International News

Murder, muddle and panic (CONGO)

Nov 6th 2008 | KINSHASA
From The Economist print edition

As chaos and massacres overwhelm north-eastern Congo, diplomats and peacekeepers are struggling to get a grip

“THE situation is catastrophic,” says a Red Cross man. “There’s no other word.” Tens of thousands of terrified civilians are jamming the roads of Congo’s North Kivu province in a frantic southbound exodus in the hope of self-preservation (see map). General Laurent Nkunda’s mainly Tutsi rebels are poised to grab the eastern city of Goma after capturing most of the smaller towns in the area. Reports of massacres on the night of November 5th in Kiwanja, a small town north of Goma, have increased the panic. An officer in General Nkunda’s force said that his men had “neutralised” men in civilian clothes there who, he said, covertly belonged to the so-called Mai-Mai militias; they, along with the Congolese army and others, have been fighting the Tutsi rebels. A local clergyman said at least 180 civilians had been killed during the night.

The UN’s mission to Congo, known by the acronym MONUC, which has 17,000 peacekeepers across the country, including 6,000-odd in North Kivu, has been unable to cope. Diplomacy, hitherto fruitless, is intensifying. European diplomats, led by the foreign ministers of Britain and France, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, have visited regional capitals, calling for talks and troop reinforcements. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, was set to host a summit on November 7th in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, bringing together the presidents of Congo and Rwanda, Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame respectively, who have been sponsoring some of the rival rebel armies. Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has been tapped as a mediator; he immediately called for MONUC to be beefed up. The French government suggested that a robust European force of 400 to 1,500 soldiers be dispatched urgently to protect the humanitarian missions that are struggling to give relief to hundreds of thousands of hapless and hungry civilians. So far the European Union has been loth to give the go-ahead.

In the past two years, some 850,000 people have fled their homes due to fighting between the rebels, Congo’s army and assorted militias. Though General Nkunda launched his latest offensive in August, his 4,000 or so battle-hardened fighters have been lording it over the area for four years, claiming to champion the rights of eastern Congo’s Tutsi minority. But the root of the problem goes back to the genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. If a wider regional peace is to be achieved, an accommodation between the surviving former victims and their exiled persecutors must be arranged.

After the genocidal Hutu militias were chased out of Rwanda, they fled to Congo, called themselves the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and have marauded in North Kivu ever since. Successive weak regimes in Kinshasa, Congo’s distant capital, have used them as a tool, first against a Rwandan intervention that helped spark a wider conflict from 1998 to 2003. Congo’s President Kabila is now using them as proxies against General Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). Mr Kabila’s failure to rid eastern Congo of the Hutu génocidaires has nourished General Nkunda’s own brand of Tutsi extremism. Mr Kabila has also winked at local militias, including the Mai-Mai, who have been fighting General Nkunda’s men too.

Neighbouring Rwanda is also culpable. Its government has repeatedly endorsed various demands of the general, who refuses to register his group as a political movement in Congo, eschewing the UN-sponsored elections there two years ago. Instead, Rwanda’s President Kagame has pursued a contradictory policy, telling Mr Kabila to squash the Hutu rebels of the FDLR but refusing to meet the FDLR’s demands to have a legal stake in Rwanda’s politics. If Mr Kagame let it do so, many of the FDLR fighters, especially those who did not play known roles in the genocide, would probably go home.

Western governments have been in a muddle. They have economic and historic interests in the region; they feel bad about letting atrocities take place in the past; and they have their own protégés whom they sponsor and fail to denounce when they behave badly. As a result, the governments of Congo and Rwanda have been on a collision course. Outsiders have also failed to turn Congo’s lousy army—a hodgepodge of Mr Kabila’s loyalists, former rebels and militias—into a disciplined fighting force capable of nailing the Hutus’ FDLR.

Congo’s President Kabila may have to meet General Nkunda’s demand for direct negotiation, simply because the Tutsi rebels are militarily dominant; indeed, Mr Nkunda has threatened to “march on Kinshasa” unless Mr Kabila meets his basic demand to clobber the Hutu rebels of the FDLR. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will again be asked to strengthen MONUC’s mandate so that it can suppress all illegal armed groups in the area, should talks fail again. The most immediate requirement is for Messrs Kabila and Kagame to sit down together and talk.            

