Dear friends of Africa We Care:

I thank the Edmonton news media for the recovery of the cargo due to their unprecedented publicity of the theft. I am equally grateful to Mr. George Catling who spotted the sea-can and reported to the Edmonton Police.

This unfortunate incident has generated more awareness and an outpouring of support for the work we do among the most impoverished people of Africa. The community at large has responded with donations of articles of clothings and other items, for which we are very appreciative.

Bales of articles of used clothings, and shoes on one of our locations in Africa – Cotonou, Republic of Benin in West Africa

We are in desperate need of financial assistance to be able to carry on our work. To ship a 40ft container of cargo to most need in Africa costs about $7,500. And when the container reaches its destination we have to pay the local custom duties, usually in the thousands of dollars, to clear the cargo. The recent shipment to Kenya is estimated to cost about $16,000 to clear customs when it arrives in the Port of Mombasa, Kenya on July 22, 2010.

I very humbly ask for your financial assistance. No amount is too small. We do issue receipts for monetary donations for income tax purposes.

Africa We Care is incorporated in Alberta, and registered with Canada Revenue Agency as charitable organisation. Registration number: 86065-3930 RR0001.

Thank you very kindly for your generous donation.

Sincerely,
Africa We Care

Chukwuemeka Obiajunwa
Executive Director

At the end of the fundraising campaign, the radio station in turn donates all the brassieres it received to Africa We Care, an Edmonton based non-profit empowerment organisation dedicated to the alleviation of suffering in Africa.  Talk of killing two birds with one lob of the stone!

Africa We Care volunteers sort and bundle the bras into bales of 55 kilograms (121 pounds), which are then shipped to Africa.  Last year a total of 16 bales was realised from the bras donated by 91.7 FM, The Bounce, which were then shipped to Africa.

We are still in the process of sorting and baling the donation from this year’s campaign.  I am sure the proceeds will be greater this year.  Now, that’s a whole lot of support for the women of Africa.  And we thank 91.7 FM, the Bounce for caring about Africa.

Two vans from 91.7 FM, the Bounce Radio Station delivered the bras in several trips

The bras came in bags and boxes

Michelle unloading boxes of bras

Matthew and Sarah unloading the bras

Sarah, Matthew, Michelle of 91.7 FM, the Bounce pose for pictures after the final unloading

Boxes and bags of bras inside Africa We Care warehouse

Most, if not all of the indices of failed states, declare Nigeria well on its way to joining that disreputable club.

Nigeria boasts a government unable to deliver basic social services.

It is plagued by corruption so endemic and monumental it is hard to separate it from state policy.

It lacks the capability or discipline to prevent threats to public safety and national integrity and is assailed by active challenges to its legitimacy.

Out of 141 underdeveloped countries it termed “critically weak”, The Brookings Institute ranks Nigeria 28; thereby placing it in the company of Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In its 2008 index of failed states, The American Fund for Peace placed Nigeria only two short steps above Somalia and Zimbabwe in the league of failed states; ironically below Sierra Leone and Liberia, the two countries it spared no expense in resources, personnel, and materiel to bring out of civil wars into restored democracies.

It is difficult to talk about Nigeria without the words of Dr. George B.N. Ayittey coming to mind. In his critically acclaimed book, Africa in Chaos, Dr. Ayittey made the characterization of the “vampire Africa state” with “governments” unlike it is known in the West: unresponsive to the needs of its people; incapable of performing the most basic services for its people; “as an entity is totally divorced from the people, perceived by those running it as a vehicle not to serve but to fleece the people”. “Government” inexorably infested and infected from head to bottom with dishonesty, thievery, bribery, corruption, and peculation. “Government” where every one involved in, or associated with, is on the take, and the chief bandit being the head of state himself.

You are invited to view this documentary by PBS depicting corruption of epic proportion in Nigeria. In it, Olusegun Obasanjo decries institutionalised corruption in Nigeria. But as the head of state of Nigeria for eight years, he was the bandit-in-chief”.

Looting in Gabon despite curfew

There was looting overnight in Gabon’s second city despite a night-time curfew imposed after the election as president of the ruling party’s Ali Ben Bongo.

Reporters say Port Gentil’s main market was also set alight, but government and French buildings were not targeted.

Before the curfew, opposition supporters had set fire to the French consulate in the city, accusing France of helping to rig the election.

The polls came after the death of Ali’s father [president-for-life, Omar Bongo], who ruled [Gabon] for 41 years.

Under Omar Bongo, Gabon retained close ties to the former colonial power, [France].

The AFP news agency reports that 50 people were arrested on Thursday night during the unrest.

After the results were declared on Thursday, opposition groups clashed with security forces in the capital, Libreville.

Inmates were freed from jail and installations belonging to the French oil company, Total, were attacked in Port Gentil.

France has about 1,000 troops in the country [Gabon], and has advised its 10,000 citizens to stay indoors.

The BBC’s Linel Kwatsi in Libreville says the situation in both cities is now calm – [the calm of the graveyard].

Amid the unrest, Ali Ben Bongo pledged to be a uniting force for the oil-rich nation.

He was widely tipped to succeed his father, who died in June – [to ensure the status quo in perpetuity].

One of the world’s richest men, the late president [-for-life] owned a string of properties in France, and was an unflinching ally of Paris [in the exact mould of ex-president Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo].

At the time of his death, French courts were investigating Mr. Bongo for corruption – allegations he [of course] denied.

Gabon is sub-Saharan Africa’s 4th biggest oil producer [Nigeria is 1st], and Africa’s second biggest wood exporter, although most of its 1.4 million people live in [abject] poverty.

The foregoing news item encapsulates all that is wrong in Africa today.  And I dare say, this is why nothing changes in Africa: the meddlesomeness of Africa’s ex-colonial masters who shield, shelter, and protect Africa’s presidents-for-life and bandits-in-chief as they rape and pillage their countries’ resources, stashing them away in foreign safe havens.

The heavy presence of French troops and nationals in Gabon ensures that the status quo in maintained.  And for that to be the case, the French has to help “to rig the election to ensure that “baby doc” is elected to succeed “papa doc”.  After that, the steady flow of Gabon’s natural resources to France will surely continue uninterrupted, and “most of [Gabon’s] 1.4 million people [will for the foreseeable future continue to] live in poverty”.  For them, nothing changes: the hopelessness, the helplessness, the powerlessness.