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Welcome
to AFRICABIZ, 
Welcome
to AFRICABIZ HTML Email edition.Previous issue available at this
link
Dear faithful reader,
FROM
RE-FOUNDATION TO TUTELAGE
As we know Ivory Coast is since September 19, 2002 engulfed in a political
crisis, which, till now, on the time of posting on February 15, 2003, had not
degenerated into "full" civil war because of the presence of French
troops patrolling the ceasefire
lines.
Following that ceasefire, peace talks between rebels groups and
the government were held from October 30 to December 24, 2002, at Lome / Togo
under Togo's Eyadema supervision. These talks failed to resolving the crisis.
The situation deteriorating day after day, France's Jacques Chirac took
the initiative to convene a gathering, at Linas-Marcoussis, France, of the three
rebels groups and main Ivorian political parties.
After 10 days of nonstop
negotiation (January 15-24, 2003) attendees reached the Linas Marcoussis-Agreement
(the Agreement)), which was agreed upon by Ivory Coast's Gbagbo in the presence
of a Conference (Paris / Avenue Kleber/ January 25-26, 2003) attended by a score
of African and international leaders together with international economic development
organizations. Click
here for more.
On the evening of January 26, 2003 President Gbagbo
appointed, at Ivory Coast embassy to France, at Paris, the reconcilement government's
prime minister as provided for in the Marcoussis-
Agreement
As briefly analyzed here,
the reconcilement government's prime minister shall take over the executive power
from the President. He cannot be removed from office by the president; and
he cannot fire ministers appointed
to the reconcilement cabinet by rebels groups and political parties.
Once back to his country, on January 27, 2003, President Gbagbo remained silent
while his followers and activists took to the streets of Abidjan, in anti-French
rallies, rampaging French commercial interests and showing banners rejecting the
Marcoussis-Agreement and the entrance of rebels into the reconcilement government.
In order to make the Agreement applicable, France then introduced on
February 5, 2003 the Marcoussis-Agreement to the United Nations' Security Council
that unanimously endorsed
it and empowered France with a more stronger supervising role.
In
short, the United Nations' Resolution
1464 places Ivory Coast under the guardianship of the International Community
for renewable periods of 6 months.
MARCOUSSIS-AGREEMENT
IS MORE THAN WELCOME
At the time of posting this delivery, on the morning of February 15, 2003,
the political situation is still very shaky in Ivory Coast. President Gbagbo,
in his speech delivered on February 7, 2003, had not fully accepted the Agreement
and is still opposed to the entrance of the rebels groups into the transitional
/ reconcilement government,
which he had renamed Coalition or Unity Government. Rebels are threatening to
renew fighting and push south to Abidjan, from the ceasefire lines, if the Agreement
is not fully implemented as signed at Linas-Marcoussis.
However, whatever
may be the trend of events in the future (peace or renew of fighting and global
civil war), we have been witness to these important facts:
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African countries' leaders have not been able to put an end to the crisis.
- The regional organization (Ecowas),
till now, five months after the beginning of the crisis, had not fully deployed
troops to buffer the ceasefire.
- African Union, the continental organization,
is also helpless. Just talks.
- France froze the civil war from reaching Rwandan
genocide's level by acting promptly to securing the ceasefire.
- 43 year
after its independence, Ivory Coast is under the tutelage of the United Nations.
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Ivorians, mostly southerners and particularly Gbagbo's followers and activists
are bitterly complaining about the Agreement
and the downgrade of the executive power of the president. Some Africans from
other countries too are on the same wave. They feel disgraced that Ivory Coast
is under international tutelage.
Those dissatisfied with the Agreement
have to ask themselves these simple questions: Who is truly responsible of the
sad fact that Ivory Cost is under UN's guardianship? France's decision makers?
African leaders? Ivorians rulers themselves?
We are amongst those
who strongly believe that the Marcoussis-Agreement is welcome and that France
had done a good job. France is not to be regarded as responsible of any wrong
doing. We think that France should be hailed for acting so promptly after the
ceasefire to freezing / stopping the civil war.
