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WHY AMERICA WILL GO TO WAR

The primed and ready American and European armaments industries will kick into gear, the might of the biggest and most powerful army in world history will be unleashed once again on another weak and poor nation. There they will install yet another army of occupation and exploit the oil resources to their advantage and profit.

"Collateral" effects from this global circus of greed are seldom long in coming to our battered economic shores. Our ailing construction industry invariably comes to a grinding halt, bond rates rocket, unemployment rises and poverty prevails through the width and length of Africa. Famine and political instability follow.

Sound familiar? It should. We have seen it one too many times. This is the price that we pay for being part of this so called Global Economy - as it was the price we paid for playing host to Cold War battles in our post WW-II era.

It is time to disengage. 

When the Cold War ended with the capitulation of the Soviets more than a decade ago our African continent was left ravaged by the effects of numerous wars and conflicts which characterised that period. Over and above our ravaged and raped lands, cultures, societies, communities and peoples we were given "Foreign Debt" as a kick starter for our new  "independent" economies.

The first post Cold War decade did not bring peace and stability to Africa but it did bring an end to Apartheid, the Mozambican Civil War and (finally) the Angolan Civil War - all three having been bloody and costly battlegrounds of Cold War ideologies and global economic control which had outlived their usefulness to the West.

What the first post Cold War decade did bring us was the worst case of genocide in recent history in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo. It brought us the collapse of the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe, Congo wars, rampant Aids and famine in Central and Southern Africa. It brought about the plunder of the South African economy. And so much more ...

As I speak the  Ivory Coast descends into chaos and Civil War. Another oil rich country in turmoil. Coincidentally...

It is time to disengage. 

Our close ties to Western and Global economies have brought us nothing but misery and despair, war and famine. Can anyone living in Africa today deny that? 

If you take a close look at the individuals who orchestrate global events and control international finances you will easily conclude that they are not very good quality people. They are unsavoury, have a record as long as your arm, are armed and dangerous - they are not of the material from which you choose partners and associates. 

Take Dick Cheney, for example, the man who Madiba calls a political dinosaur. This person has an appalling record of global greed and exploitation - this is the man that for twenty years lobbied against the release of Nelson Mandela from jail. This is the man that holds the second most powerful job on the planet and the man that will take over the Presidency when Dubya gets what is coming his way.

These individuals are so encapsulated in their own delusion that they have lost touch with reality. They have lost touch with sanity. They are out of control.

It is time to disengage. 

War and destruction will prevail. The USA oil and armaments industries will flourish. Add to that the current Corporate America Collapse, the crashing Stock Exchange and endless CEO Scandals.

The multi nationals that have so recently bought out the lion's share of South Africa's production capability will begin to shut down local production facilities and substitute deliveries with imports at the cost of higher prices and massive job losses.

Remember that almost all new post apartheid investment in South Africa has taken the form of take-overs and mergers; almost no new enterprises have been created from foreign investment (SABC Business Beat, 30 September 2002).

This translates - not into investment - but into dis-investment!

Take the basic building elements for example; cement, steel, manufactured components and roofing. Most - if not all - of the primary manufacturers of these elements, which developed over decades of exploitative colonialism and apartheid, have been taken over by foreign nationals. The exploitation continues.

To add salt to the wound, we are currently witnessing the biggest sell-off of State owned assets in South African history. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost annually and our independent means of production is being dis-assembled as we watch.

It is time to disengage. 

Our built environment is a reflection of our society and economy. If our society is part of the global economy then our environment will reflect this in the way we construct our infra structures and buildings. If our society is part of a localised economy, then this will manifest as well.

Africa has mixed economies parallel and superimposed in dominance and subjugation. Our built environments manifest as much; Sandton and Alexandra are a stone's throw away from each other and one can experience total poverty and complete opulence at a moment's notice. They can and do co-exist and interface with each other. It is called freedom and we like it.

Many African countries caught up in the Cold War made the crucial mistake of attacking broad based capitalism without pausing to differentiate between private and local  entrepreneurship and the international capitalism that threatened their economies. What they succeeded in doing was to destroy local based free enterprise and later sold out to international capitalism for personal profit and gain to revive and supply the market channels which they had destroyed.

But the Cold War is over for us.  A new era of African reconstruction is before us. And herein lies a new danger. 

At a time when we should be looking inward to our economies and our societies we are led by cabals of largely corrupt officials who faithfully serve the interests of corporate globalisation for rich rewards. Our leaders are so busy minding each others business that they have forgotten those they were elected to serve.

African governments which are plagued by corruption practices of endemic proportions - such as South Africa and Nigeria - are at the head of the "New Africa Initiative", the African Union and other such politically motivated initiatives which service shadow (international) backers and masters. (See Corruption Index)

Proof of the pudding is in the stew that Robert Mugabe has landed in for giving the Brits the finger. Samora Machel did a thousand times worse things to his people yet the Queen of England made him a Knight of the British Empire and took Mozambique into the Commonwealth - the only non English speaking country on the roster of former British imperial outposts. In return Samora starved his people but took good care of British agricultural interests in Mozambique throughout an entire civil war which he orchestrated with armaments and training from the UK. (See Bribe Payers Index)

Are we supposed to have forgotten these things? 

Robert Mugabe undertook to do the same and delivered on his word for twenty years but got no knighthood. And you wonder why he is so disappointed?

A serious internal conflict is now emerging in South Africa and a lot of it has to do with the fact that Mugabe's antics are opening the eyes of many Africans to the injustices of globalised control by armed global minorities such as the USA and the UK.

