Thursday, June 30, 2011
George Soros Buying Across Africa
George Soros Buying Across Africa
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Heads up on the article about George Soros remaking the world’s economic system. Here is an overview fromIntelligence Online…as well as the document found under Guinea…..
A look behind presidential doors
GUINEA: Rio Tinto’s friends talk Conde around
GUINEA: How Soros is backing new leader
IVORY COAST: Sponsors give generously
NIGERIA: Soros to the Rescue?
CONGO-K: Soros Targets Katanga Operators
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Conflict of Interest for Soros?
AFRICA/UNITED STATES: Soros Ups Investment
SOUTH AFRICA: Soros initiative in South Africa
More information on each below the line….
AFRICA MINING INTELLIGENCE n°245 – 02/03/2011
GUINEA: Rio Tinto’s friends talk Conde around
Saved by the bell on Feb. 23 when president Alpha Conde finally agreed to extend its exploration license on two of the Simandou blocks (AMI 242 ), Simfer S. (…) [296 words] [$5.4]
AFRICA MINING INTELLIGENCE n°242 – 19/01/2011
GUINEA: How Soros is backing new leader
According to Africa Mining Intelligence’s sources, Guinea president Alpha Conde called on billionaire George Soros early this month for assistance in pushing through reforms in the mining and oil sectors. (…) [303
words] [FREE]
WEST AFRICA NEWSLETTER n°600 – 25/11/2010
IVORY COAST: Sponsors give generously
No expense has been spared in the run up to the second round of Ivory Coast’s presidential election on November 28 between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, standing for the La Majorite Presidentielle (LMP) coalition and Alassane Ouattara, representing the opposition Rassemblement des Houphouetistes pour la Democratie et pour la Paix (RHDP). (…) [249
words] [$5.4]
An all-out drive for minerals and oil
AFRICA ENERGY INTELLIGENCE n°640 – 24/11/2010
NIGERIA: Soros to the Rescue?
Soros Capital is interested in the sale of OML 30 by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a subsidiary of RoyalDutch/Shell in Nigeria. (…) [281 words] [$1.8]
AFRICA MINING INTELLIGENCE n°204 – 03/06/2009
CONGO-K: Soros Targets Katanga Operators
Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW), a project financed by George Soros’ Open Society for Southern Africa that keeps an eye on the mining business in Africa, is again seeking to influence the renegotiation of mining contracts in Congo-K. (…) [309 words] [FREE]
AFRICA ENERGY INTELLIGENCE n°402 – 12/10/2005
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Conflict of Interest for Soros?
The prosecutor-general in Sao Tome, Adelino Pereira, last month began an inquiry into how concessions were awarded in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) between Nigeria and Sao Tome. (…) [228 words] [$5.4]
AFRICA ENERGY INTELLIGENCE n°399 – 31/08/2005
AFRICA/UNITED STATES: Soros Ups Investment
Soros Fund Management, the equity fund founded by billionaire George Soros, has just doubled its stake in Pioneer Natural Resources. (…) [244 words] [$5.4]
Welfare measures and connections
AFRICA ENERGY INTELLIGENCE n°644 – 26/01/2011
AFRICA: Soros goes shopping
Already a partner of Perenco, Addax/Oryx and Oando in their bid to buy Shell ’s assets in the Niger Delta, George Soros is also interested in Morocco’s oil potential. (…) [163 words] [$1.8]
AFRICA MINING INTELLIGENCE n°235 – 06/10/2010
UNITED STATES: George Soros
The Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros will present a preview of its guidebook on procedures to take to punish companies guilty of looting natural resources in the developing countries at a conference in The Hague on October 29-30. (…) [196 words] [$5.4]
THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1139 – 18/06/2005
SOUTH AFRICA: Soros initiative in South Africa
The Johannesburg based Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa), funded by the businessman George Soros, is to aid the International Bar Association (IBA), headquartered in London, set up a Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC). (…) [114 words] [$1.8]
the plan
Why Are the Media Ignoring Plans By George Soros to Remake the Entire Global Economy?
By Dan Gainor
Published March 23, 2011
| FoxNews.com
FILE: Billionaire financier George Soros speaks at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York on Sept. 15, 2010.
Two years ago, George Soros said he wanted to reorganize the entire global economic system. In two short weeks, he is going to start – and no one seems to have noticed.
On April 8, a group he’s funded with $50 million is holding a major economic conference and Soros’s goal for such an event is to “establish new international rules” and “reform the currency system.” It’s all according to a plan laid out in a Nov. 4, 2009, Soros op-ed calling for “a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order.”
The event is bringing together “more than 200 academic, business and government policy thought leaders” to repeat the famed 1944 Bretton Woods gathering that helped create the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Soros wants a new “multilateral system,” or an economic system where America isn’t so dominant.
