This so-called ‘future of the world’, if it is allowed to be built, would jeopardise Baloch economic and political rights and even their existence
The malady of loot of resources by predatory establishments in connivance and partnership with equally predatory multinationals and countries is globally common. The Africa Progress Report produced every May by a panel of 10 prominent figures headed by former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan highlights the problem. Annan, in a BBC interview after its release, had said that tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers were depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom. Likening it to taking food off the tables of the poor he said, “Africa loses twice as much money through these loopholes as it gets from donors.” The report said that between 2010 and 2012 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) lost $ 1.3 billion in revenues, equivalent to double DRC’s combined health and education budgets, in five under-priced mining concessions sold in highly opaque and secretive deals. No wonder the ‘Save the Children’ charity says the DRC is the world’s worst place to be a mother in. Naturally, the beneficiaries like Martin Kabwelulu, DRC’s mining minister, had termed the report a ‘pack of lies’.
Continue reading →