgage Request?

It is a life dream for every family to finally access the real estate market and purchase a home. Usually the only way to do that is to combine the family savings with finance from your bank.The same bank you have had a relationship with for many years is now holding your future dreams in its hands. Many Kenyans, approach their banker and after a rigorous process of evaluating a loan request, a very important phone call is expected, the one that the relationship officer calls to give you the bank’s decision; Loan Approved (but with what interest rate??) or Loan Declined.

The million dollar question is… what leads to that final decision?

There are several factors that influence mortgage lending decisions. All of them have to do with risk management. People seem to forget that banks don’t give money but lend money. The ability to repay the loan, as well as the securities provided determine the risk involved to a mortgage application.

The client’s history with the banking system is vital. Someone who has been issuing bouncing checks over the years, whose bank accounts are always in debit, shows a financial character without self-financial discipline. Such person cannot be expected to honor long term, frequent and consistent mortgage repayments on the long term. That is the main reason for any banking institution to refuse any type of credit to a client anywhere in the world.But even if you don’t belong to this category, a bank has to consider a lot of factors before the approval of any mortgage. It is its main aim to minimize the risk involved with the specific transaction and this is the reason all banks examine every application individually. This is done to ascertain the interest rate that they will offer for the specific client, the specific moment, for that specific time with that specific security (collateral).

So when you get a loan, you aren't the only one taking a risk. The lender is taking a risk on you. Interest rates are the cost of borrowing money, the risk involved, and a kind of insurance for the lender.

In general, the higher the risk, the higher the cost of borrowing money, the less chances for a loan to be approved. If you get slapped with a high interest rate, you shouldn't necessarily take it personally. The lending institution isn't just taking a risk on you, it is also taking a risk on the economy as a whole.  The lender has to consider such risk despite your stellar credit rating.

So, in simplistic terms, interest rates are determined based on how much of a risk the lender is taking on you, the economy and how “covered” is the loan from the securities you provide.

Mortgage rates, however, are more complex than this. (A mortgage is simply a loan on a house, and a mortgage rate is the interest rate on such a loan.)  When you follow the trail, you'll eventually find an intricate and interconnected web of factors that go into what determines mortgage rates.

Economic Factors that Help Determine Mortgage Rates

Ultimately, several factors, including the rate of inflation, stability of the Real Estate Market, how secure is the collateral ,risk, and applicant's credit ranking affect mortgage rates. That's because all these factors plus many more affect how much investors are willing to pay to invest in the mortgage-backed securities (MBSs).

Let's start with inflation, which is the phenomenon where the prices of common goods and services rise across the board. Consistent and moderate inflation is actually a sign of a healthy economy and should ideally result in a proportional rise in wages for workers as well. For lenders, inflation poses an inherent problem, it means that the money people borrow now will be worth less when they come to pay it back. If economists predict a rise in inflation, investors will insist on higher mortgage rates to make up for this loss.

Having many choices of where to invest their money, competition among other investments also determines mortgage rates for investors. Like with bonds and other financial instruments, investors often compare MBSs against government bonds. You might assume a 30-year fixed mortgage would compare to a 30-year bond. But in reality, borrowers in 30-year fixed mortgages are likely to refinance or move after only 10 years. So investors compare such mortgage investments to 10-year treasuries.

When the Central Bank adjusts certain interest rates, this indirectly affects mortgage rates as well. The Central bank rate is the interest rate banks use when making overnight loans to other banks (to meet end-of-day requirements).To raise this and make borrowing more expensive, effectively lowers the supply of available money, which can help stop a rise in inflation. The reverse is also true: lowering the Central Bank interest rate increases the supply of available money and encourages inflation. As you can probably guess, such adjustments have such wide ripple effects that they affect mortgage rates as well.

Economic and Real Estate Market stability are both very important factors that determine mortgage interest rates as well as the exposure of banks to this type of finance. In most of the cases, when we apply for a mortgage the bank will ask about the property that we are willing to buy as collateral. After evaluating the property, the bank then makes an offer on the amount of money we are requesting as well as the interest rate. If the real estate market is not risky and the value estimated has more probabilities to grow than to shrink, then the interest rates are smaller. The collateral we are using on the mortgage is covering most of the risk. If the market is closer to a "bubble" or the prices are soaring for no reason, which means that within a short period of time the market could go down or even collapse, then the interest rates increase. Actually this is a good and quick way to forecast a market before you invest in any real estate asset. If the banks consider the market to have high risk, then I believe we should think twice before we make any commitment.

