Thursday, June 14, 2007

Lies & Secrets

Our Harpocrite government continues to be a shining example of the Strauss school of realpolitik; by keeping secrets and telling lies.

Atlantic Accord

Despite the government's insistence there would be no side deal cut for provinces, negotiations have been underway between Ottawa and Nova Scotia since the March budget was tabled.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has decided to offer one of the provinces a compromise that could cost Ontario taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in extra payouts.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirmed that Ottawa is looking for a way to end its standoff with Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald over the workings of fiscal federalism.

The offer would amount to a promise that in coming years Nova Scotia would be guaranteed the maximum available revenues – both from resource taxation and cash transfers from Ottawa – regardless of the impact of new measures in the Conservatives' March 19 budget, Flaherty said.



Detainees in Afghanistan

The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan charged Monday the Afghan government and its Western allies Canada central among them are not making the country safe fast enough.

Tom Koenigs declared: "It is certainly one expression of the insecurity in this country that people turn to weapons. And ... quite a number of those who have been alienated by the government or by the (poor) performance of the government have been alienated by the absence of justice institutions."

While Canada has been prominent among Western troop contributors in helping build Afghan judicial and policing systems in addition to fighting insurgents, Koenigs said increased attention needs to be given to efforts that spread the rule of law.

Canada's top diplomat in Afghanistan
said yesterday he will keep a close watch on the progress of an Afghan investigation into new allegations that detainees captured by Canadians and handed over to Afghan authorities have been tortured.

The fresh allegations surfaced during a visit by Canadian authorities to Afghan prisons as part of a new agreement signed May 3.

Coming in the wake of reports that as many as 30 people captured by Canadians were being abused by their Afghan captors, the agreement allows Canadian officials and international human rights workers to check regularly on the well-being of prisoners.

30? I thought there were only four, no wait, add two, that makes six. Thirty?

Canadian officials have received allegations of torture or abuse from six Afghan detainees, two more than reported by cabinet ministers during testimony at a Commons committee last week.

"There is no discrepancy," MacKay said. "There are six in total. Two complaints by suspected Taliban detainees prior to the new agreement and, since May 3 when the new enhanced arrangement was put in place, there were four."

Even National Post columnist John Ivison gets it.

This government's obsession with secrecy and control will be its downfall.


As does the Canadian public.

The Harpocrites practice of realpolitik of the Big Lie is not working except in the fantasy world of the PMO.

One should not as a rule reveal one's secrets, since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

Joseph Goebbels



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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

This Is What Alberta Democracy Looks Like

Well not really. More like the limitations of representative parliamentary government. In the Drumheller-Stettler by-election 1/3 of eligible voters cast their vote. The riding has 21, 790 voters and only 7144 voted. Of these 4,180 voted PC.

1/4 of voters decided on keeping the status quo. While it is a sweep, its one with a threadbare broken down broom. With this level of voter apathy, a general election could present a whole new picture.

What is more interesting is how the opposition vote breaks down.

The opposition to the PC's came from the Social Credit party and the Liberals. The Liberals and Socreds were tied most the of night until the Liberals broke away and got 14% to the Socreds 12%.

The Independent candidate an Alberta Separatist got 7% of the vote beating out the Alberta Alliance which got 5%, the Green Party which got 3% while the NDP got 1%.

Taken together the Separatist and the Alliance split the Socred vote.

But contrary to the wet dreams of some of the right a unified right wing of the Alliance, Separatists and Socreds would still not come close to defeating the PC's.

In the sprawling riding of Drumheller-Stettler, east of Calgary, Jack Hayden successfully raised the Tory standard once again in a region his party has won by lopsided margins ever since it was wrested from the Social Credit party in 1979.

Jack Hayden, a local councillor and a former rural campaign lieutenant for Premier Ed Stelmach, handily defeated a field of challengers to take the seat held by former deputy premier Shirley McClellan.

Ms. McClellan resigned in January after holding the riding for two decades.


What they would do is offer vote splitting on the right giving the Liberals a better opening come the next election.


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Calgary Elbow Goes Liberal

Whew this is a horse race. But the Liberals are poised to take Ralph Kleins old riding of Calgary Elbow a long time safe PC seat.

