100,000 Ethiopians March Against Islamic Terror

Protesters hold a banner showing victims Eyasu Yikunoamlak, left, and Balcha Belete, right, at a government-supported gathering to protest the recent killing of many Ethiopian Christians in Libya by the Islamic State extremist group.

Obama is Silent

• Comrade Hussein Obama could not be bothered with speaking out about the beheading of Ethiopian Christians.  Instead he sent his butt-boy lackey press secretary to read a dry statement to the press.  This SOB had no soul.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — More than 100,000 Ethiopians on Wednesday protested the killing of Ethiopian Christians in Libya and their own government's failure to raise living standards of the poor, with poverty fueling the flow of migrants through dangerous areas.

The government-supported march at Addis Ababa's Meskel Square turned violent as stone-throwing protesters clashed with the police, who arrested at least 100 people.

The protesters said "We want revenge for our sons blood," referring to Ethiopians seen being beheaded or shot in a video released on Sunday by the extremist group Islamic State. The Ethiopian victims are widely believed to have been captured in Libya while trying to reach Europe.

Working hard to fight terrorism.

Ahaza Kassaye, the mother of one of the victims identified as Eyasu Yikunoamlak, told The Associated Press during the protest Wednesday that she was overwhelmed by the massive turnout.

"I'm happy now. I'm very happy. I was just mourning the death of my son with family members and my neighbors. I never expected this to happen," she said.

Ahaza, who had to seek shelter in a cafe when the protest turned violent, said she hoped the government would react to the killings by closing all illegal border crossings and arresting suspected human traffickers.

Even as the Islamic State killings have roiled many here, some young people in Addis Ababa said they they would still attempt the perilous journey to Europe, often via Sudan and then Libya, if they had enough money to cover the smugglers' fees.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that, while poverty was the root cause of the migrations, smugglers were to blame for encouraging poor people to pursue what he called "the death journey."

Ethiopian lawmakers on Tuesday were debating a possible response to the Islamic State killings, but it remains unclear if military action is an option. The government has announced three days of nation-wide mourning over the killings.

Read More . . . .

Priests from Ethiopian Orthodox Church and protesters, one holding the national flag and others Christian crosses, attend a government-supported gathering to protest the recent killing of many Ethiopian Christians in Libya by the Islamic State extremist group, at Meskel Square in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, April 22, 2015.

Will Egypt go to war with Ethiopia over the Nile?

Will Egypt's Air Force bomb Ethiopia's new dam to protect the flow of the Nile River?

Ethiopia's strongman leader has vowed that no one will stop a $4.2 billion energy project that is diverting the flow of the Nile River after Egypt's president warned that all options were being considered to halt the dam.
                
In an interview aired on state television and radio, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Tuesday that he did not think Egypt would start a war over the vital river.
                
"'All options' include a war. I don't think they will take that option unless they go mad," Hailemariam said during the interview. "I urge them to abandon such an unhelpful approach and return to dialogue and discussion."
                
Ethiopia started diverting the flow of the Nile River in late May to make way for its $4.2 billion hydroelectric plant, which will be Africa's largest. The project has been under construction for over two years on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region near the Sudan border reports the Associated Press.


               
Egypt fears that the project will mean a diminished share of the Nile River.
                
Egyptian political leaders last week told President Mohammed Morsi to consider hostile acts against Ethiopia. Apparently unaware their discussion was being televised live, the leaders recommended spreading rumors, aiding rebels and even sabotaging the dam itself in a meeting with Morsi.
                
During the meeting, Morsi said that Egypt will not engage in any aggressive acts against Ethiopia.

However, he hardened his stance on Monday, warning that "all options are open."
                
Hailemariam then accused Egyptian leaders of using the dam issue to divert attention away from local issues. He said it was wrong of Egyptian politicians to use the Nile dam as "a distraction to escape the strong domestic opposition they are facing."
                
A 10-person Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia experts' panel has concluded that the dam will not significantly affect water flow to both Egypt and Sudan, Hailemariam explained.
                
