I am so committed to getting my book finished I really don’t have time or energy to blog at the moment, and realise it has been very desultory the last few weeks. I am well and happy, it is just that writing a properly researched history is incredibly intensive. I realise there is much of great interest happening in the world, but I must sometimes cut myself off from it.
This is why I don’t ask for donations for the blog…
Kagame (here seen with chum) proposes that wot u need is er homegrown solutions to Africa’s problems, y’know? He now speaks Blairese fluently, and hopes that no-one will comment on the fact that he has travelled to Switzerland wwith a large entourage of suits in search of homegrown solutions to Rwanda’s considerable problems. Or foreign investment, as we do not call it.
http://fr.igihe.com/politique/le-panafricaniste-paul-kagame-a-davos-prone-pour.html
Accompanying Paul was the Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, Francis Gatare. We have no news as to whether his advisor (courtesy of the Tony Blair Institute for Tony Blair) is there too.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/strategic-advisor-support-rwanda-mines-petroleum-gas-board-bromfield
Also present are the Rwandan finance minister and the CEO of the Rwandan Development Board. Both bodies are advised by the TBIfTB – formerly trading as the Africa Governance Institute – whose suits-on-the-ground are presumably paid via international aid funding. As, shortly, too, will be the latest TBIfTB advisor to Rwanda’s ministry of education, post currently advertised. Kerching!
A collector’s piece, this. Tony Blair, with his mouth closed.
http://www.businessnews.com.tn/sites/default/files/field/image/ghannouchi%26-blair.jpg
Tunisian Rachid Ghannouchi, who perhaps wanted this picture less than Blair, is described by Wikipedia as something of a liberal reformer, and by something called The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch, which we will leave you to find unaided, as something of a salafist, with views on Z**nism guaranteed to rattle any Isr**l-apologist’s (like Blair’s) cage. We guess Bibi will already have admonished Tony and reminded him that ‘Muslim Brotherhood, bad, m’kay?’. An unexpected conjunction.
We also enjoy the pious mission statements for which Davos is so rightly lauded. Fine words butter no parsnips, our old granny used to say, but we doubt that parsnips feature largely in the expensive cuisine set before the great and the good in the town’s hotels.
‘COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE STATE OF THE WORLD’ does beg a few questions, though. Like, it’s nice you made that choice, but we prefer our own mission statement, which cost us a lot in PR consultancy fees, but we think was worth it:
‘COMMITTED TO NOT BURNING BABIES’.
While Tony’s lachrymose endorsement of Is***l’s policies at someone’s 2018 holocaust day gathering has yet to be recorded by all editors, everywhere, the great man did find time to meet Macedonian foreign minister Nikola Dmitrov and Boyko Borissov, the Bulgarian PM. It’s a while since Tony’s shown any interest in the Balkans, although Cherie is believed to have an advisory role in Macedonia. However, the photo-op may not please Albania’s Edi Rama, Blair’s erstwhile ( and clandestinely current, perhaps) employer, who is conscious of the tensions arising due to Macedonia’s 35% (he claims) ethnic Albanian population.
http://www.mia.mk/en/Inside/RenderSingleGalleryTest/134082037/1?month=1&year=2018&day=26&desc=0#
We hope this photocall is just a reflection of Blair’s longing to be associated with national politicians, or less likely, theirs to be associated with him. Though we can only speculate that Euromaniac Tony is considered to be a possible key for Bulgaria’s entry to Schengen. Mistakenly, as Rama would agree.
Still nothing suggesting Tony was present at any holocaust memorial day event this year, the more surprisingly since it was he who made it a thing in the UK. Not even Russian oligarch Moishe Kantor’s outfit, the EJC, which invited him to blair last year, records his benediction on all things Is***li. Strange.
Apart from some sustained remoaning, for which Bloomberg seems happy to pay, but few other outlets, not much from Tony at Davos this year, and we are rather disappointed. But there was one apercu for which the world has waited since the dawn of time, adequately summarised in this URL:
https://www.devex.com/news/tony-blair-says-improving-governance-is-key-to-development-91923
Well, damn us, who woulda thunk it? We always thought destabilising an entire region, earning the permanent hostility of a major world religion, selling arms to anyone with the funds and helping global corporates monetise the resources of underdeveloped countries in the certain knowledge that their ruling elites would thank us for the cash deposited in their offshore accounts…was the only way to ensure solid and sustainable development.
