Photo credit: Michelle_Raponi / pixabay.com
Europe is preoccupied with military news from Ukraine. However, the impact may come from an unexpected direction.
On March 12, I attended a gathering at the Cercle des Nouveaux Mondes in Paris. It was held in honor of Lionel Zinsou, former Prime Minister of Benin, a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Science, a financier, and an employee of the Rothschild Group. The Rothschild educatees, bankers, diplomats, and several sitting ministers gathered together at the luxurious Salon Foch at 33 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
The presenter welcomed the guests and, paying homage to fashion, expressed his support for the "unfortunate people of Ukraine". Then he introduced the guest of honor of the event.
And then something went wrong.
Lionel Zinsou also mentioned the Ukrainian crisis:
“Currently, all we hear about is this crisis, anti-Russian sanctions, oil, gas... Do you realize what this crisis means for Africa, for example? Russia supplies us with grain and corn. All the logistics are arranged via the Black Sea. Thus, the African part of the world stands aghast at what's happening. We are stricken with the terror of what the U.S. and the EU are doing.
Africans will not fall for the tales of democracy. They are only your fables for domestic consumption. Most of Africa's elite, such as doctors, engineers, pilots, teachers, scientists, were educated in the Soviet Union. The Russians were the only Europeans who decolonized Africa. And Africa remembers it. Just as Africa remembers European atrocities.
If you see, African countries did not endorse the UN resolution condemning Russia. They will never be supporting any resolution against Russia. It's imprinted in every African's mind: Russia does good no matter what you think about it. It is a literal constant.
All of Africa keep following developments in the CAR and Mali. Things that the Europeans failed to do for decades, the Russians accomplished in a year. The CAR used to be a gangland; today there is a genuine state there.
I know that there are diplomats and Foreign Ministry officials present here. I appeal to you, to French diplomacy. Please, seek a solution to your problem as quickly as possible because if the conflict is not over in a month, Africa will erupt.
It is issues of the power economy that are a priority for you. In the worst-case scenario, you will have less heating and fewer cars. Whereas we in Africa will have famine! Please, hear me, the crisis in Africa will lead to the destruction of Europe.
Come to your senses, seek diplomatic ways out. Do not forget that such nations as India and China support Russia. Africa supports Russia as well.
I don't want to discuss democracy, and you will not touch me, an African, to pity with tales of miserable Ukraine and appeals to humanity. Your democracy is your business. Don't impose on us, Africans, your ideas of how we should live.
Once again! Look for compromises, let diplomats work. Time is against us. We have thirty days! Thirty! No more!"
Enthusiastic, long-lasting applause!!!
Lionel Zinsou. Photo credit wikiwand.com
The people that came together at the Salon Foch on the richest street in the French capital are experts in money. Unlike state officials, they understand well that the great French fortunes originated in Africa. They do realize that Africa has more strategic significance for France than Ukraine does for Russia. Africa is the treasury, the wealth of France. Africa is its Swiss bank account. It is the lifeblood of the French industry.
Sidney Cabessa, a senior consultant for the Rothschild Banking Group, believes it is required to look at the situation in a reasonable way. "French companies are withdrawing from Russia losing the relations they have built up there, the capital, the reputation, and at the same time, they risk losing Africa. The reason is that right now France is facing a severe crisis in the Sahel. The fall of pro-French Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Roch Marc Christian Kaboré has made French policy in the Sahel superficial. The political crisis in Chad, Sudan, Guinea, the eviction of France from Mali, the irrevocable loss of the Central African Republic. All of the above take the wind out of its sails and make it rather difficult for France to be present on the African continent. The French business has very little chance of recovering from the loss of two markets at once, the Russian and African ones. We have just rebounded from the Iranian exodus when the U.S. forced France to freeze its investments in Iran.”
Christine, an investment banker and founder of banks in Casablanca and Rabat, joins the conversation: "And you know, the Russians are close to our heel. There are a lot of talks in Africa that Russia is coming back. They are waiting for the Russians there."
Sonia Dellal, vice president of the French Chamber of Commerce Kenya (Chambre de commerce et d'industrie du Kenya) echoes her words.
"These sanctions wreak havoc on the centuries-old reputation of French business. People feel scared, they look at us as if we were insane, it's not safe to make deals with us, it's not safe to trust us with money, it's not safe to develop projects. However, we are ready to cooperate with Russians..." says Sonia.
The unprecedented and overwhelming support of Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees in the media reminds the French of the massacre in the Congo, the bombing of Libya, the brutal murder of its legally elected leader who was popular and respected in Africa.
Luc Michel, a human rights advocate, says, "Europeans shout that they are going to initiate proceedings for Russia's 'crimes' against Ukraine. However, the International Criminal Court has still not started investigations into the massacres in Libya, Syria, and the plundering of African raw materials. We are made to believe that Europe has eradicated racism. Yet today we see it going strong in all levels. Ukrainians are being welcomed with open doors. The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo promises to open a school for Ukrainian children, while refugees from Africa and the Middle East still stay in tent camps in Calais. The war in Yemen has been continuing for seven years now. There are 340,000 victims and no single demonstration in support of Yemen. Why can't the Yemenis be treated as well as the Ukrainians? Is it due to the color of their skin? The French have only pretended to be tolerant, they were and are racists!”
"Do you think Putin will stop?" Luc asks me. Then he answers his own question, "No, he won't stop, he'll go all the way through..."
The Russian Source: Strategic Culture Foundation
