Bankers Dam Scam in Ethiopia

As if the bankers hadn’t stolen enough money in the so-called bailouts. The record bonuses they gave themselves while pensioners and the poorest part of society had to take cuts in income or pay more tax to pay them were obviously not enough. Now the parasites have Ehtiopia in their sights for yet another ‘development’ scam.

Africa Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the World Bank are among the ‘potential funders’ for this project, along with the Italian government whose company Salini Costruttori, has been contracted to build the dam. This in spite of the fact that the previous dam they built in the area partially collapsed after 10 days. What a bunch of bankers!

In a place where people are already dying of hunger, the dam will cause even more by stopping the regular floods of the Omo River, which deposits fertile silt on the river banks. And just to make sure, government plans to lease huge tracts of tribal land in the Omo Valley to foreign companies and governments for large-scale production of crops*, including biofuels, which will be fed by water from the dam. Doubtless this is the only way they will get any money off the parasite bankers.

This all shows what you get when you involve corporations and banks in your development projects. It’s stupid to expect anything else really. You can let them know what you think (as if they give a sh*t).

*Just in case you’re imagining that crops would be a good thing where people are starving, don’t bank on it! In the year that Live aid happened, when loads of rich westerners had a big party to “help the poor starving ethiopians”, there were 30 MILLION HEAD OF CATTLE in Ethiopia. But they were destined for export. And if that isn’t enough, here’s a little gem from a Barclays Bank report on “Prospects for Investment in Ethiopia” (Oct.1985)

“The chief cash crop is coffee, grown on the plateaux in the South West, providing around 60% of the country’s total export earnings. Output in the 1984/85 {famine year} harvest is expected to be some 20% down on the previous season at 160,000 TONNES . Additionally, transport difficulties arising from the diversion of vehicles for drought relief are hindering exports“