We see Burundi will be next on the Blair to-do list, and that his model is Rwanda, which, outside Kigali, remains an impoverished…what Trump said…despite Blair’s suits embedded throughout its government at immense cost. As long as the bullets aren’t flying.
At that epitome of Cherie’s socialist convictions, the British-American Business Council…
http://www.babc.org/trade/international-business-festival-announce-speaker-programme
The final day’s keynote speech will be delivered by Cherie Blair QC, leading women’s rights campaigner and wife of former PM Tony Blair. She’ll talk about the future of work and its impact on business and society.
Cross her palm with silver, and she’ll read the tealeaves for you too. 28th June. Don’t miss.
DIARY:
Also, apparently the International Business Festival 2018, in Liverpool, June 12th.
DIARY:
Didn’t think Tony could stay away from his holocaust-obsessed mates for long:
Wednesday, March 7
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center holds 2018 Humanitarian Awards Dinner honoring Mitchell Feiger and Robert R. McCormick Foundation with keynote speaker former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In the year to 2016, Feiger was paid $3,649,890 as CEO of MB Financial, Inc. He donates some of this to charity. The McCormick Foundation is a not-for-profit with $1Bn in the bank (which one, we wonder?) and a charitable agenda in the Chicago area. Their connection with holocaust activities is unclear…for now. It’s rather downmarket for Tone. We fear his shine is wearing off.
https://www.chicagojewishnews.com/2018/01/events-coming-up-in-jewish-chicago-39/
Though we are delighted to see that our philanthropic friend maintains his connection with JP Morgan* – here seen with CEO Dimon (and suits from Hyperloop Global, which has yet to build a really fast train thing but is opening offices everywhere to promote it. Never mind the ‘hyperloop’, the’ global’ box is ticked.)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUcUQNTUMAEndOj.jpg
In passing, JP Morgan, Warren Buffet’s Hathaway and Amazon have just indicated that they will be doing something truly great with US healthcare, but nobody yet knows what it is to be:
https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/1/31/16950500/amazon-health-care-jp-morgan-chase-warren-buffett
Given Tony’s interest in connecting private industry with NHS contract money here, we would be unsurprised to find him involved in this. Both Jamie Dimon and Buffet wish him well.
*Worth £2M annually when last disclosed
We remain intrigued by the last bearers of the Windrush and Firerush banners: limited companies with those names registered in Gibraltar. As far as we can see, they remain active, at least until last November. GCH allows enquirers to see very little, but reviews on social media are listed. We found one, in Russian, the same for both companies, giving the impression that they were run by scammers. Which might have closed our file, until we realised that the review in question had apparently been posted on several sites a matter of minutes before we registered the fact. Eerie!
We note with approval that the Maldives’ Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed on reportedly trumped-up terrorism charges, and that Nasheed intends to contest the presidency again. Current president Yameen’s human rights record is less than pristine, which is perhaps why,during the original trial, in 2015, Cherie Blair’s Omnia Strategy was advising Yameen. (Amal Clooney, as we noted at the time, represented Nasheed). Nasheed obtained asylum in the UK in 2016.
While Tony himself remains eerily silent, there is a constant clamour for remaining at any democratic cost, from his pro-EU mouthpieces, chums and allies. How very ironic, then, that the Trump machine clanks into action via Fox News and any other editors short of a story, citing the Great Man’s Unsubstantiated Opinion, as remembered by lunatic Steve Hilton, in support of an assault on the Civil Service.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tony-blair-david-cameron-steve-hilton-deep-state-conspiracy-a8196036.html
This mirrors a similar trend already well established in the US, and is based on the notion that the permanent employees of the state, who actually have to execute the bizarre fantasies of our elected representatives – whose PPE degrees in no way qualify them for administration- are (shock, horror) the Deep State, and exist in order to obstruct the process of government. Trump would like to delegitimise anyone who disagrees with him, of course. Fox News is the embodiment of truth, government is bad, m’kay? and the Deep State, formerly a trope of unwashed hippy conspiracy theorists, is now an actual Thing, as seen on Twitter.
