13 November 2022
Sicily/irregular migrant workers: About 450,000 to 500,000 irregular migrants are estimated to be working in the Italy’s agricultural sector. The BBC reports from Campobello, the makeshift camp close to the Sicilian town of Campobello di Mazara where some of them live under grim conditions from September to November to harvest olives. Under a gangmaster system, they do not work directly for the farmers and since they are illegal, they cannot demand high wages and get paid as little as 2 USD an hour.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-63595025
12 November 2022
Congo Basin forests: You find them in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon. The Congo Basin forests are under stark threat from the oil and gas industry. “In July, the DRC government began auctioning off 30 oil and gas fields covering more than 11m hectares of tropical forest – an area nearly the size of England”…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/10/dash-african-gas-wipe-out-congo-basin-rainforests
Tax the oil and gas industry! To pay for the Global South’s adaptation to the climate crisis that it has neither caused nor benefitted from, there is one simple solution: tax the oil and gas industry.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/08/rich-countries-climate-crisis-cop27-africa-loss-and-damage
Kenya: After years of controversy, the Ruto government has released three contracts which Nairobi signed with the China Export Import Bank to finance the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). From these, it is clear that it is the Republic of Kenya who is the borrower. Mombasa Port is neither a borrower nor was it “in any way pledged as collateral for the Chinese loans.”
https://theconversation.com/kenya-standard-gauge-railway-contracts-what-released-documents-say-and-what-they-dont-194354