German President Köhler Should Address Corruption and Violence during His Upcoming Visit to Nigeria

October 27, 2008  culled from www.hrw.org;posted on newsdiaryonline.com Thursday Nov.6, 2008
 
Dear President Köhler:  
 
We are writing to urge you to use your forthcoming visit to Nigeria to raise specific human rights concerns with President Umaru Yar’Adua and his administration. Serious problems include rampant government corruption and mismanagement that undermine the realization of the right to basic healthcare and education; political and intercommunal violence fomented by government officials and politicians; and widespread use of extrajudicial executions, torture, and extortion by state security forces.

The Nigerian government’s lack of political will to address the prevailing culture of impunity and improve Nigeria’s poor human rights record threatens to undermine the fragile gains made since the end of military rule in 1999. Your trip to Nigeria presents an important opportunity to call upon the Nigerian government to take immediate and meaningful steps to reduce corruption at all levels of government, end the widespread use of violence for political purposes, and address impunity for human rights violations.  
 
In May 2007 President Yar’Adua came to power in elections marred by widespread fraud, intimidation, and election violence that left some 300 people dead. Powerful ruling-party politicians were credibly implicated in mobilizing armed gangs responsible for election-related violence and orchestrating the brazen rigging of the elections. No one has been investigated for any of those crimes, much less criminally prosecuted.  
 
The violence and fraud surrounding the 2007 elections reflected entrenched patterns of corruption and abuse of power that have long pervaded Nigeria’s political system. Nigeria has earned well over US$223 billion in oil revenues since the end of military rule. Despite this tremendous wealth, abject poverty ranks among the worst in the world and millions of Nigerians still lack access to basic health and education services. Public funds that could have been spent on improving the lives of ordinary citizens have instead been squandered and stolen by Nigeria’s political elite.  
 
Corruption often takes the form of embezzling state funds or accepting kickbacks for government contracts awarded without adherence to transparent bidding processes. Public funds looted from government treasuries are often laundered through foreign banks. A British court in 2007, for example, froze US$35 million of assets belonging to powerful former Delta State Governor James Ibori in a money laundering investigation. Mr. Ibori’s official salary as governor was less than US$25,000 per year.  
 
Human Rights Watch is concerned that Germany could be doing more to help Nigeria fight graft and corruption. In a 2007 meeting with Human Rights Watch, high-level officials from Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) expressed concern about the extent of cooperation received from the German government with EFCC efforts to track down Nigerian funds allegedly laundered in German banks or otherwise invested in Germany, and relating to the bidding practices of the construction company Julius Berger Nigeria PLC—a subsidiary of Bilfinger Berger AG.  
 
Germany’s position vis-à-vis corruption is all the more important given recent setbacks in Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign. In December 2007, Nuhu Ribadu, the then-head of the EFCC, took the bold step of arresting Mr. Ibori—a close associate of President Yar’Adua—charging him with 103 counts of corruption. Two weeks later, however, the inspector general of police ordered Mr. Ribadu to resign his office to attend a mandatory year-long training course. Since then senior EFCC investigators have been removed or arrested. Meanwhile, key corruption cases initiated under Mr. Ribadu have been effectively stalled.  
 
In light of these disappointing developments, we urge you to call upon President Yar’Adua and his administration to publicly report on the status of the investigations and criminal prosecutions of senior politicians and their business partners credibly implicated in corruption and embezzling public funds, including those that may involve German companies.  
 
Germany’s economic relationship with Nigeria amounted to nearly two billion euros in bilateral trade in 2007. We hope that with this substantial interest you will use your visit to reaffirm Germany’s commitment to good governance, transparency, and accountability. That commitment should include steps to ensure that funds looted by corrupt Nigerian officials are not laundered in Germany. These measures should include the investigation of corrupt transactions, freezing of assets, and repatriation of funds to Nigeria.  
 
Thank you for your attention to these important matters. We will be publishing this letter on our website on October 27, 2008. Human Rights Watch stands ready to assist you in your efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Nigeria and ensure accountability for human rights abuses in Nigeria.  
 
Sincerely,  
 
Marianne Heuwagen  
Director, German Office                                                                                                                

Transcript: Obama's acceptance speech

Wed Nov 5, 3:25 am ET
Obama victory speech

AP – President-elect Barack Obama hugs his daughter, Malia, after his acceptance speech at his election night

Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama-as prepared for delivery
Election Night
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
 
 
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
 
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.  
 