The finding of the experts' panel, which includes four international experts, was fully accepted by Sudan, Hailemariam said.
                
"I like to thank the government and people of Sudan for their support and determination to work for mutual benefit. Others should learn from this," he added.
                
In a further escalation of the conflict, the Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry in a statement issued Tuesday condemned the "belligerent rhetoric" coming from Cairo. The ministry said Ethiopia "will not even for a second" stop the construction of the dam due to Cairo's rhetoric.
                
Ethiopia is currently leading a group of nine countries that signed the new Cooperative Framework Agreement for the Nile. The new agreement replaces colonial-era deals that awarded Cairo veto powers over projects on the Nile.
                
Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda signed the agreement in 2010, and Burundi did so a year later. Sudan and Egypt have been strongly opposed to the deal.
                
Ethiopian parliament since April is reviewing the deal. It is expected to approve it in few days' time.

Water Wars
The mighty Colorado River on the American side of the U.S. Mexico border.

On the American side, the Colorado River is sucked dry to water golf courses in Las Vegas, front lawns in California and supply farmers in many states. 

By the time it reaches Mexico the once huge river is virtually a dry stream bed.  Egypt is frightened that Ethiopia will cut off the water of the Nile destroying their agriculture and economy just as the U.S. has done to Mexico.

Private property confiscated in Ethiopia & sold to multi-national corporations

The Road to Serfdom
Hundreds of thousands face forced relocation in Ethiopia's Socialist land grab

• The former Communist government of Ethopia confiscated the private property of the nation. Now they are selling it off to foreign multi-national corporations often funded by the international bankers.

Private Property is Abolished  -  Ethiopia may until recently have been a byword for famine, but in one part of the country at least there are people who have lived largely without outside help for hundreds of years.

With the connivance of the British government, this is about to change forever. The tribes of the Lower Omo Valley in south west Ethiopia – chief among them the Mursi, the Nyangatom, the Bodi and the Daasanach – depend on a combination of flood retreat cultivation on the banks of the Omo River, rain fed cultivation further back from the river, and cattle on the grass plains.

They move between these resources seasonally so as to exploit them to their best advantage. A self-sufficient existence outside mainstream society has meant that few speak Amharic, and that fewer still can read or write. Like most of us they are strongly attached to their way of life and their traditions, and believe passionately in their right to decide for themselves whether and how to change them reports Farmland Grab.org.

But flood retreat cultivation will become impossible when the Ethiopian government completes the Gibe III dam on the upper Omo, as it is expected to do shortly. Large-scale irrigation will follow, allowing government sugar plantations to gobble up huge swathes of their ancestral land.

At least 90,000 people will be forced to relocate to permanent ‘villages’, compelled to give up their herds and become sedentary cultivators.

If experience elsewhere in Ethiopia is anything to go by, many will end up dependent on government handouts or starvation wages on the plantations.

A pastoralist way of life which has survived for centuries will disappear forever. With no political clout, and no chance of redress through the courts, the Lower Omo tribes lack any means to protect themselves.


Land Grab - Ethiopia
The government steals land from the owners and sells it to large multi-national corporations.

Ethiopia Land grab in Oromia and displacement of people
Socialism in action  -  Stealing land and giving it to foreign corporations.
 

Ethiopians stormed World Bank in Washington DC

• The World Bank finances human rights and property rights violations.

Ethiopians large numbers stormed the 17th Street Office complex of the World Bank in Washington DC, protesting the bank’s alleged support for land grab and ethnic cleansing by President Girma Wolde-Giorgis

Displaying placards with various inscriptions like “World Bank stop financing Human rights violations,” “USA say no to ethnic cleansing of the Amharas in Ethiopia” and what will it take to end poverty? Empower people not dictators” among others, they claimed that they decided to protest to the headquarters of the bank against forceful eviction of poor farmers by alleged corrupt tycoons and foreign corporations to enrich themselves reports Farmland Grab.org.