In the contrary,
Africa's regional and intercontinental organizations - Ecowas and African Union
- showed their limits. If France had not took the matter into hands, we were
in for another genocide like the one that occurred in Rwanda
and still raging in Liberia
The UN's Resolution 1464,
placing Ivory Coast under international tutelage clearly mentioned that the crisis
is a threat to the west African region. Threat for its stability and the harmonious
development of its economy.
 Indeed,
the fragile economies of surrounding countries (Mali,
Burkina Faso and also Niger)
are already feeling the pinch. Economic activities are on the verge of grinding
down in said countries, particularly in Mali, which have to reroute their import
and export through twice lengthier (1,800 km instead of 800 km) and costlier gateways
through the ports of Dakar in Senegal,
Tema in Ghana, Lome in Togo
and as far away as Cotonou in Benin
instead of using the direct route to the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Click
here for Africa's map.
The Agreement, if implemented, will doubtless
solve the crisis, reunite the divided country, spare human life and stop the economic
disintegration of West Africa.
Sure, it won't be easy to reconcile the
bruised hearts; one million internally-displaced people and tens of thousands
of refugees; and a lot of blood had been already shed. At least 5,000 people killed.
However, the Agreement deserves a try to avoid a genocide and an horrible
blood bath. That alone is more important than the loss of power by an individual.
And these are the reasons why we deeply think that Marcoussis
Agreement is a good deal.
The most to be blamed, however,
for the sad guardianship status imposed on Ivory Coast through UN's Resolution
1464 are the Ivory Coast's
rulers.
Since one decade, from 1993, successive Ivorian political leaders
acted selfishly. They indulged
in cynical quest for power and practiced shameless weak governance, with a tendency
towards impunity for the wrongdoers as far as they are backing the rulers. They
have not lived up to the economic and political responsibility they owe to the
West African region, as regional economic "power" (40% of West African
Economic And Monetary Union - UEMOA
- GDP).
Ivory Coast's political "leaders" are collectively
responsible for the sad fact that their country, 43 years after its political
independence, is now under international guardianship.
MARCOUSSIS-AGREEMENT
AND GUARDIANSHIP RESULTED SIMPLY FROM NOT BUILDING ON EXISTING ASSETS
Let's be frank, even if UN's Resolution
1464 was not adopted, France will recoup, one way or another, its financial
inputs to sending troops to Ivory Coast in order to solving the crisis.
France will doubtless, as soon as the crisis is over, put pressure on Ivory
Coast government, whichever it is, to gain bids for the reconstruction drive that
will follow the end of the crisis.
That's fair. And that fact
alone is already a restriction to the freedom of decision making process of Ivory
Cost's rulers.
If Ivory Coast's rulers have, since 1993, strove hard to preserve the
heritage of the founding
father, Houphouet Boigny, instead of squandering it through hazardous political,
economic, cultural and social decisions engraved into the Ivoirite
concept, or Re-Foundation, (Gbagbo's nebulous political doctrine, which
includes, without explicitly stating it, the Ivoirite concept), the country will
be now in better shape, socially, economically and politically.
We
Africans should realize that it is always better to build on existing assets;
instead of starting afresh from rubbles.
Any African country, which,
nowadays, adopts destructive strategy like Ivory Coast or Zimbabwe's
Mugabe cannot expect to be salvaged by the international community; and when
the international community finally steps in to sort out the mess, national leaders
are big losers. Their decision making freedom is challenged if not curtailed.
And when humanitarian organizations also step in to help displaced people
harmed by civil war, the country is still loosing as donated food competes with
local agriculture's production and deprive local farmers from much needed revenues.
Let's
hope that other African leaders, from now on, will learn their lesson, act and
manage wisely, rule for all, concentrate 90% of their efforts to developing the
economy and therefore protect their countries from being placed under the international
community's guardianship.
"CONTRIBUTOR'S
GUIDELINES" are
available here. You are invited
to contribute to AFRICABIZ ONLINE MONTHLY ISSUE - with articles related to
"How Africa Could Bridge The Developing Gap".
Many
thanks for subscribing to Africabiz. See you on March 15, 2003.