They have been in the lead since the polls started coming in. With 69/77 polls in we are predicting that the Liberals have a winning lead at 44%. Through out they have been ahead of the PC's 43% to 38%.

Like King Ralph's victories this Liberal victory is won by a few hundred votes.

The vote difference between the Alberta Alliance 5% and the Social Credit Party 2% shows vote splitting on the right. Combined they would have had 7% of the vote, while the Green Party got 6%. The NDP a measly 4%. The Independent got 1%. All told this opposition to the Tories was worth 18% of the popular vote. Another good reason for PR.

The impact of the SC, AA and Green vote on the Conservatives have been enough to allow the Liberals to squeak past.


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It's A Sweep

Drumheller Stettler stays PC. Politically Correct. By a wide margin we are now calling it a sweep.


Elector
Count
BOUGH
RICHARD
NDP
DAVIDSON
LARRY
SC
DOOLEY
TOM
LIB
FRANCE
DAVE
AA
HAYDEN
JACK
PC
REW
JOHN
IND
WIGMORE
JENNIFER
AG
Total
Vote Count Percentage
Polls Leading / Won
No. of Polls Reporting 14 of 71
21,790 12
1%
0
100
8%
0
93
8%
0
63
5%
0
772
64%
14
127
11%
0
42
3%
0


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Alberta Election Results

Ok all youse political junkies, it's eight o' clock MDT and the polls in Alberta's two by-elections have now closed.

Place your wagers.

The results can be found here:

Unofficial Poll Results - 08 CALGARY-ELBOW


Unofficial Poll Results - 52 DRUMHELLER-STETTLER

This is the Alberta Election website, and they are showing the results in real time, real slow time. With no talking heads to interpret the raw data for you, or to determine the winner after a quarter of the polls come in. Watch it hear, but make yourself a sandwich.

To get updated results hit refresh, updates are highlighted in grey.



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Where's The NDP?

This opinion poll about today's Alberta By-elections, is posted on the rightwhingnut website Free Dominion. I only have to ask where is the NDP? They have four seats in the house compared to the Alliance's one. Oh yeah it's a rightwhinghut poll.

Who will win the by-elections?
Tory sweep
12%
12% [ 2 ]
Alliance sweep
12%
12% [ 2 ]
Liberal sweep
12%
12% [ 2 ]
Tory - Alliance split
12%
12% [ 2 ]
Tory - Liberal split
31%
31% [ 5 ]
Alliance - Liberal split
18%
18% [ 3 ]
Total Votes : 16

Historical revisionists that they are, like their pal Link Byfield, they forget that this province is home to the One Big Union,
the CCF and twenty years of the United Farmers of Alberta.

For them history begins with the Socreds. Forgetting that radicals of the left supported the original 1935 Social Credit movement as a natural extension of the farmer labour populist UFA. And that the party had a left and a right wing until Ernest Manning consolidated power in the party, and turfed the radicals in favour of his evangelical rural base.

The decline of the Socreds was their reliance on their rural base. A base that Ed Stelmach now has, and that is rapidly urbanizing. Challenging the sorry old Tory establishment. Rural Alberta has become the suburbs even in the staid reactionary southland's.



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Election Day In Alberta


There are two by-elections in Alberta today. One in Calgary in Ralph Kleins old riding, one he often only won by the skin of his teeth, and the other in Drumheller. Both will be a bell weather for the Ed Stelmach regime as well as an indication of how well the 'other' parties will do including how they will do against not only the provincial P.C.'s but against the Harpocrite domination of this province federally. Any vote against the One Party State will also be a vote against the disinterested Federal Conservatives who take us for granted.

Alberta by-elections seen as referendum on new Tory leader

Disgruntled voters in Alberta

Solid conservative support wavering in Drumheller
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Gun Nutz

So ask your self this, why is it okay for the State to regulate and control tobacco users, campaign for a smoke free environment for public health which impacts over 6 million Canadians, and everyone agrees, including the Conservatives to limit smokers liberties, but when it comes to guns and public health, well that's going to far. Yet the number of gun owners in Canada is only 2.3 million.

This vocal minority is punching far above its weight.
While the pro gun lobby claims it is defending long gun owners, the reality is that they are dominated by handgun collectors who would ultimately like to see the handgun registry and ban eliminated. Thats the real hidden agenda behind their fight against the Long Gun Registry.