More than two-thirds of the slated speakers have direct ties to Soros. The billionaire who thinks “the main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat” is taking no chances.
Thus far, this global gathering has generated less publicity than a spelling bee. And that’s with at least four journalists on the speakers list, including a managing editor for the Financial Times and editors for both Reuters and The Times. Given Soros’s warnings of what might happen without an agreement, this should be a big deal. But it’s not.
What is a big deal is that Soros is doing exactly what he wanted to do. His 2009 commentary pushed for “a new Bretton Woods conference, like the one that established the post-WWII international financial architecture.” And he had already set the wheels in motion.
Just a week before that op-ed was published, Soros had founded the New York City-based Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the group hosting the conference set at the Mount Washington Resort, the very same hotel that hosted the first gathering. The most recent INET conference was held at Central European University, in Budapest. CEU received $206 million from Soros in 2005 and has $880 million in its endowment now, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
This, too, is a gathering of Soros supporters. INET is bringing together prominent people like former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and Soros, to produce “a lot of high-quality, breakthrough thinking.”
While INET claims more than 200 will attend, only 79 speakers are listed on its site – and it already looks like a Soros convention. Twenty-two are on Soros-funded INET’s board and three more are INET grantees. Nineteen are listed as contributors for another Soros operation – Project Syndicate, which calls itself “the world's pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries” reaching “456 leading newspapers in 150 countries.” It’s financed by Soros’s Open Society Institute. That’s just the beginning.
The speakers include:
• Volcker who is chairman of President Obama’s Economic Advisory Board. He wrote the forward for Soros’s best-known book, “The Alchemy of Finance” and praised Soros as “an enormously successful speculator” who wrote “with insight and passion” about the problems of globalization.
• Economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute and longtime recipient of Soros charity cash. Sachs received $50 million from Soros for the U.N. Millennium Project, which he also directs. Sachs is world-renown for his liberal economics. In 2009, for example, he complained about low U.S. taxes, saying the “U.S. will have to raise taxes in order to pay for new spending initiatives, especially in the areas of sustainable energy, climate change, education, and relief for the poor.”
• Soros friend Joseph E. Stiglitz, a former senior vice president and chief economist for the World Bank and Nobel Prize winner in Economics. Stiglitz shares similar views to Soros and has criticized free-market economists whom he calls “free market fundamentalists.” Naturally, he’s on the INET board and is a contributor to Project Syndicate.
• INET Executive Director Rob Johnson, a former managing director at Soros Fund Management, who is on the Board of Directors for the Soros-funded Economic Policy
Have no doubt about it: This is a Soros event from top to bottom. Even Soros admits his ties to INET are a problem, saying, “there is a conflict there which I fully recognize.” He claims he stays out of operations. That’s impossible. The whole event is his operation.
INET isn’t subtle about its aims for the conference. Johnson interviewed fellow INET board member Robert Skidelsky about “The Need for a New Bretton Woods” in a recent video. The introductory slide to the video is subtitled: “How currency issues and tension between the US and China are renewing calls for a global financial overhaul.” Skidelsky called for a new agreement and said in the video that the conflict between the United States and China was “at the center of any monetary deal that may be struck, that needs to be struck.”
Soros described in the 2009 op-ed that U.S.-China conflict as “another stark choice between two fundamentally different forms of organization: international capitalism and state capitalism.” He concluded that “a new multilateral system based on sounder principles must be invented.” As he explained it in 2010, “we need a global sheriff.”
In the 2000 version of his book “Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism,” Soros wrote how the Bretton Woods institutions “failed spectacularly” during the economic crisis of the late 1990s. When he called for a new Bretton Woods in 2009, he wanted it to “reconstitute the International Monetary Fund,” and while he’s at it, restructure the United Nations, too, boosting China and other countries at our expense.
“Reorganizing the world order will need to extend beyond the financial system and involve the United Nations, especially membership of the Security Council,” he wrote. “That process needs to be initiated by the U.S., but China and other developing countries ought to participate as equals.”
Soros emphasized that point, that this needs to be a global solution, making America one among many. “The rising powers must be present at the creation of this new system in order to ensure that they will be active supporters.”
And that’s exactly the kind of event INET is delivering, with the event website emphasizing “today's reconstruction must engage the larger European Union, as well as the emerging economies of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia.” China figures prominently, including a senior economist for the World Bank in Beijing, the director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the chief adviser for the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations.
