Scavengers in the shadow of US-Africa dictators’ circus

by Teshome Debalke

The Obama administration’s audacity to tell Africans; your democratic rights can wait until the prospect of American investment develop your economy under the depots is equivalent to telling African Americans’ voting rights can wait until they are economically well to do to realize their voting rights. It is an insult to the people that fought for the very struggle that brought President Obama to power.

Now the circus of US-Africa Summit ended, it is time to ask how the Obama Administration came up with such a dumb idea of entertaining two dozen African dictators that belong in jail along a dozen legitimate leaders that represent their people under the same roof.

The policy of ‘Africa all look the same’ has been the historical reality we lived under many thought would change in the Obama Administration must have played a role. The policies of Africans have nothing to offer but cheap raw material has also been the economic reality we lived under many thought would be different under this Admiration. Failing to walk the talk, President Obama came up with lame excuse of US-Africa leadership Summit in the last years of his term.

The role of the scavengers known to will-in the Capital on behalf of the dictators is often the least scrutinized activities before depots showed up to the summit. Call them experts, consultant, lobbyist or pimps it make no different. But, the job they are paid to do to make the dictators legitimate enough to pass the little scrutiny from the mainstream Media and institutions is working. Listening to the officials of the Administration speaks to the power of the scavengers.

President Obama

“We don’t look to Africa simply for its natural resources; we recognize Africa for its greatest resource, which is its people and its talents and their potential. We don’t simply want to extract minerals from the ground for our growth; we want to build genuine partnerships that create jobs and opportunity for all our peoples and that unleash the next era of African growth. That’s the kind of partnership America offers…” 
Vice President Joe Biden told an audience of African civic leaders last week.

“It’s not possible to succeed for your people unless they have a chance to shape the policies of their government,” …“Democracy has taken root, and now it’s trying to grow … in places where it’s very difficult.”

Susan Rice, senior national security adviser

“Let’s be honest: At times … we do business with governments that do not respect the rights we hold most dear,” …“Still, over time, we know that our … commitment to democracy and human rights roundly reinforces our national security.”

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

The summit aims “to send a very clear signal that we are elevating our engagement with Africa,” … “Investing in the next generation,” … “I think that’s a symbol of the forward-looking and future-oriented nature of our engagement with Africa.”

The Obama Administration‘s blunder of treating all African leaders the same is the work of the scavengers. Undermining democratically elected leaders as equal as the depots with rap sheet of atrocities and corruption is the work of the scavengers. The Administration’s blunder of treating 54 nations of Africa as one big family of nation in the mercy of the West is the work of the scavengers.

Finally, the Obama administration’s audacity to tell Africans; your democratic rights can wait until the prospect of American investment develop your economy under the depots is equivalent to telling African Americans’ voting rights can wait until they are economically well to do to realize their voting rights. It is an insult to the people that fought for the very struggle that brought President Obama to power.
I don’t know about you my people, but I know no worst insult of Africans since the colonialist period as the first African-American President. I am short of words to describe it; except to say it feel we are barking on the wrong tree again.

I wrote an article titled ‘When African despots get away speaking the language of development … sensing the Obama Administration is playing Africans as fools.

I was talking about how the scavengers trained a low life dictator like Ali Bongo of Gabon to speak the language of development and investment to get a royal treatment in the Whitehouse.

The Obama Administration’s official response to the criticism of entertaining Gabon’s depot was

“First of all, the president of Gabon is making reform efforts, which we support. Secondly Gabon has been an important partner in some of the issues that are very important to American national security.”

Exploring the publicly available evidence would make anyone clear of a corrupt dictator, but not the Obama Administration that reward him with State reception early this year followed by the entire African depots invited at the Whitehouse last week.

According to the New York Times, in 2003, Ali Bongo negotiated with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to secure a White House meeting with President Bush for $9 million dollar as reported News Clues. See article.

Abramoff was a top lobbyist for the firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, and then for Greenberg Traurig until March 2004. He was at the center of an extensive corruptioninvestigation that led to his conviction as reported in several Medias.

The 100 Reporters expose of some of the scavengers in an article Shadow diplomacy African nations-bypass embassies for top-lobbyists

“Need a direct flight from your capital to the U.S.? Want improved trade relations, or your new government recognized by the American government? Does your president want to score tickets to an elite conference to rub elbows with the powerful? African leaders have turned to K Street lobbying shops for these and other services. And should they find themselves in a dicey situation tainted by accusations of corruption, help from American masters of public relations is only a phone call away”

Reading through the article would give you an idea how US-Africa Leaders’ Summit came about. This is the tip of the iceberg what Africans are up against.