"The government has admitted on three separate occasions . . . that since handgun registration was implemented in 1934, not one single crime in Canada has been solved using the national pistol registry."

--MP Garry Breitkreuz



Which is why you always see pictures of the gun nutz with their favorite weapon. And no it ain't a duck hunting shot gun.


A photo of Prof. Gary Mauser from the Canadian National Firearms Association (NFA) website. This photo has since been removed.


Aw shucks it might be incriminating given Gary's take off on Dirty Harry; "
Feeling lucky, punk? Well are ya?"


The Harpocrites are stacking their firearms advisory committee with folks like Gary. Including

The Conservative government's firearms advisory committee, appointed and operating in virtual secrecy, is made up almost entirely of pro-gun advocates opposed to the firearms registry.

Its dozen members include a man who argued that more guns in the hands of students would have helped in the recent Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed, and another shooting aficionado who described a weapon used in last September's Dawson College killings in Montreal as "fun."

In background research obtained and confirmed by the Star, members of the Conservatives' committee have shown themselves to be vocal proponents of gun use.

"If even 1 per cent of the students and staff at Virginia Tech had been allowed to exercise their right to self defence, then this tragedy would have been stopped in its very beginning and dozens of lives would have been saved," Dr. Mike Ackermann, a Nova Scotia physician, wrote in a letter to the Ottawa Sun in April. "There are never any mass killings at shooting ranges; only at schools and other so-called `gun-free zones.'

Quack of the Week

Sounds like Dr. Mike is more interested in representing the St. Mary's Shooters Association (he is President), rather than the health interests of Canadians.

Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor renowned for his work opposing gun laws, wrote an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun in February: "Firearm laws divert scarce resources from alternative approaches that might actually improve public safety."



The Case of the Missing Canadian Gun Owners by Gary A Mauser ...

Gun Registration -- The Billion Dollar Boondoggle by Gary Mauser


Firearm Registration and the Slippery Slope in Canada

by Gary Mauser




The only apparent acknowledgment of the committee's membership was found in a letter by MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton Melville) to constituents in which he pointed to the makeup of the panel as evidence of the Tories' intent to be more gun friendly.

"In October, the minister's new firearms advisory committee met in Ottawa for the first time. The difference between the Liberal government and the Conservative government is obvious by the people that make up the committee," Breitkreuz wrote in the letter dated Dec. 15, 2006.

He named Ackermann, Mauser and 10 other members:

Tony Bernardo, Canadian Institute of Legislative Action.

Linda Thom, Olympic gold medallist in pistol shooting.

Alain Cossette, Quebec Wildlife Federation.

Greg Farrant, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.

Linda Baggaley, firearms expert and dealer from Alberta.

Stephen Torino, Quebec firearms expert and dealer.

Louis D'amour, New Brunswick firearms expert.

Gerry Gamble, Sporting Clubs of Niagara.

Robert Head, former RCMP assistant commissioner.

John Gayder, Niagara police.

Murray Grismer, Saskatoon police.

The Conservative Party of Canada Policy Declaration
as approved by the Convention on March 19, 2005.
81. Firearms
A Conservative Government will repeal Canada's costly gun registry legislation and work with the provinces
and territories on cost-effective gun control programs designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals
while respecting the rights of law-abiding Canadians to own and use firearms responsibly. Measures will
include: mandatory minimum sentences for the criminal use of firearms; strict monitoring of high-risk
individuals; crackdown on the smuggling; safe storage provisions; firearms safety training; a certification
screening system for all those wishing to acquire firearms legally; and putting more law enforcement officers on our streets.


LUFA
Grassroots not for profit organization formed in 1998 to fight Bill C-68 (Firearms Act)
CSSA

Ottawa rejects call for handgun ban
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day suggests such a move would be useless, and might do more harm than good.
We welcome this refreshing breath of truth and common sense. Now is a good time for all shooters to show their appreciation to the Honourable Public Safety Minister.