According to the protesters, “in Gambella more than three million hectares of Annuak land was sold to foreigners to produce food for their own people. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations claim securing land to feed their people for the future. More than 70,000 Annuaks have already been forced from their land and another 150,000 will be displaced in the coming few years.

Yes!  We got it cheap from the government.
Over 600,000 hectares of Ethiopian land was leased to Indian companies.  Thousand members of the Anywaa tribe have been displaced, and are being denied access to their farm lands.

They alleged that these evictions and ethnic cleansing is financed by the World Bank as they claim the Ethiopian government cannot do them without support from the World Bank and financing by the International Monetary Fund, (IMF).

“The World Bank and IMF are financing it at all levels including paying salaries for those who are killing the poor people. Annuaks are now an endangered species so are the Mursi people who were chased away from the South Omo Valley hunting ground to clear the land for the regime’s sugar company.

They said that if the World Bank could deny loan to Cambodia in 2011 when that government was displacing its farmers, there is no reason why the Ethiopian case should be different demanding the Bank to come clean and distance itself from the alleged crimes being committed by the present administration in that country.

“We endorse the demand of the Human Rights Watch on its recent press release on Ethiopia for the World Bank to do its own internal investigation on the land eviction issue in Ethiopia and make it public. Thousands of Ethiopians were and are evicted; many children, women and elderly are dying as a result of this. The World Bank either has to condone or condemn this human rights violation and crime against humanity” they added.

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A Serf bows to his Lord.
Free men own private property.  Serfs own nothing and serve as tax slaves, working the land and forced to turn over the wealth they produced to their Lords and Masters in Government in return for "protection". 

The Road to Serfdom Series

The world is moving toward a modern form of Neo-Serfdom where everyone works for the all-powerful State or businesses controlled by the State. A world where individual property rights and economic freedom do not exist.
.
FREEDOM IS VANISHING: What happens when the major employers are owned by government backed investment groups, or your food comes from government owned farms, or your news is delivered by so-called "private" corporations but are in reality connected and interconnected to governments?

George Orwell had a name for it: Big Brother.

Please check out other stories in our Serfdom series.

THE FEDERALIST - "Slavery returns to Europe"
.
THE FEDERALIST - "China to buy up the Australian dairy industry."

THE FEDERALIST - "China Buys Up the United States."

THE FEDERALIST - "750,000 Chinese have Colonized Africa"

THE FEDERALIST - "Korea secretly buys Australia."

THE FEDERALIST - "Australia and Africa become Arab Food Colonies."

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys Australia (For Cheap Too)"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Chinese conquest of Africa"

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys New Zealand - The Road to Serfdom, Part XVII"

THE FEDERALIST - "Arab Food Colonies in Black Africa."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese colonization of New Zealand blocked."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese "Slavery" in Africa - The Road to Serfdom, Part XIV."

THE FEDERALIST - "Argentina fights Saudi Land Grab."

THE FEDERALIST - "LAND GRAB: 160,000 people thrown off their land."

THE FEDERALIST - "China is buying up Argentina."

Obama deploys US troops to Niger

Obama sets up secret drone bases in Niger and Ethiopia

• American troops are now on the ground in Niger.
• US troops and drones are on the move all over Africa and in Yemen.

Our Dear Leader Comrade Obama has announced that the US has deployed 100 troops to Niger to assist French forces in neighbouring Mali.

The armed troops will provide intelligence support, Obama informed Congress on Friday.  France deployed troops to Mali in January to counter al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants.

The US and Niger signed a status of forces agreement last month, and the US is weighing a base for surveillance drones there, says BBC News.

A senior Niger official said in January that US Ambassador Bisa Williams requested permission to establish a drone base in a meeting with Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, the Reuters news agency reported.

Last month, the US and Niger struck an agreement on the status of US forces as the two nations "define precisely what kind of military presence we may have in Niger in the future", a spokeswoman for the US state department said.

The new deployment of US forces are stationed in Niger with the government's consent, Obama said in his letter to Congress.

Their mission will focus on "intelligence sharing", the president said. They will be armed for their own protection, he said.


