Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Exceprt from BANKRUPTING THE THIRD WORLD: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt:

“This country will never gain emerging market status without electricity.” –Eustache Ouayoro, World Bank Country Director for the Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo

By now, you may not be surprised to learn that as one of those Third World nations that can, in the same breath, be described as “impoverished” and “mineral rich,” the DRC has received many World Bank/IMF/USAID loans over the years. And if you’ve taken on board the plight of other recipients of such aid, nor will you be surprised to learn the DRC remains as poor as ever.

In fact, by some estimates, the nation is getting poorer every year!

A 2012 article on the website Brentwoods Project, a watchdog site on corruption within the World Bank and the IMF, states, “As World Bank projects fail to reduce corruption in the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), International Finance Corporation (IFC) investments in extractive industries are provoking complaints and protests around the world”.

Meanwhile, a 2013 article on the Global Witness site, states, “The World Bank Board of Directors has blocked a call by independent evaluators to review the outcomes of the Bank’s support for industrial-scale logging in tropical rainforests”.

The writer advises that includes the DRC big-time.

The article continues, “Recent reports from a government-appointed independent observer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, found that many international logging companies are carrying out illegal activities.

“After 10 years of World Bank-led reforms in the DRC, roughly 150,000 km2 of rainforest remain in the hands of poorly regulated international logging companies, while communities are once again being left behind,” said Susanne Breitkopf of Greenpeace International. “The reform process in the DRC has been marred with irregularities and widely criticized; meanwhile, a law that would support community management of forests has been stalled for years, and the Bank is financing a forest zoning process that is likely to earmark huge areas of rainforest for industrial logging”.

The wealth potential of the DRC was confirmed in a 2014 press release by the World Bank itself.

Headlined “DRC: A Giant in the Making,” the article quotes Eustache Ouayoro, World Bank Country Director for the DRC, as saying, “The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to be one of Africa’s richest countries and a major driver of growth…The future of the DR Congo will be the future of Africa”.

And yet, World Bank representatives have been making such positive statements about the DRC and, indeed most of Africa, for decades.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” –Mahatma Gandhi

A February 2015 article in Bloomberg Business headlined “IMF Ready to Lend $1 Billion to Democratic Republic of Congo,” reveals the IMF is investing equally as heavily into the country. An excerpt from that article follows:

“Congo is preparing for provincial elections by December and a presidential vote in November 2016, which together will cost $1.1 billion, or more than 10 percent of its annual budget, according to electoral authorities. Holding the vote will be a logistical challenge in a country of 68 million people about the size of Western Europe, which has less than 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) of paved roads and is considered by the United Nations as the least-developed nation in the world”.

Our question to the World Bank and IMF would be: Given the billions of dollars being pumped into the DRC annually, why does it remain the least developed nation on Earth?

Of course, those organizations could cite all the infrastructure challenges the Bloomberg article alludes to. However, what the article fails to mention is that the DRC is teeming with mineral riches. The sort of mineral deposits that nearly every First World nation on Earth can only dream about…

So, again, factoring in the immense natural resources in the DRC, as well as the billions of dollars being loaned to the country every year, why does it remain in a constant state of war? And why do its citizens remain among the most destitute on Earth?

Is it a case that it’s just too difficult a region to create peace and prosperity in?

Or, is it a case that certain interests, both within the DRC and outside, are doing very well financially out of the current diabolical situation in this war-torn nation?

DRC Richest and Poorest Country

The Guardian: Aid in reverse - how poor countries develop rich countries https://www.theguardian.com/global-de...
New research shows that developing countries send trillions of dollars more to the west than the other way around. Why?

Why? Easy. The leaders want to be on the Forbes rich list, so they pillage their country, then to repent themselves from being pillaged they ship the money out. The banksters are both accomplices and receivers of stolen property, and they know it. The real question is, why doesn't somebody bring these banksters to justice, because both of those actions are felonies.

Agreed, Ian.

Who can reconcile the continuing conflict between guerilla groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with that African nation’s wealth?

Amidst reports of countless civilian casualties in the latest violence, it’s easy to forget that the DRC has around one third of the world’s known diamond reserves, is believed to have 70% to 80% of known coltan reserves worldwide and is rich in other precious metals, too.

We highlight this dichotomy in Bankrupting the Third World – book six in The Underground Knowledge Series – co-authored by James Morcan and I.

This ugly contradiction is referenced in the following excerpt:

With reserves of untapped mineral deposits estimated (in 2015) at US$24 trillion, it’s little wonder the DRC is considered by some to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, if not the wealthiest, in terms of natural resources.

Now here’s the rub: the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been beset by war and is one of the most violent, unstable and poverty-stricken nations on the planet.

Millions of Congolese have been killed since 1996 with one prominent online news platform, All Africa, claiming fatalities exceeded the number of deaths in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Rwanda over the same period.