Dawson gun (Sensationalism) is all the rage

Bruce Gold
Feb. 15, 2007



Now lets look at the old committee and compare who is missing from the new advisory committee:

The User Group was established by the Minister of Justice in December 1995 after Bill C-68 received royal assent. The members are representatives of the firearms community and the regular administrators of the legislation. The Group is composed of hunters, target shooters, collectors, range operators, businesses, safety instructors, wildlife representatives, outfitters and law enforcement officials.
Jim Adam
Ronald Gibson
Christina Ashcroft
Linda Baggaley
Jim Bouchard
Terry Burns
Don Cameron
Eric Goodwin
Art King
Dave Paplawski
Gerry Pyke
Steve Torino, Chair
Chris Widrig


Some of the Governments Firearm advisory committee members also sit on the Firearms registry PAC. It at least is balanced between pro and anti gun spokespeople. But that could change.

The Program Advisory Committee (PAC) is a key element of the Action Plan that was announced in February 2003, by the Solicitor General of Canada and the Minister of Justice. The Committee is comprised of experienced individuals outside of government who provide ongoing advice on policy, program and administrative matters and who serve on a voluntary basis. The Commissioner of Firearms chairs the PAC.

Program Advisory Committee Members

Linda Baggaley
President, Bud Haynes Auctions
Red Deer, Alberta

Linda Baggaley is President of Bud Haynes Auctions in Red Deer, Alberta the oldest established Gun Auction in Canada. Linda is also a charter member of the Canadian Auctioneers Association. She is a former member of the Minister's User Group on Firearms.

Jim Bouchard
Radville, Saskatchewan

Mr. Bouchard, a former member of the Minister's User Group on Firearms, is the owner and operator of a 1700-acre grain and cattle farm in southeast Saskatchewan.

Wendy Cukier
Toronto, Ontario

Dr. Cukier is a tenured professor at Ryerson University; in addition, she is the coordinator for the Small Arms/Firearms Education Research Network and volunteer President of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Control.

David Griffin
Executive Officer
Canadian Professional Police Association
Ottawa, Ontario

Mr. Griffin is responsible for the implementation of the Canadian Professional Police Association's justice reform agenda and the government and public advocacy program. He also manages the Association's affairs.

Peter E. Larson
Executive Vice-President
Public Policy Forum
Ottawa, Ontario

Dr. Larson has extensive experience working with both the public and private sectors and has authored or directed a large number of studies and research reports concerning a wide range of public administration issues.

Marilou McPhedran
Toronto, Ontario

Ms. McPhedran is a lawyer, consultant, and volunteer for many causes that focus on equality and health. She is the co-founder and past Chair of the Board of Metrac – the Metro Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children.

Leslie A. Pal
Director, School of Public Policy and Administration
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario

Dr. Pal is the author, co-author or editor of 19 books and his consulting practice includes work with the Ukrainian Academy of Public Administration and the Open Society Institute (Budapest), the World Bank and the Hong Kong Civil Service Training and Development Institute.

Dave Paplawski
Conservation Education Coordinator
Alberta Hunter Education Instructors Association
Calgary, Alberta

Mr. Paplawski is a former Alberta government employee who now is the Conservation Education Coordinator for the Alberta Hunter Education Instructors Association in Calgary. AHEIA coordinates the delivery of provincial hunter safety instruction and our Canadian Firearms Safety Courses. He is a former member of the Minister's User Group on Firearms.

Robert Simon
Director General, Centre de prévention du suicide
Chicoutimi, Québec

Dr. Simon is Director General of the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean Suicide Prevention Centre and has worked with wildlife and outdoor groups to stress the importance of safe firearms storage.

Peter Sorensen
President, PRP International Inc.
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Mr. Sorensen has extensive experience in project management, including serving as the Government of Canada project leader for the Confederation Bridge Project.

Stephen Torino
Montreal, Quebec

Mr. Torino, the former Chair of the Minister's User Group on Firearms, is a chartered accountant and long-time firearms' collector and target shooter. In addition, he has held numerous executive positions in trapshooting and collecting associations.

Vince Westwick
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
Ottawa, Ontario

Mr. Westwick is General Counsel of the Ottawa Police Service. A former police officer, he is Co-chair of the Law Amendments Committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

Alan Winberg
Senior Visiting Fellow, Public Management
Canadian Centre for Management Development
Ottawa, Ontario

Dr. Winberg has served in different Assistant Deputy Minister positions at Human Resources Development Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat. He has also held senior positions in a number of other government departments.