Niger approves construction of US spy drone base 

U.S. Army Soldiers are training members of the Ghanaian Defense Forces.

Americans embed themselves with the Ghanaian Defense Force platoons and advised them on problem solving techniques and tactics.

The drone base in Niger marks the opening of another far-flung U.S. military operation against al-Qaeda and its affiliates, in addition to ongoing combat missions in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. The CIA is also conducting airstrikes against al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan and Yemen.

Senior U.S. officials have said for months that they would not put U.S. military “boots on the ground” in Mali, an impoverished nation that has been mired in chaos since March when a U.S.-trained Malian army captain took power in a coup. But U.S. troops are becoming increasingly involved in the conflict from the skies and the rear echelons, where they are supporting the French and African militaries seeking to stabilize the region.

Obama did not explicitly reveal the drone base in his letter to Congress, but he said the U.S. troops in Niger would “provide support for intelligence collection” and share intelligence with French forces in Mali.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide further details about military operations, said the 40 troops who arrived in Niger on Wednesday were almost all Air Force personnel and that their mission is to support drone flights says the Washington Post.


North Africa terror battle  -  Islamists attack church

The official said drone operations were “imminent,” but declined to say whether unmanned Predator aircraft had already arrived in Niger or how many would be deployed there. The drones will be based initially in the capital, Niamey, but military officials would like to move them eventually to the northern city of Agadez, which is closer to parts of northern Mali where al-Qaeda cells have taken root.

“That’s a better location for the mission, but it’s not feasible at this point,” the official said, adding that Agadez is a more remote city “with logistical challenges.”

Secret Drone Base
A new secret drone base at Arba Minch is located
about 300 miles south of Addis Ababa and about
600 miles west of the Somali border. Standard
models of the Reaper have a range of about
1,150 miles, according to the Air Force.
(Washington Post) 

The introduction of Predators to Niger fills a gap in the Pentagon’s military capabilities over the Sahara, which remains beyond the reach of its drone bases in East Africa and southern Europe.

The U.S. military has been flying a handful of small turboprop surveillance planes over northern Mali and West Africa for years, but the PC-12 aircraft are limited in range and lack the sophisticated sensors that Predators carry.

U.S. military contractors have been flying PC-12 surveillance aircraft from Agadez for several months. But those planes do not carry military markings and only require a handful of people to operate.

In contrast, Predators need ground crews to launch and recover the drones as well as to repair and maintain them. Those crews, in turn, require armed personnel for protection.

The U.S. defense official said it is likely that more U.S. troops will deploy to Niger, but declined to be specific. "I think it’s safe to say the number will probably grow.”

The Predators in Niger will only conduct surveillance, not airstrikes, the official said. “This is purely an intelligence gathering mission,” he said. Other officials said the Obama administration had not ruled out arming the Predators with missiles in the future.

Information collected from reconnaissance missions will be shared with the French and other African militaries so they can attack al-Qaeda targets, officials said.

Obama noted that the government of Niger had given its consent for U.S. troops to operate on its territory.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, signed an agreement with the United States last month that provides legal safeguards for U.S. forces stationed there. Nigerien officials are concerned about the spillover of violence and refugees from Mali, which have threatened to destabilize the entire region.

Australia and Africa become Arab Food Colonies

Australia becomes a Food Colony for Qatar.

Raby Station at Warren, bought by Qatar Investment Authority’s Hassad Food in 2010 after earlier buying Clover Downs at Cunnamulla from Clyde for $18.5 million and “Kaladbro Estate” in western Victoria for about $25m in late 2009. Hassad also bought 6800 hectares around Canowindra.

The Road to Serfdom Series
Qatar owns 250,000 hectacres of Australian farmland

• Australia is selling off their farmland to the government of Qatar.
• They are becoming a "Food Colony" for the Gulf Arab state.  Farmers will no longer own the land they work.  They will become hourly workers of foreign Masters. 

Hassad Australia, a subsidiary of Hassad Foods, a company owned by the Qatar government, has recently 40,000 hectares in western Victoria, The Land reported.

