THE LOOTITUDES (An Oracle on Nigerian Political System) By Eno G Beedie

The Aso Rock

(1) And seeing the multitudes, corruption went up into Aso Rock; and when he was set, the politicians came unto him; 

(2) And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying: 

(3) Blessed are the clueless in wisdom; for theirs is the Presidency of the nation. 

(4) Blessed are they that rig elections, for they shall be elected. 

(5) Blessed are the thieves; for they shall inherit the National Assembly. 

(6) Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after public funds; for their accounts shall be filled. 

(7) Blessed are the bribe-takers, for they shall obtain big bribes. 

(8) Blessed are the Petroleum Ministers, for they shall loot trillions. 

(9) Blessed are the bootlickers, for they shall be called the Federal Executhief Council. 

(10) Blessed are they which are prosecuted for corruption’s sake; for theirs is the kingdom of wealth. 

(11) Blessed are ye, when EFCC shall invite you, and interrogate you, and bring all manner of charges against you, for my sake. 

(12) Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad; for fat are your accounts in Swiss banks; for so they prosecuted the politicians which were before you. 

(13) Ye are the thieves of the nation; but if the thief have lost his craftiness, wherewith shall he be looting? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be charged to court, and be sentenced to prison. 

(14) Ye are the liars of the nation, a lie that is carefully thought-out cannot be found out. 

(15) Neither do politicians cook a big lie, and serve it to SaharaReporters, but to NTA; and it gives false hope unto all that watch the 9pm news. 

(16) Let your gowns so flow before men, that they may see your big loots, and glorify your father which is in Ota. 

(17) Think not that I am come to arrest the fuel marketers 

(18) For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one Naira or one Kobo shall not be left in the Federation Account, but all be looted away. 

(19) Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the Asiwaju in the kingdom of corruption; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called BOT Chairman in the kingdom of corruption. 

(20) For I say unto you, except your corruption shall exceed the corruption of policemen and lawmakers, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of immunity. 

(21) Ye have heard that it was said by them of the old time, Thou shall not loot; and whosoever shall loot shall be in danger of the judgement: 

(22) But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his party without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement: and whosoever shall say, stop looting, shall be in danger of penury, the elder brother of poverty. 

(23) Therefore if thou bring thy loot to the UK, and there rememberest that the EFCC has case against thee 

(24) Leave thy loot in a UK bank and go to Dubai; first be reconciled to the EFCC Chairman and come and enjoy thy loot. 

(25) Bribe thy prosecutors quickly while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge sentence thee, and thou be cast into prison. 

(26) Verily I say unto you, thou shall by no means come out thence, till thou hast entered a plea bargain.

Source: Ikem okuhu's Facebook Profile Post
''The truth might be hard to say, painful to bear or even drastic for the truth sayer but still needed to be said''. ALISON.

Cameroon: Forests pressured as leaders welcome palm oil investors BY ELIAS NTUNGWE NGALAME

US agribusiness conglomerate Cargill plans to invest up to US$390 million in a 50,000-hectare oil palm plantation in Cameroon, an official at the Central African nation's investment agency said on state radio.

