Sunday, June 17, 2012

Land Grabs in Africa

The Chinese are making resource and land grabs in Africa and South America (I have pointed this out in previous posts).  Adding insult to injury, investors from various parts of the world looking for places to park their money have chosen, in this case, Mozambique.  Dan Charles, an NPR reporter, did a two-part story on this topic.  Part One was on 14 June and Part Two on 15 June.  Here is a quotation regarding from those who are concerned about this:
"This spring, 750 Wall Street types crowded into New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a conference on investing in global agriculture. Philippe de Laperouse, managing director of HighQuest Partners, which organized the event, says those investors started out just looking for a safe haven for their money. But with food demand up and future production uncertain, many of them have caught the scent of future profits.
Many development NGOs and advocacy organizations have sounded an alarm about this surge of private money. (Here are critical reports from GRAIN, Oxfam, the Oakland Institute and even that paragon of mainstream thinking, the World Bank.) Many of them call it a global "land grab."