The acquisition brings Hassad Australia’s total up to 250,000 hectacres: farmland spread across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia reports Farland Grab.

Hassad Australia chief executive Tom McKeon said that since the company’s establishment in Australia its land purchases have been guided by risk minimising strategy. The lands are distributed across different climes and water regimes over a wide geographic area.

This distribution of risk is not surprising in light of growing food security concerns harboured by Middle East countries. In 2009 Hassad Foods established a 100% subsidiary in Australia, focusing on sheep and grains. In 2010 Hassad Foods announced it would invest up to US$700 million in projects around the world in order to ensure Qatari food security.

And beginning this year Qatari crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani issued a decree to organise the Qatar National Food Security Program (QNFSP), promoting domestic farming.

Securing water intensive crops and a reliable farm productivity formed the pillars of Qatar’s food security programme, though this years announcement may be an indication that Qatar is refocusing on domestic production.     (theage.com)       (farmlandgrab.org)

Government owned Hassad Foods of Qatar

Hassad has bought over 13 large farms in Australia, 100,000 hectacres of farmland in Sudan, set up a farm company in Turkey, plans to purchase rice farms in Vietnam, Pakistan and India and wants to buy shares in farm operations in Brazil and Argentina

The map shows recent purchases of prime Australian farmland by overseas interests.

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No Property Rights  -  1.5 million people in Ethiopia have their land stolen and are re-settled by government force

• The former Communist Government of Ethiopia sells the farmer's land out from under them.
• Five are killed in an ambush as people fight back. 

1.5 million people re-settled by force.
Virtually all of the Ethiopian villagers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that their move was an involuntary, forced process. While all villages reported being engaged in some form of “consultation,” it took the form of government officials “informing” people that they would be moved to a new location. Villagers said that in many of these meetings, they did not utter a word for fear of reprisal by the authorities. And their fears were justified: those who expressed concern or question the government’s motives were frequently threatened, beaten, and arrested by police or soldiers. A villager told Human Rights Watch:

"The government came and talked to the village elders and those that are influential. Then the government together with the soldiers and elders called us for a meeting where we were told we were to be moved. There was no consultation or opportunity for dialogue, they were just informing us. Those that spoke up are considered “inciters,” and five of them were arrested from the two villages. They were in prison for between 20 days and one month, and were released on the condition they do not speak against villagization. So either they are silent or they flee."   (Human Rights Watch)

VIDEO  -  Government steals farmers' land and gives it to a company from India to farm.  The now landless farmers do not have enough to eat.

By 2013 the Ethiopian government is planning to resettle 1.5 million people.  The land that they farmed for centuries will be taken from them and given to multi-national corporations.

The Alwero river in Ethiopia’s Gambela region provides both sustenance and identity for the indigenous Anuak people who have fished its waters and farmed its banks and surrounding lands for centuries. Some Anuak are pastoralists, but most are farmers who move to drier areas in the rainy season before returning to the river banks. This seasonal agricultural cycle helps nurture and maintain soil fertility. It also helps structure the culture around the collective repetition of traditional cultivation practices related to rainfall and rising rivers as each community looks after its own territory and the waters and farmlands within it.

Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi, owner of Saudi Star. His company plans to increase its landholdings in Ethiopia to 500,000 hectacres over the next 10 to 14 years

One new plantation in Gambela, owned by Saudi-based billionaire Mohammed al-Amoudi, is irrigated with water diverted from the Alwero River. Thousands of people depend on Alwero's water for their survival and Al-Moudi's industrial irrigation plans could undermine their access to it. In April 2012, tensions over the project spilled over, when an armed group ambushed Al-Amoudi's Saudi Star Development Company operations, leaving five people dead.

The tensions in south western Ethiopia illustrate the central importance of access to water in the global land rush. Hidden behind the current scramble for land is a world-wide struggle for control over water. Those who have been buying up vast stretches of farmland in recent years, whether they are based in Addis Ababa, Dubai or London, understand that the access to water they gain, often included for free and without restriction, may well be worth more over the long-term, than the land deals themselves.

