Intro by Innocent Chia
For the professed critics of The Chia Report who have been hailing the French invasion of Mali as an altruistic act to save Mali from "extremists Islamists, Touareg and al-Qaeda", the writing is now clear on the wall. The French raided Mali and inserted itself in a purely domestic affair because of French economic interests. President Francois Hollande was in Mali to guarantee French investors that its construction of Nuclear plants and furtherance of the French strategic enerygy independence policy, severely undermined by the implosion of Japanese nuclear plants, was not going to be deterred by anyone, much less a bunch of Africans. Very smart people are making the misleading and factually inaccurate argument that the Uranium deposits are not in Mali, that they are in Niger. The fact of it is that the resources are buried in the border of both Niger and Mali, and all the actors are fighting from all sides to secure it. This war is not about governance. It is about economic interests of the West, not the plight of the people.
Niger is the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium
And so? What's your point? When the French, alongside other partners, flew into Afghanistan to topple the ruthless Taliban, was it because they were following the money? Our anxiety to critize everything French, maybe because of our nationals expereience with them, doesn't in any way give us a leeway to go on the attack every time they are involved in other issues.
Posted by: Tommy Ngong | Monday, 04 February 2013 at 09:09 AM
France does not do altruistic stuff in Africa. Never has. Stupid Ngong dog.
Posted by: bangaboy@yahoo.com | Tuesday, 05 February 2013 at 01:18 PM
Ofcourse there is always an interest in everything that people do. What is important here, in my opinion, is the interest of Malians. It would be great if Malians could protect themselves from the tyranny of Sharia law, which was imposed on them in a matter of days after their cities were taken over by Islamists. We would not even be having this debate if Cameroon or a coalition of Africans who are truely concern about the interest of Malians went to Timbuktu to fight off the Islamists. Unfortunately the world is not a perfect place and things done go the way we normally would like them to go. If the French have an economic interest in Mali, which is threatened by the presence of Islamists in the country and Malians have an interest in their basic rights and freedom, which are also threatened by the presence of the Islamist, is it not common sense and a win-win situation that France should help them fight to get rid of the Islamist? There is something called the conflation of interests and it is a good thing wheneven different people or countries recognise their shared interest and work together to protect it.
Posted by: Tita Mofow | Thursday, 07 February 2013 at 05:33 AM
The unasked question is this: How would inaction on the part of Frnce be looked at?
Posted by: John Dinga | Sunday, 10 February 2013 at 12:46 PM