Most retail investors, especially homeowners, focus on changing mortgage rates because they have a direct influence on real estate prices. However, interest rates also affect the availability of capital and the demand for investment. Such capital flows influence the supply and demand for property, as a result, they affect property prices. In addition, interest rates also affect returns on substitute investments and prices change to stay in line with the inherent risk in real estate investments. Such changes in required rates of return for real estate also vary during destabilization periods in the credit markets. As investors foresee increased variability in future rates or increase in risk, risk premiums widen, putting increased downward pressure on property prices.

As a conclusion, bank policies are procedures and regulations put in place to govern lending activities within the bank. They are broad guidelines and answer questions such as who the bank can lend to; where the bank can finance; how much the bank can finance; which properties the bank can finance; what kind of securities are acceptable to the bank; how much the bank has a set a limit for loans to the housing sector; and how lending activities will be conducted. Therefore, unless an exception can be granted, any application that is in contravention of the bank policy will be declined.

So, if your financial character is perfect, but still your mortgage was declined (or approved with a ridiculous 15+% interest rate), now you know that it is not your mistake. The real reason is that there is an unsustainable real estate market and an economy which is not as bright as people like to think. The banks will not be willing to take the risk of financing your property purchase as the risk involved in the market is very high. They always know better when they should be exposed and when they should simply keep distance from a very fragile market.

When financial institutions are not willing to take the risk of a market and if they do, they want to charge you with astronomical interest rates, maybe, you should think twice about that dream of buying a house today and wait till when the market will cool down. When real estate values will become reasonable and sustainable, then your mortgage will be approved with a reasonable interest rate below 10%.Then that is the time you should buy. Buying a house is a lifetime investment; you must not rush to take any decisions that could affect your family’s budget for the next decades, possibly in a very negative way.

If banks are not ready to finance the property…. Are you ready to buy it???

Mutembo Nchito: A Zambian Jesus?

Charles Mwewa

Jesus is the only man who ever lived who did not exercise his right and power to nolle prosequi: “Do you suppose that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will immediately provide Me with more than 80,000 of angels?” he said in Matthew 26:53. He would have appealed to the highest authority (His Father) to stop his incriminators, but he chose not to. He had the power to silence his prosecutors, but he reserved the right and power because he had a mission that involved being wrongfully charged, unjustly prosecuted and maliciously killed. Mutembo Nchito is not Jesus Christ; he was not born to die for the hard core and legal rapists of the Zambian legal echelon.

In my last article published by the Zambian Watchdog and the Lusaka Times, I predicted rather presciently that Zambian politics is turning out to be zoo-like and its legal system jungle-like. In the light of the recent event where the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mutembo Nchito, has entered into a nolle prosequi in his own case is unprecedented, but not insuperable. I do not intend to side with the DPP. As I have written before, he is neither innocent nor above the law. However, when those entrusted with national governance want to arbitrarily rise and rule above the law, the position taken by the DPP seems a lesser of the two evils. In some way, it is justified for three reasons.

First, the Pf government has not at any time revoked or dropped Mutembo Nchito from the DPP position. He remains, hitherto, the legitimate and constitutional holder of the office. You can’t break the law to enforce the law. That is what government or its cronies are attempting to do. Mutembo was DPP under Sata and President Lungu was then both Minister of Justice and Defence. Surely then, as Mutembo’s boss, did he not know that the one the Pf administration had entrusted the highest decencies of prosecuting criminals in Zambia was himself wanting? Why was Minister Lungu silent then? The arguments that Mutembo is behaving against the law are unfounded; the State cannot act above the law and expect its governed to act below it. That is a symptom of dictatorship.

Mutembo is a citizen who just happens to be a reigning DPP at the same time. Conflict of interest? Of course, and that is where the government got it all wrong. In a normal and working democracy where the charge is not instigated by malice and political witch-hunt, Mutembo’s behaviour would not be justified or even tolerated. But the government is in a hurry to replace Mutembo with a DPP who would fulfill Rupiah Banda’s election support for handing the presidency over to President Lungu. The gambit is backfiring.

Second, Zambia set precedence by removing immunities of presidents who had left office. Why didn’t Mutembo’s accusers first fire him before charging him? Anyone in Mutembo’s position would have done what he has done. He is not Zambia’s saviour. The lame move by Mutembo’s accusers has the potential to pre-empt further future charges on similar grounds. A nolle prosequi may prevent the laying of the same charges against Mutembo. It will be ironic because Mutembo may now be the most powerful individual in Zambia. He cannot now be removed with trumped up allegations. As a reigning DPP, he has the right to enter a nolle prosequi where he has cause to believe due process has not been followed.