Gun Control: 16 Years Later



See

Gun Registry

P3


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Afghanistan or Africa

It seems that the Harpocrites while extolling their increase in funding development aid, forgot that Afghanistan is nowhere near Africa except perhaps in the dictionary.

All the recent focus on aid levels, however, could hide the fact that Canadian aid also needs to be made more effective, ie, it should be spent on poverty alleviation. Harper has mandated Afghanistan to become the largest recipient of Canada's largesse. This led world-renowned development economist Jeffrey Sachs to complain, "…the money going to Afghanistan and Iraq is really not development aid but security spending."


And this blast is not from just any old rock n roll celebrity;


Stephen Lewis slams G8 as morally bankrupt

The G8 countries are spending $120 billion annually to deal with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they can't find half that amount to deal with HIV/AIDS, Lewis said.


Meanwhile Harper announces an new policy direction for Canadian aid in order to end any association of HIS government with past, Liberal, governments that pushed for greater aid for Africa.

Answering a question in the House of Commons yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay pointed out that "Canada will double its international assistance from 2001 to 2010, with assistance to Africa also doubling in that time frame." Canada plans to increase its Africa funding to $2.1 billion for 2008-09, from $1.05 billion in 2003-04, and African aid makes up 40 per cent of all Canadian foreign aid. What's more, Canada's foreign aid budget is growing by eight per cent per year.

"Canada’s on target to meet those obligations," Harper said. "I think we’re the only country on target to meet them, and to meet them early, in fact."

The Prime Minister’s Office was unable to provide documentation to prove his claim. A senior Canadian official said Canada’s aid budget for Africa will amount to $2.1 billion in 2008-09, but DATA, an aid agency co-founded by Bono, estimates Canada will need to increase aid by $479 million this year and next to meet its commitment. Only Japan and Britain are on track to meet their promise, DATA says.

Stronach said the amount set aside by the Conservative government falls $700 million short of that, and Harper is responsible.

Layton said the prime minister has reduced Canada's commitment to foreign aid while telling the world that it wasn't doing so.

"Mr. Harper simply isn't telling the truth and when it comes to life-saving foreign aid, that's despicable," Layton said.


Policy on the run is Harpers foreign affairs specialty. Like last years support for Israels war on Lebanon. Now he goes and does it again.
Harper signals shift from Africa to Americas
Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled a major shift in Canadian aid policy yesterday, saying that Canada's primary focus is moving away from Africa and toward the Western Hemisphere.

"Canada's sole focus and primary focus is not necessarily Africa, but we remain engaged there, we will meet our targets and will move forward with that plan into the future," Mr. Harper told reporters at the G8 summit.



His push to deal with development aid in our Hemisphere bodes ill, premised as it is with hemispheric bilateral agreements in the context of an expanding North American Union. Harper clearly has mixed up the concept of Aid and Trade.

This hemisphere is not in need of development Aid, rather it is in need of Fair Trade. Instead we have Free Trade Zones, which are anti-union tax free havens for American and Canadian manufacturers, and the attempt to import Latin American workers into Alberta as cheap labour for the Tar Sands.


Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) Analysts expect that--as occurred in Mexico--CAFTA will attract foreign direct investment and boost Central American exports in certain sectors, but will provide little benefit to the rural and urban poor of the region.

Why U.S.-CAFTA-DR?

The Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) includes seven signatories: the United States, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The U.S. Congress approved the CAFTA-DR in July 2005 and the President signed it into law on August 2, 2005. The CAFTA-DR has been approved by the legislatures in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Approval is pending in Costa Rica. The export zone created will be the United States' second largest free trade zone in Latin America after Mexico.

The United States is implementing the CAFTA-DR on a rolling basis as countries make sufficient progress to complete their commitments under the Agreement. The Agreement first entered into force between the United States and El Salvador on March 1, 2006, followed by Honduras and Nicaragua on April 1, 2006, Guatemala on July 1, 2006, and the Dominican Republic on March 1, 2007. The U.S. Government continues to work with Costa Rica to ensure timely and full implementation of the Agreement.

in the region, and strengthens protections for U.S. In addition to tariff reduction, CAFTA-DR provides new market access for U.S. consumer and industrial products and agricultural products. It also provides unprecedented access to government procurement in the partner countries, liberalizes the services sectors (see also financial services), protects U.S. investmentspatents, trademarks, and trade secrets. The Agreement covers customs facilitation and provides benefits to small and medium-sized exporters. Provisions are also included that address government transparency and corruption, worker rights, protection of the environment, trade capacity building, and dispute settlement.



