http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7242016.stm
Here's the Sudan Tribune's take: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article25970
Astonishing success at drawing attention to the issue. Perhaps there could have been no better country to host the games if what you're after is twelve months of concentrated attention on human rights and moral compromise.
It gave an extra bit of spice to Lara Pawson's review of Nicholas Shaxson’s ‘Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil.’ in LRB 7/2/08 (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n03/paws01_.html). I'll concentrate on one character who caught my imagination: Jacques Foccart “a master manipulator” employed by DeGaulle, known as the ‘White Sorcerer.’ When De Gaulle set up Elf Aquitaine to ensure the French got their fingers in the oil pie, it's operations in Gabon proved crucial. The leader there, Omar Bongo, had been keeping things sweet, parcelling out the cash and favours – and using Bwiti secret societies. Foccart took this one step further, ‘Most top Elf officials were Masons and Bongo was encouraged to establish his own lodges in Gabon in order to foster solidarity with Elf.’
Foccart and Chirac
Fascinating reportage from Le Monde on oil and freemasonry:
http://mondediplo.com/1997/09/masons
‘It took another twenty years, and the biggest fraud investigation in Europe since the Second World War, for the scale of Franco-Gabonese corruption to come to light.’
Here's the World Socialist Web Site on TotalFinalElf: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/tota-j11.shtml
I reckon the Freemasons are probably perfectly decent individuals for the most part, who do a lot of work for charity. But for those who disagree, check the over excitable http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/
I once did some filming in Chinawhite, Air Street, Piccadilly, and I'm sure through a doorway linking some underground basements there was a disused Masonic hall, with chequered floor and appropriate symbolic accoutrements.
Here's the World Socialist Web Site on TotalFinalElf: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/tota-j11.shtml
I reckon the Freemasons are probably perfectly decent individuals for the most part, who do a lot of work for charity. But for those who disagree, check the over excitable http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/
I once did some filming in Chinawhite, Air Street, Piccadilly, and I'm sure through a doorway linking some underground basements there was a disused Masonic hall, with chequered floor and appropriate symbolic accoutrements.
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