We feel that anyone in a position to obstruct the whims of our present and recent leaders is probably on the side of the angels. But we are greatly amused to see the Blairites invoking the Trump worldview. Trump’s America can only gain if we Brexit, and he is, whatever his many and glaring inadequacies, firmly on the populist side of the globalist/nationalist divide. While Tony abhors populists with all the passion of a JP Morgan employee…
And the latest from the Maldives is that Pres. Yameen (advisor Omnia Strategy) has no intention of complying with his Supreme Court’s ruling and has now declared a 15-day state of emergency in case enthusiasm for ex-Pres. Nasheed gets the better of the populace. Wise man. Any dictator would do the same.
Nasheed was originally convicted and sentenced to thirteen years for arresting a Criminal Court judge. He should have declared a state of emergency first, as Yameen has just done. And then arrested the top Supreme Court judge, and three members of his family, as Yameen has just done. The Supreme Court has now backtracked on its decision to overturn Nasheed’s conviction. No governance issues there, then.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/print/maldives-president-continues-crackdown-as-nasheed-seeks-india-s-intervention/274996.html
Looks like the Maldives really need a philanthropic lady QC to sort out this mess, and end the blatant usurpation of State functions by the President. We refer the honourable member to the extremely tangled tale of Omnia Strategy and its agony of indecision as to whether to represent the victim of a stitch-up, or the regime doing the stitching. Appropriately, Omnia was paid by a garment company for picking the right side.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3453710/Cherie-s-rank-hypocrisy-two-MPs-call-probe-Mrs-Blair-s-law-firm-HSBC-alleged-money-laundering.html
We maintain our interest in the issue of compensating the victims of IRA violence using Libyan-supplied weapons. The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee was unable to get anything out of Tony, on whose watch the violence took place, during its extended enquiry. Tony was too Important to attend in person, it seems, and displayed all his lawyerly genius for avoiding a straight answer to the questions he was asked in writing. Happily, Lord Empey isn’t done yet.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/lord-empey-libya-bill-will-go-to-mps-and-it-will-be-hard-for-ministers-to-stop-it-being-debated-1-8368749
…the group are not prepared to let these victims down.
Their treatment has been awful, and successive governments have behaved inexplicably when one sees that the US, German and French governments all succeeded in getting compensation from Libya for their victims.
Was a deal done by Tony Blair that led to British inactivity on this matter?
We have met Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and while he has promised to be more proactive, his written response was inadequate.
We are meeting him again.
There is £9.5 billion of frozen Libyan assets in London, an enormous sum.
The Bill empowers the Treasury to get access to those funds to utilise for the benefit of victims, with the approval of the United Nations and the EU, who imposed the freeze.
So far the UK has not even asked for help from either to do so.
Big hug,,,,
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110911/images/blair-gaddfi.jpg
The reader may differ with us on the necessity of Brexit, and that is his/her privilege. Both sides of the debate are staffed by self-promoting spivs, and, objectively, there is probably little to choose between them. But should you wish to find editorial opinion which is consistently slanted to defeat Brexit, we recommend Euronews, which is not only partially funded by the EU, but 53% owned by Naguib Sawiris, who will be European if Egypt ever joins, and is, as frequently pointed out above, a close associate of Tony Blair’s in the matter of African mineral resources, support for dictators, etc.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/18/journalists-unions-accuse-eu-backed-euronews-pandering-oppressive/
You may have missed Tony’s interview on Euronews in early January. Usual drivel, no need to bother.
And we’re off to see Hailemariam Dessalegn, the, er, permanent PM of Ethiopia since 2012. Ethiopia’s human rights record is abysmal, and it recently made a law which effectively paralyses external NGOs trying to improve conditions. Notwithstanding, the usual eulogy to the country to which he has intentions of joining his cause was forthcoming . Containing the predictable pious guff about governance and focussing on rescuing kittens. The PM understood perfectly, and responded in terms which did not actually state that Blair’s NGO would be very welcome as long as substantial investment in the right account accompanied it. African dictators all know how the game is played as well as Blair does.
http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/component/k2/itemlist/date/2018/2/12
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/ethiopia
We suspect Sawiris Air was the carrier.