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
 
It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
 
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. 
 
I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain.  He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves.  He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.  I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.
 
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. 
 
I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama.  Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House.  And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am.  I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
 
To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics - you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.
 
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you.
 
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements.  Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington - it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. 
 
It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause.  It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth.  This is your victory.  
 
I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me.  You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead.  For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.  Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.  There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.
 
The road ahead will be long.  Our climb will be steep.  We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.  I promise you - we as a people will get there. 
 
There will be setbacks and false starts.  There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem.  But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.  I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.  And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. 
 
What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change.  And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It cannot happen without you.
 
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.  Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
 
Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.  Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.  As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too. 
 
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.  To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat you.  To those who seek peace and security - we support you.  And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.  
 
For that is the true genius of America - that America can change.  Our union can be perfected.  And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. 
 
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations.  But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta.  She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. 
 
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
 
And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed:  Yes we can. 
 
At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.  Yes we can. 
 
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose.  Yes we can. 
 
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved.  Yes we can. 
 
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome."  Yes we can. 
 
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.  And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.  Yes we can. 
 
America, we have come so far.  We have seen so much.  But there is so much more to do.  So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see?  What progress will we have made? 
 
This is our chance to answer that call.  This is our moment.  This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
 
Yes We Can.  Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.                 

BEYOND THE LAST COMPUTER
By Philip
Emeagwali

emeagwali.com

I
felt the hard, cold steel of a gun against the back of my head. I spun around and saw my assailant’s finger shaking on the trigger:
“Don't  run or I'll shoot you,” he said. I was just 14 years  old, and death was a stranger to me.

It was 1969, and Nigeria  was embroiled in civil war. As a teenage refugee  conscripted into the Biafran Army, I was forced at  gunpoint to carry weapons to the Oguta front. It was a  24-hour, march through mosquito-infested mangroves flooded by the River Niger.

When  the 30-month war ended on January  15, 1970,  I was discharged and reunited with my parents. Together with one million returning refugees we walked for three  days, avoiding landmines along fetid rainforest  footpaths. Eventually, we reached our hometown of  Onitsha.  It was badly battered by the war.  There  my thoughts returned to a love abandoned three years  earlier—mathematical physics. This love affair blossomed  when I was a refugee in Biafra, —shortly before  July 20, 1969—the day man first walked on the moon. While running an errand, I stopped to gaze through a classroom window and saw a physics lecturer writing on a blackboard. It was Newton's Second Law of Motion: “Force equals mass times acceleration, or F=ma.”

Unaware that I had just been introduced to the most important law in physics, I was, nevertheless, awestruck. Newton’s Second Law of Motion is far more important than Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. “E equals MC squared”
may be sexier on a T-shirt than “F=ma,”  but Encarta lists the three laws of motion as the third most important  scientific discovery of all time. Three hundred and thirty years later, we still do not  completely understand F=ma But it is the only  formula that is integral to computing’s 20 grand  challenges and mathematics’ seven millennium problems. I  devoted many years devising a solution to one grand  challenge. While conventional wisdom suggested it would be almost impossible to harness the power of 65,536  processors my grand challenge was to prove otherwise.

Initially, the challenge seemed deceptively simple; but in reality, there were so many different tiers of complexity that I  sometimes forgot why I was programming those 65,536  processors. In hindsight, I did just about everything wrong before I finally got it right. Research is a  high-risk game, but, as they say, nothing ventured,  nothing gained.The  complexity of the grand challenge renders it as  incomprehensible to laypeople as pages of hieroglyphics
or Greek symbols. Concisely, the challenge used the  Second Law of Motion propagated along a virtual  16-dimensional hypercubic network to be executed by  65,536 processors. These processors are the beginning of  the end. I started at the end because the end is devoid  of the complex proofs and dense mathematical language
that are unfathomable to non-mathematicians. 

This  grand challenge earned its name: it was a super problem  that required one to think in ways that merge the laws  of physics, logic, and numbers in 16-dimensional  mathematical space, and to solve the problem by  attacking it from three  perspectives.

Walk with me as I tell a story that will take you from the Second Law of Motion to the blackboard, to the motherboard, to the mother of all motherboards: a one-of-a-kind computer powered by 65,536 processors.  Every scientific discovery begins as a thought. The strategy for harnessing these laws of physics, logic,  and numbers has to be conceived and thought out before  becoming reality.