In recent years, Saudi Arabian companies have been acquiring millions of hectares of lands overseas to produce food to ship back home. Saudi Arabia does not lack land for food production. What’s missing in the Kingdom is water, and its companies are seeking it in countries like Ethiopia.

Indian companies like Bangalore-based Karuturi Global are doing the same. Aquifers across the sub-continent have been depleted by decades of unsustainable irrigation. The only way to feed India's growing population, the claim is made, is by sourcing food production overseas, where water is more available.

"The value is not in the land," says Neil Crowder of UK-based Chayton Capital which has been acquiring farmland in Zambia. "The real value is in water.”

And companies like Chayton Capital think that Africa is the best place to find that water. The message repeated at farmland investor conferences around the globe is that water is abundant in Africa. It is said that Africa’s water resources are vastly under utilised, and ready to be harnessed for export oriented agriculture projects.

The reality is that a third of Africans already live in water-scarce environments and climate change is likely to increase these numbers significantly. Massive land deals could rob millions of people of their access to water and risk the depletion of the continent's most precious fresh water sources.

All of the land deals in Africa involve large-scale, industrial agriculture operations that will consume massive amounts of water. Nearly all of them are located in major river basins with access to irrigation. They occupy fertile and fragile wetlands, or are located in more arid areas that can draw water from major rivers. In some cases the farms directly access ground water by pumping it up. These water resources are lifelines for local farmers, pastoralists and other rural communities. Many already lack sufficient access to water for their livelihoods. If there is anything to be learnt from the past, it is that such mega-irrigation schemes can not only put the livelihoods of millions of rural communities at risk, they can threaten the freshwater sources of entire regions.    (farmlandgrab.org)

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The Road to Serfdom Series

The world is moving toward a modern form of Neo-Serfdom where everyone works for the all-powerful State or businesses controlled by the State. A world where individual property rights and economic freedom do not exist.

FREEDOM IS VANISHING: What happens when the major employers are owned by government backed investment groups, or your food comes from government owned farms, or your news is delivered by so-called "private" corporations but are in reality connected and interconnected to governments?

George Orwell had a name for it: Big Brother.

Please check out other stories in our Serfdom series.


THE FEDERALIST - "China buys Australia (For Cheap Too)"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Chinese conquest of Africa"

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys New Zealand - The Road to Serfdom, Part XVII"

THE FEDERALIST - "Arab Food Colonies in Black Africa."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese colonization of New Zealand blocked."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese "Slavery" in Africa - The Road to Serfdom, Part XIV."

THE FEDERALIST - "Argentina fights Saudi Land Grab."

THE FEDERALIST - "LAND GRAB: 160,000 people thrown off their land."

THE FEDERALIST - "China is buying up Argentina."

THE FEDERALIST - "Corporations use Global Warming to steal land."

THE FEDERALIST - "China wants to buy a huge chunk of Iceland"

THE FEDERALIST - "China to buy up Australian farmland"

THE FEDERALIST - "Brazil takes action to protect their farmlands from foreigners"

THE FEDERALIST - "Saudi Arabian "Food Colonies" in Argentina"

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys oil fields in Texas"

THE FEDERALIST - "America is committing suicide - The Road to Serfdom, Part IV"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part III"

THE FEDERALIST - "Benito Mussolini was right"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part II"

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The Chinese conquest of Africa

The Road to Serfdom Series
Communist Chinese "investors" are stealing land throughout Africa with the help of corrupt governments


The right to hold and own private property is central to freedom, but in Africa corrupt governments sell the land right out from under the local farmers with not a word of protest from the ruling Elites of the world.

A farmer in eastern Cameroon has challenged a government ruling forcing him to cede his land to Chinese rice farmers. The West African country has adopted a land redistribution policy that favours Chinese investors above its own citizens.