M-ASRI confirmed. Luton-Addis. Landed 0406, 12/2
Relevant post – a long link may have upset An Apology – parked here (sans link):
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/02/scared-of-my-own-thoughts/comment-page-5/#comment-717871
And the drums inform us that a likely Bombardier landed at Kigali, from Nairobi, at ca 1304 today.Jim Murphy’s merry men AND Kagame in the same day. Sensory overload alert.
In other Ethiopian news, the family of one Andargachew “Andy” Tsege (formerly living in the UK,sentenced to death in absentia and snatched in Yemen in 2014, imprisoned in Ethiopia since then), repeated their appeal to Tony to try to obtain Tsege’s release in October 2016:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/andargachew-andy-tsege-tony-blair-ethiopia-death-row-british-father-a7356241.html
Tsege is still in jail.
http://freeandargachew.com/1070-2/
Well, as he had to cancel yesterday’s planned visit to a Chinese manufacturing zone in Oromia* – due to massive anti-regime civil unrest – maybe he had time to raise the matter with the charming Dessalegn? We think not.
https://www.opride.com/2018/02/13/ethiopia-oromia-state-rocked-protests-killings-amid-3-day-market-boycott/
Ethiopia is rocked by widespread protests and reports of killings as a three-day stay at home strike and market boycott continues for the second day across the restive Oromia State. Security forces killed at least 17 people in two separate incidents of violence in Hararghe and Bale zones.
The social media-driven market strike was called to demand the immediate and unconditional release of jailed Oromo political prisoners. In dozens of towns across Oromia, tens of thousands took to the streets to express their anger over the continued detention of activists and opposition leaders, including Bekele Gerba, whose failing health has become the cause célèbre for activists in Ethiopia and abroad. Other demands include making Afaan Oromo the federal language; calls for an end to rampant impunity for federal security forces and justice for the victims of its ongoing abuses.
Looks like a job for the transformative governance pillar to us. Watch the suits teleporting to Addis with their governance rays.
*’Supported by the TBIfTB, we believe. See TbIfTB website for details of how manufacturing, privatisation and Tony could transform Ethiopia. If you have a strong stomach. But first be clear that Tony is unworried by the behaviour of whichever autocrat happens to be running Ethiopia. Or what happens to the aid funds abundantly channelled through his (and, here, Clinton’s) organisations.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m6hVDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT100&lpg=PT100&dq=tonyblair+ethiopia&source=bl&ots=q6IriJhLNP&sig=QsqG8sIHmdJt3AJUtkgW7CtTQT0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibjOTjgaPZAhUiJcAKHeoaA54Q6AEIbjAJ#v=onepage&q=tonyblair%20ethiopia&f=false
Whether or not he is there just now, Tony continues to pump his industrious elves into every facet of Rwanda’s government ( and see: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-46/#comment-716582 ).
He’s even advertising locally:
http://www.jobinrwanda.com/job/strategic_advisor_rwanda%E2%80%99s_national_agricultural_export_development_board_naeb
…and will presumably attract graduates of Harvard Business School who can make an approximation to sense of the text’s brain-deadening management-speak. We note that while the agricultural exports to be developed include flowers (see also Ethiopia, currently touting its low labour costs as a vital ingredient of the market, and Kenya), the job specs contain no reference even to an interest in agriculture or horticulture, let alone experience. We think we know what’s needed, and offer a precis.
“Suit wanted. Must speak fluent bollocks. Must be good at chatting up investors, keeping wages down and facilitating unspecified stuff (to be advised) while looking philanthropic”
And no, Mary, it isn’t an African dictator paying Tony – or the lucky candidate. It’s, among others, us.