I  visualized the grand challenge problem as a complex game  with complex parameters, which I solved using three simple rules. First, I harnessed the power of processors  to perform myriad computations. Second, I followed a minimum number of communication pathways to perform a  minimum number of communications. Third, I enforced the  Second Law of Motion in models of all that flows  underneath the Earth.

In  all, I had 65,536 processors and over one million  pathways. The processors-plus-pathways make a computer a supercomputer, and a planet-sized supercomputer an  Internet. I  have been asked: “What gave you the confidence to tackle  one of computing’s grand challenges?”  My answer — fifteen years of putting into practice the athlete’s five P mantra:  Proper Preparation Prevents Poor  Performance.

In  the 1980s, I was a mathematical physicist logged on 24/7  to a 65,536-brain supercomputer on think.com —the third  registered dot com ever. It was an unpaid labor of love.  I was tormented by self-doubt, a maniac who pushed his  supercomputer to its breaking  point.

Each  one of us must learn to move outside our comfort zones.  We learn with each step we take into the unknown. When I  was five, my father discovered that I was slow in  mathematics. He decided to teach me to solve 100 math problems in one hour. Thereafter, my ability to do rapid  calculations earned me the nickname “Calculus” and set me on the path to become a supercomputer scientist who  solved one of the most difficult problems in  mathematics.

Crossing  the frontiers of knowledge to conquer tomorrow’s grand  challenges will demand revolutionary techniques. In my  new technique, my 65,536 processors perform computations  side by side, linked by 16 wires, each corresponding to  the 16 sides of a 16-dimensional hypercube. This is the  essence of “higher” mathematics: go beyond calculus and  mine infinite dimensional spaces. 

My multicolored drawings of the hypercube are a feast for  the eye; programming them is a feast for the mind. The
hypercubic circuitry of the supercomputer left me  breathless. I was awestruck by its 16 unique information  pathways coming from each processing node. Has there  ever been any technology as gorgeously complicated as
the hypercube supercomputer? For me, it was love at  first sight. It was hypercubic elegance that engaged me
emotionally, imaginatively and  computationally.
One  day, the Internet will become our shared planet-sized  supercomputer and individuals will become nodes on the
Internet and the Internet, as we know it, will become  obsolete and “disappear” into our collective  memory.

By  definition, both the supercomputer and the Internet  consist of connected nodes working in harmony. In fact,
the supercomputer is more about communication than  computation. The supercomputer and the Internet link
computation and communication into a congruent whole -  two complementary sides of a coin.

As  the computer evolves into the supercomputer, and the  supercomputer evolves into the Internet, and the  Internet evolves into humanity, all that will remain  will be a HyperBall superbrain - an electronic, organic  Web 10,000 miles in diameter encompassing the Earth. The  nodes will be people, embedded in an interconnected  network of huanity working as  one.

If  history repeats itself, the supercomputer of today will  become the ordinary computer of tomorrow. This core technology could evolve to become iconic, a masterpiece,  a legacy, a legend, and a contribution to civilization. Each new “grand challenge” met becomes another beacon  guiding humanity forward into the age of  information.

Excerpted  from a lecture  delivered by Philip Emeagwali at the University of the  West  Indies,  Trinidad  and Tobago
on June  8, 2008.  The  entire transcript and video are posted at emeagwali.com.                            

Technology Widens Rich-Poor Gap

by Philip Emeagwali

Oil has made us billions and fuelled our economic stability, but oil has also become the bane of our existence. For some, it is a curse that has caused poverty and corruption, but for others it is an essential source of untold wealth and power. But as the gap between rich and poor countries continues to expand, it is clear that intellectual capital and technology rule the world, and that natural resources such as oil, gold, and diamonds are no longer the primary determinants of wealth.

Surprisingly, nations with few natural resources demonstrate greater economic growth rates than OPEC countries. Japan’s economic growth, driven by technological superiority, outpaces that of Saudi Arabia; South Korea is growing faster than oil-rich Nigeria; and Taiwan’s economy has moved well beyond that of oil-rich Venezuela. The United States and Norway are also rich in oil, yet their staggering economic growth comes from intellectual capital.