Dr. B.M. Quenum
Click here for contact & support console
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| Business
Opportunities
TROPICAL
FRUIT INDUSTRY AS INCOME BUILDING POWER FOR AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY / PART XII: TREMENDOUS
POTENTIAL MARKET IN AFRICA FOR NUTRICEUCALS BASED ON NATURAL ENZYME / BROMELAIN
/ PAPAIN
Nutriceucals (Nutriments + pharmaceuticals) are a broad range
of chemical / bio products, which composition is based on natural enzymes. Nowadays
they are largely used in the developed world to provide nutrition supplements
to people: children growth supplement, elders' anti aging supplement, competition
/ sports' performance enhancement, cholesterol control medication, energy supplement,
blended vitamins supplements, chronic conditions support, pigmentation control,
skin protection treatments, weight loss support. Etc.
Bromelain
and or papain (the main components
of nutriceucals) have a very large specter of usage in biochemistry, pharmacology
and miscellaneous illness treatments because it contains, among other components,
various closely related proteinases. Click
here for more.
The standard dosage of bromelain is unique in that
it is based on the gelatin-digesting unit (g.d.u.) or the milk-clotting
unit (m.c.u.) activity. The most effective range of activity appears to be
between 1,800 to 2,000 m.c.u. or g.d.u. For use as other than a digestive aid
(e.g. inflammation, trauma, arthritis, etc.) the typical dosage is between 250
and 750 mg. three times daily, taken on an empty stomach (before or between meals).
Source
Owing to the remarkable illness' treatments properties of bromelain as above
briefly outlined, pineapple
agribusiness can be used to establish pharmaceuticals industries throughout
African countries to deliver supplements and nutriments based on natural food
enzymes (bromelain and papain) to the population.
The actual population
level of Africa at the beginning of the new millennium stands at around
800,000,000 people. In table below is an estimate of profit level that could
be achieved with nutriments / supplements industry based on pineapple / bromelain
versus the percentage of targeted population. (One bottle of 50 capsule of
nutriceucals per year; with U$ 2 per bottle as profit margin)
| Population
% | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 |
| Bottles
(50 caps) x 1,000 | 80,000 | 160,000 | 240,000 | 320,000 | 400,000 |
| Gross
Profit US$ x 1,000 | 240,000 | 480,000 | 720,000 | 960,000 | 1,200,000 |
The
lowest hypothesis of targeting 10% of the population requires 20 (twenty) medium
size factories (Producing
globally 500 metric tons of bromelain per year).
Indeed, there is
no doubt that African countries have, with papain and bromelain, a tremendous
business opportunity:
-
With credit worthy outlets such as the US,
the EU and Japan (Big importers of food enzymes).
- With a huge potential
local and regional markets (Globally near 800,000,000 people) for nutriceucals
and supplements.
- With the possibility to supplying (in the near future)
papain and bromelain to the pharmaceutical industry for the production of vaccine
against AIDS / HIV. |
For more details on the tremendous potential market existing in Africa for nutriceucals
visit following link.
Control Your Desktop
FILES
/ DOCUMENTS MANAGEMENT USER FRIENDLY UTILITIES
There
are thousand of Files Transfer utilities based on File Transfer Protocol / FTP
available on the Net. Some are free and other will cost you some bucks.
Many free FTP utilities lack, however, the important Server Side permissions'
settings on files (755, 777. Etc.) If you just need to transfer files to a
website for everyone to browse that's fine. If you need to limit access to certain
files (Administration, CGI files) then you absolutely need a Server Side Permissions
enabled FTP utility
USER
FRIENDLY, POWERFUL AND FREE FTP UTILITY Here
come BlueZone FTP by Seagull Business Solution. A freeware. A true
Freeware. Not a Spyware (24,
44).
As powerful as the most popular FTP paid for FTP Utilities. It features
three panels (Desktop folder / Server Side Folder / and transfer information).
Binary and ASCII or Auto transfer protocols and most important for power user,
clear and user friendly Server Side Permissions' settings.
You
can have a copy for free. Log on to Seagull
website and fill the form available prior to download. You will get an email with
link to download and Registration key.
For website file and document
updating, classic FTP utilities do not have Server Side updating facility.
You need first to make the updating with your php editor and second
load the edited file. Now it is possible to do the editing on server side.
Here is a little Server Side editing tool InternetNotePad
that do the job pronto. Without fuss and properly. Very simple to set up and use.
It is useful for quick and frequent updating of website.
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