As the good news dawns on the Rwandan media, many more photos of Tony grinning in a polytunnel full of tulips have emerged. We spare you these, but it seems that cut flowers (to be flown, sustainably or not, to Western markets) are the coming entrepreneurial opportunity. Or maybe the TBIfTB’s PR suits have decided that flowers=Valentine’s Day=love=Tony. It’s a hard sell.
Tony is indeed in Rwanda. To be exact, at some point he will be in the Serena Hotel, Kigali, being deeply concerned about poverty with Sir Paul Collier, from the Blavatnik School of Government. Collier buys the story that Rwanda is the next Singapore*. Most who have ventured outside the capital, don’t. but in any case the meeting is discussing the past, not the future.
http://www.igihe.com/amakuru/u-rwanda/article/tony-blair-sir-collier-na-akamanzi-bazaganira-ku-iterambere-ry-u-rwanda-mu
Caution: pic of Tony in shiny suit and mad staring eyes at WEF.
*But with columbite-tantalite.
Most interestingly, Collier also popped up in Uganda this week, urging the government to make life easier for private firms exploiting the agricultural sector. We wonder if Tony and Collier are planning a spiritual wedding. Collier could provide some much-needed Establishment academic credibility to TBIfTB, and appears to share Tony’s neoliberal delusions. Watch this space.
https://256businessnews.com/sir-paul-tells-uganda-to-stick-with-champion-firms/
We missed a visit to Google X in California, and a chance to grin at Sergey Brin in late January. We wonder if he needs them more than they need to be associated with a fadingfake. Possibly not:
https://www.recode.net/2016/8/29/12663630/google-x-alphabet-moonshot
Project Loon (sic) was discussed. This involves a global (tick box) network of balloons in the stratosphere providing total network coverage to everybody. Free! You heard me, free. That will be right, as the Scots say, meaningfully. Shouldn’t be much of a hindrance to global (tick box) surveillance either. Tony’s messianic (tick box) ardour for what he but not we call ‘technology’ has always paralleled his admiration for ‘strong government’.
Further details of this on the TBI Twitter feed, which is complementary to An Apology in that it only carries positive Blair stories. It doesn’t link here: we don’t link there.
Bandit heading south from Kagali, angels 40. Zimbabwe? Surely not.
Nope. Mnangagwa’s still strong meat, even for flexible democrat Tony. The Yanks have stepped up sanctions and his human rights record’s going to Geneva. Best not touch him for a bit. Current course indicates Maputo, Mozambique.
Maputo, ca 1715 (UTC) 14/2
When last checked, Mozambique had at least two Blairbots embedded in the Presidency. We hope they were not responsible for this regrettable misunderstanding –
http://oneworld.org/2018/01/07/mozambique-successfully-resistaing-aid-donors-pressure/
In which it is mischievously alleged that international aid wasn’t going where it was intended to. But this is Africa. How could that possibly be true?
Trouble at t’ money mill?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5393547/Blair-Foundations-closure-halted-mystery-objector.html
No, it wasn’t us. Though we have repeatedly questioned the structuring of Blair, Inc, and its successor, the Tony Blair Institute for Tony Blair – whose inclusion of the word ‘Institute’ in its registered name is itself debatable. There are a lot of questions, and due to the intentional opacity of Blair’s dealings, very few available answers. We are glad someone is at last asking the former and wish them every success in obtaining the latter.
Ba’al
You seem to be the only one still posting in this blog. A lot of your writing is on Africa but probably with a Blair slant. But corruption in Africa is not only related to Blair. Recently two events, one in South Africa, the removal of Zuma from power, which has been very widely reported, presumably because British economic interest there, and the other in The Sudan, which has hardly been mentioned. The similarities between these two is that the sitting incumbents are corrupt and there is economic deterioration in both countries. Yet when you read any comments, the proposed reformists really want to open up both countries (and of course, all countries) to free trade, meaning that instead of the local dictators and thier cronies benefit, the international multinationals and World bank and IMF will take over the reform, but local population will still continue to suffer. This is a familiar scenario that guides all colour revolutions and the Arab spring. In Egypt for example, Mubarak, when he ceased to be of use to the neoliberals, was replaced with the Muslim brothers, with no change in economic policy, then a reversion to a military dictatorship again favourable to neoliberalism. I am not really sure what the answer is but without change in the international money laundering, revolving door exploitative system of neoliberalism which is unlikely to happen by internally initiated ‘reform’, there does not seem to be an easy solution. I am attaching a link about the Sudan, but I am not sure whether this is an area you are interested in.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/meaningful-change-sudan-descent-chaos-180214090216308.html
Hello SA. Thanks for your comment. I appropriated this thread, with the management’s permission, specifically to track what was available of Blair’s activities. It isn’t Africa- specific*, and though comments such as yours are welcome, I see it more as a matter of record than controversy. What you say is true, and Blair’s outfit, which has always acted as a paid middleman between investment funds and government aid on the one hand, and more-or-less corrupt governments on the other, is complicit in the process.