In reality, it is not money but intellectual capital that drives prosperity. More important, perhaps, is the reality that poverty is driven and sustained by a lack of intellectual capital. The intimate relationship between intellectual capital and economic growth is as old as humanity itself, and is well illustrated by this parable from ancient Babylon (modern-day Iraq). A man asked his children:

“If you had a choice between the clay of wisdom or a bag of gold, which would you choose?” “The bag of gold, the bag of gold” the naïve children cried, not realizing that wisdom had the potential to earn them many more bags of gold in the future.

Seven thousand years later, Iraq — the cradle of civilization — has its own private bag of gold as it sits perched atop the world’s third largest oil reserves. Meanwhile, Israel, tucked away in the hostile terrain of a barren desert, has the clay of wisdom — the weightless wealth of intellectual capital embodied in the collective mind of its people.

The striking economic gap that persists between rich and poor nations has increased sevenfold over the past century to what is now an all-time high. The accumulation of intellectual capital by rich nations has helped broaden this gap because it has enabled them to control technology and collect hidden taxes from less affluent nations. For instance, Nigeria pays a 40-percent  “royalty” tax on its petroleum revenues to foreign oil companies that are ripping out its family jewels — the huge store of wealth in its oilfields. These oilfields started forming when prehistoric, dog-sized humans — our common ancestor with the apes — walked African grasslands on four legs.

It’s a shocking reality, but the deep oil reserves laid down by Mother Nature millions of years ago and nurtured through the millennia in Africa have been whittled away within decades. And, for the dubious privilege of surrendering its natural resources forever, Nigeria is required to pay half its petroleum revenue in the form of “royalties” to the rich kids on the global block, the United States and the Netherlands. That oilfield has been exchanged for a bowl of porridge, and the black gold that should serve the underserved in Nigeria is helping wealthy Westerners get wealthier.

Today, half the world’s population — three billion people — live on an average of $500 a year. In contrast, Bill Gates earns $500 every second. By controlling technology and taxing computer users, Gates has become wealthier than each of the 70 poorest nations on earth and using his financial might has conquered more territory than Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great combined.           

While Bill Gates is the new millennium’s Prince of Technology, he is by no means the first to have taken on the huge potential offered by the realm of technology. The Romans used roads and military technology to expand their empire. And, for centuries, Britain ruled a quarter of the Earth due to its unparalleled ability to command maritime technology and conquer the Seven Seas.         

Britain undoubtedly established itself as the world’s first superpower through its rapid and ruthless colonial expansion program. The British raised the Union Jack over Canada and Australia, India and Hong Kong, Egypt and Kenya, and countless other countries — even the United States. The Union Jack cast its shadow in every global time zone, giving rise to the saying, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” a fact that was cold comfort to the colonized nations.

In the same way, the United States has embraced its technological supremacy, both offensively and defensively, to build its own global empire without a physical presence in any of its “colonies.” The sole remaining superpower is at the forefront of every major technological advancement, which it has used to become deeply embedded in three-quarters of the globe. The US has accomplished a virtual economic colonization manifesting its presence throughout the globe by harnessing the power of technology and capitalizing on its clay of wisdom.

Africa’s inability to realize its potential and embrace technology has left it at the mercy of the West. The time has come for Africa to seize the day and resist the efforts of America and others to leave their imprint and plunder its natural resources.

Numerous examples throughout history support the idea that technology can be used as a tool of oppression. And there’s little doubt that America’s technological advancement has allowed it to exploit natural resources around the world. This is particularly evident in Africa, where the US is exploiting oilfields beneath the pristine rainforest — and being rewarded with a 40-percent tax at the expense of the African people. This lends credence to history’s assertion that those who control technology oppress those who do not, eventually enslaving them and, finally, wielding power around the globe.

Excerpted from a keynote speech delivered by Philip Emeagwali at the African Diaspora Conference in Tucson, Arizona on September 29, 2007. The entire transcript is posted at emeagwali.com.

Nigerian-born Philip Emeagwali won the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, the Nobel Prize of supercomputing. He has been called “a father of the Internet” by CNN  and TIME; praised as an “unorthodox innovator [who] has pushed back the boundaries of oilfield science” by a leading European oil and gas industry journal; extolled as “one of the great minds of the Information Age” by former US president Bill Clinton, and voted history’s 35^th greatest African by New African.