FOREIGN AID STOLEN?

This is exactly what the public is aware of and the UK government does not see it or does not want to see it. It most properly is the last. At long last the French Authorities are waking up and brought several African leaders to court.

The anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International have won a legal procedure against three African leaders.

These corruptions are not only in previously French colonies but with most of them. The very facts that billions of pounds are send every year and this went on since the mid 1950s and by now there is no obvious improvement tells you everything.

Due to the investigation the ex-president Omar Bongo of Gabon the authorities found out that he and his family own no less than 39 properties in France all in prime location and villas. That is only in France because of their investigation.  Surely he had properties in London and New York and also not in the low price areas. Furthermore, they own six top quality Mercedes, three Porsche, two Ferraris, one Bugatti and a Maybach 57 bought for £336,000 in 2004.  The Bongo family has 70 bank accounts. Omar Bongo died in 2009 and was the longest serving head of state. Now his son Ali is in power and will be investigated. Gabon is an oil rich country but the people still live in poverty.  Foreign aid? It wouldn’t be surprising.

Omar Bongo portrait himself as the guardian of Gabon and had 30 children not only by his wife. He encouraged foreign investments.

In 2007 the police investigated the President Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo and discovered he owns 24 properties in France, including a vast mansion on the outskirt of Paris. Again surely he has also top properties in top areas in other major cities. He and his family own a string of high performance cars and have 112 bank accounts.  Foreign aid? It wouldn’t be surprising.

The family of President Nguema of Equatorial Guinea owns only one French property. However, the son Theodorin has a collection of cars adding up to £3.6million. But Theodorin also moved $100million through US bank accounts.  He also bought a $30milion house in Malibu and $38million to buy a plane. During four weeks in 2004 he spent for furniture, cars and clothing a million dollars. In 2005 he paid $58.500 for a home cinema system. $55,000 in Dolce & Gabbana. Foreign aid? It wouldn’t be surprising.

While in Zimbabwe people go barefooted the wife of Mugabe buys only the most expensive shoe – Ferragamo shoes.  When they travel abroad they take boxes of cash. On a trip to Singapore they came back with 15 tons of baggage.  Apparently the president Mugabe and his family love travelling and go abroad quite frequently. Foreign aid? It wouldn’t be surprising.

Jean-Bedel Bokassa declared himself emperor of Central Africa in 1977. He spent $20million on his coronation and that was in 1977. The leaders are now under investigation and of course deny everything. The people won’t hear anything about it because the media is state controlled. Foreign aid? It wouldn’t be surprising.

These are just very few of African leaders who misuse their country’s finances.  France made a great start in finding out what is going on. It should be done by every country who contributes to Foreign aid. It is not a point of taking Foreign aid away from the poor who never get a penny of it anyway. It is the point of Foreign aid given which suppose to improve the life of the poor and it gets stolen by the leader of the country. Every country which receives Foreign aid since the mid 1950s the poor are still in the same state as before. It is so obvious that the poor do not receive it.

Foreign aid is also shrouded into great secrecy. The public only gets now and then a glimpse of the total sum spent.  It does not get informed how much each country and which country gets Foreign aid. Now and then information gets revealed of just very few countries and how much each receives. The whole list of how the £12billion is spent is never revealed. It is not exactly democratic.