I find it easier to focus on a specific symptom, Blair, than the widespread disease. Although it gets us no nearer to a solution, he is a detestable POS in his own right, not normally subject to the detailed scrutiny he demands; and the symptom is simply a microcosm of the disease in this instance.
* and neither is Blair, of course
Thanks Ba’al
I think Blair was and is probably still involved in Egypt under Sisi. He probably also has some activity in South Sudan and maybe also in South Africa.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2016/5/10/birds-of-a-feather-tony-blairs-love-in-with-sisi
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9400155/Tony-Blair-expands-empire-to-oil-rich-South-Sudan.html
https://rosebankkillarneygazette.co.za/212732/former-british-prime-minister-tony-blair-graces-south-african-soil-to-talk-education/
Yes, Egypt, where he ‘advises’ personally, and two ‘advisors’ from whom not much has been heard since, in S. Sudan. His current trip (Ethiopia, ?Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique…) is aboard one of two private jets (M-ASRI….masri= the Egyptian!) belonging to the Sawiris conglomerate (telecoms, mining, hotels, you name it). As were several of his previous fly-bys to other African countries last year and previously. The Egyptian head honcho, Naguib Sawiris, who was very helpful in the Sisi coup, but still critical of the regime as far as his immense wealth permits, flew with Blair on the previous mission. See further above for much more detail.
Not sure about SA – the gig you linked was at Monash SA, a private university, and part of the Laureate group of dodgy global educationalists, and Tony’s done a lot of blethering at Laureate institutions, some of which is also recorded above.
Thanks.
Thanks
We’re off again. Maputo, 1419: 15/02, heading NW
CURSE OF BLAIR
Tuesday: http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/politics/item/4286-despite-all-the-challenges-ethiopia-s-economy-is-still-growing-strongly-tony-blair
In which our hero chats amiably with President Dessalegne (pic). Challenges? Pfft. Tony later cancels a visit due to rioting in the area. He departs the same night.
Today: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/ethiopia-crossroads-hailemariam-resignation-180215135158954.html
Dessalegne jumps, before he is violently pushed, a last-ditch attempt to curry favour by releasing some of Ethiopia’s many political prisoners having manifestly failed.
We are astounded that the TBIfTB was unable to offer the message management which has worked so well in, eg, Kazakhstan, for keeping a noxious dictator in power.
By an unfortunate coincidence, Blair-advised Uhuru Kenyatta (Tony overnighted in Nairobi on the 15th) appears to be experiencing similar governance problems to Dessalegn’s.
https://kichuu.com/kenya-sliding-dictatorship/
The current President Kenyatta, whose first name, Uhuru, ironically means ‘freedom’ in Swahili, has borrowed from the Moi playbook of repression and perfected it to devastating effect. What was once a vibrant media, a beacon of freedom and independence in Africa, has been threatened into submission to protect business interests. What was once just despotism-lite will turn into a full-blown dictatorship if this government continues on the downward spiral the progressive 2010 constitution was supposed to guard against.
You gotta, y’know , protect business interests, Uhuru. Oh, an’ do you wanna join the EU?
UPDATE:
Ethiopia declares state of emergency –
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/02/16/ethiopia-declares-state-of-emergency_c1716247
Never mind. Tony will be back as soon as your next autocrat feels sufficiently secure.