Yaoundé — Cameroon is inviting foreign companies to expand lucrative palm plantations, pitting the country's need for economic development against environmentalists who foresee the loss of important forests.
Since 2009 this West African country has witnessed a sharp rise in interest from companies seeking vast expanses of land for industrial palm plantations in response to increasing global demand for palm oil.
Six foreign-owned companies are currently trying to secure over 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of land for the production of palm oil in the country's forested southern zone, according to a coalition of environmental organisations.
Jean Kuete, who until December 2011 was Cameroon's minister of agriculture, told journalists last October that palm production is integral to the government's plans for growth, employment and poverty reduction.
"The industrial production of palm oil is a national priority and the many investors in this sector are welcomed," the minister said.
According to information from the agriculture ministry, there is particular interest in land on the flanks of West Africa's highest peak, Mt. Fako, where conditions are good for growing palms, as well as the cheap land stretching through the Southwest and Littoral regions of Cameroon.
OPPOSITION VOICES
But strong opposition is being voiced by civil society organisations and environmental scientists who say the proposed plantations constitute a real danger to the country's fragile ecosystem and the fight against climate change.
In a recent letter addressed to Cameroon's Prime Minister Philemon Yang, the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Cameroon called on the government to reject the projects, which they argue will destroy a critical forested zone linking five national parks and protected areas.
"In addition to the direct destruction of flora and fauna, these projects will bring hunger and frustration to the local population," the coalition argued.
According to the government, the companies seeking land include Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), which is owned by US-based Herakles Farm and is finalising the acquisition of 73,000 hectares (about 180,000 acres) in the Southwest region.
Sime Darby, a Malaysian-based multinational and the world's biggest listed palm oil producer, hopes to secure 600,000 hectares (about 1.5 million acres) to develop oil palms across the South, Centre, Littoral and Southwest regions.
Siva Group/Biopalm Energy, an Indian-owned group, is in the process of acquiring 200,000 hectares (about 500,000 acres) of land for palm plantations in the South region, where three further companies are also seeking land for the same purpose.
According to government statistics, Cameroon is currently the world's thirteenth largest producer of palm oil. A mixture of smallholders and agro-industrial plantations together produce 230,000 tonnes annually, with 190,000 hectares (470,000 acres) under cultivation.
About half of total production, accounted for by the government-owned Cameroon Development Corporation and companies owned by the French Ballore group, is exported to Nigeria, France and other countries. The government's Rural Sector Development Plan calls for palm oil production to nearly triple, to 450,000 tons annually, by 2020, in part to make up a 150,000-tonne deficit for domestic consumption.
ECONOMIC BENEFITS
"These projects are going to provide direct and indirect employment with an economic multiplier effect, (and) bring more revenue to the state through direct taxes, royalties and utility bills," Kuete said last October. He added that the country's infrastructure would benefit from improvements in roads, schools, electricity and health facilities.
At a meeting in the capital, Yaounde, convened by the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in early May, David Hoyle, conservation director of WWF Cameroon, said his organisation was worried that the government was rapidly expanding plantations without a proper strategy for land management. He called on the government to debate the issue and to implement a proper planning process for land use.
"These forests are vital for wildlife, including the African elephant, chimpanzee and drill, all threatened or endangered species," said Samuel Nguiffo of the Centre for Environment and Development, a local NGO. "These animals rely on the forests that would be destroyed to survive."
Nguiffo decried what he said was the growing pressure to convert the national forest - including protected areas - for industrial use.
"If environmental standards are not respected, palm production may have consequences (for) soil erosion on the mountain slopes, water quality, and pollution by pesticide runoff," he said.
CLIMATE THREAT
Patrick Libang, of the Center for International Forestry Research, emphasised the role played by forests in the fight against climate change.
"Trees provide essential ecosystem services like carbon storage, watershed protection, water flow regulation, rainfall generation (and) soil nutrient recycling, mitigating considerably the effects of climate change," he said.
The environmentalists said Cameroon's palm oil deficit could be dealt with through intensive production on current plantations, rather than by expanding the area under plantation.
But Nguiffo noted that although increased greenhouse gas emissions from land converted to palm plantations will be a problem, methane emissions from palm oil mill waste will increase even if production on current plantations is intensified without clearing additional forest.
Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
Herakles Farm, which owns SGSOC, defended its palm oil projects in Cameroon and elsewhere as environmentally friendly.
Elvis Oben, operations manager of SGSOC, said, "No planting will be done on primary forest or high-conservation-value forest, and buffer zones between the plantation and the high-conservation-value (forest) will be maintained."
Oben argued that SGSOC is engaging with local communities through the planning and development process.
"Environmental impact studies have been made, the necessary land demarcations completed. No local villages are expected to move away from their land," he said.
LOSSES EXPECTED
The environmental impact assessment conducted by the project sponsors acknowledges that some fauna and biodiversity would be destroyed in the course of the development of the project. But it says that measures would be taken to mitigate those losses.
In spite of the protests from environmental organisations, local communities in the project zones have largely embraced the projects. The chiefs who represented their communities at the meeting in Yaounde challenged the civil society organisations that opposed the project.
"The NGOs have no right to speak for us because they have never done anything to help our community out of poverty," said Chief Atem Ebako of Talangaye village, one of the project areas in the Southwest region.
"We need development and we know these plantations are going to bring infrastructural development in our area, like schools, hospitals and especially jobs for our children," he said.
Elias Ntungwe Ngalame is an award-winning environmental writer with Cameroon's Eden Group of newspapers.

Source: Food crisis and Global Land grab

The Church leaders from all over the world, call on the EU to stop the multinational companies from depriving the developing countries of their right.

“God intended the earth with everything contained in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus, under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all in like manner.”

(Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 69)

We need transparency to fight corruption and tax dodging

Multinational companies deprive developing countries of nearly 125 billion Euros each year. We, church leaders from all over the world, call on the EU to stop this now.
As the crises hit our economies and societies harder every day and impact particularly on the poorest, citizens are asking for new rules to put more morality into the financial system.
The greed of a few threatens the very survival of the most vulnerable populations. To end this, new rules are urgently needed that ensure that the wealth produced, particularly from the exploitation of natural resources, is not monopolized for the sole benefit of a minority. These resources should benefit all equitably and in particular the local people who are directly impacted by the activities of production and/or extraction.
The implementation of the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) was a first step towards a just and sustainable management of natural resources. This multi-stakeholder initiative is voluntary for countries and is designed to ensure transparency in the payments of the extractive industry to governments. It has shown in participating countries the benefits of transparency to enhance democratic governance and to fight corruption. The churches, which have participated actively in the implementation of this initiative, are partly responsible for this healthy development.
After ten years of experimentation, it is now time to go further by establishing ambitious and binding rules to promote transparency of all stakeholders in the extractive sector and in all countries.
The adoption in the United States of the Dodd-Frank Act in July 2010 marked a new milestone. All extractive companies listed on U.S. stock market will have to publish their payments to host countries. Burmese or Congolese citizens should be able to hold their governments accountable on the use of funds coming from extractive activities.
It is now up to the European Union to improve the international standard of transparency. The Commission has proposed a rule for financial transparency, on both a country by country and project by project basis. If implemented effectively, these measures will offer more opportunities to citizens to monitor whether extractive industries are making a fair contribution to the economy. To achieve this goal, the European Union must ensure the threshold for reporting payments by extractive companies is set at a level that is meaningful for developing countries. Exemptions should not be allowed to create loopholes.
This measure is a first step towards greater transparency of companies’ financial accounts on a country by country basis which would provide a full picture of their subsidiaries, the number of people in their employment, their annual turnover and profits. This would be a decisive incentive to stop tax dodging by multinational companies which deprives developing countries of nearly 125 “God intended the earth with everything contained in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus, under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all in like manner.” (Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 69)
billion Euros each year. It will also encourage Government officials to ensure that natural resource deals agreed are in the best interest of their citizens.
Concerned to see revenue from businesses contributing to a sustainable and fair development of the domestic economies of the countries where they operate, we look forward to the introduction of robust regulation requiring full transparency of companies operating in all sectors of the economy on a country-by-country basis which we know will constitute a further step towards regulation of the economy for the benefit of the poor, supporting the fight against corruption and a fairer redistribution of wealth.

Signatories

Mgr. Jorge Eduardo Lozano, Bishop of Gualeguaychú, Argentina
Mgr. Fernando María Bargalló, Bishop of Merlo – Moreno, Argentina
Mgr. Ludwig Schwarz, Bishop of Linz, Austria
Mgr. Alois Jousten, Bishop of Liège, Belgium
Mgr. Sébastien Mongo Behon, Secretary General of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon
Mgr. Antoine Ntalou, Archbishop of Garoua, Cameroon
Mgr. Joachim Kouraley Tarounga, Bishop of Moundou, Chad
Mgr. Gaspar Quintana, Bishop of Copiapó, Chile
Mgr. José Figueroa Gómez, Bishop of Granada, Colombia
Mgr. Joseph Banga, Bishop of Buta, Democratic Republic of Congo
Mgr. Yves Boivineau, Bishop of Annecy, France
Mgr. Jean-Luc Brunin, Bishop of Le Havre, France
Mgr. Werner Thissen, Archbishop of Hamburg, Germany
Mgr. Pedro Barreto Jimeno, Archbishop of Huancayo,

OMI: THE BE-ATTITUDES: THE QUALITIES NEEDED IN ORDER TO BE by Frank Santucci, omi

Please visit Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

Situations vacant! I conclude these reflections on the 1818 Rule with the picture that Eugene gives of the qualities required in a prospective candidate to the Missionaries.

He has to have a great desire for his own perfection,

an unlimited love for Jesus Christ and his Church,

and an enormous zeal for the salvation of souls.

He must have a heart that is free from all disorderly affection for earthly things,

a great detachment from his family and place of birth,

a lack of interest to the point of disdaining wealth;

he must be willing to serve God and the Church, either in the missions, or in the other ministries of the Society

and he must want to persevere until death in faithfulness and obedience to the holy Rule of the Institute.

1818 Rule, Chapter two, §1 The qualities necessary for admission in
Missions, 78 (1951) p.85

We shall see how Eugene’s later version of this already-demanding description was to become much more fiery in approach.

”A man of personality can formulate ideals, but only a man of character can achieve them.”   Herbert Read

Source: Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us