Third, it is contended that by using the nolle prosequi powers vested in him by the constitution, the law against natural justice is violated. Mutembo has the chance to postulate that elements of natural justice themselves, the right to be heard and the right to an impartial and unbiased tribunal, may have been deranged. While the Nguni’s prosecutors will maintain that nolle prosequi has forestalled them of the right to be heard, the DPP would argue that the uninvestigated charges and the manner in which they could have been politically-motivated pre-empts the other salience of natural justice, namely, bias.

In summary, two things should be borne in mind in dealing with the issue of the DPP. As a position, the DPP has the power to stop a prosecution. As a person, a man may not be a judge in his own cause, but nothing prevents him from being his own defender. Mutembo is using the constitutional powers at his disposal to execute his own escape, though morally reprehensible, it is neither illegal nor unlawful. Last, Mutembo Nchito may be just what in religious devotion is termed “answer to prayer.” Under Sata the State did anything it wanted to do, almost at will. But it did one good thing; it appointed Mutembo as DPP, albeit, controversial, and Mutembo is turning out to be its thorn in the flesh. Although this government may have brought it upon itself, it is, nevertheless, good for democracy and may help to sanitize the bloated powers the Zambian president enjoys under the current laws.

Africa Land Grabs: Lessons for Somalia

 Bazi Bussuri Sheikh

“Aduunyo Jowhar Ka Joog, Aakhirana Janno” is one of the quotes Somalis use to describe the beauty of the country’s agricultural land. Today, Somalia’s farmland similar to its neighbouring countries is in danger of falling into the hands of transnational companies often in partnership with governments sometimes supported by the local elites. Many of these investors target low income countries with weak internal governance and their win-win language conceals the fact that most of the farmland acquisition occurs under bizarre and non-transparent circumstances making experts to warn of the consequences (Indirect Re-colonisation of Africa’s Resources) if the practice is not stopped.   

Many experts also challenged the myth that there is “unused” or “un-owned” land in Africa and most agricultural land deals target quality farmland, particularly land that is irrigated and offers good access to markets. Such discourses about empty land are deeply and dangerously misleading. This is not about anti private investment or belittling the contribution modern agriculture has made and continues to make, but a call for investments that do not harm and follow the ethical and sustainable business principles (Economics as if People matter).

Land grabbing is not new to the continent and for centuries, communities have been intimidated to abandon or forcibly removed their land by national and local authorities. However, the current land grab we are now witnessing is a new aggressive land grab driven by geopolitical arising from the 2008 food crisis, hedge fund bets on rising land prices. These led many including Gulf States, several East Asian Countries and Western multinational companies to re-evaluate their strategies and secure land and water elsewhere, essentially turning to “Offshore” food production to supply their growing populations. 

It seems implausible that the government of African country in a situation in which its own population was going hungry to preserve the right of a large scale agricultural land to export food to its lease-holding country. One might argue that African chiefs and tribal leaders in the Colonial era signed away their land not knowing what they were signing away. Today, unlike the African Chiefs in the colonial era, African leaders sign such contracts with the deliberation and calculation by performing the role of the gatekeepers of the rentier state.  

It is also ironic that these changes are underway at precisely the time that the African Union, among others has embraced a vision of smallholder-led agriculture commercialization and a “green revolution in Africa.” The current farmland deals also has its political ramification as the world has seen the case of the land deal in 2008 between African Nation of Madagascar and the South Korean firm Daewoo logistics to sign 99 year lease on 3.2 million acres of land, representing half of the country’s arable land. This deal generated more controversy and led to the toppling of Ravalomana’s government. 

Therefore, we urge our national, federal and local Somali leaders not to voluntarily make us colony again by renting out the agricultural land of the country that should be utilized for the benefit of the ordinary people. This is bad not only because it takes the land away, but also because it implements a casino agricultural economic model which is socially, economically, politically and ethically unsustainable and unacceptable. This trend is as predictable as it is regrettable. There is a growing grass-roots movement in the West against the dysfunctional food system in the Western countries that is now coined as “Foodoply.” They are campaigning for a complete structural shift to reshape the food system from seed to the table (The way the food is produced, marketed, distributed and sold). 

We should not be naïve about the importance of business and industry. We can all point to many worthy features of modern agriculture, but on the balance we find modern agriculture (that is controlled, top to bottom, by a few firms and that rewards only scale) wanting.  The Western corporations and investors from the South need to re-evaluate their dealings with poorer African countries and fill the areas of the deal that are mostly vacant, empty of moral and spiritual content. For example, the WTO that dictates that competition is good and will weed out the inefficient producer while farmers in the West continue to receive agricultural subsidies that give them a head start in the game and are able to out-price African farmers.