Dakar, Blaise Diagne, 2000 UTC 15/02
Tony was sniffing round Senegal last year, too.
Still no word of what transpired in Mozambique, other than a severe drought in the south and cyclonic rain and flooding in the north. Carries his luck with him, does Tone…
Apres (ou pendant) le deluge, Tony, his classic blairing at Mozambique having been released today:
http://opais.sapo.mz/sector-de-energia-em-mocambique-impressiona-tony-blair
Tony is here admiring the energy sector, and it is revealed that one of his suits has indeed been ‘working’ with a major supplier, although the nature of the ‘work’ remains obscure. As elsewhere, Tony will only admit to ‘helping’ governments towards a rigorously unspecified but commercially attractive end. Tony’s deep insight into the African energy sector is better illustrated here:
Tony Blair says there are many sources of energy that can be used in Mozambique from gas, hydroelectric plants as well as renewable sources among others.
You heard him, among others. And, you know, stuff.
But the sting is in the tail:
For his part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Empresa Eletricidade de Moçambique said that his company has been working with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change for about a year, including an adviser from that institution that he supports in the governance sector and reforms in the company. “For them, as the former prime minister has said, a business must be transparent and well-governed so it can attract donations and investments. Without it, even if the company has money it ends up disappearing, “said Magala.
Unfortunately we haven’t found the former PM’s actual words on the subject of transparency, but we heartily recommend him to take a leaf out of his own book. It would make our own task considerably less thankless. As to well-governed, this presumably means governed by Tony, a debatable assumption.
OTOH, a team sworn to secrecy, operating as a tax-opaque and minimally accountable company, looking like (but not) a charity, working for investment funds, with a PR team to present only the bright side of you to the media, can’t be bad for attracting donations and investments.
The President, Philip Nyusi, in November paid $9.2M for a Bombardier Challenger 850 wide-cabin jet, despite the usual festering economic crisis. One up on Tony, who has to make do with someone else’s 600…maybe running an African country isn’t bad for attracting donations either.
Dakar 1100 UTC 16/2, heading NNE
Looks like Tony’s going home. Climbing over Algerian coast, heading 014
Cancel the above (perhaps). That’s 9H-VJN we’re looking at, descending to 30K over the Alps. M-ASRI may still be in Dakar. Two Bombardiers in one day would be normal for Nigeria, but it’s exceptional for Dakar…
Phew. At least Tony made it to Dakar…the other airport, though.
http://dakarinfo.net/actualite/arret-image-president-macky-sall-recoit-lancien-pm-britannique-tony-blair/
Albeit in the VIP lounge rather than the palace, and without the Strictly Come Dancing act in November…
https://teranganews.sn/2017/11/lex-premier-ministre-britannique-tony-blair-salue-les-progres-du-plan-senegal-emergent/
Intriguingly, M-ASRI is currently heading WSW from Dakar. 9H-VJN (VistaJet – Tony has chartered from these before) landed at Bern earlier this afternoon.
Further details from Senegal, where Tony Blair met the new Liberian president, Manneh Weah, also visiting, and assured him of his undying love. Reciprocating this, Weah gave Tony reason to hope that his loosely-defined activities, including access to the magic money tree, could continue in Liberia:
http://newspublictrust.com/news/tony-blair-meets-president-weah-in-senegal/
Much needed magic money, as it happens. The Liberian economy is in meltdown, aid budgets have been cut, and the new president’s previous career as a (good) footballer doesn’t inspire much confidence in his capacity to govern. But the country has a lot of resources it can mortgage or sell to Tony’s global chums. Hence:
The former British Prime Minister assured President Weah that if called upon, he would be willing not only to give advice but help with policies as well as galvanize funds through different channels other than the traditional financing medium that most developing countries may have followed for many years.
PFI your country, Manneh…
We seem to have been right first time about the airport, incidentally. Blame the media.
PFI – Tony’s flagship foul-up:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/pfi-banks-barclays-hsbc-rbs-tony-blair-gordon-brown-carillion-capita-financial-crash-a8202661.html
We wonder if those ‘different channels’, above, might not involve similar mechanisms.