This is all easy to do when you have the reach of George Soros who funds more than 1,200 organizations. Except, any one of those 1,200 would shout such an event from the highest mountain. Groups like MoveOn.org or the Center for American Progress didn’t make their names being quiet. The same holds true globally, where Soros has given more than$7 billion to Open Society Foundations – including many media-savvy organizations just a phone call away. Why hasn’t the Soros network spread the word?
Especially since Soros warns, all this needs to happen because “the alternative is frightening.” The Bush-hating billionaire says America is scary “because a declining superpower losing both political and economic dominance but still preserving military supremacy is a dangerous mix.”
The Soros empire is silent about this new Bretton Woods conference because it isn’t just designed to change global economic rules. It also is designed to put America in its place – part of a multilateral world the way Soros wants it. He wrote that the U.S. “could lead a cooperative effort to involve both the developed and the developing world, thereby reestablishing American leadership in an acceptable form.”
That’s what this conference is all about – changing the global economy and the United States to make them “acceptable” to George Soros.
-- Iris Somberg contributed to this commentary.
Dan Gainor is the Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center’s Vice President for Business
SOROS VISIT IN GUINEE
Dakar, 3 March 2011
Statement on the visit of Mr. George Soros, Chairman and Founder of the Open Society Foundations to the Republic of Guinea
The Chair and Founder of the Open Society Foundations George Soros, and a team of experts visited Guinea from 25 to 28 February 2011 to the democratic transition underway in Guinea following the 2010 elections and a return to civilian rule.
During the visit, Mr. Soros met with President Alpha Condé to discuss the current state of the political, economic and social landscape of Guinea. Mr. Soros welcomed Guinea’s decision to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the government’s commitment to the rule of law. Mr. Soros affirmed his commitment to help mobilize technical support for the new government’s development agenda.
Mr. Soros also met with representatives of the opposition political parties and key sectors of Guinean civil society, including the media, and exchanged views on a number of issues. He emphasized the absolute need for all Guineans, in particular the opposition political parties and civil society, to play an active and meaningful role in the construction of a ‘new’ Guinea and to hold the government accountable so that the people of Guinea can derive democratic dividends.
Guinea has had a long-term engagement with the Open Society Foundations through its sub-regional Foundation, the Open Society Institute for West Africa (OSIWA). OSIWA, which has geographic mandate over Guinea, will continue to play a vital role in supporting catalytic actions for developing the strong civil society that is desperately needed to meet the challenges of Guinea’s new democracy.
The focus of OSIWA in Guinea will be to support strategic efforts to develop the monitoring, research, documentation and advocacy capacities of human rights organizations as a way to reduce impunity, promote social cohesion and transitional justice mechanisms, and advocate for the establishment of credible bodies to promote transparency and accountability in the management of resources. OSIWA will also support collaborations and form strategic alliances/partnerships with other like-minded agencies so as to complement funding, technical support and links to local civil society movements.
STÈLE MERMOZ N° 100 EL HADJ IBRAHIMA NIASSE X RUE PPCI DAKAR, SENEGAL POSTAL ADDRESS: P.O.BOX 008, DAKAR-FANN, SENEGAL PHONE: +221-33 869-1024/ 33 869-1033/33 869-1036 • FAX: +221-33 824-0942
EMAIL: osiwa-dakar@osiwa.org www.osi
BOARD OF DIRECTORS OSIWA
| Board of Directors |
| Written by Administrator |
| Saturday, 02 April 2011 08:18 |
New OSIWA Board Members
Akwasi Aidoo (Chair) - GHANA:Akwasi Aidoo (Chair) is the founding Executive Director of TrustAfrica, a grantmaking foundation dedicated to advancing democratic governance and equitable development in Africa. Akwasi has extensive experience in philanthropy. His previous positions include regional program officer for West and Central Africa at IDRC, head of the Ford Foundation’s regional office for West Africa, and director of the Ford Foundation’s Special Initiative for Africa. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Resource Alliance. He also serves on the boards of several other nonprofit organizations, including the Fund for Global Human Rights, Global Greengrants Fund, International Beliefs and Values Institute, International Committee of the Council on Foundations, African Grantmakers’ Network; and previously served as a trustee of OXFAM America. Akwasi has taught at universities in Ghana, Tanzania, and the United States. He was educated in Ghana and the United States and received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Connecticut in 1985. He writes poetry and short stories in his spare time