The South Africans are picking up the thread and Sam Nujoma over in Namibia gets so angry thinking about it that he does irrational things like ban broadcasts of the Bold and the Beautiful from national TV in favour of Wildlife Epics. Africa is awake, aware and angry - perhaps a little incoherent in its manifestation of discontent.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions - the powerhouse of the people - is currently striking to draw attention to the implications of serving international capital above the needs of the citizen and local communities. 

COSATU (minus Civics) faces the unpopular task of being openly opposed to ANC policy and would not have organised an ambitious and controversial strike such as the one under way if it were not seriously concerned about the way that the ANC led government is selling off state assets to private consortia financed from abroad.

Privatisation of state assets is top of the list.

"COSATU has three basic reasons for opposing privatisation, namely:

First because of mass poverty, most households cannot pay enough to get basic goods and services from private businesses. South Africa ranks among the most unequal and therefore poverty-stricken countries in the world. In these circumstances, there is no market incentive for private companies to serve the majority.

As such privatisation has also been associated with rising costs of basic services such as water and telecommunication, which negatively affect workers and their communities. For example poor communities say their bills have soared from R70 to hundreds of rands a month after Nelspruit signed a 30-year contract with Biwater. With the average household income at under R2000, this is unaffordable.

In the past three years, the price of local calls, which the poor use, has increased in real terms by around 35%. In contrast, the price of domestic long distance calls has dropped, and international calls have become cheaper by 40%, again in real terms. In addition, basic rental costs are high, at over R60 a month.

Second, development requires fundamental restructuring of the economy. State control of assets provides an important lever to achieve this aim, both by extending infrastructure and production and by maintaining cross subsidies to the poor, small and micro enterprises, and similar sectors. Privatisation rules out this type of strategic intervention.

Finally, privatization has been widely associated with massive job losses at provincial, national and local level. Given an official unemployment rate of close to 30% - up from 16% in 1995 - that is unacceptable. For workers privatization has spelled job losses - over hundred thousand job losses can be traced to commercialization and privatization in the state owned enterprises, the public service and local government. 

Where jobs have been outsourced, workers have moved outside their bargaining unit and faced reduced pay, benefits and job security. The majority of those who face retrenchments are lower skilled Africans from the rural areas - workers who will not easily find new jobs. For every worker who loses their job, a minimum of five and up to ten people lose their livelihood.

Because of these realities, COSATU defines privatization as any restructuring that involves the sale or outsourcing of assets or functions to the private sector, the replacement of social objectives with profitability by state owned agencies, and the opening of historically state-controlled industries to private competition." (COSATU Strike Memorandum)

What COSATU faces today is exactly what it faced twenty years ago. Twenty years ago the Master of Ceremonies was white and Afrikaans, today he is black and Nguni. It makes no difference to the citizen as the benefits of the association are limited to a small circle or "brotherhood" close to those in power. The majority are excluded, exploited and left to fend for themselves.

We elect individuals from our communities to represent us at a provincial, national and international level through a process which we are told is "very democratic".

Think about this; does it matter whether the crooks that stole millions from the Housing Fund were elected democratically or not? We need a Revolution in our way of thinking and we need to stop being fooled by the poor quality leadership that plagues us worldwide and in Africa. And we need to accept the fact that honest people do not survive the "democratic process" long enough to gain power: they are assassinated if they cannot be bought or compromised. The actions of George W. Bush, Robert Mugabe and the Butcher of Tel Aviv - to name but a few - attest to that.

The truth is that national governments serve the interests of those in power and answer to international capital masters - not the people. It is pointless and irrelevant to think that different individuals in government would do a different job - they would not. Governance has become a global corporate occupation. For this reason alone it makes no sense to think that the solutions to our problems are political or even military - they are not.

The solution to our impasse has to be sociological; we the citizens must change our way of thinking and our expectations and we must act on these changes. Our behaviour has to  change. As does our vision.

It is time to disengage globalisation and engage community. 

And it starts with our Architecture ...

Buildings are the most expensive physical objects which we can create in Africa. As a continent we spend billions of annual dollars in construction and built environment infrastructure. Yet our building industries are in tatters.

As architects our thinking and our beliefs have a direct impact on the way that buildings are designed and constructed; we have a say on how the money is spent - we specify building methods, materials, components, services, etc. We like to think that we act on the best interests of society and client alike. But do we?

The decisions we make at conceptual and design level have a significant social impact - that is why we are a profession and not a club. By specifying particular foreign building systems that are both imported and serviced by foreign skills one does not contribute towards the local economy in any way but actually detracts from it. 

Adopting foreign architectural styles or fashions for the sake of novelty or glamour is also counter productive if not outright stupid. Expecting a local community based economy to have the behavioural and physical patterns of an international economy is naive and ignorant.

A social revolution is due. There is one common ailment which besets all Africans alike; corporate globalisation and externalised governance. The rampant abuse of fiscal and political power must be countered by positive and constructive communityl behaviour - not through violence, system abuse nor through democratic fraud but through effective communication, proactive education and the fundamental practice of honesty.

We need proactive thinking at community level and we need to disengage from national and international politicking. That is all that is required from communities to combat the negative effects of corporate globalisation and corrupt governance.

Only our individual local economies are our future and our security. The international economy - boardroom capital - is something which imperialists and politicians deploy on populations as a means of fiscal exploitation; no matter how many times they repackage it, it remains the same. 

 If we - as local, professional or virtual communities - rationalise our thinking and minimise our unessential dealings with foreign capital we can protect and strengthen our own economies and our communities. It is up to the individual to act proactively with positive intent and good information.

We must become masters of our own destiny without becoming victims of fate or ideology. We must promote peace, community, family and the pursuit of a productive and purposeful existence. 

For this we live.

M. Souza - Architect 
Nevala, Mozambique