M-ASRI arrived this morning at Abu Dhabi, home of Mubadala, employer of Tony.
9H-VJN has left Bern and is currently heading WSW over the Med in the same general direction.
9H-VJN just down at al-Muntazah airport, Abu Dhabi, from Maputo via Dakar, Bern, Madrid. It seems to be following M-ASRI around, albeit at a distance.
9H-VJN just completing today’s run from Abu Dhabi to Seville. (Might be something to do with CEPSA)
M-ASRI appears to be in AD, still. With or without Blair.
WE lied. M-ASRI has just taken off from al-Muntazah, heading currently NW
M-ASRI – The vulture has landed. 0146 19/02 Luton.
Speculatively, Tony’s presence (if still flying Sawiris Air) in Abu Dhabi might have had something to do with this:
https://www.thenational.ae/business/indian-consortium-s-stake-in-abu-dhabi-s-lower-zakum-ticks-boxes-for-both-sides-1.705718
AD’s reallocating oil concessions, and BP’s future inclusion is in doubt. Tony has been closely associated with BP since Gaddafi’s time.
ADS spurious track apparently generated after landing, intersects flight track SE of Regensburg, at Straubing.
So much for good resolutions. The TBIfTB requires yet another manager with a brief that includes ‘writing meaningful reports’. That’ll be a first, then.
https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/tony-blair-institure/project-manager-people-technology-and-systems-/554343
The sheer scope of the unfortunate applicant’s responsibilities is breathtaking. Looks as if the TBI’s been getting slightly out of control…
A bout of arslikhan ( (c) Private Eye ) rarely surpassed, even when glossing over Ethiopia’s problems as rioting broke out and its president departed, last week.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201801/25/WS5a691141a3106e7dcc136620.html
We treasure this:
“One of the interesting things about the speeches of the Chinese leaders, that I have learned over time, is that they’re actually worth reading. I know this sounds a bit of an odd thing to say, but in Western politics leaders often give speeches where frankly it is just sort of politics.”
#wipingcoffeeoffkeyboard.
After the obligatory encomium on China’s predation of Africa (no, we don’t think ours is any better) and the extended but routine assault on Brexit, the elder statesman plugged the product:
“I would love to develop another strain of work for the institute that is specifically around China because I think it deserves its own focus. How altruistic. The thing that I have understood more since leaving office than I understood when in office is not how much I knew about China but how little. That is true for most people in the West, even very educated people.”
What Tony still doesn’t understand about China’s leadership is that it is way ahead of him, has already spotted (and has previously stated) that his speeches are devoid of real content. Also that his activities are largely unproductive, and China knows that at best he might be a useful lever with respect to the much larger concerns he represents. And whose utility is on the wane.
Can of worms revisited. Strange that our thoughts turned to Gaddafi earlier today…
ww.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/19/extent-of-uk-cooperation-with-gaddafi-regime-libya-mi6-revealed
…“Our new evidence raises questions about how much No 10 knew of the plan to kidnap my clients. Did Gaddafi ask Blair to help him target dissidents? Why did No 10 send an emissary to meet Libyan spies just weeks before the abduction? What really happened at Dearlove’s set-piece presentation to Gaddafi? Come trial, Teflon Tony, Jack Straw, and others at the heart of government may find themselves in a pretty sticky spot.”
Hope springs eternal. But we suspect Tony and Jack will continue to deny all involvement in UK foreign policy during their time in office.
Excellent interview with Belhaj, who here comes across as much better- informed than Blair or Straw, and a clear thinker.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-interview-abdel-hakim-belhaj-1501452487
AB: I was tortured in Gaddafi’s prisons and was sacrificed for a deal. When Tony Blair visited Gaddafi in 2005, I was being tortured in prison. I later found out that this visit was an attempt by the British government to secure some deals for British Petroleum or maybe Tony Blair was given a position as an advisor to the company. But how is it acceptable that values and principles we claim to uphold are compromised for the sake of material gains? This is the question Tony Blair should ask himself and which his own conscience should judge him for.
That’s not a question Blair is likely to ask himself, and we are still looking for evidence of his conscience. So we’ll ask it again.