Rape is also used as a weapon of war, according to numerous reports we sourced. Women and young girls raped during the conflict are estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

It’s a sad truth that conflict over control of the DRC’s mineral wealth accounts for much of the violence. Hence the term conflict minerals used to describe coltan, diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt and other precious minerals in the DRC and, indeed, throughout much of Africa.



‘Bankrupting the Third World: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt’ is dedicated to the impoverished in forgotten places of the world.

If you want some history on this, I recommend "Dictatorland" by Paul Kenyon. It is not just the banksters doing this - the CIA has been very active, and it is not just restricted to the Congo. Who do you think caused the removal of Lumuba and replaced him with Colonel Mobutu"?

Then if all the history of the Congo turns your stomach, well there are a number of other countries, all of which had this strange idea that their resources should benefit their people, and the leaders with that ridiculous socialist concept had to be replaced with good solid military people who would do what they were told because they didn't know better. And when one seemed to, like Gaddaffi, well, he had to be dealt with too.

Not pretty.

Ian wrote: "If you want some history on this, I recommend "Dictatorland" by Paul Kenyon. It is not just the banksters doing this - the CIA has been very active, and it is not just restricted to the Congo. Who ..."

Good call thanks Ian.

Ian wrote: "If you want some history on this, I recommend "Dictatorland" by Paul Kenyon. It is not just the banksters doing this - the CIA has been very active, and it is not just restricted to the Congo. Who ..."

Hi Ian :)

I have read your comment 3 times now, and am still struggling to understand if you are being ironic or a matter of fact business like.. what is your personal stance? Do you think that the people of the country SHOULD benefit from their country's natural resources, or its just a " ridiculous socialist idea", and not the way the world works, for its all about the " survival of the fittest", hence the strongest guy (from any country) gets to grab the diamonds, so to speak? :)

Jasmine

Hi Dr.,

I think the people should benefit. I see no reason why, in the Congo, a whole lot of people work under conditions that would never be permitted in Europe or the US, amn[nd get pitiful pay - merely enough to keep them working, while the Western owners get fat by controlling the supply of cobalt. It might end up by being run by the strongest, and the guys with the guns and the money, but that does not make it right.

Ian wrote: "Hi Dr.,

I think the people should benefit. I see no reason why, in the Congo, a whole lot of people work under conditions that would never be permitted in Europe or the US, amn[nd get pitiful pay ..."

Dear Ian,

Of course it does not make it right, and having moral compass is so important for us, humans. But at the back of your mind, don't you always know that nature has no morals?? The wolves will always eat rabbits and its just the way the Universe seems to work :)

Jasmine

Dear Dr,

Of course wolves eat rabbits - if nothing did, you would have the problem here and in Australia where there are simply too many rabbits as they breed too fast. Everything in nature has something to keep its numbers in equilibrium, except humans. However, many animals look after their elderly or sick, and i don't know of any that put the innocent of their species into slave-like conditions.

I would like to think that we can do a lot better than we are doing.

Ian wrote: "Dear Dr,

Of course wolves eat rabbits - if nothing did, you would have the problem here and in Australia where there are simply too many rabbits as they breed too fast. Everything in nature has so..."

Hi Ian,

you are saying all the right things- and its a very complex subject; the line between the right and wrong is often thin, and, being humans, its hard for us not to appraise life from a "human" point of view. This is why I write my books! trying to appraise the " big picture" and work things out, the best I can.
:o)

Jasmine

P.S. Did you know that altruism is common amongst every class of animals, and even the primitive forms of life, such as mold and bacteria, sacrifice their individual lives to save their colony?

Ian wrote: "Dear Dr,

Of course wolves eat rabbits - if nothing did, you would have the problem here and in Australia where there are simply too many rabbits as they breed too fast. Everything in nature has so..."

The negatives amongst animals?? they practice cannibalism and incest as a matter of routine , and as for the slavery..?? how about the ants and bees colonies ..? I am not disagreeing with you, Ian, I am just saying there is a lot to learn if we analyze the nature properly and keep in mind that whilst the human is the " top animal"; he is an animal , all the same :)

Dr. wrote: "Ian wrote: "Dear Dr,

Of course wolves eat rabbits - if nothing did, you would have the problem here and in Australia where there are simply too many rabbits as they breed too fast. Everything in n..."

I agree humans are animals, and I never thought of ants, and I am not certain they are slaves in our sense as opposed to being bred for a specific task. The more prinitive the animal, the more their behqviour is optimized by evolution

Dr. wrote: "Ian wrote: "Dear Dr,

Of course wolves eat rabbits - if nothing did, you would have the problem here and in Australia where there are simply too many rabbits as they breed too fast. Everything in n..."

Hi Jasmine,

Goof luck with your books. My futuristic novels have a similarity - I am trying to show things we should avoid doing in the future as best I can through extrapolatig some current trends that seem to me to be undesirable..