Why Latin America Needs a Free-Trade Zone

At the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, the Hemisphere's leaders may at last give serious consideration to the establishment of free trade from Argentina to Alaska. But the meeting will also give critics an opportunity to cite economic uncertainty and political instability in much of Latin America as a reason to oppose the trade initiative. With the Andean region from Venezuela to Bolivia in varying degrees of turmoil, and with Argentina on the brink of possible default, trade liberalization is under attack.

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) (Spanish: Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA), French: Zone de libre-échange des Amériques (ZLÉA), Portuguese: Área de Livre Comércio das Américas (ALCA)) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the American continent. In the latest round of negotiations, officials of 34 nations met in Mexico on November 16, 2003 to discuss the proposal. The proposed agreement was an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Against the market are positioned Cuba, Venezuela and later Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua, which entered the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas in response.

Discussions have faltered over similar points as the Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks; developed nations seek expanded trade in services and increased intellectual property rights, while less developed nations seek an end to agricultural subsidies and freer trade in agricultural goods. Similar to the WTO talks, Brazil has taken a leadership role among the less developed nations, while the United States has taken a similar role for the developed nations.

Talks began with the Summit of the Americas in Miami on December 11, 1994, but the FTAA came to public attention during the Quebec City Summit of the Americas in 2001, a meeting targeted by massive anti-corporatization and anti-globalization protests. The Miami negotiations in 2003 met similar protests, though perhaps not as large. The last summit was held at Mar del Plata, Argentina in January 2005, but no agreement on FTAA was reached. 26 of the 34 countries present at the negotiations have pledged to meet again in 2006 to resume negotiations.




This Hemisphere is rapidly industrializing which cannot be said for Africa which is being divided up by Imperialist interests including China. It is still in thralls of being hewers of wood and drawers of water for the G8 and G20 countries.

And development Aid is going into the pockets of private capital investment companies known as Vulture Funds, which in more developed countries are also known as Hedge Funds. Vulture Funds encourage ponzi get rich quick schemes.

Real development funding would be directed to villages and people, not governments, as the success of Micro-credit has shown.

Private firms work on Africa's future

Economic growth in Africa has picked up considerably in recent years to an estimated 5.9% in 2007.

But this has not come about as a result of any concerted action by the leaders of wealthy nations, insists, Sir Mark.

"A key driver of this growth has been high commodity prices," he points out, questioning whether the prosperity will last.

In the meantime, "the aid figures in many areas seem pretty disappointing" and global trade talks have stalled, he says.

"Progress is slower than I would have wished, than we all would have wished," he says.

Market access

President Museveni puts it more starkly.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa says the West must do more

"Almost all African countries are pre-industrial," he says, paraphrasing the voice of the West: "'You must stay producing the cocoa bean. I will process it for you. Stay in your place. Don't move up the value chain.'

"The G8 countries should not assume they have an advisory role in Africa," he says, insisting African governments are capable of deciding themselves how to bring about development.

"Where we need assistance now - or at least not obstruction - is in two areas: cheap electricity and infrastructure.

Free trade is another key to African development, President Museveni says, insisting that "Western countries have denied us access to their markets - deliberately".


Greg Palast on the Battle to End Vulture Funds

Investigative reporter Greg Palast looks at the battle to end "vulture funds", where companies buy up debts of poor nations cheaply and then sue for the full amount.

At the close of the G-8 Summit in Germany last Friday, leaders of the world’s richest countries reiterated their commitment, first made in 2005, to cancel all of the debt owed by the world’s poorest countries. However, so-called “vulture funds,” or companies that buy up third world debt at rock-bottom prices and then sue the countries for the full value and more, are undermining any promises of debt relief. In February, BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast exposed on Democracy Now! how one vulture fund, Donegal International owned by US resident Michael Sheehan, was trying to collect $40 million dollars from Zambia after buying one of its debts for $4 million dollars. Soon after, Congressman John Conyers and Congressman Donald Payne brought this up with President Bush, and urged him to ensure that the G-8 summit would close the legal loopholes that allow vulture funds to flourish.




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