Thursday, May 17, 2007
Le Cellule Africaine
This Wednesday's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article in the lower center of their Front Page. I'd provide a link, but WSJ is all into the registering of readers, and I'm not down with that shit. Here's a summary:
Colonial-Era Ties to Africa Face a Reckoning in France
"On the evening of March 4, 10 French paratroopers" dropped near a militia controlled airstrip in the Central African Republic, 'ambushed the rebels, killing several and reclaiming the airport for the government."
"In France, neither the public nor the parliament was informed of the attack for three weeks." This action was run by the 'Cellule Africaine' a three-man office. The 'Cell' has had their dick in African affairs for over fifty years, in the bland words of the WSJ; "has overseen France's strategic interests in Africa, holding sway over a wide swath of former French colonies. Acting as a general command, the Cell uses France's military as a hammer to install leaders it deems friendly to French interests. In return, these countries give French industries first crack at their oil and other natural resources." Plus, of course, "The Cell's close ties to oil giant Elf Aquitaine, whose top executives were jailed on corruption charges . . ."
Wowsers. This is not the sort of reporting one gets to see very often. I'd hazard that this article made it into the conservative press for two reasons. First, the country in question is France, a nation state that has been heavily characterized by the U.S. Right's propaganda. Secondly, some of the Journal's readership already understands how the world works - they have ideological structures in place to allow them to ignore injustice and suffering in the Third World - or, they lack the critical thinking skills that would permit one to extrapolate this example to our own society. Even at newspaper as prestigious as the Wall Street Journal, at least half the readership is retarded.
So a French President come into power, and the head of the secretive Cell, comes to visit in the still of a Parisian night. Tells the President what the Cell can do for him. They know Africa. They know who has the power, who is vulnerable, and have an extensive understanding of how to utilize force their effectively. They are already tight with the powerful oil and other industries to which so much of the French economy is dependent. They understand the ways that things can be done to protect/enhance the profits of said industries. The President doesn't need them to tell him how pleasing France's largest oil company is good for his Presidency.
This is realpolitik, an level of understanding of how asymmetrical power almost invariably plays out with our species. It seems that when a technologically/militarily superior group encounters a group that cannot rise to meet the level of threat, the dominate group will never voluntarily stave off the exploitation and violence. Anyone who has studied history or global politics beyond the community college level has to grapple with realpolitik. Powerful men, when facing no serious oversight, will seek to utilize the full extend of their power.
We can learn a lot about why France is still a member of the G-8 from this article. Most powerful economies don't function without submissive satellite states from which resources and wealth are extracted. We can also gleam a bit about the natural sprouting of corruption inside a secretive and dangerous 'Cell.' How quickly before someone who routinely bribes foreign official or organizes coups against foreign governments begins to loose respect for his own nation's jurisprudence?
I'm not sure what's going on in France these days, but if the Cell is facing any sort of 'Reckoning', than the level of informed political discourse must be light-years ahead of anything our own pundits and citizenry are capable of. How shameful. This Cell has not done anything worse than Iran-Contra, or the Iraq/Oil Crusade, but neither of those are actually understood by more than five to ten percent of our population. Most will have their brains cease activity before they ever move beyond jingoism and the mere repetition of slogans.
I pity them, so of course I also pity us. Yet nothing will change the fact that realpolitik be the law of the land. There is nothing new under the sun.
Colonial-Era Ties to Africa Face a Reckoning in France
"On the evening of March 4, 10 French paratroopers" dropped near a militia controlled airstrip in the Central African Republic, 'ambushed the rebels, killing several and reclaiming the airport for the government."
"In France, neither the public nor the parliament was informed of the attack for three weeks." This action was run by the 'Cellule Africaine' a three-man office. The 'Cell' has had their dick in African affairs for over fifty years, in the bland words of the WSJ; "has overseen France's strategic interests in Africa, holding sway over a wide swath of former French colonies. Acting as a general command, the Cell uses France's military as a hammer to install leaders it deems friendly to French interests. In return, these countries give French industries first crack at their oil and other natural resources." Plus, of course, "The Cell's close ties to oil giant Elf Aquitaine, whose top executives were jailed on corruption charges . . ."
Wowsers. This is not the sort of reporting one gets to see very often. I'd hazard that this article made it into the conservative press for two reasons. First, the country in question is France, a nation state that has been heavily characterized by the U.S. Right's propaganda. Secondly, some of the Journal's readership already understands how the world works - they have ideological structures in place to allow them to ignore injustice and suffering in the Third World - or, they lack the critical thinking skills that would permit one to extrapolate this example to our own society. Even at newspaper as prestigious as the Wall Street Journal, at least half the readership is retarded.
So a French President come into power, and the head of the secretive Cell, comes to visit in the still of a Parisian night. Tells the President what the Cell can do for him. They know Africa. They know who has the power, who is vulnerable, and have an extensive understanding of how to utilize force their effectively. They are already tight with the powerful oil and other industries to which so much of the French economy is dependent. They understand the ways that things can be done to protect/enhance the profits of said industries. The President doesn't need them to tell him how pleasing France's largest oil company is good for his Presidency.
This is realpolitik, an level of understanding of how asymmetrical power almost invariably plays out with our species. It seems that when a technologically/militarily superior group encounters a group that cannot rise to meet the level of threat, the dominate group will never voluntarily stave off the exploitation and violence. Anyone who has studied history or global politics beyond the community college level has to grapple with realpolitik. Powerful men, when facing no serious oversight, will seek to utilize the full extend of their power.
We can learn a lot about why France is still a member of the G-8 from this article. Most powerful economies don't function without submissive satellite states from which resources and wealth are extracted. We can also gleam a bit about the natural sprouting of corruption inside a secretive and dangerous 'Cell.' How quickly before someone who routinely bribes foreign official or organizes coups against foreign governments begins to loose respect for his own nation's jurisprudence?
I'm not sure what's going on in France these days, but if the Cell is facing any sort of 'Reckoning', than the level of informed political discourse must be light-years ahead of anything our own pundits and citizenry are capable of. How shameful. This Cell has not done anything worse than Iran-Contra, or the Iraq/Oil Crusade, but neither of those are actually understood by more than five to ten percent of our population. Most will have their brains cease activity before they ever move beyond jingoism and the mere repetition of slogans.
I pity them, so of course I also pity us. Yet nothing will change the fact that realpolitik be the law of the land. There is nothing new under the sun.
Labels: Realpolitik