The Chinese conquest of Africa   (BBC News)

In Akak, in eastern Cameroon, the future of a family is at stake. Fa'a Embolo Joseph, a 59-year-old father of nine, might lose his 10,000 hectares of land to Chinese rice farmers. Since 2009, the Cameroonian government has been giving Chinese investors preferential treatment in land distribution matters.
.

Fa'a Embolo Joseph

"My children are very worried. They know I am fighting for their future. If I don't do that, they might not inherit their ancestral land," says Joseph, who is determined to oppose the government's decision.

Three years ago Joseph was summoned to the village chief's office and was told to hand his land over to new Chinese owners, he says. "A couple of days later some people came to mark off the land. Then I shut off access to my land with three tree-trunks."

Intimidation
.
Joseph was sentenced to a one year jail term for "rebellion". He decided to appeal, costing him 95,000 CFA (145 euros). It was not the first time he was penalized. Last year he served a four-month prison sentence for blocking the authorities - and the Chinese - from accessing to his land.
.

Joseph says people in rural areas are often abused because they're ignorant. "In the villages, it often happens that the authorities try to cheat the population, the majority of whom haven't been to school."

He is angry that the authorities don't seem to care about his worries. "We still don't know if we will be compensated for the land loss and, if so, how much money we will receive." 
                                                       .
"This land is very important to us. Our ancestors are buried here, and the forest feeds us with termites, worms and other produce."


(Farmland Grab.org)
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No Property Rights  -  Ethiopia sells out their own nation to foreign "investors"

• In corrupt land deals the nation is sold off to Saudi Arabians and companies from India.
• Ethiopia is becoming a "Food Colony" for other nations while their people go hungry.  

Ethiopia has made more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of “fertile and unutilized” land available for agriculture companies that meet government requirements, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

No mention is made about the people living and farming the land that the government decided to "make available."  The property rights of the average person has no meaning.

About 300,000 hectares has been leased for commercial farming so far, he said at an Ethiopian investment forum in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Their land is stolen and the world is silent

“There has been a significant flow into large-scale state- type commercial farming in our country and we seek even more in the future,” he said

Investors in Ethiopian land include Bangalore-based Karuturi Global Ltd. (KARG), the world’s largest rose grower, which is developing 100,000 hectares in Ethiopia’s southwestern Gambella region. The farm will have its first harvest in October, Managing Director Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi told the forum today.
                                                    .
Horizon Plantations Ethiopia, which is majority owned by Saudi billionaire Mohamed al-Amoudi, leased a 20,000-hectare plot in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region in March to grow groundnuts to produce cooking oil.

(Farmland Grab.org)

________________________________________________________________________

The Road to Serfdom Series

The world is moving toward a modern form of Neo-Serfdom where everyone works for the all-powerful State or businesses controlled by the State.  A world where individual property rights and economic freedom do not exist.  

FREEDOM IS VANISHING:   What happens when the major employers are owned by government backed investment groups, or your food comes from government owned farms, or your news is delivered by so-called "private" corporations but are in reality connected and interconnected to governments?

George Orwell had a name for it:  Big Brother.

Please check out other stories in our Serfdom series.

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys New Zealand - The Road to Serfdom, Part XVII"

THE FEDERALIST - "Arab Food Colonies in Black Africa."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese colonization of New Zealand blocked."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese "Slavery" in Africa - The Road to Serfdom, Part XIV."

THE FEDERALIST - "Argentina fights Saudi Land Grab." 

THE FEDERALIST - "LAND GRAB: 160,000 people thrown off their land."

THE FEDERALIST - "China is buying up Argentina." 

THE FEDERALIST - "Corporations use Global Warming to steal land." 

THE FEDERALIST - "China wants to buy a huge chunk of Iceland"

THE FEDERALIST - "China to buy up Australian farmland"

THE FEDERALIST - "Brazil takes action to protect their farmlands from foreigners"

THE FEDERALIST - "Saudi Arabian "Food Colonies" in Argentina"

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys oil fields in Texas"

THE FEDERALIST - "America is committing suicide - The Road to Serfdom, Part IV"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part III"

THE FEDERALIST - "Benito Mussolini was right"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part II" 

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