Ayo Atsenuwa (Nigeria)Ayo Atsenuwa is now Research Professor at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) and formerly Associate Professor and Head, Department of Public Law in the University of Lagos. She holds two Masters of Law degrees - LL.M Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of London, and LL.M Law in Development from the University of Warwick. She has over fifteen years of experience in the area of human rights advocacy and community development. She is the Executive Director of Legal Research and Resource Development Centre (LRRDC) a human rights non-governmental organization in Nigeria. She has authored numerous publications on gender, human rights, law and development. She is currently a member of the Board of the National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS which is charged with coordinating the national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Camara Aminatou Barry (Guinea)Camara Aminatou Barry – holds a PhD in Planning and Development Economics. She is a career professor and lectured at the University of Conakry. She has served as Director of the Agricultural Policy Coordination Office (1993-1994), Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance and later at the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation (1996-1999), and as National Coordinator of the Village Community Support Program (PACV) from 1999 to 2006. From 2008 to 2010, she served as Director of the Communication, Documentation and Records Bureau at the Office of the Prime Minister of Guinea. She also held top-level positions in the government as Minister of Tourism, the Hotel Industry and Crafts, and Minister of Postal Services and Telecommunications (2006-2007). She has 35 years of experience in the fields of development planning and management. She is a member of several civil society organizations, the Steering Committee of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Guinea and has since March 2010 been a member of the National Transition Commission (CNT). She is member of OSIWA Board since January 2011
T. Negbalee Warner - (Liberia)Negbalee is a prominent member of Liberia civil society where he has held several leadership positions, including President of the Liberian National Students Union (LINSU), which is a statutory national umbrella organization of students and student governments in Liberia. Mr. Warner presently serves as member of the international Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI), the Board of directors of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL)- and the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY). He also served the Liberian public sector in a number of managerial positions at the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation and the Central Bank of Liberia as well the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). During his tenure as the first Head of Secretariat of LEITI, Liberia was honored by the EITI Board as the best EITI implementing country, and the country subsequently became the second EITI compliant country in the world. Mr. Warner is an Assistant Professor of law at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia and is also engaged in private legal practice. He holds a B.Sc (Economics) with honors and an LL.B with honors from the University of Liberia, as well as an LL.M from the Cornell Law School. He is a member of the Liberian Supreme Court Bar, the Liberia National Bar, and the New York Bar.
Tennyson Williams - (Sierra Leone)Tennyson Williams is the International Director of ActionAid International responsible for West and Central Africa. He provides leadership and management support and supervision to the staff and teams in West and Central Africa where ActionAid works in order to achieve the mission, goals and objectives of ActionAid International (AAI). Tennyson has over twelve years of experience in the development sector with UNHCR, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi and ActionAid International Sierra Leone. As Country Director for ActionAid Sierra Leone, he led the country programme to Associate status in June 2008, by establishing its first national board as part of ActionAid International’s overarching internationalisation agenda. Tennyson also led the development of the ActionAid International Sierra Leone country strategy paper and contributed to the positioning of Sierra Leone’s development agenda at national and international levels. He was involved in a number of research and consultancy projects for the DFID and the Sierra Leone Civil Society, where he played a key role in the design of the DFID civil society programme (ENCISS). Tennyson holds an MSC. in Zoology, BSC in Agriculture General, Diploma in Epidemiology and Control of Human Vector- Borne diseases and a certificate in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations.
Thierno Kane - (Senegal)tkane@osiwa.org Thierno Kane is the founder and leader of grassroots organizations in Senegal, his native country, as well as an adviser and activist for a number of NGOs/CSOs in Africa and worldwide. Adult Educator by training, he has specialized in issues of popular participation and has long experience in tripartite dialogue and partnership between CSOs, Governments and the Donor Community in Africa and internationally. Thierno has served as Executive Director and Chairman of CONGAD (Conseil des ONG d’Appui au Developpement), the North/South umbrella of NGOs in Senegal. Former founding Secretary General of the Federation des Associations Villageoises du Fouta pour le Developpment-FAFD- a grassroots movment in Senegal, he is also a founding member of ANAFA( Association Nationale pour l’Alphabetisation et la Formation des Adultes-Senegal and has participated intensively in the creation in 1987 of FAVDO (Forum of African Voluntary Organizations). He is a former global Chair of CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation). He has been on the boards of a number of CSOs and think tanks such as the International Group for Grassroots Initiatives (IGGRI- Mexico/New Delhi) and the Development Group for Alternative Policies (D-GAP-Washington). In 1998, he launched the UNDP Regional Pilote Programme "Civil Society Empowerment for Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa" and led the programme as Coordinator and Chief Technical Advisor for 2 years. From August 2004 to January 2010, he served as Director of UNDP Civil Society Division in New York. He is currently Board Member of the Forum International de Montreal (FIM-Montreal) and is also serving in the UN Volunteers Technical Advisory Board for the State of World Volunteerism Report. Thierno Kane has been the author of a wide range of articles on NGO issues and grassroots matters and participated in major global conferences on development matters.
IMMEDIATE PAST OSIWA Board Members
Past OSIWA Board Members
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