The way Forward for Somali Agriculture

Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy. The stewardship of the agricultural land is on the people on that land, country or a nation. One of our biggest shortcomings is our negative perception towards farming as a job and the farming community.  We have neglected the truth that a farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist who contributes to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. Majority of Somalis do not show much interest in farming and consider it demeaning or dishonourable.We need to teach our children how to farm and feed themselves at early ages (Primary School) or fall into the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery.  Many Somali intellectuals especially the poets and artists have warned against failing to safeguard the farmland and not giving the Somali farmers the respect they deserve.  Among them was Maxamed Gacal Xaayow (Allaha u naxaariistee) whose poem “BEER HA LA OGAADO” listened to by many Somalis on YouTube called for a change on the negative attitude towards the farming profession and the farming communities. 

Land grabbing has hit the farming communities in Somalia hard. Firstly, they lost out on colonization. Secondly, they were victimized by many policies and practices of the Siyad Barre years in 1975 and 1980s, the liberalization prescriptions given by the IMF and finally the state collapse tragedies. The land grab by the Italians had been based on overt military force, even though translated into treaties and agreements. The second land grab of the Barre years proceeded under legal forms, but had force clearly behind it.  During the state collapse in the early nineties, the land grab was continued by naked force and the militia of different clan groupings who competed for control with far more lethal consequences. It is also worth mentioning that global geopolitics and late twentieth century political economic transformations (development aid as an arm of Cold War geopolitics, the arrogance of development wisdom and state agendas for maximizing control and elite efforts to accumulate wealth) contributed far more to Southern Somalia’s destruction than “ancestral clan tensions.” 

It is time we Somalis stop moaning about the past mistakes and get back on track to rediscover the way forward as we say ((Mindi calool gashay maxay u gashay lama yiraahdo, sideen u daaweynaa baa la yiraahdaa).  Therefore, Somali farmers are yearning for an effective and just agricultural land reform to short-circuit the cycle of negativity surrounding the continuing land tenure controversy. It is worthwhile to face a short term pain for the greater gain in the future. Below is a summary of recommendations and the readers with the knowledge of agriculture must contribute their ideas via commenting so that the future Somali generation can read:

Genuine reconciliation between those involved in internal agricultural land dispute via Qudhac tree based approach as the customary negotiations between elders had long kept the violence to a minimum in rural areas. For example, the current conflict in Lower Shabeele, no one side is getting any closer to achieving its goals and no one is happy with the situation (It is un-winnable). The only way forward is through face to face talk (Rag waxaad walaal uga waydid waran ugama heshid).  It is difficult to address the danger of agricultural land grab from outside if we are still indulging in political infighting and inability to get out of clannish self.

It is also important to note that Somalia had a long standing Customary Law in solving land related disputes in rural areas. Most of the laws have been derived from the Islamic law. In agriculture, Islam has not laid down any hard and fast rules to govern every affair so as to restrict the freedom of action of the people. Most of these matters have been left to the discretion of the people of each age and each place to decide the same according to their ever changing socio-economic situations. Only a few general instructions have been issued in the fields of land-ownership, land cultivation, reclamation of dead lands, peasant-landlord relationship, and irrigation. Many Somali intellectuals have made extensive research on Somali Customary law including (Alle ha u Naxriisto) Abdulkadir Aroma. He summaries his findings in an interview with Universal TV below: 
     
Establish land committees with full support from the government based on mass participation (rhetoric free) to constructively debate and discuss the way forward and come up with workable, fair and just land reform. For example, Taiwan’s reform that was hailed as a success, 5 of its eleven committees were tenants or small peasant farmers elected directly by other tenants and small peasant farmers. The remaining 6 spots consisted of two elected representatives from the landlords and the farm-owners, one land officer and the president of local farmer’s association. Somali farming communities, given the opportunity and capital can be as productive as the Taiwanese and there was a period the country was self-sufficient in food. Somalis are also able to set up a successful committee and have demonstrated this as shown by the successful Literacy Campaign that was launched on the seventh March 1974.

2. Set up goals, guidelines and principles to follow by the committees such as reducing poverty and inequality as well as achieving sustainability, stability and legitimacy.  Growing evidence links within-country asset inequality to slower growth and such inequality are not due to markets, but to inheritance and privileged access to the power to self-assign rewards and subsidies.

Finally, the aim of this piece of writing was to create awareness of the current land grab in Africa, to safeguard Somalia’s agricultural land and to encourage a constructive debate about the solutions and the future of the agricultural sector in Somalia and its farming communities.  Every childbirth has labour and Somalia has gone through a painful labour (the nightmare of collapse) and will eventually give birth to a healthy country that is centralized by heart and federalized by land.