(no subject)

[buria_q]

http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/us-universities-africa-%E2%80%98land-grab

U.S. Universities in Africa ‘land-grab': Institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt reportedly use hedge funds to buy land in deals that may force farmers out.

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http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/18812

"If it is unacceptable for Ethiopians to go to India, China or Saudi Arabia and clear their land without consulting the people, it is unacceptable here. We are human too and we care about the future of our children like everyone else...my message to the foreign investors is, listen to the owners of the land!" (An Anuak man from the Gambella region of southwestern Ethiopia)

Dear People of India:
I greet you in peace and hope that the good people of India, who have yourselves thrown off the shackles of colonialism only 63 years ago, will join with Ethiopians and other Africans in confronting the hundreds of Indian companies who are now at the forefront of colluding with African dictators in robbing the people of their land, resources, lives and future! As either prospective buyers or simply as justice-loving Indians, you deserve to have full disclosure regarding the nature of these Ethiopian "business deals," the impact it is having on "real people" on the ground, and the risks of "doing business" in Ethiopia with the current dictator of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi.

On June 8, 2011, Oakland Institute (OI) http://www.oaklandinstitute.org and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) www.solidaritymovement.org released a joint investigative report on Ethiopia, Understanding Land Investments in Ethiopia, http://www.solidaritymovement.org/downloads/110608UnderstandingLandDealsInAfrica.pdf, part of a larger study of nine African countries affected by the new phenomenon called land-grabs. In Ethiopia, these "land-grabs" are being carried out as foreign investors make deals to lease some of the most fertile agricultural land for up to 99 years at negligible prices. Because private land ownership is prohibited in Ethiopia, "land deals" are being negotiated in secret agreements between these foreign investors and the Ethiopian government; without any consultation with the people.

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