Among the depot present at the summit was Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo, who has ruled the oil rich Equatorial Guinea since 1979. The world longest serving dictator known for his extreme brutality and corruption is made good by scavengers to dine and wine in the Whitehouse

His son, Nguema who flaunt the stolen wealth from California to Paris was inedited in 2011 by the US Justice Department under Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, a program intended to seize ill-gotten gains stolen from the developing world only to settle for anundisclosed amount in June of 2014.

Corrupt depots hire image makers with the stole money too. According to 100 Reporters “Washington, D.C.-based Qorvis Communications has polished the image of the tiny West African nation of Equatorial Guinea”

“Employs an aggressive media strategy of pitching favorable stories to American media outlets—though Matt J. Lauer, who oversees its global brand, did not respond to interview requests for this story. Qorvis issues a steady stream of press releases touting Equatorial Guinea as a wonderful place – a strategy partially aimed at manipulating search engines such as Google, so that news stories that are generally unfavorable get pushed further down its search results in favor of flattering portrayals by Qorvis”.

For scavengers, individual nations and regimes’ legitimacy and economic sovereignty don’t worth much. What matters is Return on Investment (ROI) for their clients.

Journalists are on the take too. The Root’s article; Journalist attend The Whitehouse US-African Leaders Summit as Guest is a window of opportunity to see how Media coverage is skewed.

“I’m way more used to being with the [White House] press pool, cordoned off on one side of the room, for events like this,” Helene Cooper of the New York Times told Journal-isms by email. “I kept gravitating back towards them, knowing that’s where I belonged.”

When the scavengers and image makers were not enough there are Africans that lobby on behalf of their beloved depots too. Some are recruited by K street scavengers to put an African face for the spins. Others setup shop with fancy name- consultant, advisory group, policy analyst, trade and investment expert and the rest. Most operate in the shadow while a few come out on the usual Medias talking with both side of their mouth to confuse the general public.

Proactive verses reactive struggle against dictatorship: The Ethiopian case

The reactive strategy of the struggle for the last 23 years has done little to change the mind of the US Administration towards the notorious self-declared ethnic tyranny ruling Ethiopia. Proactive action focused on the regime and the scavengers in the shadow may be required to put the people’s agenda in the forefront of the US Administration’s attention and before the damage is done.

If animal rights take priority over human rights in the Obama Administration’s Africa’ agenda there is something wrong in our strategy and need special attention and recalibration. The sources of the neglect of the mainstream Media and institutions on the cause of the people of Ethiopia is the work of the scavengers that requires proactive bottom up approach to counter it.

That said it is with great pride to see Ethiopians lead putting the human right agenda of Africa in front of the US-Africa dictators’ circus. Though the Administration gave it deaf ears for now, the whole world noticed there is something wrong with the gathering of the world’s worst depots under one roof in the Capital of the free world.

We all should celebrate the campaign as a great victory to prepare us for the next action plan in focusing on the sources of the problem than the symptom. For example, the campaign to designate the free world Dictators’ Free Zone is an effective and proactive strategy to further build on. Rounding up the scavengers in the shadow would also go a long way to identify the source of the problems before the damages is done.

There is no reason Dictators & Co. should have peace when they deprive the people they rule peace. No justices no Peace must be the rule not the exception for dictators along the scavengers that put lipstick on the pig and present dictators as something else. The result of No justices no Peace speaks for itself when Woyane official are hiding in undisclosed locations in the free world.

As the struggle goes through winding roads, strategy must be design for preemptive campaign on all the scavengers. We Ethiopians must take a giant step to zero in on the causes of the problems than the symptoms.

The Obama Administration shouldn’t get away with the paid scavengers’ claim of doing business with notorious and corrupt depots are good for America’s economy or security and Africa’s development either. The security excuse doesn’t hold water in the majority of African nations but empowers depots to violet human rights further. The economy excuse only helps the depots and handful of shady investors to enrich themselves.

Unless the President declares to lobby on behalf of the same African depots after he leaves office, doing business with them wouldn’t enhance American security or economy but the depots’ and the scavengers’.

US policy must be free of scavengers’ lobbying on behalf of the depots at an enormous cost to the people of Africa as well as America. The broken promise of the President ‘no lobbyist will have a place in my administration’ must also be challenged.

This article is dedicated for all Ethiopians in the dungeon of Woyane because the Obama Administration says you don’t matter to entertain your tormenters in the Whitehouse