** Please visit our website: http://www.africanassociation.org **

Vera,

For the "why" answer, think about the "Me, me, me"
syndrome, and you will understand.

- Wilmot


--- VERA R CROWELL <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Why, if the cocoa industry is booming (and I'll tell
> you, I do my part!!), is it such a source of strife
> instead of prosperity for all?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Louis Fae T." <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2005 1:25 pm
> Subject: Re: "IVORIANESS" --- NATIONALISTIC CONCEPT
> ???
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> > Thanks Aggo for this wonderful article. Hopefully
> with the
> > nomination of the new prime minister (former
> Banker Charles Konan
> > Banny), I hope this country will retrieve the
> legendary
> > hospitality and peace he has been known for!
> >
> >
> >
> > Louis F.
> >
> >
> > -- Original Message -----
> > From: Aggo Akyea
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 5:57 AM
> > Subject: "IVORIANESS" --- NATIONALISTIC CONCEPT
> ???
> >
> >
> > Cocoa Industry Is Booming in Ivory Coast
> >
> > By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press WriterTue Dec 6,
> 6:38 PM ET
> >
> > On the streets of this skyscraper-lined West
> African metropolis,
> > tension and rumors of an imminent return to war
> are always thick
> > in the air - and so too, is the sweet smell of
> chocolate. Despite
> > more than half a decade of coups, fighting and
> failed peace deals,
> > a $2 billion a year cocoa industry is a booming in
> Ivory Coast,
> > producing more of the raw material for chocolate
> than any other
> > country on the planet.
> >
> > Production has ranged between 1.2 million and 1.4
> million tons
> > annually in the last half decade, or about 40
> percent of world
> > supply. The United States is the biggest importer,
> buying about 70
> > percent of the crop.
> >
> > "Cocoa is Cote d'Ivoire," said Daniel Abo, a
> lawmaker and vice
> > president of the national Cocoa and Coffee Board.
> "It has built
> > this country."
> >
> > And, some might argue, it's also helped ruin it.
> >
> > At a time when most international aid has been
> suspended because
> > of the conflict, profits from the industry are
> helping support the
> > loyalist south and its army, as well as
> cocoa-smuggling rebels who
> > control the northern half of the country. Cocoa
> contributes 43
> > percent of the gross national product.
> >
> > In Abidjan's swank Zone 4 district, smoke pipes
> out from cocoa
> > factories processing the beans. The heavy, thick
> aroma of
> > chocolate hangs in the air.
> >
> > Near one of the factories stands Adama Tarnagda,
> an immigrant
> > from Burkina Faso who fled the cocoa farm he
> worked on in
> > southeastern Ivory Coast three years ago, after
> fighting broke out
> > there. Now he works in Abidjan, lowering and
> raising the barrier
> > at train crossings.
> >
> > "Today when I smell the scent of cocoa, I think of
> my field and
> > it eats away at my heart," Tarnagda said. "Cocoa
> has brought us
> > life. The day the war ends, I'll go back."
> >
> > Ivory Coast's fertile farms attracted millions of
> immigrant
> > laborers from across West Africa for decades - so
> many, in fact,
> > that they and their descendants are believed to
> account for up to
> > 40 percent of the nation's 17 million people
> today.
> >
> > The immigrants helped develop the nation, but also
> sparked
> > xenophobic resentment that was exacerbated when
> world cocoa prices
> > fell in the 1980s.
> >
> > Former President Henri Konan Bedie, overthrown in
> the country's
> > first coup in 1999, seized on the issue for
> political gain,
> > introducing the fiercely nationalistic concept of
> "Ivorianess."
> >
> > Today, "Ivorianess" is at the heart of a split
> between the
> > loyalist-held south and the north, held by rebels
> since a failed
> > 2002 coup bid.
> >
> > Northerners complain they are treated as
> foreigners in their own
> > country by southerners - marginalized and
> discriminated against,
> > denied passports and even national identity
> papers, despite being
> > born here.
> >
> > Though the country has been mostly been calm since
> a 2003 peace
> > deal, violence still erupts in places like the
> cocoa-rich western
> > town of Duekoue, where immigrant farmers known as
> Dioulas clashed
> > with local ethnic Guere communities in June,
> leaving up to 100
> > people dead.
> >
> > Abo estimated that around 10 to 15 percent of the
> country's
> > 600,000 farm laborers have fled over the last few
> years, but he
> > said the affect on output was minimal.
> >
> > Gassou Toure, director of raw materials department
> at the
> > Agriculture Ministry, production would have
> increased because new
> > farms have boosted production slightly in the last
> few years, but
> > since farmers have fled, production levels have
> stayed about the same.
> >
> > According to a November U.N. report, Ivory Coast
> produced 1.23
> > million tons of cocoa in the 2004-2005 season. The
> 10 percent
> > decrease from the previous year has been blamed
> mostly on poor
> > weather, not the conflict, though the report did
> cite "the
> > departure from the cocoa areas of large numbers of
> migrant workers
> > in fear of ethnic persecution."
> >
> > Susan Smith, spokeswoman for the U.S.-based
> Chocolate
> > Manufacturers Association, said the decline in
> Ivorian production
> > has had a negligible effect on chocolate prices so
> far. Cocoa
> > market prices have not varied much the last couple
> of months,
> > although they have gone up slightly the last two
> weeks, Smith said
> > in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
> >
> > The cocoa industry is a sensitive subject here.
> Secrecy is such
> > a priority that the government doesn't publish
> official production
> > figures. French-Canadian journalist Guy-Andre
> Kieffer, who wrote
> > articles about corruption in Ivory Coast -
> including its cocoa
> > industry - disappeared in the country in 2004 and
> was believed
> > murdered.
> > Production estimates cited in the U.N. report do
> not include
> > cocoa smuggled illegally to neighboring countries
> to escape high
> > Ivorian taxes and take advantage of better prices
> in places like
>
=== message truncated ===

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, visit:

        http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/aam.html

AAM Website:  http://www.africanassociation.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------